Pankrác prison

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Guillotine from prison
The prison entrance on the corner of the rail loop of the Pankrác tram depot

The prison Pankrác (German Pankratz ), in Czech Věznice Pankrác , is located in the Pankrác district in the south of Prague , the capital of the Czech Republic . Historically belonging to the 14th district, it is now located in the Prague 4 administrative district . The district of Pankrác, which got its name from the Church of St. Pankratius in Nusle , was and is synonymous with the most notorious Prague prison .

jail

Museum in the prison.

In 1852 the Austro-Hungarian Imperial Patent No. 117 on criminal offenses, violations and offenses was published, which was valid in the historical region of Bohemia and Moravia for over 100 years. The prisons existing at that time no longer met the requirements , mainly for hygienic reasons. In 1885 construction began on a new prison between the districts of Nusle and Pankratz. The construction was completed in 1889 and cost a total of 1,200,000 guilders . The first prisoners were admitted in September of the same year. All criminals from ordinary prisoners to serious criminals have been imprisoned here from the start.

The prison was modernly equipped for its time. It had central heating , heated with steam, in solitary cells with hot water. The lighting was done by gas lamps ; the gas came from their own gas works . The prison had baths, study rooms (the prisoners were obliged to continue their education), lecture halls, a gymnasium , 22 workshops, six exit courtyards , a Roman Catholic church , a Protestant chapel and a house of prayer for Jewish prisoners. The prison hospital consisted of 22 rooms.

After the establishment of Czechoslovakia in 1918, Pankrác served as a prison for the Prague District Criminal Courts, in which more than 800 prisoners were held. At that time it was the largest prison of the 37 district courts for remand prisoners and light offenders.

At the time of the Second World War , the German protectorate administration established it as a remand prison for the Gestapo . On April 15, 1943, Reich Minister Heinrich Himmler had a place of execution set up in the prison (popularly Sekyrárna , in German Beilzimmer ), three cells with a guillotine . The remand prison was now intended to be the " central execution site for Execution District IX" (the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia). Alois Weiß , a former relief camp worker from Munich , known as the "executioner of Pankratz" acted as the executioner in charge . By April 26, 1945, 1,087 people had been executed here and their corpses burned in the Prague-Straschkau crematorium .

In the 1950s so-called enemies of the state of the communist regime were housed in the prison, many of whom were tortured and executed. The executions took place behind the hospital. A memorial stands at this point today.

Today convicted men are being held in Prague-Pankrác. The facility now has a total of 972 places, of which 478 are for prisoners on remand and 494 for prisoners on prison terms. The hospital has a capacity of 131 beds, the occupancy rate averages 105%.

Prisoners

General Josef Bílý , head of the Obrana národa resistance group , was imprisoned in Pankrác before he was shot elsewhere.

Resistance to National Socialism :

Other politically persecuted victims of the Nazi regime :

Nazi war criminals and collaborators :

Kurt Daluege (1936)
View of the Supreme Court building in Prague. This is located in front of the prison building and is connected to it by a tunnel.

Victims of the communist cleansing :

Criminals :

Other :

Web links

Commons : Pankrác prison  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ HOLMBERG: Heavy metal singer Randy Blythe locked up in a mously heavy place . In: CBS (ed.): WTVR . July 25, 2012. Retrieved July 28, 2012.

Coordinates: 50 ° 3 ′ 31 ″  N , 14 ° 26 ′ 20 ″  E