Pomorska

Pomorska (Ulica Pomorska 2) is a building also known as Silesian House (In Polish -Dom Slaski) in Krakow, Poland. The word Pomorska was for the Krakow 1940s generation a synonym for Gestapo headquarters and operations.

Building

The building was originally built in the late 1930s for students from the Silesian region to live in Krakow.

It was used as offices during the occupation of Krakow by Nazi Germany's SS during World War II, and there is evidence of probable subsequent usage by the NKVD in the 1940s and early 1950s.[1]

The building has now multiple usage including hostels on its upper floors. Tourist information variously identifies the building as Silesian House, Pomorska — however the museum is only in the basement entered by the inner courtyard.

Museum

The basement of the building was a place of interrogation and killings and has been preserved as a memorial to Polish martyrs; the wall outside the entrance has a commemorative sculpture. The basement museum is now a branch of the Historical Museum of the City of Cracow - the name being "Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa - Ulica Pomorska".

There are two sections - the exhibition of "occupied Krakow" (Krakow w latach 1939-1956) and the "gestapo cells". The execution cell has "Dulce et Decorum est Pro Patri mori!" inscribed on its wall.[2]

At least one of the 108 Martyrs of World War Two was known to have been interrogated at this location and Polish General Stanislaw Rostworowski was killed in the building on 11 August 1944.[3]

Notes

  1. ↑ Monika Bednarek and Jacek Salwinski (2003) Pomorska Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa ISBN 83-914251-7-7 English summary pp.83-84 - 'Silesian House'
  2. ↑ "Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa - Ulica Pomorska". Pamphlet in Polish
  3. ↑ Monika Bednarek and Jacek Salwinski (2003) Pomorska Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa ISBN 83-914251-7-7 English summary pp.85 'Gestapo Cells'

See also

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