SCWiS
On December 16, 2011, an agreement was concluded on running a joint cultural institution called the Silesian Center for Freedom and Solidarity, between the Silesian Voivodeship and the City of Katowice. In the agreement, both parties undertook to run the cultural institution, the Silesian Center for Freedom and Solidarity, as a joint cultural institution of the two organizers. One of the tasks of the Silesian Center for Freedom and Solidarity is to run an exhibition – a museum dedicated to the strike and pacification of the “Wujek” mine.
The museum is located in a historic building standing next to the Cross Monument, at the intersection of Józefa Gallusa and Wincentego Pola streets. It was once a clothing warehouse for the mine, which has a history of over a hundred years.
Before World War II, this building was used to fill mining lamps with carbide, in later years it was used as a warehouse for work clothes, and on December 16, 1981 it became a silent witness to tragic events. It was from the ramp of this building that the fatal shots were fired at the miners from the Wujek Mine. The completed multi-year trial and on-site inspection proved that several members of the special platoon shot at striking miners during the pacification from this very spot.
Today, the permanent exhibition is run by the Silesian Centre for Freedom and Solidarity – a cultural institution whose task is to cultivate the memory of the tragic events that took place on 16 December 1981.
The new main exhibition at the Silesian Centre for Freedom and Solidarity was opened on the 40th anniversary of the pacification of the “Wujek” mine. It was made available on three levels of the historic building of the former workwear warehouse. The exhibition is dedicated primarily to the strike in the mine in December 1981 and the resistance of Poles to the communist system in the 1980s.
The new exhibition is aimed primarily at young people, and its broad scope refers to the history of this place and the situation in the country at that time. The previous exhibition occupied approx. 140 m² on the ground floor of the historic building. This is definitely not enough to show all the exhibits in the ŚCWiS collection. Currently, the exhibition is located on three levels and takes up a total area of over 1,100 m².
The ramp located in the building, from which on December 16, 1981, a special platoon of the ZOMO fired shots at striking miners, has also been exposed. A glazed bay window with a skylight was designed in the central part of the building, allowing visitors to look into the mine. The brick facade of the building has been recreated.
