Artifacts Recovered in Warsaw
Archaeological work at Piłsudski Square has turned up fragments of a German propaganda poster from the occupation period. The image shows Adolf Hitler and features a surviving inscription in Belarusian that reads "Hitler liberator." This poster was produced for the General District Belarus, part of Reichskommissariat Ostland, where German propaganda sought to frame the 1941 invasion as liberation from Bolshevik rule.
The discovery was reported on September 1 at 5:19 p.m. On Sienkiewicz Street, excavators uncovered the cover of an entrance hatch leading to a former transformer station installed around 1914. Weighing more than half a tonne, the metal lid measures over 30 centimeters high and 150 centimeters wide. The chamber beneath it turned out to be empty and filled with construction rubble.
Assessing the Finds
Marcin Dawidowicz, the Mazovian provincial heritage restorer, inspected the items and added them to his catalog. "We examined the object in place, it has been cataloged, and it might become part of the current construction project," he said.
Alongside the hatch cover, the Piłsudski Square dig produced numerous fragments of charred posters. Sławomir Kuliński explained: "During the excavations, we encountered fragments of a Nazi propaganda poster from the occupation. It depicts Hitler, and the preserved text is in Belarusian: 'Hitler liberator.'" A similar portrait of Hitler circulated in Ukraine with a Ukrainian caption. The recovered poster fragments had been piled up and set on fire, but the flame died out because oxygen ran low. No photos of the poster remnants have been made publicly available.
These discoveries point to the region’s wartime history under Nazi occupation during World War II. They also underscore the value of archaeological research and the complicated legacy of historical memory surrounding the occupation. Propaganda artifacts like this one illustrate how the occupiers tried to construct an alternative narrative of the war and its consequences, making this find a potentially important reference for future studies of occupation and regional identity. Such materials were part of a broader Nazi effort to win support in the occupied eastern territories.