Iconic Radio Tower used as pretext to start WWII set to receive world class museum
Famed in Poland yet barely known beyond the country’s borders, Gliwice’s iconic Radio Tower is set for a world class museum that will lay bare the integral role it played in the start of WWII.
Playing the stage for a false flag attack that Nazi Germany used as a pretext to launch its invasion of Poland, the plan had been jointly concocted by Hitler, Himmler and Reinhard Heydrich.
Located underground, the permanent exhibition will include a string of separate galleries whose secretive, mysterious mood will be exacerbated by the interplay between black and white, shadows and elongated beams of light.
Speaking to a gathering of SS officers in the ballroom of the Haus Oberschlesien Hotel, Heydrich did not mince his words: “the Fuhrer requires a reason to take military action in order to clear the eastern border.”
To meet this end, three operations were planned: one targeted the Pitschen forestry lodge, and another the Hochlinden Customs House. Here, six prisoners from Sachsenhausen concentration camp were shot dead after being ordered to don Polish Army uniforms.
Architect Mirosław Nizio said: “The use of black sheet metal will intensify the aura of anxiety. It’s cold but striking structure invites you to touch it, and the light penetrating through the perforations builds a disturbing chiaroscuro straight from film noir.
However, it was the attack on the radio tower in Gliwice – then the German town of Gleiwitz – that would prove the most notorious.
Having received the coded telephone message ‘Grossmutter gestorben’ (‘grandmother dead’) directly from Heydrich, SD officer Alfred Naujocks led a raid on the radio station dressed, alongside his unit, in civilian clothes.
Grzegorz Krawczyk, director of the Museum in Gliwice, said: “In this unique place, we plan to organise one of the most important educational centres in the country… We will pay special attention to disastrous political decisions and to the instrumental use of the media to misinform and manipulate society…”
Taking place on August 31st, 1939, Naujocks and his squad terrorised the staff, broadcast a brief message announcing the station to be in Polish hands, and then positioned the murdered body of Franciszek Honiok, a pro-Polish Silesian who had been arrested the day before, at the entrance.
With all of these actions designed to appear as though they had been conducted by Poles, Hitler now had his flimsy excuse to launch an invasion.
The modernised and extended complex will also include multimedia studios in which recording, sound processing, editing and radio journalism workshops will be conducted; furthermore, a hotel will also be added with a style that will evoke the 1930s.
It is these events that the museum will illustrate, and whilst an onsite museum already exists, the one that is planned envisions the birth of an institution that will become one of the most valued thematical exhibitions in Poland.
Grzegorz Krawczyk, director of the Museum in Gliwice, said: “In this unique place, we plan to organise one of the most important educational centres in the country… We will pay special attention to disastrous political decisions and to the instrumental use of the media to misinform and manipulate society…”
Going beyond documenting the Nazi-planned provocation, the museum will also highlight the role of the radio during the PRL era. Valid to this day, these are lessons that demand to be studied and remembered.
He added: “We also want to tell, in an inspiring way, about the dramatic history of the inhabitants of Gliwice and the region in the 20th century, especially during the unfortunate period of two totalitarian regimes.”
Signalling his intention to work closely with leading European institutions “of this kind”, Krawczyk promised to follow “an open formula conducive to lively discussion about past matters.”
Famed in Poland yet barely known beyond the country’s borders, Gliwice’s iconic Radio Tower played an integral role in the start of WWII.
To meet this end, the modernisation of the museum and the wider complex surrounding the radio tower has been entrusted to Nizio Design International, a studio that has been widely credited with hauling the Polish museum experience into the future.
Founded by Mirosław Nizio, his portfolio includes the co-creation of the core exhibition at the Warsaw Rising Museum, the permanent exhibition at POLIN, the Polish Vodka Museum, and the Gallery of Ancient Art inside the National Museum in Warsaw.
Taking place on August 31st, 1939, SS officer Alfred Naujocks led a raid on the radio station dressed, alongside his unit, in civilian clothes.
