Warsaw Uprising Museum is a history and interactive museum focused on the various Up risings faced in the city’s war-torn past. It is one of the museums to check out when you are in the Polish city of Warsaw. Let’s take an exploration through the galleries.
Also known locally as the “Warsaw Rising Museum”, it is located at 79 Grzybowska in the Wola district, in the heart of Warszawa, Poland. The museum grounds spans over several buildings in a large open courtyard. There are a couple of “warehouses” here which an interior museum reside.
Moreover, the museum gallery has an open concept layout. It has various walled displays, cabinets and wall-mounted information scattered about the large warehouse. It is also a warm cozy place to stay in during the winter months, where the outdoor courtyard would be quite inaccessible during winter snowy months.
A museum of learning
Furthermore, Poland is no stranger when it comes to Uprising during the Second World War. Also, neither is the concept of an Uprising, having most notable to fend off the invading Russians back in 1794 Warsaw Uprising.
Additionally, most content on display here are dedicated to the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Most notably, the museum opened on July 2004, on the 60th anniversary of the Second World War uprising against the invading Nazi Germans.
Moreover, there are exhibits over several floors, containing photographs, audio and video, interactive displays, artefacts, history and possessions of the Polish Underground State. Also, it is also quite a modern museum, with well-laid galleries and interactive displays.
Additionally, the galleries are themed with a dark and gloomy setting, with war in the air. Mounted in the ceiling of the warehouse is an imposing replica of an American B-24 Liberator bomber plane.
Lots of World war military hardware
Furthermore, if you are a military fan, you be pleased at the number of military hardware on display here within the museum. On display are Army uniforms, weapons and battle gear used in the war. Also, there is so a recreation of a military pillbox, hardened concrete structures from where machine guns are fired from.
Moreover, you can walk down aisles and display racks of guns, automatic assault rifles and well as grenades and knives on display. It is quite an impressive gallery of World War 2 arsenal. Also, the museum collects and maintains hundreds of artefacts, including captured weapons and those used by the insurgent resistance forces themselves. Notably on display is a Błyskawica submachine gun. It is one of very few weapons which were designed and mass-produced covertly in occupied Europe for resistance.
Interestingly, the chassis of a Chevrolet 157 van was modified by the “Krybar” Regiment into a small armoured personnel vehicle called the Kubuś. Also, the armoured car, together with arms made by the Home Army during the Uprising shows the ingenuity of the forces in battling a better-equipped German foe. You can see a replica of the single unit was built in the museum courtyard.
Insurgents life
Also, the uprising saw between 20,000, to 49,000 soldiers from the Warsaw District Home Army forces. Supplementing this are about 2,000 underground formations, trained for several years in partisan and urban guerrilla warfare.
In addition, rather peculiar galleries here includes the “little insurgent” room. It is one dedicated and covering the efforts of young children as insurgents, and children experiences during the uprising. Typically aged between 15 and 17. These little insurgent served mainly in combat reconnaissance and communication missions.
Questions on child soldiers aside, the room includes replicas of the little insurgents dressed in era-uniforms. There is also coverage of the Insurgent hospital which supported the uprising.
The Uprising itself is not all without any sacrifices and destruction. Also, you can watch a notable short 3D video screening called “City of Ruins”. The 3D movie is a modern recreation of an aerial flyby of the flattened ruins of Warsaw taken from the air in 1945.
All in all, the Warsaw Uprising Museum (Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego) is a nice place to check out for a story from the insurgent’s perspective. It is also one of the better war museums in the city too in the Wola district in the Polish city of Warsaw. Entry costs 25 PLN per person for an adult ticket, 20 PLN with a student discount ticket. The museum is open daily 10am to 6pm and closed every Tuesday. If a more light hearted tech museum is something your fancy, I would recommend the Warsaw Tech museum as a follow-up visit too.
