The Suppression of Mokotów was a wave of mass murders, looting, arson and rapes that swept through the Warsaw district of Mokotów during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Crimes against prisoners of war and civilians of the district were committed by the Germans until the capitulation of Mokotów on September 27, 1944, although they intensified in the first days of the uprising.
German crimes on the first day of the uprising On August 1, 1944, at 5 p.m., Home Army soldiers hit German facilities in all districts of occupied Warsaw. On that day the units of the 5th Home Army District "Mokotów" suffered heavy losses during unsuccessful attacks on the heavily strengthened German resistance points on Rakowiecka and Puławska Streets. The insurgents also failed to gain many other targets - such as barracks in schools on Kazimierzowska and Woronicza Streets, Fort Mokotów, or horse racing track in Służewiec.Adam Borkiewicz: Powstanie warszawskie. Zarys działań natury wojskowej. Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy „Pax”, 1969. p. 70-71 As a result of this defeat, a significant part of the units of the 5th District withdrew to the Kabaty Forest. On the other hand, five companies of the "Baszta" regiment under the command of Colonel Stanisław Kamiński "Daniel" manned residential flats in a square formed by streets: Odyńca - Goszczyński - Puławska - Niepodległości.Adam Borkiewicz: Powstanie warszawskie. Zarys działań natury wojskowej. Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy „Pax”, 1969. p. 82 However, in the following days the insurgents managed to expand their possessions and organize a strong resistance centre in Upper Mokotów.
On the night of August 1–2, 1944, SS, police and Wehrmacht units committed a number of war crimes in Mokotów. Insurgents taken captive were shot, wounded were killed. The Germans disregarded the fact that the Home Army soldiers conducted the fight openly and had the legal markings of a soldier, i.e. they fought in accordance with the Hague Convention.Antoni Przygoński: Powstanie warszawskie w sierpniu 1944 r. T. I. Warszawa: PWN, 1980. . p. 239 All Polish soldiers captured during the attack on German resistance points on Rakowiecka Street were murdered, as well as several dozen prisoners from the Home Army "Karpaty" battalion, which attacked the horse racing track in Służewiec.Maja Motyl, Stanisław Rutkowski: Powstanie Warszawskie – rejestr miejsc i faktów zbrodni. Warszawa: GKBZpNP-IPN, 1994. p. 204Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944. Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. . p. 207 The Germans also shot at least 19 wounded and captured insurgents from the Home Army "Olza" battalion, which was crushed during the attack on Fort Mokotów. Some of the victims were buried alive, which was confirmed by the results of the exhumation carried out in 1945.Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944. Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. . p. 177, 180-181Maja Motyl, Stanisław Rutkowski: Powstanie Warszawskie – rejestr miejsc i faktów zbrodni. Warszawa: GKBZpNP-IPN, 1994. p. 132
The first massacre of civilians from Mokotów also took place that night. After the repulse of the Polish attack, the Luftwaffe soldiers belonging to the Fliegerhorst-Kommandantur Warschau-Okecie personnel (English: "Command of the Okęcie Military Airfield") gathered nearly 500 civilians on the territory of Fort Mokotów. The displacements were accompanied by immediate executions. Many inhabitants of Bachmacka, Baboszewska and Syrynska Streets were murdered at that time. In the house at 97 Racławicka Street, the Germans gathered almost fourteen residents in a cellar and then murdered them with grenades.Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944. Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. . p. 180-181Maja Motyl, Stanisław Rutkowski: Powstanie Warszawskie – rejestr miejsc i faktów zbrodni. Warszawa: GKBZpNP-IPN, 1994. p. 131 The murders of prisoners and civilians were ordered by the commander of the Okęcie garrison, General Doerfler.
