Pawiak

[1] During the January 1863 Uprising, the prison served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia.

Approximately 100,000 people were imprisoned during the prison's operation, some 37,000 died on premises (executed, under torture, or during detention), and 60,000 were transferred to Nazi concentration camps.

Large numbers of Jews passed through Pawiak and Serbia after the closure of the Warsaw Ghetto in November 1940 and during the first deportation in July to August 1942.

On 19 July 1944 a Ukrainian Wachmeister (guard) Petrenko and some prisoners attempted a mass jailbreak, supported by an attack from outside, but failed.

As Julien Hirshaut convincingly argues in Jewish Martyrs of Pawiak, it is inconceivable that the prison-escape attempt was a Gestapo-initiated provocation.