Szucha Avenue after W-Hour: outdoor panel exhibition at the Pawiak Prison Museum

The panel exhibition “Aleja Szucha po godzinie ‘W’” (Szucha Avenue after W-Hour) tells the story of the Warsaw Uprising around Szucha Avenue, at the very heart of the German police district of the occupation. It was prepared by the staff of the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom, and the museum shows it outdoors, on the fence of the Museum of Pawiak Prison on the al. Jana Pawła II side, not in the building, which is under renovation.

The Museum of Pawiak Prison on the exhibition (our translation):

Ladies and Gentlemen,

it is with great pleasure that we present to you our newest panel exhibition, Aleja Szucha po godzinie ‘W’ (Szucha Avenue after W-Hour), prepared by the staff of the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom, a branch of the Museum of Pawiak Prison. Its authors are curator Robert Hasselbusch, a long-standing member of staff of the Museum of Independence, and senior specialist Piotr Piegat, who in their daily work study the history of one of the best-preserved places where Poles were tortured and killed during the German occupation - the Gestapo’s investigative jail.

The exhibition was created for the Night of Museums 2026, but its subject makes it a perfect fit for the approaching 82nd anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising. The authors take up the story of the Uprising connected with the most closely guarded area of the German occupation, the so-called Strasse der Polizei, of which Szucha Avenue was a part.

We warmly encourage you to visit the exhibition, which is enriched with illustrations, unique photographs and documents.

The exhibition is displayed on the fence of the Museum of Pawiak Prison on Aleja Jana Pawła II in Warsaw.

What to expect

This is a panel exhibition that you view from the pavement. The museum writes that it is enriched with illustrations, unique photographs and documents, but does not say how many panels it has. Its authors are curator Robert Hasselbusch and Piotr Piegat of the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom, who in their daily work study the history of the former Gestapo investigative jail at 25 Szucha Avenue.

The museum quoted the text of one panel in its invitation to an August tour of the Mausoleum. The panel describes the attack by soldiers of the Home Army’s 7th Group “Ruczaj” (VII Zgrupowanie) on Szucha Avenue and the Gestapo headquarters during the Uprising. The units were to advance from several directions, among them from the Botanical Garden and Aleje Ujazdowskie, from plac Zbawiciela and from ul. Bagatela, with few weapons. Before the attack the soldiers put on white-and-red armbands.

The exhibition was created for the Night of Museums 2026. It premiered on 16 May 2026 in the courtyard of the Ministry of National Education building at 25 Szucha Avenue, which houses the Mausoleum; the museum prepared it especially for that night. It is now on show at Pawiak.

In September, as part of the 30th Science Festival (Festiwal Nauki), Robert Hasselbusch gave a talk at the Mausoleum, “Sierpień i wrzesień 1944 w niemieckiej dzielnicy policyjnej” (August and September 1944 in the German Police District), which the museum describes as based on this exhibition. The audience heard about the attack of the “Ruczaj” Group on the police district on the first day of the Uprising and about the civilians whom the Germans herded into the Gestapo headquarters after W-Hour; a great many of them were shot. The attack of the “Ruczaj” Group is the subject of the panel the museum quoted; the museum does not say whether the panels also tell of the civilians.

Context

During the occupation, the police district was the name for the part of Śródmieście Południowe (the southern city centre) around Szucha Avenue, where the most important offices of the German police and security services in Warsaw were based. In the autumn of 1939 the buildings on the avenue, among them the Ministry of Religious Denominations and Public Enlightenment at number 25, were taken over by the Gestapo, the SD and the Ordnungspolizei, and on 1 December 1941 the Germans renamed the street Strasse der Polizei. They set up a jail in the basement of that building; today the building is occupied by the Ministry of National Education, and the former jail is the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom, a branch of the Museum of Pawiak Prison.

The W-Hour of the exhibition’s title is the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising on 1 August 1944. That day Home Army units struck the police district from several sides, but the poorly armed insurgents did not capture the headquarters of the German Security Police on Szucha Avenue. After the attack was repulsed, the Germans began exterminating the inhabitants of the surrounding blocks.

The authors are returning to a subject they have worked on for years. Under the title “Aleja Szucha po godzinie W” (Szucha Avenue after W-Hour), the Mausoleum already ran weekend guided tours in August 2024, devoted to the attempt to capture the Gestapo headquarters on 1 August 1944 and to the mass executions during the Uprising. In May 2025 their earlier panel exhibition, “Więźniowie Gestapo w alei Szucha” (Gestapo Prisoners on Szucha Avenue), about Pawiak prisoners interrogated at the Gestapo headquarters, went up in the Pawiak courtyard.

Tickets and time

• Where: outdoors, on the fence of the Museum of Pawiak Prison on the al. Jana Pawła II side. The museum building is at ul. Dzielna 24/26, and directions are on the museum profile.
• Museum of Pawiak Prison: closed since 27 Feb 2026 (renovation and maintenance). The museum gives no reopening date; the expected end of the works is on the museum profile. The exhibition hangs outside the building, and during the renovation the museum itself encourages visitors to see its outdoor exhibitions.
• Ticket: the museum gives no information about a ticket for this exhibition. The price list on the “Dla zwiedzających” (For Visitors) page covers entry to the museum or a branch and does not mention the outdoor exhibitions.
• Hours: the museum does not say at what hours the exhibition on the fence can be seen.
• Until when: the museum gives no end date for the exhibition. The September programme listed it for the whole of September, and the October programme lists it for the whole of October.
• In the same place: a second outdoor exhibition, “Historia i Pamięć: 60 lat Muzeum Więzienia Pawiak” (History and Memory: 60 Years of the Museum of Pawiak Prison), hangs in the museum courtyard; the October programme lists both.
• How long: a short stop rather than a separate outing. It is a panel exhibition viewed from outside, and Pawiak’s second outdoor exhibition, “Historia i Pamięć” (History and Memory), hangs in the courtyard in front of the museum, so you can see both on one visit without entering the closed building. The museum gives neither the number of panels nor a viewing time.
• Who it’s for: people interested in occupied Warsaw and in the fighting on the first day of the Uprising in Śródmieście Południowe, and those who come to Pawiak during the renovation.
• Who can skip it: anyone who wants to see the interiors of the former prison or jail. The Pawiak building is under renovation, and the interiors of the former Gestapo jail are shown by the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom at 25 Szucha Avenue.

See also

• Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom - the interiors of the former Gestapo jail at 25 Szucha Avenue, that is, the place the exhibition tells about, and the Pawiak branch where its authors work. In October Piotr Piegat leads tours of the Mausoleum’s exhibition on 17 and 31 October; sign up at szucha@muzn.pl.
• Bogusław Lustyk. The Memory of the Uprising - works by an artist who has long been engaged with the Warsaw Uprising, in the Brama Bielańska Gallery at the Citadel; the programme lists this exhibition until 25 October 2026.
• Museum of Pawiak Prison - the profile of the museum on whose fence the exhibition hangs: the history of the prison, directions and information about the renovation.

Museum profile: Museum of Pawiak Prison.