Pankrác Prison

Pankrác Prison, officially Prague Pankrác Remand Prison ("Vazební věznice Praha Pankrác" in Czech), is a prison in Prague, Czech Republic. It is located southeast of Prague city centre in Pankrác, not far from Pražského povstání metro station on Line C.

History

The prison was built in 1885–1889 in order to replace the obsolete St Wenceslas Prison ("Svatováclavská trestnice"), which used to stand between Charles Square and the Vltava River. The site for the new prison was out of city limits, amidst of fields above Nusle suburb, in the time of its construction. Nevertheless, the expanding Prague encompassed the prison within several decades. A huge building of court was added to the facility in 1930s. During Nazi occupation in 1939-1945 thousands of Czech people, from members of the Resistance to black marketeers, were detained here before having been sent to execution, to another prison within Germany or to concentration camp. In spring 1943 the Nazis started carrying out executions directly inside the facility itself, where three cells had been adapted for this purpose. Between April 5, 1943 and April 26, 1945 a total of 1,079 people were beheaded by guillotine in Pankrác. The three rooms used for this bloody purpose (colloquially referred to as the "sekyrárna", or "axe room" in Czech) have been preserved (incl. the execution device), and serve as memorial that is occasionally accessible to schools and public. [http://sporilov.info/view.php?cisloclanku=2004113001] In the last decades before the abolition of capital punishment in Czechoslovakia the vast majority [http://www.mvcr.cz/policie/udv/sesity/sesit2/sesit2.doc] of executions (by hanging) took place here, the last in 1989.

The present

According to an official report [http://ad.vscr.cz/news_files/Czech_Prisons_2006.pdf] of Prison Service the Pankrác Prison currently serves asa house of detention for accused males,and partly as a prison for sentenced males. The facility is designedfor 858 inmates, of whom 468 are onremand and 390 are serving terms ofimprisonment. Prisoners are accommodatedin rooms with an average capacityof three beds, the largest containingten beds. The prison premises alsocontain a Czech Prison Service hospital,serving the inmates, with a capacity of111, as well as the Pankrác Memorial, [http://institut-tisk.vscr.cz/?cl_id=16] containing an exhibition on the PrisonService. The number of prison staff is 568 (2006).

Some people imprisoned or executed in Pankrác

Anti-Nazi Resistance:
*Alois Eliáš
*Vladislav Vančura
*Julius Fučík

Perpetrators of war crimes and Nazi collaborators:
*Emil Hácha
*Karl Hermann Frank
*Jan Rys-Rozsévač
*Kurt Daluege
*Karel Čurda

Victims of communist purges:
*Milada Horáková
*Záviš Kalandra
*Vladimír Clementis
*Rudolf Margolius
*Bedřich Reicin
*Rudolf Slánský
*Otto Šling

Notorious criminals:
*Václav Mrázek
*Olga Hepnarová

ee also

*Ruzyně Prison
*List of prisons in the Czech Republic

External links

* [http://pankrac.vscr.cz/clanky/?cl_id=23 Official site of Pankrác Prison]