RADIO STATION (RADIOSTACJA GLIWICE)

This wooden radio tower of 110.7 meters is the highest structure of its kind in the world and very impressive, especially since it is still in operation. Built between 1934 and 1935 by the German company Lorenz, the Silesian Eiffel Tower has withstood all the wars that have engulfed the region. On August 31, 1939, the site, which at the time was on German soil, became the center of the Gleiwitz accident. On the orders of Reinhard Heydrich, an elite team of SS troops dressed in Polish army uniforms organized a fake attack on the tower, or more precisely on the building next to it. To make the assault more convincing and real, the bodies of many of the Reich's enemies are scattered near the machines and the control center. The purpose of the operation is to simulate an attack and quickly spread the operation through the microphones. However, the tower was not transmitting long range messages at the time but only short range messages. No one actually heard the message at the scheduled time. The attack should have been given on the nearby hospital, which was transmitting these messages. However, the operation was reported in the newspapers the next morning and served as a pretext for Hitler to attack Poland the same day. During the communist era, the tower was used to jam Western radio broadcasts. Since 2005, the tower houses a museum in tribute to the events of 1939. Very interesting film and passionate staff.