Tor Służewiec w Warszawie – losy instytucji i obiektu podczas II wojny światowej

The aim of the article is to reconstruct the social and institutional organization and the course of events during World War II at the Służewiec Racetrack: a gated urban estate of about one hundred and fifty hectares in Mokotów (now Ursynów) in Warsaw. The history of this institution was far from typical, due to its functions, the unique organization of space and high social position of its owners. The Służewiec Racetrack was paid for by renting lots to various forms of occupation troops, civil services and nearby farmers. The horse races were organized in Lublin. The company employed workers, including those who hid in Służewiec because of their Jewish origins. In 1944 the Służewiec Racetrack was an arena of dramatic insurgent fighting, a place of execution and the site of a transitional camp for the Mokotów population. The empirical basis of the article consists of the war protocols of the Society for the Encouragement of Horse Breeding (Towarzystwo Zachęty do Hodowli Koni), data collected in ethnographic own research and scattered publications, among others of insurgents’ memoirs and interviews gathered in the Oral History Archive of the Warsaw Uprising Museum.