 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Pawiak" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(April 2014) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
 Photograph of Pawiak Prison in 1864 | |
 Interactive map of Pawiak | |
| Opened | 1835 |
|---|---|
| Closed | 1944 |
| City | Warsaw |
| Country | Poland |
Pawiak (Polish pronunciation:[ˈpavjak]) was aprison built in 1835 inWarsaw,Congress Poland.
During theJanuary 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced byImperial Russia todeportation toSiberia.
During theWorld War II-eraGerman occupation of Poland, it was used by the Germans, and in 1944 it was destroyed in theWarsaw Uprising.
Pawiak Prison took its name from that of the street on which it stood,ulica Pawia (Polish for "Peacock Street").
Pawiak Prison was built in 1829–35 to the design ofEnrico Marconi andFryderyk Florian Skarbek,prison reformer, godfather to composerFrédéric Chopin, and ancestor ofKrystyna Skarbek, the first woman to serve Britain as a special agent in the Second World War. During the 19th century, it was under tsarist control as Warsaw was part of theRussian Empire. During that time, it was the main prison of central Poland, where political prisoners and criminals alike were incarcerated.[1]
During theJanuary 1863 Uprising, the prison served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced byImperial Russia todeportation to Siberia.
After Poland regained independence in 1918, the Pawiak Prison became Warsaw's main prison for criminals. Its ward for females was calledSerbia, but the residents of Warsaw usually referred to the entire prison complex as Pawiak, i.e. both Pawiak itself (the men's wing) and Serbia (the women's wing).[2]
Following the 1939 Germaninvasion of Poland, the Pawiak Prison became a GermanGestapo prison. Approximately 100,000 people were imprisoned during the prison's operation, some 37,000 died on premises (executed, under torture, or during detention), and 60,000 were transferred toNazi concentration camps. Large numbers of Jews passed through Pawiak after the closure of theWarsaw Ghetto in November 1940 and during the first deportation in July to August 1942.[3] Exact numbers are unknown, as the prison archives were never found.
During theWarsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Pawiak Prison became a German assault base. Pawiak jailers, commanded byFranz Bürkl, volunteered to huntthe Jews.
On 19 July 1944 aUkrainianWachmeister (guard) Petrenko and some prisoners attempted a massjailbreak, supported by an attack from outside, but failed. Petrenko and several others committed suicide. The resistance attack detachment was ambushed and practically annihilated. The next day, in reprisal, the Germans executed over 380 prisoners. As Julien Hirshaut convincingly argues inJewish Martyrs of Pawiak, it is inconceivable that the prison-escape attempt was a Gestapo-initiated provocation. The Polish underground had approved the plan but backed out without being able to alert those in the prison that the plan was cancelled.
The final transport of prisoners took place 30 July 1944, two days before the 1 August outbreak of theWarsaw Uprising. Two thousand men and the remaining 400 women were sent toGross-Rosen andRavensbrück. Subsequently the Polish insurgents captured the area but lost it to German forces. On 21 August 1944 the Germans shot an unknown number of remaining prisoners and burned and blew up the buildings.[3]
After World War II, the buildings were not rebuilt. Half of the gateway and three detention cells survive.[4] Since 1990 a surviving basement has houseda museum which, with theMausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom, forms theMuseum of Independence.
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
| Other | |
52°14′47″N20°59′26″E / 52.24639°N 20.99056°E /52.24639; 20.99056
