The mausoleum currently includes: House of National Remembrance, Sanctuary of the Martyr's Polish Villages, cemetery and grave of victims of pacification, and a monument - "Pieta of Michniów".

[8] During World War II and the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany (1939-1945), Poles were subjected to terror and mass German repression.

[9] During war, the inhabitants of Michniów actively cooperated with the Polish resistance movement, in particular with the Świętokrzyskie Home Army Groupings commanded by lieutenant Jan Piwnik, pseudonym "Ponury" ("Grim"), cichociemny ("Silent Unseen" special-operations paratroopers of the Polish Army in exile in SOE).

[10] Probably as a result of denunciators' reports, especially Jerzy Wojnowski pseudonym "Motor", the occupiers from Nazi Germany decided to carry out extensive repression in Michniów.

On July 12, 1943, the village was massacred by a German forces,[11][12] which included subunits of the 17th and 22nd Police Regiment, gendarmerie from nearby facilities, and Gestapo officers from Kielce.

[16] 10 people suspected of cooperating with the underground were deported to German concentration camps (only three survived), and 18 young women and girls were sent to forced labor in Nazi Germany.

[19] On July 15, 1943, the inhabitants of neighboring villages buried the remains of the murdered Michniów residents in a common grave dug on a plot near the school.

Shortly after the end of the occupation, a red sandstone monument was erected on a mass grave covering the remains of the victims of pacification.

The major's last route led from his hometown Janowice through Nagorzyce, Michniów, hill of "Wykus", Rataje to the Cistercian monastery in Wąchock.

Three years later, the presidium of the Provincial National Council in Kielce established the Organizing Committee for the Construction of the Mausoleum of Martyrdom of the Polish Village in Michniów.

Its goal was to activate all social and political forces to support the initiative to save from forgetting the martyrdom of Polish villages.

It houses a permanent exhibition and research center documenting the martyrdom of Polish villages during World War II.

In 2004, at the initiative of former soldiers of the 27th Home Army Infantry Division, a monument "Pożoga Wołynia" (English: "Volhynia Conflagration") was unveiled in the sanctuary.

[44] On the 65th anniversary of the Michniów massacre (in 2008), a project was presented to expand the existing museum object, developed by Mirosław Nizio.