Mokotów Prison(Polish:Więzienie mokotowskie,also known asRakowiecka Prison) is aprisoninWarsaw's borough ofMokotów,Poland, located at 37 Rakowiecka Street. It was built by theRussiansin the final years of the foreignPartitions of Poland.During theNazi German occupationand later, under the communist rule, it was a place of detention, torture and execution of the Polish political opposition and underground fighters.[1]The prison continues to function, holding prisoners awaiting trial or sentencing, or those being held for less than one year.
Before and during World War II
editThe Mokotów prison was built in early 20th century by theRussian forces,and was used by security and criminal police of Warsaw (see also:Tsarist Citadelin theŻoliborzdistrict). AfterPoland regained her independencein 1918, the site was refurbished, and, untilWorld War II,served as the main prison facility of the Polishattorney general's office.
After theinvasion of Poland,the prison became part of theGerman District of Warsaw,in the borough, reserved for the German administration of theGeneral Governmentand the German occupation army. The prison was one of several prisons of theGestapoin Warsaw. It housedPolish politicians,freedom fighters, resistance workers and ordinary people caught inłapankason the streets of Warsaw. The site became infamous due to constant torture of the inmates.[2]It was known as one of theplaces of no return(Nacht und Nebel), from which the only way out was to the execution site, or to aGerman concentration camp.It was also a place of detention of innocent hostages, taken by Germans as punishment for actions by theHome Army.Later they were killed in mass executions announced publicly.
During the first hours of theWarsaw Uprisingof 1944, the prison was attacked from the outside by the WSOP platoon of the GRANAT group of the Home Army. The partisans broke into the prison and liberated approximately 300 inmates. However, they did not manage to capture the entire prison and were soon counter-attacked by theSSforces stationed nearby and forced to retreat. As a reprisal, the SS andWehrmachtmurdered approximately 500 inmates.Until the end of the uprising both the prison and the area of Rakowiecka street were held by the Germans, despite numerous attacks by the Home Army. After the Uprising theGerman Districtwas spared the fate of the rest of Warsaw and survived the war in a relatively good condition.
Under Soviet domination
editIn 1945, when theRed Armyfinally entered the ruins of Warsaw – abandoned by the German troops – the prison was turned into a site of detention for Germans, as well as Poles who crossed the Soviet authorities, theNKVDand the local pro-SovietUrząd Bezpieczeństwa.During theStalinist yearsit was one of the best known prisons used by the secret police. The prisoners, kept in tiny concrete cells in inhumane conditions, were subject to interrogation and prolonged physical torture later described byKazimierz Moczarskiin his prison memoirs.[3]Among those held there were German war criminals such asJürgen Stroop,but also the members of thePolish underground,democratic opposition andintelligentsia,who were considered a threat to the regime of theSoviet-controlledcommunist government of Poland.After several months (or years) of mistreatment the detainees were usually either executed (in the old boiler room) and their bodies disposed of in the dump inSłużewiec,or transferred to other prison sites in Poland, including the infamousMontelupich PrisoninKraków,Lublin Castle,and in towns ofWronki,Rawicz,Strzelce Opolskie,Sztum,FordonandInowrocław.
Most of the executions were carried out under the command ofPiotr Śmietański,a notorious full-time UB executioner, nicknamed by the prisoners "The Butcher of Mokotow Prison."[4] Among those held and executed in the basement-boiler-room of the Mokotów prison, often maimed and tortured beforehand, were:
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After the end ofStalinismin 1956 the prison was officially transferred to the civilian authorities, although it still served as a prison for political prisoners.[5]After theRevolutions of 1989,the prison was transferred to the Polish law-enforcement agencies and currently it serves as a jail. In 1998 a memorial plaque was erected on the prison wall to commemorate the 283 known political prisoners executed on Rakowiecka Street between 1945 and 1955, as well as hundreds of others whose names and place of burial remain unknown.
Notes
edit- ^Tadeusz M. Płużański,"Strzał w tył głowy."Archived2012-05-11 at theWayback MachinePublicystyka Antysocjalistycznego Mazowsza. 2010.
- ^"Motokow Prison - Warszawa - TracesOfWar.com".www.tracesofwar.com.Retrieved2024-07-23.
- ^Stéphane Courtois, Mark Kramer,Livre noir du Communisme: crimes, terreur, répression.The Black Book of Communism: Crimes, Terror, Repression,Harvard University Press,1999;ISBN0-674-07608-7,pp. 377–378.
- ^Rotmistrz Pilecki Wieslaw Jan Wysocki Gryf, 1994 page 244
- ^Marek M. Kaminski.2004.Games Prisoners Play.Princeton University Press.ISBN0-691-11721-7.Book review by Daniel J. D'Amico.Archived2012-04-25 at theWayback MachineReview in Polish by Monika Nalepa.Retrieved November 17, 2011.
External links
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