Warsaw incineration squad

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A member of the cremation squad stacking corpses in the "Wedel House" in Warsaw-Wola

The Warsaw Cremation Squad was a special forced labor detachment of male Poles that was set up under SS leadership during the Warsaw Uprising to cremate the bodies of the Warsaw population murdered in the Wola massacre in the Wola district from August 8 to around mid-September 1944 .

course

The suppression of the Warsaw uprising in the Wola district by German troops, which began on August 5, 1944, quickly developed into a massacre of the Polish civilian population, which claimed around 30,000 victims in just 3 days. The large number of corpses of those executed, especially in the area of ​​the main traffic artery Ulica Wolska, began to hinder the actions of the German units. With the onset of decomposition in the hot season, there was also a rapid risk of epidemics. Finally, by burning the corpses, the traces of the massacre should be removed. The local SS leadership decided to set up a cremation squad to destroy the corpses.

On August 8, 1944, this group, which was subordinate to the Gestapo under SS-Obersturmführer Neumann, was formed from forcibly drawn Poles who appeared physically suitable; Refusal to participate as well as refusal of individual orders was punishable by the death penalty. Part of the commando was recruited from prisoners of war housed in the buildings of the former railway barracks on Sokołowska Street. Others were selected in mass shootings during the advance of German troops against the insurgents. Two groups of 50 men each were formed. Members of the command were instructed not to obey orders from officers of other units. Dental gold, rings or valuables found on the corpses had to be handed over to the German guardians. Victims who were still alive were to be reported.

The cremation squad was also used to clear the street barricades erected by insurgents and as human shields in house-to-house warfare. For this purpose, members of the command had to go in front of the advancing German tanks and soldiers in order to prevent sniper fire from the insurgents. A surviving member of the command, Tadeusz Klimaszewski, later reported the order to a youth from the group to lie down in front of a German machine gun in order to cover the German machine gunner.

The constantly guarded groups had to get the rotting corpses out of the rubble and burn them in piles. The erected piles of corpses were equipped with several layers of flammable material, mostly wood or furniture rubble from the destroyed buildings, and were covered with gasoline before they could ignite. More than 30 such piles of corpses were burned down in Wola. The human pyres were behind the Wojciech Church ( św Kościół. Wojciecha ), in the courtyard of the hospital in ul. Płocka / Wolska , along ul. Wolska , the disease hospital, the road train station, in the Hale Mirowskie and in several places to of ul. Młynarska built. The stench of the burned, already rotting corpses was widely audible.

“ At first we picked out the corpses that were the least mutilated, but then we didn't care: the unprotected hands tear on blood-encrusted clothing, grab rotten limbs. Swaths of scared carrion flies buzz around us with angry hum, pounce on our sweat-drenched bodies, crawl over lips and try to sit on our eyes. ... Just don't give up, don't let yourself be pushed down to those bloody, rotting bodies at any cost! Perhaps chance will show us an escape route, today, tomorrow or the day after tomorrow ... "

- Tadeusz Klimaszewski, Warsaw Incineration Command , p. 61

The ashes from the fireplaces were buried on the site of the former Wenecja amusement park, also located at ul. Wolska .

The cremation squad was assigned accommodation at ul. Sokołowska . The men were deployed until mid-September 1944. Some of them managed to escape to the insurgents. Those who survived the war were later important witnesses . However, the majority were shot after the cremation work was over.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ War Crimes: Men with a Past ; at One Day / Spiegel Online (accessed October 23, 2012)
  2. ↑ Andreas Mix: Die Henker von Wola on: berlinerZeitung.de , July 5, 2008, accessed on October 21, 2012.
  3. ↑ a b Timothy Snyder : Bloodlands. Europe between Hitler and Stalin. CH Beck, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-62184-0 , pp. 310-314.
  4. ↑ a b c d The Wola massacre on the website Sppw1944.org of the Stowarzyszenie Pamięci Powstania Warszawskiego 1944. (in English, accessed on March 6, 2013)
  5. ^ SS-Obersturmführer Neumann was also the commandant of the temporary transit camp for civilians in St. Adalbert's Church in Warsaw-Wola
  6. ↑ Frederick Weinstein : Notes from the hiding place. Experiences of a Polish Jew 1939–1946. Lukas Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-936872-70-8 , p. 544, footnote 4
  7. ^ Tadeusz Klimaszewski: Combustion Command Warsaw. Warsaw 1959, cf. Andreas Lawaty , Wiesław Mincer, Anna Domańska: German-Polish relations in the past and present. Bibliography. Volume 1: Politics, society, economy, culture in epochs and regions (= publications of the German Poland Institute Darmstadt. Vol. 14, 1). Harrassowitz-Verlag, Wiesbaden 2000, ISBN 3-447-04243-5 , number 13459, p. 901.
  8. ↑ a b c d Tadeusz Klimaszewski, Jutta Janke (transl.): Combustion Command Warsaw. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1962.
  9. ↑ Tadeusz Klimaszewski, Jutta Janke (transl.): Combustion Command Warsaw. Verlag Volk und Welt, Berlin 1962, pp. 70f.
  10. ^ Joanna KM Hanson: The Civilian Population and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. University of Cambridge, Cambridge 1982, ISBN 0-521-23421-2 , p. 86.
  11. ^ Tomasz Szarota: Karuzela na placu Krasińskich. Studia i szkice z lat wojny i okupacji. Oficyna Wydawnicza Rytm et al., Warsaw 2007, ISBN 978-83-7399-336-5 , p. 393.

literature

  • Tadeusz Klimaszewski, Jutta Janke (transl.): Warsaw Burn Command. Volk und Welt publishing house, Berlin 1962, DNB 452451280 .