“Freedom Is Within Us”

The exhibition was staged in Pavilion XII of the former Mokotow prison. It was here that many opposition activists were held after 13 December 1981. The pavilion and its cells have changed little since then, and the exhibition uses that authentic space to tell visitors about the crimes of martial law, the repression, and the determination of people who refused to accept the breaking of basic civil rights.

The display occupies three floors of the prison pavilion. The ground floor shows how hope was born and then brutally suppressed after martial law was imposed. The first floor presents the reality of the internment camps: correspondence, personal objects and documents. The top level is devoted to the political prisoners held at Mokotow - periscopes set into the cell peepholes carry quotations from those in power at the time.

The motif that joins all parts of the display is freedom of speech, shown as a “rain of leaflets” falling from the top storey of the pavilion down to the ground floor. The showcases hold a suitcase duplicator, a megaphone obtained for the Movement for the Defence of Human and Civic Rights, and a “Radio Solidarity” transmitter. The exhibition has been open since 13 December 2025, Tuesday to Sunday from 10.00 to 18.00, admission free.

What to expect

The building is the exhibit. Pavilion XII is a real prison wing where opposition activists were locked up after 13 December 1981. The show climbs through it floor by floor: the hope before martial law, then the internment camps, then the cells of political prisoners. According to the museum’s opening announcement it also covers the shooting of striking miners at the Wujek colliery, the violent breaking-up of demonstrations in Warsaw and the killings in the town of Lubin.

What to look for:

• Periscopes in the cell peepholes - instead of a view into the cell you read what the regime’s leaders said about their opponents.
• The “rain of leaflets” - an installation falling from the top storey to the ground floor, with a soundtrack of authentic radio announcements from the period.
• A suitcase duplicator - the kind of portable machine the underground used to print uncensored leaflets and bulletins.
• A megaphone of the Movement for the Defence of Human and Civic Rights (ROPCiO) and a “Radio Solidarity” transmitter, both given to the museum by donors.

Around them: large-format photographs, internees’ letters and personal belongings, and witness testimony. The show opened on 13 December 2025, the 44th anniversary of martial law; the museum gives no closing date.

Context

Martial law was General Jaruzelski’s military crackdown on the Solidarity trade union, the mass movement of some ten million Poles that had forced the communist government into concessions in 1980.

It was declared overnight on 12-13 December 1981, suspended at the end of 1982 and lifted on 22 July 1983. Around 10,000 people were interned without trial in camps across the country, and more than 70 died, among them nine miners shot by riot police at the Wujek colliery in Katowice on 16 December 1981. Rakowiecka Street prison in Warsaw’s Mokotow district was one of the places where arrested activists were held, which is why this exhibition sits in original cells rather than in a reconstruction.

Tickets and time

• Free. Admission and all guided tours cost nothing; there are no tickets at all.
• Guided tours only. The exhibition page lists Tuesday-Sunday 10:00-18:00 (10 AM - 6 PM), but the whole museum can only be visited with a guide. The museum does not say whether every tour enters Pavilion XII, so ask for this exhibition when you book.
• English-language tours must always be booked in advance, weekends included: email zwiedzanie@muzeumrakowiecka37.pl or call +48 22 547 96 07 or +48 693 010 380, Monday to Friday 8:30-16:00. The visit goes ahead only once the museum has confirmed your booking.
• Polish-language tours: on Saturdays and Sundays individuals can simply turn up for the 10:00, 12:00, 14:00 or 16:00 tour; on weekdays everyone books, last entry 16:00.
• Age: 13 and over. The Polish exhibition page admits only visitors over 13, while the museum’s English FAQ lets younger children in with a parent, so confirm when booking. With a child under 13, it is better to skip this show.
• How long: the museum puts a guided visit at 1.5-2 hours, part of it outdoors.
• Access: not suitable for wheelchair users or blind visitors while the site is being rebuilt. There is a waiting room with a toilet and lockers for bags, but no parking.
• Getting there: metro line M1 to Pole Mokotowskie, then a short walk to the main gate at ul. Rakowiecka 37. Photos of the exhibitions for personal use are fine; filming the tour or photographing the guides is not.
• English on site: guided tours in English on request; the museum says nothing about English labels in this exhibition, so the booked English tour is your way in.

Who it is for: visitors who want to understand how Poland’s communist state fought Solidarity, and teenagers of 13 and up who know martial law only from school. If you do not read Polish, book the English tour rather than turning up at a weekend slot. Skip it with children under 13, or if you need a step-free route.

What the press says

No English-language coverage found so far.

• Gość Warszawski (12.12.2025, Agnieszka Kurek-Zajączkowska): the Warsaw edition of the Catholic weekly previewed the anniversary programme and noted that Pavilion XII once held members of the 1970s opposition groups “Ruch”, the “Komandosi”, KOR and ROPCiO, and in the 1980s Solidarity and KPN activists - a preview, not a review - article, in Polish

See also

• “Fighting Solidarity” - the museum’s other show on the 1980s underground, in 18 cells of the General Pavilion with a recreated secret print shop; an easy pairing on the same tour.
• “Evidence of Crime” - objects recovered from the secret burial pit at Warsaw’s Military Cemetery, showing what Rakowiecka meant in the Stalinist years, a generation before the martial-law prisoners arrived.

Museum profile: Museum of Cursed Soldiers, Warsaw.