The Montelupich Prison, so called from the street in which it is located, the ulica Montelupich ("street of the Montelupi family"), is a historic prison in Kraków from early 20th century, which was used by the Gestapo in World War II. It is universally recognized as "one of the most terrible Nazi prisons in [occupied] Poland". The Gestapo took over the facility from the German Sicherheitspolizei at the end of March 1941. One of the Nazi officials responsible for overseeing the Montelupich Prison was Ludwig Hahn.
World War II prisoners at Montelupich were made up predominantly of the ethnically Polish political prisoners and victims of the Gestapo street raids, but also German members of the SS and Security Service (SD) who had been sentenced to jail terms, British and Soviet spies and parachutists, soldiers who had deserted the Waffen-SS, and regular convicts. The number of political prisoners who passed through or ended their lives in the Montelupich in the years 1940–1944 is estimated at 50,000. Kurkiewiczowa (see Bibliography) states that "medieval tortures" constituted the fundamental and principal interrogation method of the Germans.
Although the inscription on the plaque by the (side) door of the prison in the 1939 photograph pictured at right actually reads, "Sicherheits-Polizei-Gefängnis Montelupich", the name "Montelupich Prison" is strictly informal, based on common popular convention, even if it has now passed in that form into history. The Montelupich facility was the detention centre of the first instance used by the Nazis to imprison the Polish professors from the Jagiellonian University arrested in 1939 in the so-called Sonderaktion Krakau, an operation designed to eliminate Polish intelligentsia. Over 1,700 Polish prisoners were eventually massacred at Fort 49 of the Kraków Fortress and its adjacent forest, and deportations of Polish prisoners to concentration camps, incl. Ravensbrück and Auschwitz, were also carried out. The prison also contained a cell for kidnapped Polish children under the age of 10, with an average capacity of about 70 children, who were then sent to concentration camps and executed. In January 1944, 232 prisoners from Montelupich were executed by a Nazi firing squad at Pełkinie. In late January or early February 1944, Wilhelm Koppe issued an order for the execution of 100 Montelupich prisoners as a reprisal for the unsuccessful attempt on the life of Hans Frank. In the locality called Wola Filipowska near Kraków there is a monument commemorating the execution by the Nazis of 42 hostages, all Montelupich prisoners who died on the spot before a firing squad on 23 November 1943.
After World War II, Montelupich became a Soviet prison where NKVD and Urząd Bezpieczeństwa tortured and murdered Polish soldiers of the Home Army. At present, the building serves as a temporary arrest and detention facility for men and women, with 158 jail cells and a prison hospital with additional 22 cells.
History of the property
Current view of the prison
The building housing the prison was not originally constructed for its purpose, but instead, was a historical property that was redecorated in the Italianate Renaissance style in 1556 by the Italian Montelupi family who introduced the first postal service in Poland for the court of Sigismund III Vasa. Their Kraków manor house, known in Polish as the Kamienica Montelupich (Palazzo Montelupi in Italian), at Number 7 of the street to which it gave the name, was the starting point of the first international postal coach in Poland which departed from here for Venice in 1558. The Jalu Kurek Park (see Park Jalu Kurka) in Kraków was formerly the palace garden of the palazzo Montelupi.
Current status
The prison was the site of the last administration of the death penalty in Poland, performed by hanging on 21 April 1988.
Despite being officially recognized as both a historical monument and a place of martyrdom, the facility continues to be operated to this day as a combination of remand prison and ordinary correctional facility by the Polish Prison Administration (the Służba Więzienna), a unit of the Polish Justice Ministry. Its current official name is Areszt Śledczy w Krakowie. The infamous history of this facility continues to the present day, as evident in the 2008 death of the Romanian detainee, Claudiu Crulic (1975–2008; see Claudiu Crulic), an incident condemned by human rights groups (such as the Human Rights House Foundation of Oslo, Norway) which occasioned the resignation of the Romanian Foreign Affairs Minister, Adrian Cioroianu.
Vincent A. Lapomarda writes in his book on the Nazi terror that
On inquiring about Montelupich, on Montelupi Street, when I was in Kraków on 18 August 1986, I was able to view it from outside and learned that even today, while still operating, it has not lost the evil reputation that it had during the Nazi occupation.
