Pawiak Prison was built in 1829–35.During the nineteenth century it was under the control of the Czarist Rulers, whilst Warsaw was still a part of the Russian Empire. During this time it was the main prison of central Poland, where political prisoners and criminals alike were incarcerated. During the January 1863 Uprising, of the Polish-Lithuanian Empire against the Russians, the prison served as a transfer camp for Poles sentenced by Imperial Russia to deportation to Siberia.After Poland regained its independence in 1918, the Pawiak became Warsaw's main prison for male criminals.Following the German invasion of Poland in 1939 it was turned into a German Gestapo prison, and then part of the Nazi concentration-death camp system. Approximately 100,000 men and 200,000 women passed through the prison, mostly members of the Armia Krajowa, political prisoners and civilians taken as hostages in street round-ups. An estimated 37,000 were executed and 60,000 sent to German death and concentration camps.During the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising, the Pawiak became an assault base for the Nazis. Jailers from the Pawiak, commanded by Franz Bürkl, volunteered to hunt the Jews. The final transport of prisoners took place shortly before the Warsaw Uprising, on July 30, 1944. Two thousand men and the remaining 400 women were sent to Gross-Rosen and Ravensbrück