The Former Kraków-Podgórze Detention Centre () - a historic building of the former Imperial and Royal Podgórze county court and detention center located at 3 Stefana Czarnieckiego Street in Podgórze, the former district of Kraków, Poland. Built in 1905, from design by Ferdynand Liebling.
During World War II, it was a Nazi German prison, a place of secret detention and torture of Polish members of the Resistance, It is memorialized as a notorious site of martyrdom during the German occupation of Poland.Stanisław Dąbrowa-Kostka, W okupowanym Krakowie: 6 IX 193918 I 1945, Warsaw, Wydawnictwo MON, 1972, p. 17.Stanisław Porębski, Krakowskie Szare Szeregi, Harcerska Oficyna Wydawnicza Krakowskiej Komendy Chorągwi ZHP [Związku Harcerstwa Polskiego], Kraków, 1985.Paweł Miłobędzki, Harcerze w okupowanym Krakowie 19391945, [Barbara H.U.P. Gąsiorowska Barbara] Komisja Historyczna Krakowskiej Chorągwi ZHP, Kraków 2005, ch. 4. . The prison facility had a Gestapo station attached to it.Stanisław Strzelichowski (19261950), Dwa lata: grudzień 1942 październik 1944, ed. E. Strzelichowska-Dubalska, hist. annotations A. Basak, Wrocław, Zakład Narodowy im. Ossolińskich, 1972, p. 254.
The prison was initially incorporated within the borders of the Kraków Ghetto when that district was created by the Nazis in March 1941; however, in the redistricting of June 1942 (following mass deportations of the Ghetto population) the whole street was placed outside the confines of the Ghetto.Tadeusz Pankiewicz, Apteka w getcie krakowskim, Wydawnictwo Literackie, Kraków 2003, p. 114. .
Overview In Polish literature, the prison is commonly referred to simply as więzienie przy ulicy Czarnieckiego ("the prison in Czarniecki Street").Andrzej Chwalba, Dzieje Krakowa, vol. 6 (Kraków w latach 19451989), ed. J. Bieniarzówna & J. M. Małecki, Kraków, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 2004, p. 194. , . The facility comprises the main building, constructed in 1905 (since 1996 listed in the register of historical monuments), and the adjoining parcel of land covering 3,133 square metres and surrounding the building on both sides and at the back (bounded on the south by the ulica Rękawka).Description of the current state of the facility on the Prison Administration website of the Polish Ministry of Justice. (See online.) The grounds were used by the Nazis as execution grounds during the Second World War which ended here with the liberation of Kraków on 18 January 1945. The facility was used by the Nazis as a de facto subsidiary (Zweiganstalt) of the significantly larger facility in the Montelupich Prison.Wincenty Hein & Czesława Jakubiec, Montelupich, Kraków, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1985, pp. 53, 59, 201. . Cf. Stanisław Piwowarski & Jacek Salwiński, Rozbicie więzienia św. Michała w Krakowie 18 VIII 1946 r., Kraków, Krakowski Klub Artystyczno-Literacki, 1997, p. 12. . Among the numerous victims murdered here is counted the Polish poet, Zuzanna Ginczanka.Izolda Kiec, Zuzanna Ginczanka: życie i twórczość, Poznań, Obserwator, 1994, pp. 162163, 177. . Kiec consistently misspells the name of the street as "ulica Czarneckiego [sic]". The prison is mentioned in the diaries of Holocaust survivors, such as Stanisław Taubenschlag (b. 1920; the son of Rafał Taubenschlag),Stanisław Taubenschlag, To be a Jew in Occupied Poland: Cracow, Auschwitz, Buchenwald, tr. (from the French) D. Herman, Oświęcim, Frap-Books, 1998, p. 29. , . (First published as Być Żydem w okupowanej Polsce: KrakówAuschwitzBuchenwald, 1996.) and was the place of imprisonment by the Nazis of Polish elite represented by the sculptor, Jan Krzyczkowski (19101980).Monika Bednarek & Jacek Salwiński, Pomorska: przewodnik po miejscu pamięci narodowej i oddziale Muzeum Historycznego miasta Krakowa, Kraków, Muzeum Historyczne Miasta Krakowa, 2003, p. 34. . It appears in the memoirs of Tadeusz Pankiewicz, the proprietor of the famous Under the Eagle Pharmacy nearby, featured in the award-winning film, Schindler's List.Tadeusz