Serbia was a prison for women, located in

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

at 26 Dzielnej Street adjacent to the

Pawiak Pawiak () was a prison built in 1835 in Warsaw, Congress Poland. During the January 1863 Uprising, it served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia. During the World War II German occupation ...

prison. It was built by the Russian occupiers of Poland.

History

The building was built between 1830 and 1835 to be a criminal prison for women. From 1877 to 1878 it served as a military hospital, and acquired its name because of the

Russo-Turkish War (1877–78) The Russo-Turkish wars ( ), or the Russo-Ottoman wars (), began in 1568 and continued intermittently until 1918. They consisted of twelve conflicts in total, making them one of the longest series of wars in the history of Europe. All but four of ...

(also known as the Serbian war). After 1863 the building was a political prison for women, and among the prisoners were,

Hanka Ordonówna Hanka Ordonówna or Ordonka (born Maria Anna Pietruszyńska; 4 August 1902 in Warsaw – 8 September 1950 in Beirut) was a Polish singer, dancer and actress. Life She began her career at the age of 16 in a Warsaw cabaret named Sfinks and then ...

, Ina Benita,

Irena Iłłakowicz Irena Morzycka-Iłłakowicz (also as Iłłakowiczowa, 26 July 1906 – 4 October 1943) was a Polish second Lieutenant of the National Armed Forces and Intelligence (information gathering), intelligence agent. The daughter of Bolesław Morzycki a ...

, Lidia Wysocka, Maja Berezowska,

Maria Koszutska Maria Karolina Sabina Koszutska (pseudonym ''Wera Kostrzewa'') (2 February 1876 – 9 July 1939) was a leader and theoretician of the Polish Socialist Party "Left" faction ''(Polska Partia Socialistyczna, PPS — Lewica)'' and later of the ...

, Maria Rutkiewicz, Mary Berg, Nathalie Zand, Pola Gojawiczyńska, Teresa Bogusławska, Zofia Chądzyńska, and

Zofia Kossak-Szczucka Zofia Kossak-Szczucka ( (also Kossak-Szatkowska); 10 August 1889 – 9 April 1968) was a Polish writer and World War II resistance fighter. She co-founded two wartime Polish organizations: Front for the Rebirth of Poland and Żegota, set up to ...

. From 1939 to 1944, Serbia together with the adjacent Pawiak were seized by the Nazi

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

and continued to help in the repression of Warsaw. On 21 August 1944 the Germans blew up the two prisons. After the war the area of women's prison was partially used for the construction of Marchlewskiego Street (today Jan Pawla II Avenue). In 1965, a plaque was placed commemorating the place which housed the "Serbia" prison.

References

* Encyklopedia Warszawy (in Polish), edited by Bartłomieja Kaczorowski. Ed. I PWN. Warsaw 1994. , p 623

External links

Serbia in the architecture of pre-war Warsaw (in Polish)
Defunct prisons in Poland World War II sites in Warsaw Warsaw Uprising Warsaw concentration camp 1830s establishments in Poland 1944 disestablishments in Poland Former buildings and structures in Warsaw {{prison-stub