The Pawiak prison
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The Pawiak (named after Pawia Street) was built as a prison by the Russians between 1830 and 1835. During the war, despite being situated inside the ghetto, it was the political prison for the entire Generalgouvernement. Both gentiles and Jews were imprisoned here, though people were often taken to the Gestapo headquarters at Aleja Szucha 25 (a long way south of the Pawiak - the building still exists) to be interrogated. More than 30,000 Poles died in the Pawiak. The area around the Pawiak was a particularly dangerous one for passing Jews, as the guards would arrest people at random.
After the annihilation of the ghetto in 1943 the Germans used the ghetto ruins surrounding the Pawiak as a convenient execution ground. The Jewish historian Emanuel Ringelblum and his family were shot there in March 1944. The Germans blew up the Pawiak in August 1944.
The Pawiak is now a museum. The prison cells are reconstructions. The original building not only stood high above the ground but was also far larger than the present museum, and extended west across Aleja Jana Pawla II, which did not then exist.
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| Pawiak looking north-east |
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| Surviving details of the original entrance to the Pawiak prison |
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This tree may well be the only surviving tree from inside the Warsaw ghetto (left). It bears memorials to some of the victims of the Pawiak. All the people commemorated appear to be gentiles
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"Lately cases of Jews being grabbed on the street and taken to the Pawiak Prison have been on the increase. Inside, appalling things are done to them ... Two Jews were seized; one of them was given a piece of wood and forced to hit the other". Abraham Lewin, 10th May 1942 |