Pankiewicz, The Cracow Ghetto Pharmacy, tr. H. Tilles, New York, Holocaust Library, 1987, P. 30. ; . (First published as Apteka "Pod Orłem" w getcie krakowskim, 1966.) Pankiewicz's pharmacy is 200 metres (700 feet) away from the Czarnieckiego Prison. The various methods of torture used by the Nazis against the detainees included an early form of waterboarding performed in a bathtub full of water, which close family members of the victims specially brought to the prison for the occasion were made to witness as an added terror tactic (e.g., in the case of Józef Świstak nom de guerre Bunkier, a member of the Szare Szeregi, d. 1944, whose mother was made to witness his martyrdom).The report of Czesław Sułek nom de guerre Cenio; in: Podgórski pluton dywersyjny "Alicja" Szarych Szeregów w Krakowie, ed. Cz. Skrobecki, Komisja Historyczna ZBoWiD [Oddział KrakówPodgórze], 1983. (Read excerpts online.) The prison was a military target in the attempts by the Armia Krajowa to free prisoners incarcerated there.Piotr Stachiewicz, Akcja Koppe: krakowska akcja "Parasola", 2nd ed., corr. & enl., Warsaw, Wydawnictwo MON, 1982, p. 39. .Ryszard Nuszkiewicz, Uparci, Warsaw, PAX, 1983, pp. 194 & 199. .Włodzimierz Rozmus nom de guerre Buńko, W oddziałach partyzanckich i baonie "Skała", Kraków, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1987, pp. 3334. .Dionizy Garbacz, Mroczne lata: Stalowa Wola, 19391944, Stalowa Wola, Wydawnictwo Sztafeta, 1993, p. 107, n. 12.Teodor Gąsiorowski, s.v. "Banaś, Władysław"; in: Małopolski słownik biograficzny uczestników działań niepodległościowych, 19391956, vol. 1, ed. T. Gąsiorowski, et al., Kraków, Towarzystwo Sympatyków Historii, 1997, p. 17. . Most of those imprisoned at Czarnieckiego 3 could not be helped.Stanisław Dąbrowa-Kostka, W okupowanym Krakowie: 6 IX 193918 I 1945, Warsaw, Wydawnictwo MON, 1972, p. 151.
During the Nazi occupation of Poland, the total number of prisoners averaged at 150 at any one time: for example, the records for 25 May 1942 show a total of 165.Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 19391945: informator encyklopedyczny, ed. Cz. Pilichowski et al. (for the Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce and the Rada Ochrony Pomników Walki i Męczeństwa), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979, p. 252. . On another occasion during the War, there were just 59 prisoners, including 5 women.Tadeusz Wroński, Kronika okupowanego Krakowa, Kraków, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1974, p. 263. Resistance movement was active within the prison, and prisoners had access to clandestine literature of the underground, while inside information on the prison was being secretly sent out to the Polish government-in-exile.Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 19391945: informator encyklopedyczny, ed. Cz. Pilichowski et al. (for the Główna Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce and the Rada Ochrony Pomników Walki i Męczeństwa), Warsaw, Państwowe Wydawnictwo Naukowe, 1979, p. 252. . Cf. Grzegorz Ostasz, Krakowska Okręgowa Delegatura Rządu na Kraj 19411945, Rzeszów, Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Rzeszowskiej, 1996, p. 110. . On 3 February 1944 the prison was placed under the authority of the commander (Kommandeur) for the Kraków region (Distrikt Krakau) of the Sicherheitspolizei (Security Police) and of the Sicherheitsdienst (Intelligence Service), at which time the existing prisoners were transferred to alternative locations. The post of the Kommandeur of these two services was occupied from September 1943 until the end of the Nazi rule in Kraków on 17 January 1945 by Rudolf Batz (19031961) who for fifteen and a half years after the War (until November 1960) avoided capture by living under an assumed identity.Alwin Ramme, Der Sicherheitsdienst der SS: Zu seiner Funktion im faschistischen Machtapparat und im Besatzungsregime des sogenannten Generalgouvernements Polen, Berlin, Deutscher Militärverlag, 1970, pp. 259, 280. Tadeusz Wroński, Kronika