• Sonnenburg Museum of Martyrdom
A small museum in the Polish village of Słońsk (German: Sonnenburg) close to Kostrzyn nad Odrą (German: Küstrin) in the New March (German: Neumark, Polish: Nowa Marchia) region commemorates the fate of the prisoners of the Sonnenburg concentration camp and jail, as well as of the approximately 800 prisoners who were murdered on January 30, 1945, shortly before the arrival of the Red Army.
Image: Sonnenburg, 1945, Aerial view of the prison building, Yad Vashem
Sonnenburg, 1945, Aerial view of the prison building, Yad Vashem

Image: Słońsk, 2015, Memorial and Museum building, Stiftung Denkmal
Słońsk, 2015, Memorial and Museum building, Stiftung Denkmal
In 1832/33, a prison was established in Sonnenburg, located in the New March region, as a Prussian penal institution. Almost a century later – in 1931 – the prison was closed due to the terrible sanitary conditions. It was opened anew by the National Socialists: Following the fire of the Reichstag in early 1933, communists, social democrats and other opponents of the National Socialist regime were arrested on a large scale and the Berlin prisons were soon overcrowded. The Berlin prison authorities decided to reopen the Sonnenburg prison, which was to be run as a »state concentration camp« by the Berlin police. Members of the Berlin SA abused and tortured the over 1,200 inmates at Sonnenburg.
In 1934, the concentration camp was closed and henceforth operated as a prison. The inmates of the Sonnenburg prison included not only criminals but also political prisoners, and at a later stage deserters and forced labourers as well as prisoners from Western Europe, arrested and deported to Germany in accordance with Hitler's »Night and Fog« directive for actively resisting the occupation regime or having committed other offences.
On the night of January 30/31, 1945, just a few days before the Red Army reached Sonnenburg, members of the Gestapo from Frankfurt an der Oder under the command of SS-Hauptsturmführer Wilhelm Nickel shot 800 of the remaining 1,000 prisoners who were still in the jail. The order for the massacre came from Herbert Klemm, state secretary in the Reich Ministry of Justice. Only three prisoners survived the bloodbath.
Image: Sonnenburg, 1945, Aerial view of the prison building, Yad Vashem
Sonnenburg, 1945, Aerial view of the prison building, Yad Vashem

Image: Słońsk, 2015, Memorial and Museum building, Stiftung Denkmal
Słońsk, 2015, Memorial and Museum building, Stiftung Denkmal
The prisoners at the Sonnenburg concentration camp were intellectuals, social democrats and communists from Berlin. Among them were authors Carl von Ossietzky and Erich Mühsam as well as lawyer and opponent of the National Socialist regime Hans Litten. When the concentration camp was shut down and Sonnenburg instead operated as a prison, the inmates included political prisoners, criminals as well as detainees from all over Europe, who had committed »offences« as forced labourers or as civilians. Most of them were from Norway, Denmark, France, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. Members of the Gestapo shot over 800 prisoners prior to their retreat from Sonnenburg. Among the victims there were 91 young men from Luxembourg who were imprisoned because they refused to be drafted into the German Wehrmacht, thus making the massacre of Sonnenburg the largest single war crime committed against citizens of Luxembourg during the Second World War.
Image: Sonnenburg, 1945, Soviet soldiers and victims of a massacre committed by the SS on the night of January 30 1945 on 800 prisoners, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-E0406-0022-035, k.A.
Sonnenburg, 1945, Soviet soldiers and victims of a massacre committed by the SS on the night of January 30 1945 on 800 prisoners, Bundesarchiv, Bild 183-E0406-0022-035, k.A.

Image: Słońsk, 2011, Memorial cemetery to the victims of the Sonnenburg concentration camp, Roland Totzauer
Słońsk, 2011, Memorial cemetery to the victims of the Sonnenburg concentration camp, Roland Totzauer
Sonnenburg, situated only a few kilometres away from the river Oder (Polish: Odra) became Polish in 1945 and is since then called Słońsk. Shortly after the war, a memorial cemetery for the victims of the massacre of January 30, 1945 was established on the town's outskirts.
After the war, the building of the jail was torn down. In front of its former site, a small museum was opened in 1974 to tell the story of the concentration camp and the jail. The initiative came from the municipal administration, while the construction works were carried out by inmates of the local penitentiary. The small concrete building has the layout of Virtuti Militari, the Polish order of the military cross.
After almost four decades, the museum building was renovated as part of a common Polish-German EU project, and re-opened in October 2014. The new bilingual permanent exhibition with numerous multi-media elements was also the result of Polish-German cooperation; on the German side, the Memorial Seelow Heights and the Berlin-based Union of Persecutees of the Nazi Regime participated in its development. At the same time, a new memorial was inaugurated in front of the museum, it has the form of a metallic cross. The Polish inscription on the wall behind it reads: »For the victims of the camp and jail Sonnenburg«.
The wall, in front of which the massacre of January 1945 was carried out, is still strewn with bullet holes. Today, it is part of the premises of a sawmill and is not accessible to the public.
Image: Słońsk, 2015, Memorial in front of the museum, inaugurated in 2014, Stiftung Denkmal
Słońsk, 2015, Memorial in front of the museum, inaugurated in 2014, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Słońsk, 2015, View of the permanent exhibition, Stiftung Denkmal
Słońsk, 2015, View of the permanent exhibition, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Słońsk, 2015, Memorial on the cemetery for victims from Luxemburg, Stiftung Denkmal
Słońsk, 2015, Memorial on the cemetery for victims from Luxemburg, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Słońsk, 2015, External view of the museum building, Stiftung Denkmal
Słońsk, 2015, External view of the museum building, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Słońsk, 2015, Memorial plaques from the GDR, Stiftung Denkmal
Słońsk, 2015, Memorial plaques from the GDR, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Słońsk, 2015, Model of the prison building in the exhibition, Stiftung Denkmal
Słońsk, 2015, Model of the prison building in the exhibition, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Słońsk, 2015, Prison cell like element in the exhibition, Stiftung Denkmal
Słońsk, 2015, Prison cell like element in the exhibition, Stiftung Denkmal
Image: Słońsk, 2015, Site of the massacre of January 30, 1945, Stiftung Denkmal
Słońsk, 2015, Site of the massacre of January 30, 1945, Stiftung Denkmal
Name
Muzeum Martyrologii w Słońsku
Address
ul. 3 Lutego 54
66-436 Słońsk
Phone
+48 (0)505 536 306
Web
http://www.muzeum.slonsk.pl
E-Mail
muzeum@slonsk.pl
Open
Wednesday to Sunday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.
Entry free of charge, guided tours by appointment
Possibilities
Permanent exhibition