Massacre in Mokotów Prison

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The massacre in Mokotów Prison (pol. Masakra w więzieniu mokotowskim ) was a mass murder of prisoners in Mokotów Prison in Warsaw , carried out by the German occupiers on the second day of the Warsaw Uprising . On August 2, 1944, the soldiers of SS-Panzergrenadier-Ersatz-Battalion 3 shot about 600 Poles on the premises of this facility at 37 Rakowiecka Street. It was one of the greatest crimes committed by the Germans in Mokotów during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. Some of the prisoners actively resisted the SS men during the massacre. As a result, several hundreds of people managed to escape to an area occupied by the insurgents.

Before the outbreak of the uprising

Soon after Germany's invasion of Warsaw (September 28, 1939), the former prison at 37 Rakowiecka Street was redesigned for the needs of the occupiers. Since then, the judicial prison in Rakowieckastrasse 37 has been under the German special courts . After serving a sentence, the Gestapo decided on the further fate of the prisoners. In addition, officers of the Polish Army who had not registered with the German rulers, as well as economic criminals and Germans convicted of criminal crimes, were held there. The prison filled up quickly and the number of prisoners was significantly exceeding the capacity of the prison cells. Many Polish employees of the prison secretly worked with the conspiratorial service for the victory of Poland ( Służba Zwycięstwu Polski , SZP for short ) - later the Polish Home Army (Pol. Armia Krajowa , AK for short ). Thanks to their help, many people involved in conspiratorial activities were able to escape.

In the summer of 1944, Moktów Prison was under the control of Commissioner Hitzinger. On July 23, 1944, in connection with the rapprochement of the Eastern Front , the release of prisoners, who had been sentenced to a term of up to 5 years, began. Above all, they were German and Volksdeutsche , later also Poles. Within five days, 655 people were released, including around 300 Poles. However, due to the bribery of the prison rulers, Hitzinger ordered that the prisoners' release be canceled. On August 1, an hour before the uprising broke out, 11 more prisoners were released.

According to the registers of the prison's deputy director, Justice Inspector Kirchner, at the time of the outbreak of the uprising in the prison on Rakowiecka 37 there were 794 prisoners, including 41 minors.

The hour "W"

Rakowiecka Street was one of the most important resistance streets in Mokotów. On August 1, 1944, the insurgents from the 4th district of the Home Army (5th district "Mokotów") - (pol. IV Rejon AK Obwód V "Mokotów" ) attacked the German positions along the Rakowiecka and attacked the SS Staufer barracks in the Rakowiecka 4, the anti-aircraft barracks at the beginning of Puławska Street, the building of the Warsaw University of Natural Sciences ( Szkoła Główna Gospodarstwa Wiejskiego w Warszawie , SGGW for short ) and the anti-aircraft batteries in the Mokotowskie Pole . The task of taking over the Mokotów prison and the neighboring tenement houses was assigned to the I. Sturmkompanie under the direction of Lieutenant Antoni Figura (code name “Kot”; German: cat ) from the “Baszta” regiment. This company consisted of 80 soldiers (including paramedics) and had very modest equipment: 3 submachine guns, 20 rifles, 15 pistols, 130 grenades and 30 bottles of " Molotov cocktail ".

The Home Army soldiers invaded the prison and took over the administration building, but it was impossible to get to the correctional facilities. Lieutenant "Kot" was seriously injured during the fight. The German unit, reinforced by the troops from the nearby SS barracks, withstood the attack and disarmed and interned Polish guards. According to the report by the prison's deputy director, Justice Inspector Kirchner, the attack cost the Germans 9 dead and 17 injured.

Despite the shelling from the tank guns , the insurgents held the occupied administration building until dawn on August 2nd. However, during the day they had to withdraw. The Germans murdered the Home Army soldiers who were injured and captured.

The massacre

On August 2, the judicial inspector Kirchner was appointed deputy director of the Mokotów prison. At 11:00 he was called to the nearby SS barracks. There, SS-Obersturmführer Martin Patz, the leader of SS-Panzergrenadier-Ersatz-Battalion 3, explained to him that General Reiner Stahel , the city commander of Warsaw, had ordered the liquidation of the prisoners. This decision was also confirmed by the SS and Police Leader in Warsaw, SS-Oberführer Paul Otto Geibel , who ordered the execution of the Polish guards. Kirchner drafted the takeover protocol by handing all prisoners in the prison facility over to Patz.

In the afternoon the SS men entered the prison. They wrote down the exact location of the prison cells and then led about 60 men from two detainees on the ground floor who had to dig three trenches 25-30 meters long and 2 meters wide and deep. The first of the trenches was dug along the walls of Pavilion X on the laundry side, the second in the walking area from Aleja Niepodległości and the third in the walking area from Kazimierzowska Street. At that time, the German soldiers enjoyed vodka . After the work was over, all the grave graves were shot.

