Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom

The Memorial of Struggle and Martyrdom at Aleja Szucha 25 in Warsaw is located in the basement of the former headquarters of the German Security Police and SD during the occupation of Poland from 1939 to 1945. Thousands of Polish resistance fighters were interrogated and tortured here, many sent on directly to Pawiak prison or to execution at Palmiry. The surviving cells and interrogation rooms were opened as a memorial in 1952 and have been a branch of the Museum of Independence since 1979. Preserved are the narrow so-called tram cells, where prisoners had to wait sitting on wooden benches, and wall scratchings with names, dates and prayers. The upper floors today share the building with the Polish Ministry of Education - a deliberate choice against turning the entire house into a museum.