Mokotów Prison

Coordinates: 52°12′27″N 21°0′40″E / 52.20750°N 21.01111°E / 52.20750; 21.01111
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A plaque commemorating the victims on one of the prison's outer walls

Mokotów Prison (

Russians in the final years of the foreign Partitions of Poland. During the Nazi German occupation and 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

The Mokotów prison was built in early 20th century by the

Poland regained her independence in 1918, the site was refurbished, and, until World War II, served as the main prison facility of the Polish attorney general
's office.

After the

German concentration camp. It was also a place of detention of innocent hostages, taken by Germans as punishment for actions by the Home Army
. Later they were killed in mass executions announced publicly.

During the first hours of the

murdered 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 the German District was spared the fate of the rest of Warsaw and survived the war in a relatively good condition.

Under Soviet domination

In 1945, when the

communist 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 in Służewiec, or transferred to other prison sites in Poland, including the infamous Montelupich Prison in Kraków, Lublin Castle, and in towns of Wronki, Rawicz, Strzelce Opolskie, Sztum, Fordon and Inowrocław
.

Most of the executions were carried out under the command of Piotr Śmietański, a notorious full-time UB executioner, nicknamed by the prisoners "The Butcher of Mokotow Prison."[3] Among those held and executed in the basement-boiler-room of the Mokotów prison, often maimed and tortured beforehand, were:

  • See also
    WIN

After the end of Stalinism in 1956 the prison was officially transferred to the civilian authorities, although it still served as a prison for political prisoners.[4] After the Revolutions 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

  1. ^ Tadeusz M. Płużański, "Strzał w tył głowy." Archived 2012-05-11 at the Wayback Machine Publicystyka Antysocjalistycznego Mazowsza. 2010.
  2. ISBN 0-674-07608-7
    , pp. 377–378.
  3. ^ Rotmistrz Pilecki Wieslaw Jan Wysocki Gryf, 1994 page 244
  4. ISBN 0-691-11721-7. Book review by Daniel J. D'Amico. Archived 2012-04-25 at the Wayback Machine Review in Polish by Monika Nalepa.
    Retrieved November 17, 2011.

External links

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52°12′27″N 21°0′40″E / 52.20750°N 21.01111°E / 52.20750; 21.01111

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