“It was forty degrees below zero. They came while it was still dark. They were pounding on the door, banging with rifle butts. They woke us all. My mother was ill. She couldn’t even get dressed — she had been sick for two weeks and had undergone cupping therapy. And there were four of us, all underage children. My father was simply terrified. We all gathered in a corner. They shouted at us to pack quickly. We didn’t know what to do. We could take almost nothing, because they kept shouting for us to hurry,” recalled years later Helena Maksymowicz (née Gajda), describing the moment of her arrest.

On 8 February at 10:45 a.m., we invite visitors to join a guided tour of the permanent exhibition, featuring personal testimonies of those deported during the night of 9–10 February 1940. This will be a unique opportunity to hear the recollections of, among others, Jan Gasztold, Regina Hruszy, and Helena Maksymowicz.

These recordings come from the Museum’s collection and are not normally part of the permanent exhibition. Specially selected excerpts prepared for this event reveal lesser-known and often overlooked details of the first mass deportation — from extreme cold and fear to the hope that helped people survive the journey to Siberia.

Date: 8 February 2026, 10:45 a.m.
Duration: 90–120 minutes
Tickets: regular – PLN 35, reduced – PLN 30