Pawiak
Pawiak prison in Warsaw was built in 1835 and was before the Germans occupied Warsaw the city’s main prison. In March 1940, the prison was taken over by SIPO, SD and Gestapo, and during the German occupation, some 65,000 people were imprisoned in one of the prison’s hundreds cells. Majority of the prisoners were Jews who had stayed outside the ghetto without permission, but also Soviet prisoners of war and poles. Several Poles were later sent to Palmiry and murdered. The prison also had a section for female prisoners called Serbia. Some 32,000 people were killed in the prison, 23,000 were sent to concentration camps and a few were released. Conditions in Pawiak can be equated with concentration camps. A few prisoners managed to escape but a July 1944 uprising failed. In august 1944, when the Soviet Red army approached Warsaw, the prisoners were evacuated and the prison was blewn up byt the germans.
Current status: Demolished with museum (2015).
Address: Dzielna 24/26, 00-162 Warszawa.
Get there: Bus.
Follow up in books: Lukas, Richard C: Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation 1939-1944 (2008).
The only thing that was not completely destroyed was the basement which now house a museum. When the area was cleaned up after the war, a number of original doors from the prison cells were found. These were restored and replaced in the reconstructed prison corridor.