Pawiak and Szucha, a Look at Warsaw's Past

If you've kept up with my travels in Poland so far, you are well aware that no part of the country was untouched by WWII. I've now visited the concentration camps at Majdanek and Auschwitz Birkenau, and I can attest to the atrocities the country witnessed. This weekend I further explored the past of Poland by visiting two of the more horrific sites within Warsaw itself--Pawiak Prison and the former Gestapo Headquarters on Szucha Street.

Peering into the courtyard of the Pawiak Prison Museum

My day started with the trip to Pawiak Prison, which is just about a 20 minute walk from my apartment. For context, my apartment is located in what was the heart of the former Jewish Warsaw, and part of the Jewish Ghetto during WWII. What remains of the Jewish community still lives nearby, and you can find the only synagogue in Warsaw just steps from my complex. The Pawiak Prison was originally built by the Russians in 1835, and was a holding camp for those who were sentenced to Siberia. However, it saw its highest use as a holding space for political prisoners in between interrogations during WWII. In 1944 the Germans blew up the prison, in an attempt to hide the secrets of what had occurred there. What remains is a part of the prison gate, a bronze cast of an Elm tree (the Memorial Tree) that stood in the courtyard until 2004, and a surviving basement which now holds the museum (one half of the Museum of Independence).

The remaining part of the Pawiak gate on the right, the Memorial Elm (now a bronze cast), on the left, and the Pawiak Prison Museum (center)

The Elm tree that stood in this location throughout the history of Pawiak Prison, and until 2004 when it died, is home to memorial plaques to honor some of the hundreds of thousands of patriots who lost their lives at Pawiak. The tree, and now the bronze cast of the Elm, stands, the silent witness. 

A cell at Pawiak Prison. When it was built by the Russians, it was meant to hold maximum 3 people. During Nazi occupation, a cell such as this often held between 10 and 18 people prisoner. 

During the German occupation of Poland, it is estimated that 100,000 men and 200,000 women passed through Pawiak Prison. In the museum on the grounds today, what exists is a small glimpse into their lives, and what everyday in the prison was like. It's a grim picture, but it is amazing to see what the Poles endured, and continued to fight, in order to try and regain their liberty. There are numerous memorials in the courtyard, but, for me, the most moving memorial was the photo wall within the Museum, which puts faces and names to a small number of the many brave souls who risked their lives to fight the Nazi terror.

The photo memorial wall at Pawiak Prison.

The second part of the Museum of Independence, is the Mausoleum of Struggle and Martyrdom. Located at 25 Szucha Avenue, most of the building, which was a former Gestapo Headquarters, is now put to better use as the Ministry of Education, a restoration of its original use as the Ministry of Religious Beliefs and Public Education. However, one corner of the building, in which the worst of interrogations happened, has been preserved so that people will never forget the patriots and resistance fighters and the horrible conditions in which they suffered for their country and their freedom.

When the Nazis overtook Poland during WWII, the Nazis completely closed off Szucha street to Poles (or non-Germans for that matter). In the basement of 25 Szucha, the Nazis set up a system of jail cells. Prisoners there were either freshly caught, or were transferred from the Pawiak Prison. All prisoners, even youth and women, were subject to brutal interrogations in which they were tortured and severely beaten. In an attempt to inform others and preserve their legacy, Polish prisoners often scratched sentences of patriotic, religious, or personal meaning onto the walls, as well as detailed descriptions of the torture they faced. During the 1960s, researchers were able to preserve over 1,000 texts from the walls of the Szucha prison. The most famous being,

It is easy to speak about Poland.
It is harder to work for her.
Even harder to die for her. 
And the hardest to suffer for her.

And suffer the people of Szucha did. Many people who entered the interrogation room did not leave the building alive. The museum today has a series of interactive features allowing you to read about some of the prisoners who passed through Szucha, take a trip through 1940s Warsaw to the prison from Pawiak, and learn about the torture methods which were used by the SS. The museum is a powerful experience, though it is with good reason they suggest a minimum age of 14 to view it. When Warsaw was liberated, the Szucha prison was filled with ashes of Poles from mass murders during the Warsaw Uprising-- 12,298 pounds of ashes to be exact.

Some of the inscriptions left by prisoners of Szucha in one of the preserved cells.

The interrogation room at 25 Szucha. 

Part of the technological display at Szucha shows the long, bloody walk prisoners took to interrogation. A radio sits in the hallway, as it did during the Nazi-era, blaring music, to hide the screams of prisoners being tortured.

The horror of WWII is still very real in places like Pawiak and Szucha. Seeing the history, the terrible things committed by humans, not so long ago, is far from an uplifting experience, but it is certainly a necessary one.