Teodor Augustyn (1895–1963; famous insurgent, veteran of Silesian Uprisings in 1919–1921, tracked down by the Nazis in 1940 and incarcerated at Montelupich before being deported to Auschwitz; see Teodor Augustyn)
Marian Batko (1901–1941; educator, incarcerated in 1941, subsequently deported to Auschwitz where he volunteered to die in exchange for another prisoner condemned to death, saving the other's life; decorated posthumously with the Golden Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari, the country's highest decoration for heroism in time of war; see Marian Batko)
Janina Bednarska (née Dubińska, 1912–1941; wife of Prof. Stefan Bednarski (see below), after arrest of husband made efforts to obtain his release, continuing her efforts on behalf of other victims of Sonderaktion Krakau even after having received the news of her husband's death at Sachsenhausen; subsequently joined the underground Union of Armed Struggle; incarcerated at Montelupich, she was executed by firearm off premises; see Janina Bednarska)
Józef Cyrek (1904–1940; Polish writer and magazine editor; incarcerated at Montelupich just 70 days after the outbreak of the war on 10 November 1939, he was murdered at Auschwitz less than ten months later; beatification in process (ecclesiastical title: "Servant of God"))
Stanisław Czabański (1959-1988; a Polish assailant and murderer, and the last person to ever be judicially executed by Poland; his execution took place on the Montelupich Prison gallows, as by the time his execution occurred on 21 April 1988, the prison had a gallows that they used for civilian crimes; there would be a moratorium on executions instated in 1989, and capital punishment would be abolished in Poland for good in 1997)
Gusta Davidson Draenger (properly Gusta Dawidsohn-Draengerowa, also known as Justyna; 1917–1943; author of Justyna's Narrative (Pamiętnik Justyny; see Bibliography), the most extraordinary book about Montelupich written inside Montelupich, during the author's lengthy imprisonment at Montelupich: the writer was the author — as well — of one of the most spectacular escapes from the Montelupich Prison ever)
Stanisław Dąbrowa-Kostka (b. 1924; soldier of the Armia Krajowa and writer; victim of post-War repressions by the Communist regime of Poland, incarcerated at Montelupich during the period 1946–1949; author of six books, including W okupowanym Krakowie: 6 IX 1939–18 I 1945 ("In Nazi-occupied Kraków"; 1972), and Rysunki więzienne 1946–1949 Stanisława Dąbrowy-Kostki: katalog wystawy: grudzień 2003 ("Drawings from Prison, 1946–1949", published in the period of the Third Republic in 2003); see Stanisław Dąbrowa-Kostka)
Judith Strick Dribben (1923–1977; Polish-born Israeli writer, author of the book A Girl Called Judith Strick (1969); Holocaust survivor, she was a resistance fighter in Lvov; obliged to seek cover she took up a job as a maid, only to be denounced by her employer after she stole his German police uniform: arrested by Gestapo she was imprisoned for many months at Montelupich, owing in part to her extremely sophisticated manipulation of her interrogators; acquaintance of Ben Gurion (who led her, in place of her father murdered in the Holocaust, at her wedding in 1954); see Bibliography)
Frances Ehrlich Safe (American-born wife of Ludwik Ehrlich (1889–1968), the famous Polish jurist; imprisoned by the Nazis at Montelupich for a period of over a year during the Second World War, this is the only known case of such long-term imprisonment at Montelupich of a person being a citizen of the United States at the time of imprisonment (having married Ludwik Ehrlich at St. Patrick's Cathedral in New York, she never subsequently adopted Polish citizenship, dying at the age of 93 as an American citizen))
Ignacy Fik (1904–1942; Polish poet, one of the most renowned literary critics of the Interbellum period; arrested by Gestapo in October 1942 and interrogated under torture at Montelupich, he was executed at Montelupich (or, according to some sources, at an execution site off premises) by firing squad on 26 November 1942)
Władysław Findysz (1907–1964; Polish clergyman; victim of post-War repressions by the Communist régime of Poland; arrested in Rzeszów in November 1963 on the charge of engaging in Christian ministry, was given a show trial in December 1963 in the course of which was convicted and sentenced to 2½ years' imprisonment; after 2 months in Rzeszów Castle (a post-NKVD prison), was transferred in January 1964 to Montelupich for "special treatment", as a result of which his health was broken; released "conditionally" on 29 February 1964 in a state of total exhaustion, he returned to his native parts only to die a little later; beatified by Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 — the first Polish person to be beatified as a martyr of Communism (ecclesiastical title: "Venerable"))
Stanisław Frączysty (1917–2009; legendary courier of the Armia Krajowa, 1940–1942; in October 1941 personally guided MarshalEdward Rydz-Śmigły, the Commander-in-Chief of Polish Armed Forces, on his secret passage from Budapest in Hungary to occupied Warsaw; arrested by Gestapo in February 1942 he was first incarcerated in the Hotel Palace (see Hotel Palace) in Zakopane, the other infamous Gestapo torture site in Poland, and later transferred to Montelupich: he was subsequently deported to Auschwitz and Dachau for the remainder of the War; after the War, in 1949, arrested again by Polish Communist régime on fake charges of espionage, he was eventually released without having been brought to trial; on 28 May 2006 he met with Pope Benedict XVI at Auschwitz; see Stanisław Frączysty).