Then the Germans began to destroy the remaining prisoners. The inmates were pulled out of the prison cells, placed next to the trenches, and murdered with a shot in the back of the head. Prisoners from Wards No. 1 and No. 2 (so-called pre-trial detainees) were shot first, including several boys between the ages of 12 and 14. Then the patients in the infirmary were murdered. Later the SS men began to empty compartments No. 8 (recidivists), No. 10 (prisoners with harsh sentences), No. 11, No. 3 and No. 5. Mass graves filled up quickly, so the SS men had to shoot some prisoners outside the prison (on the other side of Rakowiecka Street). During the massacre, which lasted several hours, over 600 prisoners in Mokotów Prison were murdered.

“I heard SS men approaching my cell, so I hid under the bed (…) an SS man picked up the bed, kicked me and led me out (…) I was alone up to the ditch in the Near the boiler room on the hiking area run from the Aleja Niepodległości side. An SS man ordered me to turn my face towards the trench, then he shot and kicked me. The bullet passed my ear [I heard a whistle] and I fell face down on the corpses. I heard gunshots and deathshots to those who moved. I couldn't take the weight of the corpses anymore and decided to get up and end my life. I was sure that the SS men would shoot me immediately after I got up. I looked up and saw that nobody was standing over me. I got out of the corpses with difficulty. ” - the statement of Antoni Józef Porzygowski

Resistance of the prisoners

From the windows of the prison cells, the Poles watched the slaughter in the prison yard and understood that death was waiting for them and that they had nothing to lose. The prisoners from Section 6 and 7 on the second floor decided to take a desperate step and attacked the perpetrators. In Division No. 6, the prisoners broke open the cell door or made holes in the walls using the benches, and when they came out into the corridor, they set straw mattresses and straw on fire. With that they chased away the Germans. In Division No. 7, the prisoners succeeded in killing some SS men and taking their weapons away from them. The entire second floor was barricaded and prisoners were released from the cells in Division No. 9 (minors). The surprised Germans withdrew.

During the night, with heavy rain, the surviving prisoners began to walk up to the attic and then to the steep roof. From there they went to the wall that surrounded the prison, where civilians came to their aid and brought ladders. In this way between 200 and 300 prisoners escaped and ended up in an area occupied by the insurgents. The Germans did not prevent the escape because they misjudged that the prisoners would flee through the main gate.

The fate of the interned Polish guards remains unknown. Some witnesses testified that the guards were not murdered with the prisoners and that many of them survived the war. However, other witnesses provided information to the contrary.

After the war

The plaque in memory of the victims of the massacre

Between April 16 and 21, 1945, exhumations were carried out on the premises of Mokotów Prison . Around 700 bodies from the time of the Warsaw Uprising were found, some of which were only buried in the Mokotów prison after the massacre (these were mostly the bodies of Poles who were held and murdered in a temporary prison in the Staufer barracks ). The bodies found - with the exception of those that were given to the families - were provisionally buried in eight mass graves on Aleja Niepodległości. In December 1945 all corpses were exhumed and transferred to the Powązki military cemetery, where they were buried in the insurgents' quarters.

In 1978 the trial of SS-Obersturmführer Martin Patz, who was known as the “butcher of Mokotów”, began in the Cologne court. He was convicted of the crimes committed by his SS men during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising, in particular the murder of prisoners in Mokotów Prison on Rakowiecka Street. In February 1980, Petz was found guilty and sentenced to nine years in prison. In the same trial, Karl Misling was sentenced to four years in prison.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Regina Domańska: Pawiak - więzienie Gestapo. Kronika lat 1939–1944 . Warszawa: Książka i Wiedza, 1978. p. 12.
  2. ↑ Władysław Bartoszewski: Warszawski pierścień śmierci 1939-1944 . Warszawa: Interpress, 1970. p. 17.
  3. ↑ a b Więzienie Mokotowskie . geotekst.pl.
  4. ↑ a b c Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach) . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962. p. 128.
  5. ↑ a b c d e f g Maja Motyl, Stanisław Rutkowski: Powstanie Warszawskie - rejestr miejsc i faktów zbrodni . Warszawa: GKBZpNP-IPN, 1994. p. 135.
  6. ↑ Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944 . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. ISBN 83-11-07078-4 . P. 188.
  7. ↑ Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944 . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. ISBN 83-11-07078-4 . P. 189.
  8. ↑ Adam Borkiewicz: warszawskie Powstanie. Zarys działań natury wojskowej . Warszawa: Instytut wydawniczy PAX, 1969. p. 71.
  9. ↑ Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944 . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. ISBN 83-11-07078-4 . P. 277.
  10. ↑ a b c Ludność cywilna w powstaniu warszawskim . TI Cz. 2: Pamiętniki, relacje, zeznania . Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1974. pp. 106-108.
  11. ↑ Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944 . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. ISBN 83-11-07078-4 . P. 278.
  12. ↑ Władysław Bartoszewski: Warszawski pierścień śmierci 1939-1944 . Warszawa: Interpress, 1970. p. 420.
  13. ↑ a b Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach) . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962. p. 129.
  14. ↑ a b Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944 . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. ISBN 83-11-07078-4 . Pp. 278-279.
  15. ↑ Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach) . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962. p. 130.
  16. ↑ Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944 . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. ISBN 83-11-07078-4 . P. 279.
  17. ^ Friedo Sachser: Central Europe. Federal Republic of Germany. Nazi Trials . In: American Jewish Year Book. 82, 1982, p. 213.