Execution on Powązkowska Street

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The memorial in memory of the victims of the execution.

The execution on Powązkowska Street was a mass murder of 22 residents of Warsaw 's Powązki district (area in the northwestern part of Warsaw, in two districts: Wola and Żoliborz) carried out by the Germans on August 1, 1944. This execution, during which the men who lived in the house at 41 Powązkowska Street were killed, was one of the first German crimes committed during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising .

Prelude

On August 1, an uprising began in Powązki and throughout Warsaw. The almost 120-strong group "Żyrafa" (German: Giraffe ) of the Polish Home Army (Pol. Armia Krajowa ) tried to carry out an attack on Fort Bema (the so-called Pioneer Park ) occupied by the Germans . However, the attack collapsed under fire from German machine guns, the nests of which stood in a military cemetery nearby. Part of the group (the unit of the captain “Sławomir”) had to hide in Powązki and in the village of Chomiczówka.

Course of execution

After repelling the Polish attack, the Germans decided to take revenge on the civilian population. Around 6:00 p.m., soldiers from the Fort Bema garrison surrounded the house at 41 Powązkowska Street, from which the insurgents shot at the Germans in the house opposite two hours earlier (as a result of which a German officer and a soldier were killed). The residents of the house did not take part in the uprising, on the contrary, they were surprised by the outbreak of the uprising. However, the Germans chased all civilians out of the house and then drove them towards Fort Bema. There the Poles were divided into two groups - one of women and children, the other of men.

A few hours later, a German officer spoke to the detainees and said that German soldiers had been shot at from the house in which they lived, as a result of which two Germans had been killed and one injured. Then the officer turned to the women and children with the words: "Your fathers, bandit brothers killed an officer and a German soldier and for this they are shot". In the end, he announced that the women and children in the area would remain hostage and would be shot if those sentenced to death attempt to resist or run away.

Immediately after this speech, German soldiers took the men to the so-called march on the Szosa Powązkowska near Fort Bema and the Church of St. Josaphat. It was around 10:30 p.m. On the spot, two Germans selected a person from the group who was then murdered a dozen meters away with a shot in the back of the head. People who gave signs of life were shot dead. After the execution, the soldiers returned to Fort Bema. Two men - Władysław Bombel and Stefan Mielczarek (both injured) - managed to survive the massacre.

According to sources, 21 residents of the house at 41 Powązkowska Street (aged 18 to 65) were murdered that night. However, the names of 22 victims are written on the memorial, which was erected at the place of execution after the war.

memory

In 1960 a metal cross was erected at the scene of the crime, on which there was a plaque with the names of the victims. In 2011 the memorial was thoroughly renovated. A completely new monument with a height of 200 cm and a width of 170 cm was erected at the place of the cross. Its central part is a stone tablet on which the names of the victims are written.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Adam Borkiewicz: warszawskie Powstanie. Zarys działań natury wojskowej . Warszawa: Instytut wydawniczy PAX, 1969. p. 66
  2. ↑ a b c Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach) . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962. p. 18
  3. ↑ a b Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach) . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962. p. 20
  4. ^ A b Maja Motyl, Stanisław Rutkowski: Powstanie Warszawskie - rejestr miejsc i faktów zbrodni . Warszawa: GKBZpNP-IPN, 1994. p. 126
  5. ↑ Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach) . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962. pp. 18, 20
  6. ↑ a b Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach) . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962. pp. 19, 21
  7. ↑ Maria Bielech. Odnowione miejsce pamięci narodowej . In: Nasze Bielany. 11 (151): 2011-11. P. 2