At the rear of the School of Communication and the Polish Post Office building in Gdańsk there is a high brick wall, clearly bitten by the tooth of time. Its history dates back to the seventeenth century. It was built in 1629 as a wall surrounding the building of the so-called ‘House of Correction’. In old Gdańsk, it was a public institution engaged in social activities for socially marginalised people. It was an expression of a quite modern, at that time, way of thinking, resulting from the evangelical work ethic. Drifters, beggars, petty criminals, as well as recalcitrant youngsters were forced to the facility, where they were provided shelter and training for a useful profession. The interwar period saw the beginning of the main Polish Post Office in the Free City of Gdansk located on the area of the historic ‘House of Correction’. It was also here, on the first of September 1939, that the first, along with Westerplatte, hit of the Nazi Germany on the Polish State took place. The Polish Postmen defended heroically for over 15 hours. In the end, they were capitulated by the Nazis, driven to the walls of the historic wall and disarmed. This moment was captured on the famous photography. Most of the Poles who failed to escape were later shot by the Germans. Today, a memorial to these tragic events is an epitaph on the face of the wall in honour of the heroic Defenders of the Polish Post Office in Gdańsk. This place should definitely be visited while in Gdańsk.
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