Crime at 111 Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw

A film from the rebellious film chronicle shows the victims of the execution at 111 Marszałkowska Street.

The crime at 111 Marszałkowska Street in Warsaw was a crime against the civilian population of Warsaw 's Śródmieście Północne district , committed by the Germans during the Warsaw Uprising . On August 3, 1944, the German armored car crew shot and killed about 30 to 44 Polish civilians living in tenement houses at 109, 111 and 113 Marszałkowska Street near the Pod Światełkami inn .

Course of the massacre

In the first days of August 1944, there was no major insurrectionary fighting on the section of Marszałkowska Street between Chmielna and Złota Streets. On August 3, around 11:00 a.m., a German armored car appeared there, driving north along Marszałkowska Street and being shot at from nearby houses. The car then stopped in front of apartment building number 113, where a small group of soldiers got out. They entered the courtyard of the tenement house and then went to the neighboring house No. 111. According to the report of a resident of this house, Piotr Grzywacz, the unit consisted of a German and eight “Ukrainians” in SS uniforms. In the report of the commander of the Warsaw District of the Polish Home Army, General Albin Skroczyński (code name Łaszcz ), there were six soldiers - mostly "Ukrainians" ("Situation report No. 5 on German repression against civilians in the area of Aleje Jerozolimskie", 4 August 1944).

SS men ordered the residents to go out to the courtyard immediately (the order was given in German, Polish and “Russian”). About 40 people listened to the call. The soldiers gathered these residents in front of the “Pod Światełkami” inn and shot them with fire from machine guns. It is not entirely clear how many civilians were the victims of this execution. The Łaszcz report speaks of 20–30 murdered people. According to Piotr Grzywacz, there were 37 victims. On the other hand, Maja Motyl and Stanisław Rutkowski, authors of the study “Powstanie Warszawskie - rejestr miejsc i faktów zbrodni” (in German: “Warsaw Uprising - a directory of places and facts of the crime”), estimate the number of people at 44 Murdered. The victims of the massacre were residents of the houses on Marszałkowska Street 109, 111 and 113. Women and children were among those killed.

After the crime

After the crime, the German sub-unit tried to leave the apartment building, but it was prevented by insurgents firing from the building of the Metropol Hotel (on Marszałkowska ulica, on the corner of Złota ulica). The Germans stayed in the house for the next day. On August 4th, the Warsaw staff division's storm unit entered the apartment building and the soldiers arrested two “Ukrainians” and the other SS men were liquidated during the battle. The prisoners admitted murdering civilians, claiming that they were carrying out the orders of their commanding officer, a German. After the interrogation, both were shot dead.

Remarks

↑ This building (no longer exists) was located roughly at the intersection of Marszałkowska Street and Chmielna Street - on the site of today's Plac Defilad.
^ Residents of the capital described collaborators from the eastern volunteer groups as "Ukrainians" or "Kalmyks". These terms appear most frequently in the memoirs. This was largely due to the information received in Poland about crimes committed by the Ukrainian nationalists in Kresy (German: Grenzland ) . In fact, the dense Ukrainian troops did not take much part in the insurrectionary fighting. It is therefore difficult to say what nationality the collaborators described were. In this case, they could have been Ukrainians from the auxiliary units of the Schutzstaffel stationed in Aleja Szucha. See: Ludność cywilna w powstaniu warszawskim, tom II: Archiwalia (Volume II) , op.cit., Pp. 46–47.

↑ The witness Piotr Grzywacz claimed that two insurgents were killed in battle, but there is no word about it in the Łaszcz report.

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w document) . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962, pp. 143-144.
↑ ^a ^b ^c Ludność cywilna w powstaniu warszawskim . T. II: Archiwalia . Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1974, p. 46.
^ ^A ^b Maja Motyl, Stanisław Rutkowski: Powstanie Warszawskie - rejestr miejsc i faktów zbrodni . Warszawa: GKBZpNP-IPN, 1994, p. 90.

[2] This building (no longer exists) was located roughly at the intersection of Marszałkowska Street and Chmielna Street - on the site of today's Plac Defilad.

[3] Residents of the capital described collaborators from the eastern volunteer groups as "Ukrainians" or "Kalmyks". These terms appear most frequently in the memoirs. This was largely due to the information received in Poland about crimes committed by the Ukrainian nationalists in Kresy (German: Grenzland ) . In fact, the dense Ukrainian troops did not take much part in the insurrectionary fighting. It is therefore difficult to say what nationality the collaborators described were. In this case, they could have been Ukrainians from the auxiliary units of the Schutzstaffel stationed in Aleja Szucha. See: Ludność cywilna w powstaniu warszawskim, tom II: Archiwalia (Volume II) , op.cit., Pp. 46–47.

[6] The witness Piotr Grzywacz claimed that two insurgents were killed in battle, but there is no word about it in the Łaszcz report.

[:0-1] Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w document) . Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962, pp. 143-144.

[:1-4] Ludność cywilna w powstaniu warszawskim . T. II: Archiwalia . Warszawa: Państwowy Instytut Wydawniczy, 1974, p. 46.

[:2-5] A ^b Maja Motyl, Stanisław Rutkowski: Powstanie Warszawskie - rejestr miejsc i faktów zbrodni . Warszawa: GKBZpNP-IPN, 1994, p. 90.