Hitler's order on the destruction of Warsaw and its execution in Mokotów In the wake of the outbreak of the uprising, Hitler gave an oral order to Reichsführer-SS Himmler and the Chief of Staff of the Supreme Command of the Land Forces (OKH), General Heinz Guderian, to level Warsaw with the ground and murder all its inhabitants.Antoni Przygoński: Powstanie warszawskie w sierpniu 1944 r. T. I. Warszawa: PWN, 1980. . p. 221 According to the SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, who was appointed commander of the forces appointed to suppress the uprising, the order was more or less as follows: "Every inhabitant should be killed, no prisoners should be taken. Warsaw is to be razed to the ground and in this way a terrifying example is to be created for the whole of Europe".Antoni Przygoński: Powstanie warszawskie w sierpniu 1944 r. T. I. Warszawa: PWN, 1980. . p. 223 Hitler's order to destroy Warsaw was also given to the commanders of the German garrison in Warsaw. SS-Oberführer Paul Otto Geibel, commander of the SS and the police (SS- und Polizeiführer) for the Warsaw district, testified after the war that on the evening of August 1, Himmler ordered him by phone: "You should destroy tens of thousands".Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach). Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962. p. 418 On August 2, the commander of the Warsaw garrison, General Reiner Stahel, ordered the Wehrmacht units subordinate to him to murder all men considered to be actual or potential insurgents and to take hostages from the civilian population (including women and children).Antoni Przygoński: Powstanie warszawskie w sierpniu 1944 r. T. I. Warszawa: PWN, 1980. . p. 241
Mokotów was manned by strong German units at that time - among others, the 3rd reserve SS armoured grenadier battalion in the barracks at Rakowiecka Street (SS-Stauferkaserne), anti-aircraft artillery batteries in the Mokotów Field, Luftwaffe infantry units in the Mokotów Fort and anti-aircraft artillery barracks in Puławska Street (Flakkaserne), and a gendarmerie unit in the district command building in Dworkowa Street. Despite this, the execution of Hitler's extermination order did not bring such tragic results in Mokotów as in Wola, Ochota or in the Southern Downtown (Śródmieście Południowe). The district was considered to be a peripheral section, so for a long time Germans did not carry out major offensive activities there. However, the German troops, passively behaving towards the insurgents, massacred the Polish civilians who were within their reach.Adam Borkiewicz: Powstanie warszawskie. Zarys działań natury wojskowej. Warszawa: Instytut Wydawniczy „Pax”, 1969. p. 330 House burnings, looting and rape of women were also carried out.Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944. Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. . p. 343Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach). Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962. p. 113-115 The survivors were expelled from their homes and sent to the transit camp in Pruszków, from where many people were later deported to concentration camps or sent to forced labour in the Third Reich.
Massacre in the Mokotów prison
When the uprising broke out, there were 794 prisoners in the Mokotów prison at Rakowiecka Street 37, including 41 minors.Maja Motyl, Stanisław Rutkowski: Powstanie Warszawskie – rejestr miejsc i faktów zbrodni. Warszawa: GKBZpNP-IPN, 1994. p. 135 On August 1, the building was attacked by Home Army soldiers who managed to enter the prison and occupy the administrative building, but were unable to reach the penitentiary buildings.Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944. Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. . p. 189
On August 2, the court inspector Kirchner, who was the head of the prison, was summoned to the nearby SS barracks at 4 Rakowiecka Street, SS-Obersturmführer Martin Patz, the commander of the 3rd SS reserve battalion of armoured grenadiers, told him that General Reiner Stahel had ordered the execution of all the prisoners. This decision was also approved by SS-Oberführer Geibel, who additionally ordered the execution of Polish guards. Kirchner then drew up a takeover report, on the basis of which he placed at Patz's disposal all the prisoners in the prison.Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944. Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. . p. 277 The same day, in the afternoon, an SS unit entered the prison. Nearly 60 prisoners were forced to dig three mass graves in the prison yard, after which they were shot with machine guns. Then the Germans started taking the remaining prisoners out of their cells and murdering them over the dug graves. Over 600 people imprisoned in Mokotów prison died during the several hours of execution.Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944. Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. . p. 278
The slaughter that took place in the prison courtyard was perfectly visible from the windows of the cells, and the prisoners who watched it realized that they were sentenced to death and that they had nothing to lose. The prisoners from units 6 and 7 on the second floor decided to take a desperate step and attacked the perpetrators. Later, under cover of night and with the help of the population of the surrounding houses, from 200 to 300Lesław M. Bartelski: Mokotów 1944. Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1986. . p. 278-279 prisoners managed to get to the area controlled by the insurgents.
Massacre in the Jesuit monastery at Rakowiecka Street
On the first day of the uprising, the House of Writers of the Society of Jesus at 61 Rakowiecka Street was not included in the fighting. A dozen or so civilians hid in the monastery as the shooting prevented them from returning home. In the morning of August 2, the House of Writers was bombarded by German anti-aircraft guns from the nearby Mokotow Field, and soon afterwards it was invaded by an SS unit of about 20 people, most probably sent from the nearby Stauferkaserne. The SS officers accused the people staying in the monastery of shooting German soldiers from the building. After a brief search, which did not lead to finding any evidence to support these accusations, the Germans led Father Edward Kosibowicz, the Superior of the monastery, out of the building, allegedly to provide additional explanations to the command. In fact, he was murdered with a shot to the back of his head in the Mokotow Field.Szymon Datner, Kazimierz Leszczyński (red.): Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku (w dokumentach). Warszawa: wydawnictwo MON, 1962. p. 124-127Felicjan Paluszkiewicz: Masakra w Klasztorze. Warszawa: wydawnictwo Rhetos, 2003. . p. 10-12
After some time, other Poles were crowded in a small room located in the basement of the monastery, after which couple of grenades were thrown in. The methodical killing of the injured lasted for many hours. More than 40 people fell victims to the massacre, including 8 priests and 8 brothers of the Society of Jesus. The bodies of the murdered were covered with gasoline and set on fire.Heavily wounded were burned alive with the dead, who were still in the place of execution. Fourteen people (mostly injured) survived as they managed to get out of the pile of bodies and escape from the monastery after the Germans left for a moment.
Murdering the civilian population