Montelupich prison

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German propaganda photo of Polish prisoners in front of the prison (1939)

The Montelupich prison in Krakow was built at the end of the 19th century. Two of the eight buildings in the ensemble are now listed . The prison was used by the Gestapo in World War II and by the NKVD in the post-war period . The prison is still used as a correctional facility by the Polish authorities today.

Construction and use during the Austrian and Polish times of Krakow (1905–1939)

The building complex on Ulica Montelupich / Kamienna in the north of Krakow's city center was built in the late 19th century during the Habsburg era as barracks for the Austro-Hungarian army . In 1905 an Austro-Hungarian military court moved into the Montelupich , which previously had its seat on the Wawel . As a result, a prison was set up for the court , which was still used after 1918 - after the re-establishment of the Polish state.

German occupation (1939–1944)

On September 6, 1939 - six days after the German attack on Poland began - the Wehrmacht occupied Krakow. Two months later, on November 6, 1939, the " Krakow Special Campaign " began, during which, under the leadership of SS officer Bruno Müller, 183 professors and employees of the Krakow Jagiellonian University were lured into a trap, arrested and taken to the Montelupich prison, from where they were deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp at the end of November . Around 20,000 people were imprisoned in prison during the German occupation. Most of them were not released, but transported to concentration and extermination camps - above all the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp . When shooting hostages in “retaliation” for partisan actions , the victims in Krakow were mostly taken from the Montelupich prison. After the unsuccessful assassination attempt by the AK on Hans Frank on January 29, 1944, prisoners from Montelupich were shot on February 2, 1944. On July 27, 1944, in retaliation for the shooting of two German police officers, 40 prisoners from the Montelupich prison under the main command of the commander of the protective police, Adalbert Quasbarth, were shot in public at the site of the attack (the intersection of Botaniczna and Lubicz streets).

Known inmates

Oskar Schindler was arrested by the Gestapo around the turn of 1941/42 after a denunciation and taken to Montelupich prison. After several influential men stood up for him, the Krakow SS police leader Julian Scherner released him after a night in custody. In November 1944, after being arrested by the SD , Schindler was sent back to Montelupich prison. After three days in custody, he was transferred to a Berlin prison, from where he was released after a further twelve days in prison.

Józef Padewski , Bishop of the Polish National Catholic Church (PNCC), was imprisoned by the German occupying forces in Montelupich at the end of September 1942, from where he was later taken to a prison camp in Tittmoning (Upper Bavaria).

The Jewish couple Gusta Davidson Draenger and Szymek Draenger , ZOB activists , were imprisoned here in Montelupich until they escaped in April 1943. Gusta Davidson wrote a story of the ZOB around Krakow on toilet paper in her cell. The scraps of paper were smuggled out of prison and published as a book after the war. The couple published their experiences with the prison under the title "Montelupich from the perspective of survivors" in a Jewish underground newspaper. Gusta and Szymek Draenger were killed in action with the Germans in November 1943.

The Polish poet Zuzanna Ginczanka was shot in 1944 in Montelupich prison .

Post-war period and Stalinism (1945–1956)

In January 1945 Krakow was liberated from German occupation by the Red Army . In their wake, the Russian NKVD took over the prison together with the Polish domestic secret service MBP . In the years that followed, up to the death of Stalin in 1953 and the end of the Bierut era in 1956, at least 180 members of the Armia Krajowa were executed in prison , mostly by shooting . In 1993 a cross was placed on the outer wall in honor of the victims of the Stalinist period.

On January 24, 1948, 19 SS men and two SS women who had been sentenced to death in the Kraków Auschwitz trials were executed in Montelupich prison . Those executed included the concentration camp commandant Arthur Liebehenschel , the superintendent Maria Mandl   and the protective custody camp leader Hans Aumeier .

Use by Poland (since 1956)

The prison is still used by the Polish Ministry of the Interior to this day. 1988 was the last time the death penalty was carried out in Poland . Stanisław Czabański, 29, was sentenced to death for the murder and rape of a woman and two attempts to murder her daughters . He was hanged on April 21, 1988 in Montelupich . A few months later, a moratorium on the execution of the death penalty was enacted in Poland , the imposition of which was abolished in 1998.

Web links

Commons : Montelupich Prison  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Henry Armin Herzog: And Heaven Shed No Tears . University of Wisconsin Press, Madison (WI) 2004, p. 36. ISBN 0-299-21074-X .
  2. ↑ Entry on Montelupich Prison (PDF; 27 kB) . In: “Shoah Lexicon”, Yad Vashem . (Retrieved February 2, 2009.)
  3. ↑ Wolfgang Curilla: The murder of Jews in Poland and the German order police 1939-1945 . Verlag Ferd.Schöningh GmbH & Co KG, April 6, 2011, ISBN 978-3-506-77043-1 , p. 377.
  4. ^ David M. Crowe: Oskar Schindler - the untold account of his life, wartime activities, and the true story behind the list . Westview Press, Boulder (CO) 2004, pp. 179-181. ISBN 0-8133-3375-X .
  5. ^ David M. Crowe: Oskar Schindler - the untold account of his life, wartime activities, and the true story behind the list . Westview Press, Boulder (CO) 2004, p. 371. ISBN 0-8133-3375-X .
  6. ^ Wiktor Wysoczański : Epilogue - The structure of the church and its legal position in the post-war period . Back translation of the Polish edition by Urs Küry (editor): The Old Catholic Church - its history, its teaching, its concern . Evangelisches Verlags-Werk, Stuttgart 1966. (Urs Küry: Kościół starokatolicki . Chrześcijańska Akademia Teologiczna, Warszawa 1996, pp. 425–459. ISBN 83-901296-4-7 .)
  7. ↑ Gusta Davidson Draenger: Justyna's narrative . Edited by Eli Pfefferkorn and David H. Hirsch. University of Massachusetts Press, Amherst 1996, pp. 17-21. ISBN 1-55849-038-8 .
  8. ↑ Uroczystość pod Krzyżem Pamięci przy Montelupich ( Memento of the original from August 25, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.muzeum-ak.krakow.pl archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (For the 15th anniversary of the inauguration of the Memorial Cross). In: Website of the "Muzeum Armii Krajowie" from November 3, 2008. (Accessed February 2, 2009, Polish.)
  9. ↑ Johannes Tuchel: Concentration Camp - Organizational History and Function of the “Inspection of the Concentration Camps” 1934–1938 . Boldt, Boppard am Rhein 1991, page 381. ISBN 3-7646-1902-3 .
  10. ^ Ernst Klee : The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, entry on “Liebehenschel, Arthur”, p. 371. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 . (2nd, updated edition.)
  11. ^ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, entry on “Mandel, Maria” (sic!), P. 389. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 . (2nd, updated edition.) There the date of death is incorrectly given as December 2, 1947.
  12. ^ Ernst Klee: The dictionary of persons on the Third Reich . Fischer-Taschenbuch-Verlag, Frankfurt am Main 2007, entry on “Aumeier, Hans”, p. 21, only with an indication of the year. ISBN 978-3-596-16048-8 . (2nd, updated edition.)
  13. ^ Judyta Sierakowska: Kat z Moulin Rouge . In: “Przekrój”, Edipresse Polska, Warszawa from May 5, 2008. ISSN  0033-2488

Coordinates: 50 ° 4 ′ 27.1 ″  N , 19 ° 56 ′ 23.5 ″  E