Pawiak Prison Museum
Poland, Warsaw

The Pawiak Prison Museum, a branch of the Independence Museum, was opened on November 28, 1965 on the initiative and with the active participation of former Pawiak Prison inmates. The prison building was built in the years 1829-1835. The main building housed a prison for men, the women's prison was called "Serbia" and was located in a separate two-story building. Pawiak was first used as an ordinary criminal prison, and after the Polish uprising of 1863 - to contain the participants in the uprising. In 1905-1907, Pawiak became a prison for political prisoners. During the fascist occupation of Poland from 1939-1944, people detained during raids, members of the resistance movement, partisans and ordinary townspeople were thrown into casemates. Prison dungeons witnessed mass killings, 37 thousand prisoners were executed in Pawiak, and about 60 thousand prisoners were sent to concentration camps. In 1944, when the German troops retreated from the city, the prison was blown up, only the tree growing in the prison yard survived, on the trunk of which the relatives of the prisoners who died in Pavyak were placed tablets with their names. The museum building was built on the foundation of preserved underground casemates VII and VIII. From the rubble were removed personal belongings of prisoners, fragments of prison bars and castles, documents and fragments of the prison archive, which became exhibits of the museum's collection. In 2005, a bronze copy of the famous elm tree, the Pawiackiego tree, became a monument to the prisoner executed in Pawiak Prison. Most of the exposition is dedicated to the times of German occupation, the exhibition "Pawiak 1835-1944" introduces the period of work of the detention center, designed by the famous Warsaw architect Henrik Marconi. The museum organizes meetings of former prisoners, lectures are given, "history lessons" and theme nights are held.

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