“We seek to propose interesting, modern architectural solutions that enhance the power of expression and the ideological message of the museum with an approach that respects the history and seriousness of the place,” said Mirosław Nizio.
Harmonising with the urban layout of the radio station whilst maintaining the historical integrity of the 1930s buildings, Nizio added that the exhibition would aim to show the true face of “the German criminal Alfred Naujocks” whilst “bringing Franciszek Honiok’s name from out of the shadow of oblivion.”
Naujocks and his squad terrorised the staff, broadcast a brief message announcing the station to be in Polish hands.
Visually enticing, the studio was inspired by the pre-existing architecture of the buildings as well as the Upper Silesian industrial landscape as caught in film in the first half of the 20th century.
“The use of black sheet metal will intensify the aura of anxiety,” said Nizio. “It’s cold but striking structure invites you to touch it, and the light penetrating through the perforations builds a disturbing chiaroscuro straight from film noir.
The murdered body of Franciszek Honiok, a pro-Polish Silesian who had been arrested the day before, was placed at the entrance to the radio station.
“We contrasted the delicacy of the glass with the rawness of sheet metal. Its transparency represents an intangible radio signal. The ephemeral material combined with the play of light will shape the visual interpretation of sound, symbolizing not only the development and popularisation of radio broadcasting in Upper Silesia, but also the political struggle in the air between Poles and Germans.”
Among other things, the modernised and extended complex will also include multimedia studios in which recording, sound processing, editing and radio journalism workshops will be conducted; furthermore, a hotel will also be added with a style that will evoke the 1930s.
To make the attack look real, German concentration camp prisoners dressed in Polish uniforms were given lethal injections then shot in the face to avoid identification. It was their corpses that were photographed and shown to journalists.
Located underground, the permanent exhibition will, of course, be the feather in the cap, and it is here that visitors will find a string of separate galleries whose secretive, mysterious mood will be exacerbated by the interplay between black and white, shadows and elongated beams of light.
This, say the design team, will draw the visitor in as they “separate the truth from historical distortion.”
Grzegorz Krawczyk said: “In Gliwice, the German special services carried out an action during which, probably for the first time in history, modern media was used to introduce a false narrative into the public sphere to facilitate and justify the conduct of the war.”
Going beyond documenting the Nazi-planned provocation, the museum will also highlight the role of the radio during the PRL era. Valid to this day, these are lessons that demand to be studied and remembered says Grzegorz Krawczyk.
“In Gliwice, the German special services carried out an action during which, probably for the first time in history, modern media was used to introduce a false narrative into the public sphere to facilitate and justify the conduct of the war,” he said.
Krawczyk continued: “We still live in a world full of misinformation. Two years ago, an article appeared on one of the Internet portals, the author of which predicted ‘some Gliwice scenario’ in the East, which would give Putin a pretext for war. Less than a year later, with the aim of
“History repeated itself. To avoid this, systematic education is necessary in places stigmatised by history, such as the Radio Station in Gliwice. The events we are witnessing in Ukraine clearly show that the need to conduct historical education in a contemporary context is still, or perhaps even more than in the past, relevant.”
“A lie was used and a crime was committed. We still live in a world full of misinformation. Two years ago, an article appeared on one of the Internet portals, the author of which predicted ‘some Gliwice scenario’ in the East, which would give Putin a pretext for war. Less than a year later, with the aim of "denazification and demilitarization", Russia launched a war against Ukraine.
“History repeated itself. To avoid this, systematic education is necessary in places stigmatised by history, such as the Radio Station in Gliwice. The events we are witnessing in Ukraine clearly show that the need to conduct historical education in a contemporary context is still, or perhaps even more than in the past, relevant,” he concluded.
With design works now reaching their final phase, the Museum in Gliwice will apply for European funding via the FENIKS program. Not content to stop there, efforts are also underway to see the Radio Tower inducted onto the UNESCO World Heritage List.
