On the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of the Warsaw Uprising, president Andrzej Duda and president of Germany Frank-Walter Steinmeier commemorated the victims of the massacre of Warsaw Wola, laying a wreath at the site of the largest mass execution of residents of this territory by German troops in early August 1944.
During the Warsaw Uprising, German troops committed a number of mass murders on the city's civilian population. 1 of the biggest crimes was the alleged Wola massacre, resulting in respective tens of thousands of inhabitants of this territory being murdered in the first days of August 1944.
The victims of Wola massacre were commemorated on Thursday by Presidents Duda and Steinmeier, who laid wreaths at a monument in Warsaw's Młynow, located in a place where 1 of the largest mass executions was carried out in Warsaw during the Uprising and the largest in Wola. Thursday's ceremony was besides attended by the Scouts ZHP and ZHR, people who witnessed those events and residents of Wola.
President Duda said during the ceremony that in the first days of August 1944 "hitlerian troops, and above all SS troops began the extermination of the capital's population". Until about 12 August – he said – about 60,000 civilians were murdered on Wola. – They were brought out of their houses, their tenement houses, their houses were set on fire, and they themselves were shot in the streets, and their bodies were burned. A twelve tons of ashes were collected from the streets and squares of Wola to be laid in a common grave – he said.
According to the President, the 80th anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising is not only an crucial minute "related to our memory of the victims of the German genocide", but besides a symbolic moment. The attitude of the president of Germany during the celebrations, which "lays a wreath, bows its head, kneels through the commemorative cross", requires respect," Duda stressed.
President Steinmeier arrived in Warsaw on Wednesday to attend the anniversary celebrations. On Wednesday during the ceremony in Krasiński Square he said that Germans must not forget the Uprising. – We cannot and will not forget how immense suffering we have brought to the neighbouring country... It was German nationalism, imperialism and racism that led to these terrible crimes against which Poland defended itself in the Warsaw Uprising. It can never happen again. said Steinmeier.
During Thursday's celebrations at the monument in Młynow, there were besides respective demonstrators with a banner and a megaphone who shouted at the German president the slogan "Wir wollen Kriegsreparationen" – "we want war reparations".
The monument, at which the Presidents of Poland and Germany laid a wreath on Thursday, is located close the railway embankment in the area of Górczewska Street, where on 5-12 August 1944. The Germans murdered about 12,000 men, women and children from Wola district. Among the victims were patients, doctors, medical students and employees of Wolski infirmary at 26 Płocka Street. The victims' bodies were burned at the scene. Their ashes were transferred on 6 August 1946 to the Kurhanu at the monument of Polegli-Unbeaten at the Warsaw Insurrection Cemetery.
The slaughter of the inhabitants of Wola Capital was part of the actions of the Germans who, at Adolf Hitler's direct command, proceeded to plan to demolish Warsaw and execution its inhabitants. In mass executions, 40 to 60 1000 residents of the territory were murdered, according to various estimates. The large-scale extermination ended on 7 August, but lasted to a lesser degree until 12 August, erstwhile Gen. Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski issued a ban on the execution of the civilian population of Warsaw, which was to be utilized as a free labour force for the German war machine.
The Warsaw Uprising broke out on 1 August 1944 at 5 p.m. It was the largest underground military action in the German-occupied Europe and the largest independency movement in occupied Poland. Around 40-50 1000 insurgents entered the conflict in the capital. Planned for respective days, it lasted more than 2 months. Around 18,000 insurgents were killed in the fighting in Warsaw, 25 1000 wounded. The failure among the civilian population was about 180 000 killed. The remaining inhabitants of Warsaw, about 500 1000 people, were expelled from the city.
Source: PAP
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