Мокотовская тюрьма: История пыток и сопротивления в Варшаве

Prison in Mokotów, Warsaw, Poland

Mokotów Prison (Więzienie mokotowskie, also known as Rakowiecka Prison) is a prison in Warsaw's borough of Mokotów, Poland, located at 37 Rakowiecka Street. It was built by the 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. The prison continues to function, holding prisoners awaiting trial or sentencing, or those being held for less than one year.

The Mokotów prison was built in early 20th century by the Russian forces, and was used by security and criminal police of Warsaw (see also: Tsarist Citadel in the Żoliborz district). After 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 invasion of Poland, the prison became part of the German District of Warsaw, in the borough, reserved for the German administration of the General Government and the German occupation army. The prison was one of several prisons of the Gestapo in Warsaw. It housed Polish politicians, freedom fighters, resistance workers and ordinary people caught in łapankas on the streets of Warsaw. The site became infamous due to constant torture of the inmates. It was known as one of the places of no return (Nacht und Nebel), from which the only way out was to the execution site, or to a 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 Warsaw Uprising of 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 the SS forces stationed nearby and forced to retreat. As a reprisal, the SS and Wehrmacht 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.