Poland’s Warsaw Rising Museum: A Complex Legacy of Heroism and Civilian Suffering

By Emma Poper

The Warsaw Uprising of 1944 was the largest urban insurrection in Nazi-occupied Europe. Instigated by the fighters of the Home Army, the underground resistance movement in Poland, the Uprising ended in approximately 200,000 deaths, the majority of which were civilians. During the Uprising, the civilians of Warsaw encountered extreme brutality committed by the Nazi soldiers and sanctioned by Hitler. At the end of the two-month-long battle, 85-percent of Warsaw was left in ruins, and nearly all the remaining population was forced to leave the destroyed city.

This year marked both the 80th anniversary of the Uprising itself and the 20th anniversary of the Warsaw Rising Museum, an institution dedicated to Polish patriotism and the sacrifices made by insurgents during the Warsaw Uprising. These two anniversaries offer an opportunity to consider how the Museum has shaped Polish collective memory about the Uprising, which was an off-limits topic under communist rule. On the one hand, the museum has placed the Uprising in the center stage of Poland’s understanding of its past by presenting new generations of Poles and tourists with the history of the event; on the other hand, the museum, with its emphasis on heroism and patriotic duty, plays down the enormous human costs of the Uprising, in particular the cost to children by misinterpreting their role in this underground battle for Warsaw.

History of the Warsaw Uprising

The Warsaw Uprising broke out on August 1st, 1944, after five years of brutal occupation by both Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union. On September 1st, 1939, Germany invaded Poland from the West and on September 17th the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the East. Poland ceased to exist as an independent country. The Polish government fled after the invasions and ended up in London. Inside Poland, the Home Army was on the ground in direct communication with the government in exile. The Home Army’s goal was to retake Poland under the control of the government in exile.

By the summer of 1944, Nazi Germany was losing the war. The Home Army was hoping to retake Warsaw and reclaim Poland’s independence. Once the War was nearing its end the Home Army in Warsaw was told that the Soviet Union’s Red Army would be arriving in Warsaw. The Home Army wanted the chance to take back the city from Nazi control before the Red Army was able to liberate Warsaw. The Home Army did not believe that they could defeat the Nazis on their own, therefore they relied on the Soviet advance in hopes that it would cause the Nazis to retreat. In between the time of the Nazis retreating and the Red Army’s advance, the Home Army in Warsaw would take back the city and establish themselves as the Polish government.

At the end of the war, however, the Allied forces had larger concerns than supporting Polish independence. Stalin and the Red Army had become invaluable allies on the Eastern front, therefore, the British and American governments would have Poland cede the eastern half of its pre-war territory to the Soviet Union, a principle that had been agreed on in 1943. Seeing little hope to establish Polish sovereignty, the Polish government deferred the initiative to take back Warsaw to the Home Army. On July 25th, 1944, the decision came from the government in London, and on August 1st, 1944, Polish soldiers began their assault on the Nazis. During the Warsaw Uprising, the Home Army achieved small victories, such as their attack on Concentration Camp Warsaw. On August 5th, the Home Army led an attack in the ruins of the ghetto and defeated the ninety SS guards; during this victory, they also liberated 348 Jews. Despite the Home Army’s expectations, the Red Army halted their advance and held position on the Vistula River just east of Warsaw. The Red Army’s decision meant that this fight would stay between the Home Army and the Germans.

The Nazis won the battle for Warsaw, but the true political victory went to the Soviets. Warsaw was desolate with almost all the inhabitants killed or deported and the city in ruins. The Soviets were not met with resistance and in mid-January they occupied Warsaw. Warsaw and Poland would be firmly in the Soviet sphere of influence long after the war’s end.

The Warsaw Rising Museum

In communist Poland, the Warsaw Uprising was largely ignored. The history of the Home Army’s attempt to secure Poland’s independence and sovereignty, and the Red Army’s failure to come to Poland’s aid were taboo topics. Therefore, Poles did not have a place to remember this history and honor the insurgents.

Only in 2004, on the 60th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising, did a museum to the event open in Poland’s capital. The year was also important to Poland because it coincided with the country’s entry into the European Union. The Warsaw Rising Museum was opened on July 31, 2004, at the time it was the first of its kind in Poland; a modern memorial museum that conveys a narrative and immerses the viewer, taking them back to 1944. The museum was ground-breaking in Poland as the first modern museum of the 21st century in the country and the first museum in Poland to use new interactive displays.

Entering the museum all of your senses are immediately engaged. The sound of a human heartbeat – the “beating heart of the Warsaw Uprising” – can be heard throughout the museum. Visitors are thrust into the threatening atmosphere of the Warsaw Uprising your senses are immediately assaulted, and a jolt of anxiety runs through you; you are in the mode of fight or flight. Walking through the museum under the American planes you hear the noise of bombs dropping, walking around the graves of insurgents you hear explosions, and when you see the uniform of nurses you hear weeping. Children and adults alike are thrust into the Warsaw Uprising, “Young people, they really wanted to go back in time to see how it was like, just for one day, to find themselves in the midst of the fighting,” said Dr. Monika Zychlinska from the University of Warsaw.