okupowanego Krakowa, Kraków, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1974, p. 292. Cf. Teki Archiwalne, vol. 17, Warsaw, Naczelna Dyrekcja Archiwów Państwowych, 1978, p. 84. Cf. Grzegorz Ostasz, Krakowska Okręgowa Delegatura Rządu na Kraj 19411945, Rzeszów, Oficyna Wydawnicza Politechniki Rzeszowskiej, 1996, p. 46. . Petras Stankeras, "Vokiečių saugumo policijos ir saugumo tarnybos (SD) vado institucija Lietuvos generalinėje srityje 19411944 metais" (The Office of the Commander of the Nazi Security Police and the Security Service in Lithuanian Lands in 19411944), Karo archyvas, vol. 21, Vilnius, Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija, 2006, p. 243 n. 152. ISSN 1392-6489. Cf. also Andrej Angrick & Peter Klein, The "Final Solution" in Riga: Exploitation and Annihilation, 19411944, tr. (from the German) R. Brandon, New York, Berghahn Books, 2009, pp. 443444 & (esp.) 461 n. 27. , .
After the War, the facility continued to be used by the communist authorities of Poland for detention of political prisoners in the Soviet-backed struggle for control over the Polish nation: in March 1946 the prison housed 275 inmates.
Physical structure The building not intended for prison use was originally designed by the Polish architect Ferdynand Liebling (18771942) as a mixed-use courthouse-cum-taxation office for the town of Podgórze and constructed in 1905 when the area was under Austrian occupation. The date of the establishment of prison facilities on the premises is unknown. Podgórze, originally a separate town, was incorporated into the municipality of Kraków by a decision of the Podgórze city council in 1915. Wartime records, including the memoirs of Tadeusz Pankiewicz, indicate that a court was still functional here in Nazi times of the Second World War, at least nominally (the prison being the chief feature), while communist-era press reports cite an operational circuit court together with the prison on the premises in post-War years, suggesting a conversion to an all-prison use in 1971 when the court ceased operations.Cf. "Obwieszczenie o licytacji nieruchomości" (Notice of Forfeited Real-estate Auction), Dziennik Polski (Kraków), No. 63 (4993), 15 March 1960, p. 5. The prison administration quarters housed in the post-War years an office of the District Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes (Okręgowa Komisja Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich, a defunct governmental body now subsumed within the IPN whose purview includes Communist in addition to Nazi crimes).Cf. "Komunikat Okręgowej Komisji Badania Zbrodni Hitlerowskich" (A Communiqué of the District Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes), Dziennik Polski (Kraków), No. 104 (8458), 4 May 1971, p. 3.
During the Third Republic, on 22 May 1996, the prison complex was entered on the register of historical monuments protected by law, a fact further confirmed by an additional resolution of the City Council of 28 June 2006."Wykaz obiektów i zespołów objętych prawną ochroną i opieką konserwatorską oraz ochroną ustaloną planem" (Register of Legally Protected Monuments and Complexes subject to Conservation and Planned Protection), Addendum No. 3 to the City Council Resolution No. CXIII/1156/6 June 28, 2006 (see online).
Current status The building is the quarter of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN).
Materials pertaining to crimes against humanity committed at Czarnieckiego 3 during the Second World War are preserved at the Institute of National Remembrance in Warsaw,Informator o zasobie archiwalnym Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej, ed. J. Bednarek & R. Leśkiewicz, Warsaw, Instytut Pamięci Narodowej Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu, 2009, p. 1207. . and at other archives in Poland (listed in part in Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 19391945: informator encyklopedyczny; see Bibliography) and at the Bad Arolsen Archives in Germany.
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