EN
Ruins — a monument as a witness of tragic events, a monument in honour of the dead, recall and commemorate the experience of the 2nd World War. The idea to preserve a destroyed building as a monument was first realized in England (Southampton - 1946, Coventry - 1947), then in France (Oradur-sur-Glane - 1947) and finally in Japan (H iroshima — 1945). War ruins, which assumed the form of a monument, have become a symbol and protest against war. Some of them symbolize the cruelty of the total war (e.g. Hiroshima), a tragic fate of the people (Radogoszcz in Poland, Oradour in France), struggle for freedom (Pawiak in Warsaw). Other monuments proclaim the idea of reconciliation (Coventry) and expiation (synagogues in the FRG). Initially it was planned to recostruct some of the destroyed structures, but then it was decided to preserve them as ruins — monuments. About two-thirds of such ruins originate from valuable historic monuments. A variety of interesting solutions has been applied to compose ruins — monuments, ranging from an exact preservation of the rescued parts of the building to their inclusion into large architectonic compositions. Examples of such solutions in some of the countries inflicted with the tragedy of the 2nd World War (England, FRG, Poland, France, Japan) have been discussed in this article.