For some visitors, it is “fun” to experience the past in such a visceral way. Visitors can act as insurgents moving through small sewers while escaping the Nazis. However, when some surviving insurgents first visited the museum, they questioned its authenticity, expressing that the remade sewers were much bigger than the ones they escaped through. They also pointed out that most civilians never made it to the sewers for the opportunity to escape Warsaw.

Still, the museum’s aesthetic creates a feeling of nostalgia in visitors, allowing them to feel as patriotic as the insurgents felt when fighting for Polish independence. Dr. Zychlinska first went to the Warsaw Rising Museum as a kid in school when it opened in 2004, growing up in Warsaw she was captivated by the museum. “It really made a huge impression on me back then…it was the whole package. I mean the story and the form. I was also really proud of the Polish people, that they can tell the story.”

The Portrayal of Civilian Casualties

An estimated 150,000 civilians were killed in the Warsaw Uprising. On August 5th and 6th, 40,000 civilians were shot. “The ratio of Civilian to military dead was more than a thousand to one,” wrote Timothy Snyder in his book Bloodlands. In the Wola neighborhood the worst killing took place. There, women and children were used as human shields by the Nazi Army, the buildings along the street were razed to the ground as women were raped. Criminals enlisted by the Nazis in the Dirlewanger Brigade burned down three hospitals with patients inside. The massacres didn’t have anything to do with the combat the military confrontations in the Wola neighborhood ended in the death of six Nazis and twenty Home Army soldiers. 30,000 civilians were murdered in the Wola neighborhood.

The Warsaw Rising Museum pulls focus to the kinds of guns used by insurgents, the planes used for supply airdrops, and the escape of insurgents through sewers. However, those who were unwillingly drawn into the combat in the Uprising and were brutally murdered receive little recognition and dignity. The death and suffering that was so present during the Warsaw Uprising are missing in the museum. “I wouldn’t say that the museum is about suffering. I would say it’s a museum about heroism,” said Dr. Zychlinska.

Yet, visitors who choose to can still get glimpses into the physical suffering of people. In the museum, you can peer into barrels and witness the dead bodies of civilians who were killed in some of the most brutal ways, whether that is by a gunshot to the back of the head or by hanging outside of a hospital. “I don’t think it [the museum] actively gave as much respect to those that were non-combatants that died… the museum glorifies the uprising and actively disrespects those that needlessly died,” said Winter Cameron, a sophomore at Syracuse University.

The reality of the civilians in Warsaw is overshadowed by the bravery of the insurgents in the Home Army. The Warsaw Rising Museum attempts to force feelings of patriotism on you as you walk through the museum not acknowledging those who suffered along the way. Dr. Zychlinski, now a sociologist and a memory scholar sees the experience through new eyes: “Over the years, I became more mature, and my understanding of the Warsaw Uprising became more nuanced and more complex,” said Zychlinska, “Now that I’m older, I don’t really like the fact that somebody tries to manipulate my feelings.”

The moment of their death is made invisible—there is little representation of the bodily suffering related to the Warsaw Uprising. The insurgents are portrayed with their untouched bodies dying heroically, and the civilian’s deaths are forgotten.

The Message to Children

The Warsaw Rising Museum attempts to turn children into patriots of Poland. At a very young age, they can go through the museum with their family or school and learn about the bravery of their country. At the beginning of the museum, there is a space titled, The Little Insurgent Room, a place where classes can meet, or children can play while their parents enjoy the museum. Inside, there is a statue of a young child holding a gun and wearing a military helmet. In reality during the Warsaw Uprising there wasn’t enough ammunition for the insurgents let alone children. This visual teaches children that they too can participate in defending their families and their country.

The museum avoids presenting the numbers of children who were murdered during the Uprising because of the choices that the insurgents made. However, children are made to believe that they too can be insurgents. “It instills in them this idea that the Polish people have always been fighting for freedom, and even children were fighting for freedom and suffering and children were heroic. I think that children should not be heroic…this is not the duty of children to be heroic” said Dr. Zychlinska.

The Warsaw Uprising plays a central role in Poles’ understanding of themselves and their experience during the War. For many, the uprising highlights the patriotic duty to fight and sacrifice for Poland’s freedom. Many are immensely protective over the history of the Warsaw Uprising and do not accept criticism over the actions of the Home Army or the portrayal of the event in the museum. The museum places the Home Army and the insurgents on a pedestal and avoids an exploration of the nuances tied to the decision to start the uprising or the enormous costs of civilian deaths. The Warsaw Rising Museum continues to shape the Polish collective and aims to create patriots out of most visitors who hear the beating heart of Warsaw. The traumatic past of Poland is refigured to reshape modern Polish identity.