Kresowe koleje losu. Marking 80 Years Since the Expatriation

The temporary exhibition “Kresowe koleje losu. W 80. rocznicę ekspatriacji” opened at the Station Museum on 16 July. It is devoted to the fate of Poles forcibly resettled from the eastern borderlands after the end of the Second World War.

The museum describes the show as part of a borderlands triptych completed by Bożena and Michał Rzepiak’s book “Kresowe koleje losu” and Robert Łoziński’s documentary film “Historia pewnego sztandaru”. The script was built from witness accounts collected by the authors of the publication, together with archival and audiovisual material from the museum’s own holdings.

The exhibition is staged inside a century-old Hungarian-built covered wagon standing in the open-air locomotive park. Among the objects on display are authentic family keepsakes - a resettlement trunk, a cradle and a cast-iron stove - alongside archive documents and audio accounts recorded with people who lived through the forced expatriation.

Curator: Dominika Leszczyńska. Set design: Renata Rogala.

What to expect

This is an exhibition inside one goods wagon, not a gallery. The wagon stands in the museum’s open-air locomotive park at Towarowa 3, so you step into it as part of an ordinary visit. The interior is arranged to recall the realities of the post-war expulsions, and the museum speaks of the atmosphere of journeys into the unknown that lasted for weeks. It is a show for listening more than reading: the heart of it is recorded testimony from people who lived through the resettlement.

What to look out for:

• The resettlement trunk - families packed everything they owned into chests like this. At the book launch on 18 June 2026, Małgorzata Chodnicka and Dorota Romanowska from Frombork gave the museum a family trunk used in a resettlement in February 1946; the museum does not say whether that is the one in the wagon.
• The cradle - one of the authentic family keepsakes the museum names.
• The cast-iron “koza” stove - the third named keepsake, and a better way to picture weeks on the move than any chart of figures.
• The audio accounts - witness voices collected by Bożena and Michał Rzepiak, authors of the book “Kresowe koleje losu”. The museum says nothing about translations.

Context

“Kresy” is the Polish name for the eastern half of pre-war Poland, a region that after the Second World War was absorbed into the Soviet republics of Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. According to official figures, about 1,167,000 Poles left it in 1945-1946. The authorities called this “repatriation”, although people were leaving their homeland rather than returning to it, which is why the exhibition’s title uses “expatriation” instead. The transports were run by the State Repatriation Office (PUR), set up by decree on 7 October 1944, and 2026 marks 80 years since the resettlements of 1946.

The third part of the museum’s triptych is “Historia pewnego sztandaru” (“The Story of a Banner”, 2024), a 24-minute documentary about a railwaymen’s banner that served from 1928 and was carried out of Stanisławów (today Ivano-Frankivsk in Ukraine) during the resettlement. The exhibition’s curator, Dominika Leszczyńska, co-wrote the script. A version with English subtitles is on the museum’s film page, and it is the best English-language way into this story before you go.

Tickets and time

• Tickets: standard 25 PLN, reduced 16 PLN, family 75 PLN (two adults and up to three children). The museum’s price list shows no separate ticket for temporary shows, and the wagon stands in the open-air park covered by the regular ticket.
• Free entry: every Monday, and for children under 7. The museum accepts the Warsaw Pass.
• Opening hours: daily except Tuesday; until 31 October 10:00-18:00 (10 AM - 6 PM), from 1 November to 31 March 9:00-17:00 (9 AM - 5 PM). Last entry 30 minutes before closing, according to the museum’s Polish visitor page. Its English page moves to winter hours on 1 October instead, so the two pages disagree on October closing time (18:00 or 17:00). In October, arrive between 10:00 and 16:30 to be safe under either version, or phone the ticket desk.
• Closed on 20 September 2026 (museum notice of 9 September). Other closed days left in 2026: 1 November and 24-26 December.
• Weather: the museum reserves the right to close the open-air park in bad weather, which closes this wagon too. On a wet or windy day, call the ticket desk first: +48 22 620 04 80 ext. 119.
• How long: add 20-30 minutes to your visit if you want to listen to the testimony rather than just look in (our estimate; the museum gives no running time).
• Access: the open-air park is wheelchair accessible, but the museum does not say whether the wagon interior is. The museum’s entrance ramp is too long to use alone: come with a companion or phone +48 22 620 04 80 ext. 106 in advance and staff will help you in.
• English on site: the museum states nothing about English labels or audio for this show. An English-speaking guide for the whole museum (about 60 minutes) can be booked by email at edukacja@stacjamuzeum.pl at least 10 working days ahead; the Polish page lists 350 PLN plus tickets, the English page 200 PLN, so confirm the price when you book.
• 27 September and 25 October: the museum also opens the interiors of its saloon car and artillery wagon, so there is more to see in the park on those days (schedule).

Who it is for: above all, visitors with family roots in the pre-war eastern borderlands, and anyone who has heard a grandparent talk about “repatriation” without ever seeing what the journey looked like. School-age children with an adult to explain will get more from a cradle and a stove than from a textbook. If you do not speak Polish, count on no translation, since the museum mentions none: treat the wagon as a short stop on a locomotive-park visit and watch the subtitled film beforehand. If you came only for the locomotives, the wagon is on your way anyway, and 15 minutes is enough for a look inside.

What the press says

No reviews had appeared by 14 September 2026, and no English-language coverage beyond a local portal’s parallel translation. Four pieces in all: three announcements based on the museum’s information and one personal recommendation.

• Raport Kolejowy (14 July 2026, Michał Ciechowski): the rail news site describes the show as combining set design and multimedia and announces the opening for 16 July at 18:00 - announcement in Polish
• NaKolei.pl (14 July 2026, editorial team): presents the show as a memorial to post-war resettled families and a prompt to think about losing a home - article in Polish
• Nowodworski.info (15 July 2026, Piotr Korycki): a local portal from northern Mazovia announces the show, with an English version below the Polish text - article in Polish and English
• Foundation for the Culture and Heritage of Polish Armenians (16 July 2026, Maria Ohanowicz): recommends the show for capturing the times their parents and grandparents lived through, and says some of the furnishings were donated by resettled families featured in the book; the foundation’s president, Maria Ohanowicz-Tarasiuk, appears in the triptych’s film - article in Polish

The museum’s director, Emilia Oleksiak, quoted by Raport Kolejowy and Nowodworski.info (our translation): “For thousands of families, the train was the last stage of their farewell to the Kresy and at the same time the start of the road to a new life.”

See also

• Station Museum (Warsaw Railway Museum) - the museum profile: a park of more than 50 rail vehicles, the EU07 simulator, directions and the story of Warszawa Główna station.
• Tory w zgliszczach Warszawy (Tracks in the Ruins of Warsaw) - the other carriage exhibition in the same park, on rebuilding the capital and its railway after the war; easy to see both on one visit.
• Independence Museum - its permanent exhibition “Kresy i Bezkresy” at al. Solidarności 62 covers the borderlands more broadly, through its Krzemieniec, Lviv, Vilnius and Siberian collections; a good follow-up if the wagon leaves you with questions.