Museum of the Polish Post Office in Gdansk

The Museum of the Polish Post Office in Gdansk is housed in the former Polish post building at Plac Obroncow Poczty Polskiej 1/2 in the Old Town of Gdansk, Poland. During the interwar period Gdansk was the Free City of Danzig, and Poland held rights to operate postal services there under the Treaty of Versailles. The Polish Post Office building, completed in 1938, served this purpose. On 1 September 1939, as German forces attacked Westerplatte, SS and police units also attacked the post office. About 50 postal employees defended the building for around 15 hours before being forced out when the building was set on fire. Several defenders were killed, and those captured were tried and executed in October 1939. The court ruling was annulled in 1995 by a German court. The building was damaged but survived the war and was later used again as a post office and for other purposes. In the 1970s a monument to the defenders was erected in front of it, and a museum later opened in part of the building as a branch of the Museum of Gdansk. The exhibition is small and focused. It presents the story of the defence and the post office through period objects, documents, photographs and reconstructed interiors, including the postal counters and personal belongings of the defenders. The display includes the sorting hall and the preserved traces of the fighting. The approach is thematic and chronological, concentrating on the events of 1 September 1939 and the later fate of the defenders. The monument in the square, a large steel structure depicting a fallen figure with a crown of thorns shape, is part of the memorial landscape. The site is short to visit but it adds personal and civilian dimensions to the story of the outbreak of the war in Gdansk.