A branch of the Museum of Kraków in the Silesian House, the former Gestapo headquarters, with preserved detention cells and an exhibition on the years of terror 1939-1956.
Pomorska Street is a branch of the Museum of Kraków at Pomorska 2, in the Silesian House. During the Second World War the Gestapo headquarters were located here, with a temporary detention centre in the cellars. Inscriptions made by prisoners have survived on the walls of the cells.
The Silesian House building was constructed on the initiative of the Society for the Defence of the Western Borderlands of Poland, which operated until 1939. During the German occupation it was taken over by the Gestapo, which set up a detention centre in the basement for people who were arrested and interrogated. The museum branch has operated here since 1981.
The exhibition consists of three parts. The first is the former Gestapo cells in the cellars of the Silesian House. The second is the permanent exhibition “Cracovians Facing Terror 1939-1945-1956”, which shows the history of Kraków through the fates of people, both victims and perpetrators. It has three chronologically arranged parts: the activity of the Society for the Defence of the Western Borderlands of Poland until 1939, the German occupation and the Stalinist period until 1956. The third part is a virtual archive with information about the victims of repression by both totalitarian systems, also available online.
Pomorska Street forms Kraków's Memory Trail together with the Eagle Pharmacy and Oskar Schindler's Enamel Factory. Two events commemorating the victims of the war take place here during the year: the Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Gestapo and “Remember with Us”.
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