The Palace Museum is a branch of the Tatra Museum. The exhibition tells the story. The exhibition starts from the 1920s and 1930s. It shows Zakopane modern, modernist, with a future. Visitors can enjoy archival photographs and films, the first Nordic World Ski Championships, and the first winter motorcycle race in Poland. You can sit on cinema chairs and watch an archival film from pre-war Zakopane.
Next, there is an exhibition about the times of occupation, restrictions and expropriations. The cellars where the cells were located are most impressive. . The inscriptions carved by prisoners can still be seen. The cold and twilight prevailing here clearly reflect the horror of those events.
The museum is a bit quieter upstairs. This is a place for silence and reflection. Statements of those who survived the occupation of Podhale are displayed on the walls. You can see the Tatra Mountains from the window.
The exhibition is still being supplemented. A floor with an exhibition devoted to the resistance movement, Kurier Tatrzańskie and Goralenvolk will soon be made available to visitors.
It was 1939. Until then, Zakopane had been a mecca for skiers, a respite for spa visitors, and a crazy dream for artists. Old highland cottages turned into modernist guesthouses, an ordinary path became a legendary promenade called Krupówki. That time has passed. . Persecutions and arrests began. The Nazis fueled the idea of a separate highland state – Goralenvolk. They argued that the highlanders come from an old Germanic tribe inhabiting the Tatra Mountains. They gained several allies from distinguished families such as Wacław Krzeptowski, Stefan Krzeptowski, Andrzej Krzeptowski and Józef Cukier.
. Most highlanders refused to sign the Volksliste and those who did often did not realize what they were doing. Many highlanders fought heroically against the occupier, paying the price with suffering or death. The Tatra Couriers traveled through the mountains to Budapest, with a dangerous mission of carrying volunteers to the emerging Polish army, transporting important documents and weapons. Among them were persistent skiers, guides, but also ordinary highlanders. Many of them lost their lives in the villa “Palaces”.
Thus, the carefree period of the guesthouse ended “Palaces” and the drama began “Podhale torture chamber”. The building's basements were converted into prison cells, and interrogation rooms and apartments for Gestapo officers were set up on three floors. In the vestibule, chains for arms and legs were built into the walls. The guesthouse was surrounded by barbed wire. The commandant of the facility was Robert Weissman, and 40 SS men worked there. Most of them never paid for their crimes. After the war, Wiessman was sentenced to only seven years, but he did not serve the sentence because he was released on parole.
. Sometimes there were several dozen people in small cells with six beds. The Germans were aware that there were courier routes in the mountains. Mass arrests of members of the resistance movement and people who helped them began. In cells “Palaces” There were, among others, outstanding Tatra skiers and couriers such as Stanisław Marusarz, Helena Marusarz, Bronisław Czech. There was also Franciszek Gajowniczek, for whom Saint gave his life in Auschwitz. Maksymilian Kolbe.
They were beaten and tortured. The Gestapo officers used extensive means during many hours of interrogations, they broke the guests, stuck pins under their fingernails, and crushed their genitals. . It is not known exactly how many people were imprisoned and how many lost their lives “Podhale torture chamber”. During the escape in 1945, the Germans burned the documentation and the walls of the cells with the names on them were whitewashed during subsequent renovations. It is estimated that in “Palaces” about 2,000 people were imprisoned, about 300-400 did not survive.
After the war, the building housed, among others, an anti-tuberculosis sanatorium, a nursery and a school. . After many years of efforts of the Association and the Tatra Museum, the villa “Fingers” was renovated and made available to visitors.