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Museum of Pawiak Prison

24/26 Dzielna Street, Warszawa, 01-008

Museum of Pawiak Prison
Museum of Pawiak Prison
Museum of Pawiak Prison
Museum of Pawiak Prison
Museum of Pawiak Prison
Museum of Pawiak Prison

Information

The Pawiak Prison Museum is a special place in history Warsaw. Commemorates the old prison operating in this place in the years 1835-1944. Located in the very centre of the city, the prison was witness to mass murders. It is estimated that about 100,000 prisoners passed through Pawiak, of whom nearly 37,000 were shot, and about 60,000 sent to concentration camps and forced labour. At the exhibition visitors will see five cells, including quarantine and death cells, reconstructed according to drawings, descriptions and accounts of prisoners. Also original equipment, poems, diaries, secret messages, calendars as well as various small items made by prisoners. Since 1990, the Museum of Pawiak Prison is a branch of the Museum of Independence in Warsaw. The exhibition of the Pawiak Prison Museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday, from 10:00 to 17:00. The Museum is closed on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Museum of Pawiak Prison


Pawiak was the largest political prison in the General Government, and in practice, a stop on the way to death. After the war, a museum commemorating the victims was built in its place.

 

History

The investigative prison, popularly known as Pawiak, was built in the years 1830-1836 according to the design of the famous Warsaw architect, Henryk Marconi. The name of the prison comes from Pawia Street, where the entrance gate was located. The entire prison complex occupied an area of about one and a half hectares. The prison was surrounded by a wall with two watchtowers from Dzielna Street and one from Pawia Street. The main building housed a men's prison. It had four floors (basement, ground floor, first and second floors). The women's prison, called Serbia, was located in a two-story building of a former military hospital. "Pawiak" and "Serbia" were separated by a wall with a gate. In addition to these buildings, there were prison infrastructure buildings, including garages, workshops and a laundry room.

From the very beginning, criminal and political prisoners - revolutionists, activists of independence and social organizations - were imprisoned in "Pawiak". There were also people of Jewish origin among them.

During World War II, "Pawiak" became a place of execution for about one hundred thousand Poles. Citizens of other countries, captured in Poland, were also sent here. Suspects of participation in underground organizations, hostages, people captured during street round-ups and manhunts - the so-called "cauldrons" - in their homes, escapees from POW camps, smugglers and traders were sent to "Pawiak".

The Jewish prisoners of "Pawiak" were treated much worse by the guards than other inmates. They were not allowed to use the prison hospital. The executions of the Jewish population were carried out with particular cruelty.

It is estimated that about 100,000 people passed through Pawiak, of which nearly 37 thousand were shot, and about 60 thousand were sent to concentration camps and forced labor.

Just before the evacuation in September 1944, the Germans managed to liquidate the archives gathered by the Gestapo and the security service. The building at 25 Szucha survived the war. Pursuant to the resolution of the Council of Ministers of July 25, 1946, the cellars of the building, which housed the Gestapo prison, were recognized as a place of martyrdom. It was decided that they would be kept in their original condition. On April 18, 1952, the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom was opened there.

 

The Museum

The first exhibition on the history of Pawiak in 1939–1944 was opened in the premises of the Central Management Training Center at 56 Wawelska Street. Objects, documents, a model of the prison and the project of the future museum were presented there.

The Pawiak Prison Museum was established in 1965 on the initiative and with the participation of former political prisoners of Pawiak. The museum building was erected on the surviving underground foundations of casemates VII and VIII, blown up in August 1944.

The height of the original walls in the reconstructed cells is 1.1 - 1.5 m. Most of the grates, hinges and locks found during the removal of rubble were used, and documents, equipment and items used by prisoners were secured.

The museum exhibition tells the story of Pawiak as a political prison in changing historical conditions and the people associated with it. The entire exhibition consists of several exhibitions concerning different periods of the Pawiak's operation. The exhibition includes, among others: the prison corridor of department VII and 5 cells, including quarantine and death, which were reconstructed according to the preserved drawings, descriptions and accounts of prisoners. The exhibition also features original equipment, poems, diaries, secret messages, calendars, as well as various small items made by prisoners.

The monumental complex of the Pawiak Prison Museum also includes: a pillar being a part of the entrance gate, the Pawiak Tree Monument - a bronze copy of the famous elm, a witness to history - on which the victims' families placed epitaphs since 1945, a concrete wall with sandstone blocks surrounding the Museum grounds, with symbolic sculptures designed by Tadeusz Łodziana and Stanisław Słonina, as well as a prison courtyard with a monument - an obelisk by Zofia Pociłowska.

Since 1990, the Pawiak Prison Museum with its branch - Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom at 25 Szucha Avenue - has been a branch of the Museum of Independence in Warsaw.