The county seat is about 115 km south of Poznań.
Rawicz Prison is known in Poland and abroad. The Prussian authorities opened it on 15 December 1820 as a penitentiary and correctional institute. The prison occupied the quarters of a Franciscan monastery whose assets had been confiscated by law on 30 October 1810. The city became the de facto owner of the monastery and church when the order was cassated on 29 May 1918. Apart from that, the first (wooden) Rawicz prison was built in 1639, just a year after the city’s founding.
The establishment was taken over by the Polish authorities on 1 March 1920. Men sentenced from five years to life for both criminal and (as of 1930) political offences were sent there. Some 16,000 people were sent here during the occupation, the greatest number of inmates at any one time being 2,470 prisoners on 22 August 1942. Poles awaiting transfer to concentration camps made up the greatest number. Death sentences were also carried out here. A lot of those who took part in the Silesian Uprising or other Polish patriotic uprisings were executed. Eight hundred and eighty six people perished as a result of the harsh conditions in Rawicz Prison during the occupation.
Rawicz Prison had a bleak reputation during the Stalinist years. It was made a Central Prison on 25 April 1945. This status meant that political prisoners (regardless of the severity of the sentence) and common prisoners sentenced for a minimum of three years were sent here. From then until 1956, 19,239 prisoners passed through Rawicz Prison. From 1945 to 1956, 19,173 political prisoners passed through Rawicz Prison. This last group was made up of people connected with the Poznań 1956 protests.
Address:
Zakład Karny Rawicz (Rawicz Prison)
ul.17 Stycznia 28
63-900 Rawicz
