Petschek Palace: The Gestapo Headquarters

Behind the elegant neoclassical facade at the corner of Politických vězňů and Washingtonova streets stands a building that witnessed one of the occupation's darkest chapters. Built in the 1920s as an ultramodern banking house for merchant banker Julius Petschek, this imposing structure featured pneumatic tube post, air conditioning, and a paternoster lift that still functions. Everything changed in 1939 when the Nazi secret police seized the building and transformed it into Gestapo headquarters for occupied Bohemia and Moravia. The basement vaults, originally designed to protect clients' valuables, became 11 interrogation cells where the resistance met unspeakable horror. Over six years, approximately 36,000 people were brought here from Pankrác prison. The terror escalated dramatically after Reinhard Heydrich arrived in September 1941 and established a court martial inside the building. In just four months, between September 1941 and January 1942, this tribunal sentenced 486 people to death while sending thousands more to concentration camps. Prisoners gave the palace a grim nickname: Pečkárna, meaning the bakery. Many succumbed to torture in the cells themselves. Others were executed or deported after their interrogations ended. The ordeal continued until May 1945 when the last Gestapo officers fled westward. A bronze memorial plaque now marks the building's corner, honoring those who fought, suffered, and died within these walls.