Monument to the Defenders of the Polish Post Office

Technique: stainless steel sheet on a concrete structure with granite setts

Dimensions: 9 m (max. H), 10 m (max L), 7 m (max W)

Object: The monument commemorates the heroic defence of the Polish Post Office in Gdańsk on 1 September 1939. The statue depicts Nike, the goddess of victory, and a wounded defender of the Polish Post Office in Gdańsk, shown in a semi-recumbent position as he hands his rifle to the goddess. There is a flock of pigeons above Nike’s head and next to the postman is a pile of letters spilling out of an open bag onto a postal cap lying on the ground, with the emblem of the Polish Post (a trumpet crossed with a lightning bolt) and of Poland (a crowned eagle). Next to the figure of the postman, on the plinth, there is a circular plaque reproducing the postal stamp with a circular inscription reading: “Polish Post Office in Gdańsk” with the date of 1 September 1939 in the centre. The whole sculpture is placed on a large concrete structure in the shape of slabs rising from the surface of the square, whose form refers to sea waves. The surface of the base is covered with granite setts and partially also steel sheeting. The monument was made in the Gdańsk Oil Refinery plant and the commemorative plaque was made at the Gdynia Naval Shipyard.

The defence of the Polish Post Office in Gdańsk was one of the armed clashes that started World War II (the German attack on the Polish Military Transit Depot at Westerplatte was ongoing at the same time). When the assault began, there were 53 postal workers from Gdańsk, Gdynia and Bydgoszcz in the building, as well as a Polish railwayman and a janitor with his wife and ten-year-old foster daughter. The postal workers fought off the Nazi attack for 15 hours, surrendering only after the Nazis launched an artillery attack and set fire to the basement of the building. Despite the announced surrender, the first people leaving the building with a white flag were shot dead. The remaining defenders of the Polish Post, apart from those who managed to escape, were arrested, sentenced to death and executed in October 1939 in what is now the district of Zaspa. Their remains were discovered during earthworks carried out in the area in 1991. The monument In Tribute to the Heroes was erected at the site and the postal workers were buried at the Cemetery of Victims of Nazi Terror in Zaspa.

Place: Square dedicated to the defenders of the Polish Post Office (Plac Obrońców Poczty Polskiej) in front of the Polish Post building. Even after the war, the urban area in front of the post office stretched as far as the Radunia Channel, with a branch of the channel flowing along its northern frontage. Today, the Monument to the Defenders of the Polish Post seems to define the end of the square in front of the Post Office building, but in fact it stands almost in the centre of the above-described space. What is more, this public space is connected with the one in front of the entrance to the Museum of the Second World War via a bridge over the Radunia Channel. Seen as a whole, the width and length of this urban interior are very close to the dimensions of Długi Targ (Long Market). Like Długi Targ, this space also faces the channel on its eastern side.

Information about the author: Wincenty Kućma (b. 25 May 1935 in Zbelutka) is a sculptor, medallist, draughtsman, interior designer and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. He works in the fields of monumental sculpture, small sculptural forms, medals, drawings, sacral interior design and urban planning.

Krystyna Hajdo-Kućma (b. 1937 in Krakow) is a graduate of the Faculty of Painting of the Academy of Fine Arts in Krakow. She creates polychromed works and participates in the sculptural work of her husband, Wincenty Kućma.

Condition of the object: very good

Owner/guardian: Gdańsk Road and Greenery Authority. The statue was funded by the Polish Post.

Author of the entry: inventory made by the Gdańsk University of Technology team, description of the place: Jacek Dominiczak, additional information: Małgorzata Paszylka-Glaza