I am interested in learning some basic history about the prison in Kielce.
In September, 2007, I visited Kielce and noticed the prison located just within the city limits. At that time, it seemed to be actively running. I understand that the informal name for this prison is Więzienie na Piaskach or "imprisonment on sand."
I have a few questions about this prison, and I greatly appreciate any information that anyone might have. Or if anyone knows of where I could find or buy information about the prison, I would appreciate that as well (even if the information is in Polish).
1. This this prison the same one that was active in Kielce just after World War II?
2. If not, is there another prison is Kielce that is no longer in operation?
3. If there are two prisons in Kielce (one active, one inactive), what are their addresses?
4. Does the prison/s in Kielce have a formal name?
5. When was the prison first built, and for what purpose?
I appreciate that the answers to these specific questions may not be readily available to most readers of this forum, but this is the kind of detail I am looking for. Perhaps there is an article or book that was written that may contain some of this information.
Thanks again for any help.
Sincerely
Cliff.
Cliff,
I would recommend contacting the local tourism board. They usually have a good amount of information about sites and locations relating to WW2. I'm not sure what you want the info for, but local tourism offices are usually bend over backwards helpful when you want to find out about local history.
Take a look here: um.kielce.pl
It seems there is one working prison and one no longer in operation. Na Piaskach is a new one, operational from 1970s.
The old one in Zamkowa Street was built in 19 century and was used during and after WW2 - the place of the martyrology of the Polish nation.
pttkkielce.pl/s,83,Muzeum_Pamieci_Narodowej.html
digart.img.digart.pl/data/img/vol0/20/20/miniaturki400/3508996.jpg
inwestycje.kielce.pl/zamkowa_wiezienie.htm
I knew an AK veteran (he died in US recently) who originally served with cichociemni"Robot"s group then subsequently with "Ponury" and "Nurt". On August 5, 1945 whilst he was in 2 Pulk Piechoty Legionow AK, 2nd Battalion, 3rd Company they attacked the Polish communist police prison in Kielce and freed imprisoned AK members.
Wlodzimierz Kolaczkiewicz former soldier of Narodowe Sily Zbrojne [National Armed Forces], recalls this action to free prisoners held in the Kielce prison:
