one of the greatest crimes
against civilians during World War II

The Wola massacre

Information campaign

PL

august 1944

testimonies

history

multimedia

Genocide

CRIMINAL ORDERS

Wola massacre – extermination of civilian inhabitants of the Warsaw district of Wola by German SS and police units under the command of SS-Gruppenführer Heinz Reinefarth in early August 1944, during the first days of the Warsaw Uprising.

„My Führer, the time is not very auspicious for us. From a historical point of view it is [however] a blessing that the Poles are doing this. After five or six weeks we will get out of this. And after that Warsaw, the capital, the head, the intelligence of this former 16-17 million-strong nation of Poles will be destroyed, of the nation that has been blocking our [path to the] East for 700 years and has been lying in our way since the first battle of Tannenberg. And then, historically, the Polish problem will no longer be big for our children and for all those who come after us, indeed, even already for us.”
Heinrich Himmler on 21 September 1944

FOT: National Digital Archive

Approximately 50 thousand Poles killed

Germans savagely murdered civil population of Warsaw

Mass executions

6000 victims were rounded up and murdered in „Ursus” factory

Enormous destruction

81% of residential buildings in Wola were destroyed.

Extermination of hospitals

1200 patients and staff murdered in St Lazarus Hospital.

GENOCIDE

testimonies of crime

Germans runded up the inhabitants of whole streets in gathering places where they carried out executions. In Sowinski Park about 1200 people were killed.

A column of civilians driven along Wolska street, destroyed tenement houses in the background. The author unknown. The photograph from the collections of the Warsaw Uprising Museum

Near Hale Mirowski,e about 700 people were executed.

Victims of mass executions. Author: unknown. Photo from the collection of the Warsaw Uprising Museum

At 5/7/9 Gorczewska street (Nuns’ House) Germans shot and burnt about 2000 Poles.

Victims of shooting. Warsaw, Wola. Author: Alfred Mensebach. Photo from the collection of the Warsaw Uprising Museum

MORE TESTIMONIES

“Together with my children I got to the depot with a group of around two hundred people, mostly women with children and pregnant women driven from Franaszek’s factory shelter, as well as from Wolska Street. The group was crowded in Młynarska Street, near the depot’s lavatory. Around forty SS soldiers and soldiers without SS markings stood around us. […] The Germans opened fire from the machine gun in the direction of our crowded group."

– Janina Rozińska

„On 3 or 4 August, as we were in the flat, we heard shooting from the first. I ran out to the staircase and from the window I saw that there were a few SS men in the courtyard who were shooting all around with light machine guns. The corpses of women and children were lying there. "

– Aniela Przybylska

„I lay in a puddle of blood for a long time, crushed by corpses. I was only thinking of dying, how much longer I would have to endure. At night, I pushed away the dead bodies lying on top of me. The next day the executions ceased. The Germans came a couple of times with dogs, running over the corpses and checking whether anyone was still alive […]. I lay there for three days, that is until Monday. On the third day I felt that the baby I was expecting was still alive."

– Wanda Lurie

about

50 thousand

civilians
casualities

Gallery

Hall of the „URSUS” Motors and Fittings Factory at 55 Wolska street seen from Plocka street being blown up.
Around 6000 inhabitants of Wola were murdered there. Author: Alfred Mensebach.
Photograph from the collection of the Warsaw Uprising Museum