The Pawiak Prison Museum: A Place of Terror and Suffering.
The Idea Behind the Pawiak Museum
The museum opened in 1965, almost 20 years after the war. During those twenty years, families had nailed name plaques to the tree standing in front of the prison entrance. Driven by a strong need to share their suffering with others, the people of Warsaw created social pressure that ultimately led to the establishment of a permanent memorial site. Who would keep the memory alive after they were gone?
Construction of Pawiak
Pawiak does not only tell a story of suffering from the time of the Second World War. The prison began operating as early as 1835, almost four years after the brutally suppressed November Uprising of 1829/1831. After the Napoleonic era, it was the first “national” attempt to break free from the Russian chains of oppression. But it failed. On the one hand, the “nation” was reluctant to participate in the struggles of “those at the top”. On the other hand, “those at the top” also had considerable difficulties communicating with “those at the bottom” and were unable to explain what the new, free Poland was actually supposed to look like.
From a Security Cell to an Institution of Torture
The consequences of the uprising were severe: north of the Warsaw Old Town, the Citadel was built. Its cannons, safely hidden behind walls several metres thick, were aimed at the city; should the Poles dare to rebel again, the city would be bombarded. Hundreds of thousands were deported to Siberia, thousands were executed and thousands more were tortured. A prison was therefore urgently needed as well: this is how Pawiak Prison came into existence.
At first, however, only ordinary criminals were imprisoned here. It was not until the second major national uprising, the January Uprising of 1863, that Pawiak became a prison for political prisoners.
The building had four floors, was 150 metres long and 12 metres wide. The name Pawiak is derived from the adjacent street ulica Pawia.
The prison on ulica Pawia @ Public Domain
Between the World Wars
Poland regained its independence on 11 November 1918 after 123 years of political non-existence. While the Poles were united in their desire for independence, there were considerable differences when it came to shaping that freedom. A prison with such a long tradition therefore came in very handy. The winners of the political disputes received power and glory, while the losers ended up in the grey cells of Pawiak. Here they were to be “re-educated” and “convinced”.
Second World War
Between 1939 and 1944, Pawiak was converted into a remand prison of the Security Police and the Security Service. Nazi racial policy aimed not only at destroying Jewish culture, but Polish culture as well. The Polish resistance was to be discouraged, and the Poles were to be degraded into “inferior creatures” who would serve the German master race as slaves. For that, they did not need to be able to read or write, nor were they supposed to think. Pawiak was one of the places where this policy was put into practice. People from all social classes ended up in the prison on ulica Pawia. The chances of survival were close to zero percent.
On 21 August 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, the building was blown up by the Nazis together with the entire archive containing the names of inmates and interrogation records. The prisoners were transported to the German Reich.
Well-Known Prisoners
Among the inmates were also names that are known in Germany. Janusz Korczak, Irena Sendlerowa or Maximilian Kolbe. For Poles, the list is considerably longer. During the German occupation between 1939 and 1945, 100,000 people were imprisoned in Pawiak, 35,000 were executed, died during interrogations or in the prison hospital, and 60,000 were sent to concentration camps, with most transports going to Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Most of the executions took place in Kampinos National Park near the village of Palmiry. The Palmiry Museum, which is dedicated to this subject, is located there. Together with the Gestapo interrogation prison at Aleja Szucha 25 (today the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom), Pawiak was the main prison for political prisoners.
The Permanent Exhibition
The permanent exhibition at the Pawiak Prison Museum covers the entire period of the prison´s existence. The main focus is on the years of the Second World War.
Overal, the exhibition is divided into three sections:
- Pawiak 1835 – 1939 and “The City Around Pawiak”
- Pawiak 1939 – 1944
- Everyday Prison Life 1939 – 1944
The exhibition at the Pawiak Prison Museum @ Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 PL, via Wikimedia Commons
Room 1
The Tree of Remembrance in front of the main entrance to Pawiak Adrian Grycuk, CC BY-SA 3.0 PL, via Wikimedia Commons
Here, the history of the tree standing in front of the museum entrance is explained. The dead tree is a symbol of the victory of love over hatred. When the prison was blown up in 1945, it was a magnificent elm tree, the last witness to the suffering that had taken place here thousands of times. In memory of the inmates, family members nailed name plaques to the tree trunk. Unfortunately, the tree died from disease in 1984. For another eleven years, the elm was preserved and reinforced, and the crown was cut back so that only the trunk and a few protruding branches remained. This form was cast in bronze in 2004.
Room 2
Treatment Room @ Walking Warsaw
Room 4
A Day at Pawiak @ Walking Warsaw
Room 5
