Warsaw - September 1939. Woodcuts by Eugeniusz Pichell

From 1 September 2026 the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom, a branch of the Museum of Independence, showed Eugeniusz Pichell’s woodcuts from the portfolio “Warsaw - September 1939” inside the former Gestapo detention cells on Szucha Avenue. The museum announced the display for September and never gave a closing date.

Museum of Independence on the exhibition:

“From 1 September - on view inside the former Gestapo detention cells: woodcuts by Eugeniusz Pichell from the portfolio ‘Warsaw - September 1939’.”

What to expect

The display marked the 87th anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of Poland and was included in a visit to the Mausoleum’s permanent exhibition on the regular ticket (20 PLN, 10 PLN reduced, free on Thursdays). The museum never said how many woodcuts from the portfolio were on show. It was a display within the permanent exhibition, in a place that is a reason to visit on its own: prints of besieged Warsaw hung in the basement cells where the Gestapo held prisoners from 1939 on. The Mausoleum’s September programme remains on the Museum of Independence’s website (in Polish).

Context

Eugeniusz Pichell (1905-1976) was a Warsaw graphic artist who fought in the city’s defence in September 1939, commanding an infantry company as a reserve second lieutenant. Taken prisoner by the Germans on 29 September 1939, he only took up woodcut in Oflag II C Woldenberg, a German camp for Polish officers, where he cut camp postage stamps and cards. After the war he lived in Opole and returned to Warsaw in 1950, working in woodcut, posters and glassware design.

Updates

• 2026-10-01 - the museum gave no closing date. It announced the display only in the Mausoleum’s September 2026 programme, among what was on “this month” (“from 1 September”). The October 2026 programme does not list it, but it lists none of the museum’s other running exhibitions either, so 30 September 2026 is our own assumption, not a museum date (source: September programme, October programme, both in Polish).

See also

• Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom - the site itself: the cells, prisoners’ inscriptions, getting there and access.
• Pawiak Prison Museum - another branch of the Museum of Independence, in the former prison in the Muranów district; the building is closed for renovation, but outdoor exhibitions stand on its fence and courtyard in October.

After the show

The Mausoleum has announced no new temporary exhibition for October, but it runs its own programme. From 6 to 10 October it hosts the Pawiak Remembrance Days (2026 edition). Weekend guided tours of the permanent exhibition: 4 October, 11:00 (Robert Hasselbusch), 17 and 31 October, 11:00 (Piotr Piegat), booking at szucha@muzn.pl (October programme, in Polish). On the fence of the Pawiak Prison Museum facing Jana Pawła II Avenue, an outdoor exhibition about the same street, “Aleja Szucha po godzinie W” (Szucha Avenue after W-Hour, the start of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising), runs until 31 October 2026.

One show still on at the Museum of Independence:

• Bogusław Lustyk: The Memory of the Uprising - paintings and installations about the 1944 Warsaw Uprising in the Bielańska Gate Gallery at the Citadel, until 25 October 2026; a contemporary artist’s view of the wartime city that Pichell showed in woodcut.

Another current show in Warsaw on the occupation:

• What the Ringelblum Archive Means to Us - at the Jewish Historical Institute until 30 November 2026; two display cases on the search for and conservation of the Underground Archive of the Warsaw Ghetto, a record of occupied Warsaw kept from the inside.

Museum profile: Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom.