Home Army Museum

Established in 2000, the Home Army Museum in Kraków is the only institution in Poland promoting knowledge about the Polish Underground State and its armed forces during World War II. Located at ul. Wita Stwosza 12, the museum offers a comprehensive exhibition on the history of the Home Army and the Polish Underground State, featuring artifacts, documents, and multimedia presentations. It is named after General Emil Fieldorf ‘Nil’, a prominent figure in the Polish resistance. The museum is situated in a historic building, a former Austrian barracks, and is easily accessible from the city center. Visitors can explore the museum’s extensive collections and learn about the significant role of the Home Army in Poland’s struggle for independence. For more information, visit their official website at http://www.muzeum-ak.pl/.

Planning your visit

The Home Army Museum documents something without real parallel elsewhere in occupied Europe: the Polish Underground State, a complete clandestine government operating under German occupation with its own courts, education system, press and armed forces. The Armia Krajowa, the Home Army, was its military wing and at its peak the largest resistance organisation on the continent, with several hundred thousand members.

The museum, founded in 2000 in a former Austrian barracks in Kraków, covers that structure through weapons, radios, forged documents, underground printing equipment, uniforms and multimedia. It is named for General Emil Fieldorf, codename Nil, who led sabotage operations and was executed by Poland's postwar communist authorities in 1953 — a reminder that the Home Army's members were persecuted by the regime that followed liberation, and their history suppressed for decades.

That double erasure is the museum's real subject: resistance fought, then written out.

The exhibition is large and detailed, and takes around two hours.

Bookable options include skip-the-line entry tickets and standard admission. Given how much of the material assumes knowledge of Polish wartime politics, allowing time for the multimedia sections pays off. Current availability is shown below.