A Piece of History - A Section of Guardhouse No. 5's Wall and the Challenges of Conserving Large Artifacts

The remnants of the destroyed Guardhouse No. 5, alongside the foundations of a demolished officers' villa, have been preserved as visible elements to be viewed by the public. They are now accessible to visitors at the entrance to the Cemetery of Polish Soldiers at Westerplatte. These preserved remains from the former Military Transit Depot at Westerplatte serve as a reminder of the brief yet turbulent history of Guardhouse No. 5, where some of the most dramatic events of the Polish defense took place.

As a result of a German air raid on September 2nd, 1939, direct hits from 50 kg bombs and the near-fall and explosion of a 250 kg bomb caused the upper floor of the guardhouse to collapse, triggering an explosion and fire in the ammunition stored in the basement.

Guardhouse No. 5 then became a grave for most of its crew, including its commander and six other named defenders of Westerplatte who perished there.

A section of one of the walls was discovered during archaeological research in 2021 at the bottom of a crater left by a German bomb explosion. This piece was transported to the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk and underwent a conservation process.

In a video prepared by the Museum's Film Documentation Department, one of our conservators, Mateusz Rutkowski, shares the accomplishments of the conservation process for this wall fragment, which is now housed in the building of the former power plant.