Wilhelm Gaczek (1881–1941; Polish clergyman, social activist and patron of numerous cultural organizations; incarcerated at Montelupich by Gestapo in 1941 on charges of possession of underground publications and listening to the radio, was deported on 4 November 1941 to Auschwitz where he was murdered ten days later; see Wilhelm Gaczek)
Tadeusz Gajda (1924–1946; independence fighter, nom de guerre Tarzan, member of the Armia Krajowa and National Military Union, a staunchly anticommunist organization; victim of post-War repressions by the Communist régime of Poland; arrested on 8 August 1946, he was given a show trial in Tarnów, condemned to death, brought to Kraków and executed at Montelupich on 14 October 1946 at the age of 22; fully rehabilitated after the collapse of Communism, on 8 November 1991; see Tadeusz Gajda)
Stanisław Gawęda (1914–1994; Polish historian, professor in Jagiellonian University, veteran of the September Campaign and member of several underground Resistance organizations; double victim of both Nazi and post-War Communist repressions; active as educator in Secret Universities from 1941, he was arrested in December 1944 and imprisoned at Montelupich for the remainder of the war; after the War subject to surveillance by the special services of the Communist régime he was obliged to go into hiding for a time; see Stanisław Gawęda)
Izydor Gąsienica-Łuszczek (1912–1992; champion skier, 1933; ran a ski-repair shop in the Polish ski resort of Zakopane, which during the war became a clandestine contact point for persons fleeing from the Nazis; arrested by Gestapo on 23 February 1940, was tortured at Hotel Palace (see Hotel Palace) and in Nowotarska Prison in Zakopane before being transferred to Montelupich whence on 20 June 1940 was deported to Auschwitz, and subsequently to Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg; freed by American forces at Schwerin on 2 May 1945; see Izydor Gąsienica-Łuszczek)
Zuzanna Ginczanka (1917–1945; renowned poet, star of the literary life of Warsaw before the war; arrested for being Jewish by the Gestapo in Kraków in 1944, she was incarcerated at Montelupich where she was tortured by being dragged across the floor of the interrogation room by the hair; subsequently transferred to Czarnieckiego Prison in Kraków where she was executed by firearm probably on 17 January 1945)
Adam Gondek (1913–1987; non-commissioned officer of the Army of the Second Polish Republic, during the war member of the Armia Krajowa, distinguished by participation in the action of transfer of components of Nazi V-2 rocket to the United Kingdom; victim of post-War repressions by the Communist régime of Poland, incarcerated at Montelupich in 1947 as a former soldier of the Armia Krajowa; see Adam Gondek)
Władysław Gurgacz (1914–1949; Polish clergyman, a Jesuit priest; victim of post-War repressions by the Communist régime of Poland; was chaplain to the underground anticommunist Polska Podziemna Armia Niepodległościowców (Underground Polish Army of Fighters for Independence); imprisoned at Montelupich in the summer of 1949, after a summary show trial executed by firearm at Montelupich on 14 September 1949; rehabilitated after the collapse of Communism (conviction invalidated on 20 February 1992), has a street named after himself in Kraków; posthumously (on 14 June 2008) awarded the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta, one of the country's highest honours, by the President of Poland, Lech Kaczyński)
Stefania Hanausek (1915–1941; soldier of the Union of Armed Struggle, veteran of the September Campaign; after September Campaign worked in the Dąbrowa TarnowskaLandkommissariat as undercover intelligence officer of the Polish underground; arrested in September 1940 by Gestapo she was imprisoned at Montelupich, where her "trial" was held in which she was condemned to death and executed at Skrzyszów; her mother was subsequently murdered for putting flowers on her grave; see Stefania Hanausek)
Pius Jabłoński (1908–1979; Polish educator active in and organizer of Secret Universities during the war; victim of multiple arrests and imprisonments by the Nazis, including torture sessions at Hotel Palace (see Hotel Palace) in Zakopane; victim of post-War repressions by the Communist régime of Poland: while post-War director of the high school in Nowy Targ he protested the arrests by the Communists of his students who were connected to Armia Krajowa during the War, in consequence of which he was himself arrested and on 1 November 1946 imprisoned at Montelupich, not to be released until 26 June 1947; he was rehabilitated after the death of Stalin in 1957 and subsequently awarded the Golden Cross of Merit in 1969 and the Commander's Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 1974, in addition to other honours; see Pius Jabłoński)
