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A political prisoner is someone imprisoned for their political activity. The political offense is not always the official reason for the prisoner's detention.
A practice that historians believe began with the Nazi regime, “disappeared” persons are denied even the right to legally exist and be labeled a political prisoner. In similar fashion, Article 9 of the Universal Declaration states that “no one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest, detention or exile.”.
The concepts of "political prisoner" and "prisoner of conscience" were underdeveloped until the post-World War II era, which saw the creation of intergovernmental and international human rights groups like the United Nations Commission on Human Rights (1946) and Amnesty International (1961).
Although the concept of the political prisoner is usually associated with the autocratic regimes of the early twentieth century and the dictatorships of Joseph Stalin, Adolf Hitler, and Benito Mussolini, most states have found it necessary to imprison political opponents whose extremist ideologies or actions were perceived as inherently dangerous.
Political prisoners in Poland and Polish territories (under the administration of other states) have existed throughout much of the 19th and 20th centuries. In the 19th century, some Polish political prisoners started using their situation of imprisonment to act politically.
1 lut 2019 · This article seeks to reconstruct the resistance attitudes and strategies of survival among political prisoners in Poland in the years 1944–56, referred to as the Stalinist period. The introductory section reviews the literature on social resistance in authoritarian political systems, including Poland and covering political prisoners.
The first prisoners were German political prisoners, primarily Communists and Social Democrats. Oranienburg became known for the maltreatment of inmates. Here, the Nazis attempt to undermine the charges of brutality by showing the "normal" prisoner routine.
