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This post discusses crimes committed at Pawiak Prison (Warsaw) during the German occupation and executions carried out by the Polish underground. No graphic details – shared solely for remembrance and historical education.
The Underground Death Sentences on Pawiak’s Female Guards
During the German occupation of Poland, Pawiak Prison in Warsaw became one of the most notorious sites of torture and execution. Roughly 100,000 Poles passed through its gates; at least 37,000 were murdered by torture, firing squad or the conditions of detention. The women’s section was known as “Serbia” – a place of particular terror.
A number of German female overseers and Polish women employed by the Gestapo became infamous for their cruelty. Female prisoners in Serbia still managed to smuggle out names and descriptions to the Polish Home Army (Armia Krajowa – AK).
Between 1943 and 1944 the AK high command issued several public death sentences against the most brutal female personnel. Special Kedyw units carried out at least six to eight street executions in Warsaw, usually by pistol and leaving the bodies with a placard reading “Executed for crimes against the Polish nation”.
The condemned included several German overseers and Polish Gestapo collaborators. Exact names are scarce because most Gestapo records were destroyed, but the executions sent a clear message and caused visible fear among the remaining staff.
Pawiak was completely demolished by the Germans during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Today only the iron gate and part of the wall remain – now part of the Pawiak Prison Museum, a memorial to its more than 100,000 victims.
We tell this story not to justify violence, but to:
Honour the 37,000 who were murdered inside Pawiak and the tens of thousands more who were tortured.
Recognise the extraordinary courage of female prisoners who risked immediate death to send information outside.
Remember that when all legal systems are destroyed, the oppressed sometimes have no other means left to seek justice.
Official sources:
Pawiak Prison Museum (branch of the Warsaw Independence Museum)
Regina Domańska, “Pawiak – Gestapo Prison Chronicle 1939–1944”
Polish Home Army archives – Archiwum Akt Nowych, Warsaw