Mokotów Prison

Mokotów Prison (Polish: Więzienie mokotowskie, also known as Rakowiecka Prison) is a prison in Warsaw's borough of Mokotów, Poland, located at 37 Rakowiecka Street. It was built by the Russians in the final years of the foreign Partitions of Poland. During the Nazi German occupation and later, under the communist rule, it was a place of detention, torture and execution of the Polish political opposition and underground fighters. The prison continues to function, holding prisoners awaiting trial or sentencing, or those being held for less than one year.

The Mokotów prison was built in early 20th century by the Russian forces, and used by security and criminal police of Warsaw (see also: Tsarist Citadel in the Żoliborz district). After Poland regained her independence in 1918, the site was refurbished and until World War II, served as the main prison facility of the Polish attorney general's office.

After the Invasion of Poland (1939), the prison became part of the German District of Warsaw, in the borough, reserved for the German administration of the General Government and the Nazi occupational army. The prison was one of several prisons of the Gestapo in Warsaw. It housed Polish politicians, freedom fighters, resistance workers and ordinary people caught in łapankas on the streets of Warsaw. The site became infamous due to constant torture of the inmates. It was known as one of the places of no return (Nacht und Nebel), from which the only way out was to the execution site, or to a German concentration camp. It was also a place of detention of innocent hostages, taken by Germans as punishment for actions by the Home Army. Later they were killed in mass executions announced publicly.

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