rest of Warsaw and survived the war in a relatively good condition. Under Soviet domination In 1945, when the Red Army finally entered the ruins of Warsaw – abandoned by the German troops – the prison was turned into a site of detention for Germans, as well as Poles who crossed the Soviet authorities, the NKVD and the local pro-Soviet Urząd Bezpieczeństwa. During the Stalinist years it was one of the best known prisons used by the secret police. The prisoners, kept in tiny concrete cells in inhumane conditions, were subject to interrogation and prolonged physical torture later described by Kazimierz Moczarski in his prison memoirs. Among those held there were German war criminals such as Jürgen Stroop, but also the members of the Polish underground, democratic opposition and intelligentsia, who were considered a threat to the regime of the Soviet-controlled communist government of Poland. After several months (or years) of mistreatment the detainees were usually either executed (in the old boiler room) and their bodies disposed of in the dump in Służewiec, or transferred to other prison sites in Poland, including the infamous Montelupich Prison in Kraków, Lublin Castle, and in towns of Wronki, Rawicz, Strzelce Opolskie, Sztum, Fordon and Inowrocław. Most of the executions were carried out under the command of Piotr Śmietański, a notorious full-time UB executioner, nicknamed by the prisoners "The Butcher of Mokotow Prison." Among those held and executed in the basement-boiler-room of the Mokotów prison, often maimed and tortured beforehand, were: After the end of Stalinism in 1956 the prison was officially transferred to the civilian authorities, although it still served as a prison for political prisoners. After the Revolutions of 1989, the prison was transferred to the Polish law-enforcement agencies and currently it serves as a jail. In 1998 a memorial plaque was erected on the prison wall to commemorate the 283 known political prisoners executed on Rakowiecka Street between 1945 and 1955, as well as hundreds of others whose names and place of burial remain unknown. Notes External links Narodowe Siły Zbrojne The Doomed soldiers – Polish Underground Soldiers 1944–1963 – The Untold Story Antykomunistyczne Podziemie Zbrojne po 1944 roku National Armed Forces Historical Brief Buildings and structures in Warsaw Prisons in Poland Mokotów