Roman Jagiełło-Yagel (1921–2016); Polish-born successively Soviet, Polish, and Israeli military man (in that order); born in Bircza (or, alternatively, in Żurawica), after the Soviet invasion of Poland he joined the Red Army, and in that capacity became a prisoner of war held by the Nazis after the Operation Barbarossa, eventually managing to flee from captivity; after falling out with the Soviets because of his Jewish identity, he joined Soviet-organized Polish forces (1st Tadeusz Kościuszko Infantry Division) in whose ranks he rose to the rank of podporucznik; after the War supported Jewish emigration from Poland to Palestine, and perhaps for this reason was imprisoned at Montelupich over a period of nine months; in 1957 emigrated to Israel where he achieved high distinction in the Israeli police forces (rising to the rank of Brigadier General, or Tat Aluf); see Roman Jagiełło-Yagel)
Witold Kacz (1920–1981; Polish clergyman and catechist; victim of post-War repressions by the Communist régime of Poland; he received holy orders during the war at the hands of Cardinal Sapieha; after the War he was one of the regional leaders of the anticommunist organization Młodzież Wielkiej Polski (founded back in 1932), a youth chapter of the Stronnictwo Narodowe (a political party), and worked as a chaplain to the Armia Krajowa; arrested on 7 July 1950 and imprisoned — between December 1950 and May 1951 at Montelupich where he was sentenced to 15-years' imprisonment; released in 1953 "on health grounds"; founded a religious institute for lay people in 1960; see Witold Kacz)
Alojzy Kaczmarczyk (1896–1947; officer of the Army and subsequently member of the regional administration of the Second Polish Republic; victim of post-War repressions by the Communist régime of Poland; after the Nazi invasion of Poland was arrested by the Germans in 1939 and imprisoned at Lublin Castle until January 1940; after his release joined the Armia Krajowa, and after the Warsaw Uprising was arrested again and deported to Gross-Rosen and to Mauthausen-Gusen where he spent the rest of the War; arrested by the Communists in September 1946 as a member of the anticommunist organization Freedom and Independence he was imprisoned at Montelupich where he was executed by firearm on 13 November 1947 (his body hasn't been released to the family); rehabilitated after the collapse of Communism (conviction invalidated by Warsaw military court on 17 January 1992), he was decorated with the Silver Cross of the Order of Virtuti Militari, in addition to other honours, and with a monument in 2007; see Alojzy Kaczmarczyk)
Stanisław Klimecki (1883–1942; Polish jurist and social activist, president (mayor) of Kraków; three- to five-time prisoner of Montelupich in 1939 and 1942; murdered by the Nazis on 11 December 1942)
Jan Komski (1915–2002; Polish painter; active in the Resistance during the War, was arrested by the Nazis several times, author of a famous escape from Auschwitz, imprisoned at Montelupich from January to October 1943)
Marek Kubliński (1931–1950; Kraków high-school student and Boy Scout, fighter against the Communist régime of post-War Poland; captured in April 1950 at the age of 18, incarcerated at Montelupich, he received in a show trial held in June 1950 four death sentences; executed by firearm at Montelupich on 4 October 1950 at the age of 19; nowadays has two streets named after himself, one in Kraków, and one in Skawina)
Mieczysław Lewiński (1905–1942; Polish political activist (teacher by profession), during the war founder of the underground organization Polska Ludowa; co-founder of the Polska Partia Robotnicza; arrested by Gestapo on 22 October 1942 and imprisoned at Montelupich, he was tortured to death on 3 November 1942 after 12 days in custody)
Stanisław Lubomirski (1931) (b. 1931; Polish prince; incarcerated at Montelupich by the Nazis for running a pharmacy for the benefit of wounded Armia Krajowa soldiers)
Frank Stiffel (1916–2011; American writer, author of several Holocaust memoirs; Holocaust survivor, he was imprisoned at Montelupich (according to his book The Tale of the Ring: A Kaddish; see Bibliography) as well as the Warsaw Ghetto, Treblinka, and Auschwitz; in the United States from 1950, his papers (The Frank Stiffel Papers) are preserved today at Yale University Library)
Aleksander Studniarski (victim of post-War repressions by the Communist régime of Poland; see Aleksander Studniarski)
Zbigniew Szkarłat (1944–1986; Solidarity activist and social activist who organized assistance to political prisoners of the Communist régime of Poland; arrested by the Communists and imprisoned at Montelupich 13 June–27 July 1984; released because of a general amnesty, he was assaulted in a street by "persons unknown" and died in a hospital on 5 February 1986 without having regained consciousness, the case of his murder having been investigated by the same prosecutor that imprisoned him at Montelupich)
On 24 January 1948, twenty-one Nazi German war criminals, including two women, were hanged at the Montelupich Prison as a result of the death sentences handed down in the Auschwitz trial. Their names are listed below along with the names of the Nazi war criminals executed at Montelupich at other dates.
