Its opening coincided with the 90th anniversary of Kusociński's greatest success: the gold medal in the men's 10,000 metres at the Summer Olympics in Los Angeles on July 31, 1932.
The exhibition features a wide selection of documents, photographs and excerpts from Kusociński’s memoirs.
Curator Aleksandra Rybińska-Bielecka from the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) told the media that a closer look at Kusociński’s biography "makes one think that he was on the run all his life, as if realizing that not all his dreams would come true, as if he had a premonition of the events that lay in store for him.”
Kusociński, nicknamed Kusy, was born in Warsaw in 1907. He took up athletics at the age of 21, soon winning several national championship titles.
In 1932, while working as a gardener in a Warsaw park, he set a new world record in the 3,000 metres. A month later he defeated two Finnish runners to win the Olympic gold.
After finishing second in the first European Championships in Turin 1934 in the 5,000 metres, Kusociński decided to retire from athletics.
In 1939, he made a comeback, becoming Polish champion in the 10,000 metres.
After Germany attacked Poland in September 1939, Kusociński volunteered for the army.
Wounded twice, he worked as a waiter and was a member of Poland's anti-German resistance movement.
He was arrested by the German Gestapo secret police in March 1940 and executed three months later in the Palmiry Forest near Warsaw.
(mk/gs)