Verbrennungskommando Warschau
 Captured Pole photographed disposing of corpses in the Verbrennungskommando, after the Nazi German Wola Massacre in Warsaw, 1944 | |
| Date | 1944 |
|---|---|
| Location | Warsaw, occupied Poland |
| Cause | Wola Massacre |
| Participants | Wehrmacht, Gestapo, SS, Sonderdienst |
| Casualties | |
|
Approximately 40,000–50,000 Part of a series | |
|
Nazi crimes against the Polish nation | |
Verbrennungskommando Warschau (German: Warsaw burning detachment)[1] was a slave labour unit formed by the SS following the Wola massacre of around 40,000 to 50,000 civilians in the course of the anti-Nazi uprising of Warsaw (occupied Poland) during World War II. It was organized to remove evidence of a city-wide campaign of mass murder[2] by collecting corpses into large piles and burning them in eighteen open-air pyres on Elektoralna and Chłodna Streets among others.[3] The squad was directly subordinated to SS-Obersturmführer Neumann.
Background
During the Warsaw Uprising against Nazi Germany, Polish civilians were indiscriminately killed in punitive mass executions throughout the entire Wola district and in the Old Town, according to orders of Heinrich Himmler. He said: "Every inhabitant of Warsaw is to be shot. Prisoners will not be taken; the town is to be razed to the ground."[4] Most of the atrocities were committed by troops under the command of SS-Oberführer Oskar Dirlewanger, commander of the 36th SS Waffen-Grenadier Division,[5] Gruppenführer Heinrich Reinefarth,[6] and the Russian SS-Brigadeführer Bronislav Vladislavovich Kaminski.[4] Three days after the massacres ended, between 8–23 August 1944, the Germans captured several dozen Poles and under pain of death organized them into a cremation commando named Verbrennungskommando by their own overseers.[3] The men were forced to pick through the ruins and collect thousands of the victims' bodies under strict supervision. In two weeks, they cremated an estimated 6,000 bodies, many with white flags, the international symbol of surrender.[7]
Tadeusz Klimaszewski,[8] a prisoner at the cremation commando; and later, author of a memoir called Verbrennungskommando Warschau (published in 1959 in Warsaw), described his first day of corpse' disposal operation at the Franaszek Factory in the following way.
As far as one could see, the courtyard square was filled with the dead bodies. They were lying in the full sun, some piled up in the centre, others strewn next to each other, or propped individually along the edges with hands reaching toward the brick wall as if they had tried to save themselves. They must have been herded there as a large crowd, and thrown the grenades at, because their bodies were terribly mangled...[9]
The Verbrennungskommando squad members were not informed about the Himmler's true intentions, but promised a return to "normalcy," as soon as the "bandits" were punished. Their duty to burn dead bodies was therefore in their own interest they were told. There was one Jewish prisoner among them. After the war, most of the ashes dumped into bomb holes and ditches by the burning detachment were exhumed in 1947 and buried at Warsaw cemeteries.[8] They included 5,578 kilograms of human remains from Al. Stalina avenue, 2,180 kilograms from military prison at Zamenhofa, 1,029 kilograms from Wolska 60 Street, 1,120 kilograms from Sowinski Park, 600 kilograms from Dzielna 47 Street, 600 kilograms from Franaszek Factory, 192 kilograms from Okopowa 59 Street, and 120 kilograms from "Dobrolin" Wolska Street among several other locations. The full list of burial sites was then delivered to the Regional Commission for Investigation of the Nazi German Crimes in Poland.[8]
Notes and references
- ↑ Joanna K. M. Hanson (2004). The Civilian Population and the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 (Google Books preview). Cambridge University Press. p. 86. ISBN 0521531195.
- ↑ Andreas Lawaty, Wiesław Mincer, Anna Domańska (2000). Deutsch-polnische Beziehungen in Geschichte und Gegenwart: Politik, Gesellschaft, Wirtschaft, Kultur in Epochen und Regionen (Google Books: Notes) (in German). Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 901. ISBN 3447042435.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Timothy Snyder (2010). Bloodlands: Europe Between Hitler and Stalin (Google Books preview). Basic Books. p. 305. ISBN 0465022901.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 T. Ron Jasinski-Herbert, ed., (2006). "They Are Burning Warsaw" (Chapter 5, Internet Archive). Warsaw Uprising of 1944. Polonia Today Online. Retrieved 27 September 2013.
- ↑ Chris Bishop, Michael Williams, SS: Hell on the Western Front. Zenith Imprint, 2003, page 92. ISBN 0760314020.
- ↑ Catherine Epstein (March 22, 2012). "Model Nazi" (Google Books). Model Nazi: Arthur Greiser and the Occupation of Western Poland. Oxford University Press. p. 338. ISBN 0199646538.
- ↑ Tomasz Szarota (2007). Karuzela na placu Krasińskich: studia i szkice z lat wojny i okupacji [Carousel on Krasiński Street, studies and sketches from the years of war and occupation] (Google Books search inside) (in Polish). Oficyna Wydawnicza RYTM. p. 393. ISBN 8373993363.
- ↑ 8.0 8.1 8.2 Janina Mankowska, Jerzy Janowski, Maciej Janaszek-Seydlitz (2011). "The Wola massacre". transl. by Pawel Boruciak. Powstanie Warszawskie 1944 - Oficjalna strona Stowarzyszenia Pamięci Powstania Warszawskiego (Official Webpage of the Society for the Warsaw Uprising Remembrance). Retrieved 28 September 2013.
- ↑ Tadeusz Klimaszewski (1959). Verbrennungskommando Warschau (Google Books search inside). Czytelnik. pp. 50–51.
- Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach), wydawnictwo MON, Warszawa 1962, pp. 244–260.
- Marek Getter, Straty Ludzkie i materialne w Powstaniu Warszawskim. BIULETYN Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej NR 8-9/2004.
- Tomasz Szarota, Karuzela na placu Krasińskich: studia i szkice z lat wojny i okupacji, ISBN 8373993363, Verlag Rytm, 2007, p. 393.