^Ulica Montelupich or "street of the Montelupis" itself is named after the Montelupi manor house (kamienica) located at Montelupich street Number 7, the so called Kamienica Montelupich built in the 16th century, and in the 19th century adapted as part of the Austrian military tribunal.
References
^Adam Bajcar, Poland: A Guidebook for Tourists, tr. S. Tarnowski, Warsaw, Interpress Publishers, 1972. So also: Studia Historyczne, vol. 30, 1987, p. 106: "Więzienie Montelupich w Krakowie należało do najcięższych w Generalnym Gubernatorstwie" (The Montelupich Prison in Kraków was among the most severe prisons in the General Government).
^Józef Batko, Gestapowcy, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1985. ISBN8303007203. Cited in Cezary Leżeński's review of the book in Nowe Książki, 1986, p. 127.
^Wardzyńska, Maria (2009). Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion (in Polish). Warszawa: IPN. pp. 261, 268–269.
^Kostkiewicz, Janina (2020). "Niemiecka polityka eksterminacji i germanizacji polskich dzieci w czasie II wojny światowej". In Kostkiewicz, Janina (ed.). Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945) (in Polish). Kraków: Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Biblioteka Jagiellońska. p. 55.
^Kierownictwo (2010). "Areszt Śledczy Kraków". Służba Więzienna. Okręgowy Inspektorat Służby Więziennej Kraków. Montelupich 7, 31–155 Kraków. Archived from the original on 4 September 2015. Retrieved 13 August 2015.
^Letizia Gianni, Polonia: Varsavia, Lublino, Cracovia, Breslavia, Toruń, Danzica, i Monti Tatra e la Masuria, Milan, Touring Club Italiano, 2005, p. 101. ISBN8836529232.
^Jan Adamczewski, Kraków od A do Z, Kraków, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1980, p. 85.
^"Lista harcerek i harcerzy straconych w więzieniach Urzędu Bezpieczeństwa Publicznego oraz przy próbie aresztowania w latach 1944–1956", [1]Archived 2018-03-20 at the Wayback Machine II Konspiracja Harcerska, 1944–1956.
Stefan Krukowski, Nad pięknym modrym Dunajem: Mauthausen, 1940–1945, Warsaw, Książka i Wiedza, 1966. (One of the most informative books about the nature of Montelupich Prison.)
Wanda Kurkiewiczowa, Za murami Monte: wspomnienia z więzienia kobiecego Montelupich-Helclów, 1941–1942, Kraków, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1968. (Eyewitness account of the conditions of imprisonment of female prisoners in Montelupich and their treatment at the hands of the Nazis.)
Judith Strick Dribben, A Girl Called Judith Strick, foreword by Golda Meir, New York, Cowles Book Company, 1970. (First published as And Some Shall Live, Jerusalem, Keter Books, 1969. "Montelupich Prison was a big red brick corner building, surrounded by a high wall with barbed wire and broken glass on top.": p. 67 of the U.S. ed. See Notable inmates.)
Antonina Piątkowska, Wspomnienia oświęcimskie, Kraków, Wydawnictwo Literackie, 1977, pages 29ff. (Another books of recollections by an inmate.)
Kazimierz Tymiński, To Calm My Dreams: Surviving Auschwitz, tr. Maria Tyminska-Marx, Chatswood (New South Wales), New Holland Publishers, 2011. ISBN1742571085, ISBN9781742571089. (Chapter "From Montelupich to Auschwitz". Originally published as Uspokoić sen, Katowice, Krajowa Agencja Wydawnicza, 1985. ISBN8303012142. Filmed in 1988 as Kornblumenblau by Leszek Wosiewicz. See Notable inmates.)
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