The prison is located in the heart of Warsaw and is called Pawiak (the name comes from the street Pawia, where the main gate was situated). The prison was built in 1830-1836 in accordance with the design by an architect from Warsaw Henryk Marconi.

Since 1863 the prison was a political jail with a male and female department. During the period when Poland was annexed members of the National Government, insurgents, activists were kept imprisoned. Beside the Warsaw Citadel, Pawiak was in the times of the revolution 1905 -1907 the main political prison. So when 10 of prisoners from the PPS organization managed to escape from the jail, everyone was very impressed. Under Russian rule Pawiak was a political, investigation and criminal prison. So it was when Poland was independent.

1,5 ha oblong surface was used as prison area. It was surrounded by a wall with two guard towers from the side of Dzielna street and one tower from Pawia street. The main building - that was the male department was 150 m long and 12 m wide, four storeys high (basement, ground floor, first and second level). The female building called Serbia was located in a two-storey house, a former military hospital. In the complex there were also other buildings, such as warehouses, workshops, kitchen, bath, laundry, boiler house, potato house.

During the German occupation till March 1940 the prison Pawiak was ruled by the Justice Department of the General Government. In March 1940 Pawiak became an investigation prison controlled by the Security Police and Security Service of the Warsaw District, mainly by Department 4 - the Secret State Police - Gestapo. It was the largest political prison in the occupied Poland.

It is estimated that from 100,000 prisoners kept imprisoned in the years 1939 -1944 - 37,000 were executed, murdered during hearings or died in prison hospital. Firstly executions were made in the University Garden, since December 1939 till July 1941 on the peripheries of the Kampinos Forest near the Village Palmiry. Since autumn 1941 in Szwedzkie Góry, Wólka Węglowa, Laski and on dunes called Łuże, in Kabackie Forests and in Chojowskie Forests near Stefanów, in Magdalenka, in Bukowiec by Jabłonna.

After suppressing the Uprising in the Ghetto prisoners were shot on the neighbouring streets - Dzielna, Gęsia, Zamenhoffa, Nowolipki. Since October 1942 executions were held in public on the streets. The names of the killed persons were placed on notices or announced through a loudspeaker. br>
We will never be able to complete the list of how many Jewish people were in Pawiak and Serbia in the years 1939 - 1944. It has been verified that there was a large number after closing the Ghetto in November 1940, and also during the first liquidation action in July and August 1942.

Mass felony in Pawiak in May 1943 was a shock for people living in Warsaw. You could see a note written on walls, houses and pavements: "We will avenge Pawiak". There were thousands of people brought to Pawlak after street raids. Executions were held on streets in order to frighten people. From 16 October 1943 to 12 February 1944 executions took place everyday or even several times a day.

About 60,000 prisoners were exiled to the concentration camps, mostly to Auschwitz-Birkenau, Ravenbrück, Gross-Rosen, Majdanek, Stutthof, Sachsenhausen and to labour camps in Treblinka and Buchenwald. The Pawiak Prisoners were also moved to Mathausen-Gusen, Flossenburg and Bergen-Belsen.

A major role had the conspiracy in prison Pawiak. The communication was functioning on base of two nets - exterior and interior. In 1939 the Service for Poland's Victory was created in Prison Pawiak. Later on it was the Association of Armed Struggle - Home Army. By the end of 1942 a Government Delegature was established. Exterior contacts were kept by Polish prison functionaries - physicians, administrative workers and prisoners working in workshops.

As a result of the activities performed by the prison unit many independence actions could be undertaken e.g. the rescuing on 26 March 1943 of Jan Bytnar "Rudy", the commander of Southern Troops. The commander was taken over by Polish Grey Ranks. The ranks rescued also other prisoners during their transportation from the Gestapo seat in al. Szucha to Pawiak. The most important attack took place on 1 February 1944 by the Home Army division Pegaz on the SS commander and the Warsaw District Police general Franz Kutschera, responsible for mass executions in public.

The Germans began the liquidation of the Prison in July 1944. On 30 July 1944 the last evacuation transport was sent with 1400 men prisoners to the concentration camp Gross-Rosen and 400 women to Ravensbrück. Only few men managed to survive.