Tchorek plaques

In the second half of the 1940s the committee decided to use memorial plaques made to a uniform design, which initially consisted of black metal plates adorned with white crosses and a brief description of the events that had taken place at the location.

[1] In 1948, a nationwide competition was announced to create a formal design of memorial plaque to commemorate Polish struggle and martyrdom under German occupation.

A year later the first prize was awarded to Warsaw sculptor Karol Tchorek who designed a type of array-relief, forged in grey sandstone, with a Maltese cross in the middle.

[2] Starting from the 1950s, "Tchorek plaques" were used to commemorate martyrdom sites in Warsaw and the surrounding suburban towns (including Marki and Opacz Kolonia).

[3] According to Ella Chmielewska, the plaques have merged into the landscape of the city to the extent that they are often treated not as works of art, but as a specific element of the urban information system.

[4] In 1962, the Citizens Committee for the Protection of Monuments of Struggle and Martyrdom decided that young people would be entrusted with looking after individual plaques, and most still have their own patrons today.

The significance of the uprising was downplayed for many years after the Second World War, while the Home Army and wartime Polish government were condemned by communist propaganda.

The shield in the middle of the cross is usually adorned with the inscription: "MIEJSCE UŚWIĘCONE KRWIĄ POLAKÓW POLEGŁYCH ZA WOLNOŚĆ OJCZYZNY" ("a place sanctified by the blood of Poles fallen for the freedom of the fatherland"), although there are minor variations.

Since the end of communist rule in Poland many new memorials have been created in Warsaw (which have no uniform design) and in many cases they directly supersede the original Tchorek plaques.