"The White
Eagle Museum" in Skarzysko-Kamienna,
Poland
See
photo gallery
The building which presently houses the museum was
built in 1836-1838. It used to be the residence of the superintendent of the "Rejów" foundry that operated until late 19th century. The foundry ceased to function in 1901 because of damage inflicted by flood. In 1939, the infrastructure was further damaged when another flood took away the water-wheel that had propelled the devices of the foundry. Nevertheless, remnants of the unit have survived till the present day.
Several exhibits (including a mammoth's tooth)
stored in the museum's cellar have been found during earthworks. An underground passage connecting the foundry with the manager's house is believed to have existed in the past.
CELLAR EXHIBITION
- furnace slag from the Rejów area
- cast-iron handrails (many of which were exported
to St. Petersburg, Russia)
- original bellows from Bodzentyn forge
- padlocks manufactured in a local plant
- hollowware of unparalled thinness, produced in the
"Rejow" foundry (it was probably the use of charcoal-based technology that enabled the then foundries to produce objects of such small thickness, unattainable for contemporary foundries)
- a steelyard
- mirror frames
- medallions, frequently custom-made in larger
quantites
MILITARY EXHIBITION
Room 1 - pre-war period (until 1939)
National Ammunition Factory (now ZM Mesko) has been operating in Skarzysko-Kamienna
since 1924. It was there that president Ignacy Moscicki (1867-1946) had his design office where he worked occassionally in his own time.
Around 80% of the production pattern from that period is displayed in the showcases:
- Cannon cartridge from ORP "Wicher" ("Gale") which sank on 3rd September 1939 near Hel.
- 37 mm Bofors-system armour-piercing ammunition (unfortunately cannons of this system did not survive until the present day and cannot be found in Polish museums).
- A Polish pistol WiS (later renamed to VIS) constructed in Radom by P. Wilniewczyc and J. Skrzypinski allegedly overnight. It won the competition for the pistol to be used in the Polish army - around 28 thousand copies were produced until the outbreak of World War II. During the war Germans produced around 310 thousand WiS pistols and for this reason it is hard to come across a Polish one with an eagle on it. In a contemporary ranking carried out by Colt, WiS was ranked second (with Parabellum being the winner).
- Armour-piercing gun Mark 35 capable of penetrating 2cm-thick steel armour plating within 200 meters (only a few guns of this kind survived until the present day)
- Officer's uniform coats found after the war. Swastika sign was sewn on the uniforms worn by the Second Brigade of Pilsudski's Legions. Before the war all kinds of units were entitled to use the swastika on their badges (a regiment order etc.), especially the white one awarded for battles in the Carpathian Mountains where the symbol was particularly popular. Some of the the uniforms feature a badge of Zwiazek Obroncow Ojczyzny (Association of Defenders of the Country) - the first combatant organisation of the interwar period.
- Mauser guns type 98 used by Radom infantry
- a French lance; lancer charges at tanks have never been recorded in history - the infamous footage was actually a fake concocted by German propaganda. Thorough analysis of the film frames has proved that the alleged "Polish soldiers" were in fact disguised Germans, often wearing incomplete uniforms, made of Polish jacket and German trousers for example.
- Polish helmets, eg. type 31 produced in SHL in Kielce
- a true rarity: tankman's helmet newly adapted by the army
- another helmet, using the then new, Polish method of covering the surface with cork varnish and thus decreasing the intensity of light reflections
- a Polish-made, black propeller from a wrecked German spotter plane
Room 2 - martyrology
After the outbreak of World War II the local National Ammunition Factory was taken over by a German company HASAG (which stands for Hugo Schneider Aktion Geseltschaft Verke). By means of repression, people were forced to work in the factory. An underground organisation "Orzel Bialy" ("White Eagle") was quickly uncovered, its members were arrested, shot and buried in two mass graves in the nearby forests ("Bor" district and "Brzask" village). Many of the exhibits in this room have been given by the families of those who were shot in several executions.
Since no protection for the workers was provided, around 35000 of them were poisoned by
fumes from picric acid, used in ammunition production. Most of them died within 2 months.
- A painting on the wall, depicting pacification of Struzki village and featuring Otto
Schultz - military police commander of Opatow area (eventually executed in June 1944 by
a commando from Nurt's unit.
- A barrel from a Gestapo lock-up with authentic inscriptions made on its surface by the prisoners.
After the war, the inscriptions made identification of several people possible.
Room 3 - partisan warfare period (description still in progress)
Room 4 - Polish People's Army
Room 5 - Polish Army in the west
Outdoor exhibition
See the photo gallery
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