The street executions in Warsaw in 1943 and 1944 were the mass executions of Polish hostages carried out by the German occupiers on the streets of Warsaw.
The first executions on the streets of the capital took place in mid-October 1943, shortly after SS-Brigadeführer Franz Kutschera assumed the position of SS and police leader for the Warsaw District. During his rule, approximately 5,000 Poles were murdered in Warsaw, of whom at least 1,200 were executed directly on the city's streets. The victims were primarily ordinary Warsaw residents apprehended during mass roundups.
The Germans ceased summary executions in mid-February 1944, following the successful assassination of Kutschera by soldiers of the Home Army's Kedyw unit.
Origins Warsaw was considered by the German occupiers as the center of Polish resistance against the Nazi "new order". Despite attempts to degrade the former Polish capital to a provincial city within the General Government, Warsaw remained the center of Polish political, intellectual, and cultural life. It also served as the seat of the Polish Underground State authorities and hosted particularly strong and well-organized resistance structures. General Governor Hans Frank wrote in his diary on 14 December 1943:There is a one place in this country which is a source of all our misfortunes – it is Warsaw. Without Warsaw we wouldn't have four-fifths of the troubles which we're facing now. Warsaw is the focus of all disturbances, the place from which discontent is spread through the whole country.From the earliest days of the occupation, the Germans employed widespread terror against the capital's population. This terror was primarily directed at representatives of the Polish political and intellectual elite, the Jewish community, and individuals connected to the resistance movement in any way. Under trivial pretexts, the principle of collective responsibility was frequently applied. Warsaw's prisons and detention centers – Pawiak, the detention center on Daniłowiczowska Street, Mokotów Prison, and the Gestapo headquarters basement on Szucha Avenue – were filled with arrestees. Street roundups, forced labor deportations, concentration camp deportations, and mass executions became everyday occurrences. Political prisoners from Warsaw were usually secretly executed in areas inaccessible to outsiders. Execution sites included the parliamentary gardens, Kabaty Woods, Szwedzkie Góry in Bemowo, near Magdalenka, near Stefanów, Laski, , and on the outskirts of Kampinos Forest, and especially the "death glade" near Palmiry. From spring 1943, Polish political prisoners were mass executed in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto. A public exception was the hanging of 50 Poles on 16 October 1942.
The occupiers' policy hardened in the fall of 1943, as the Germans intensified efforts to break the growing strength of the Polish resistance movement. At the request of the Sicherheitspolizei, General Governor Hans Frank issued a decree on 2 October 1943 on combating attacks against the German reconstruction effort in the General Government (effective October 10). The decree fully sanctioned the occupiers' use of collective responsibility, stipulating, among other things, that instigators and accomplices are subject to the same punishment as perpetrators and attempted acts are punishable as completed acts. In practice, this meant that entirely random individuals could be executed. Confidential guidelines for applying this act specified that even illegal slaughter or black market trade could be considered an attack on the German reconstruction effort. The decree provided only one form of punishment – immediate execution. It also made the summary courts of the security police () the sole authorities competent to hear cases of attacks on the German reconstruction effort. According to Frank himself (19 October 1943), these courts were granted extraordinary powers, setting aside any inhibiting formal objections.
The increased harshness towards the population of the General Government translated particularly into increased repression against Warsaw's population, where the German police authorities assessed the situation as particularly tense. This issue was discussed, among other things, at a conference with Governor General Frank in Kraków on 27 September 1943. It was announced that a major roundup would be conducted in Warsaw targeting hiding Jews and individuals living in the city without registration. It was emphasized that all persons in Warsaw unable to sufficiently identify themselves would be shot, as all those hiding in Warsaw must be considered members of terrorist groups. During the conference, SS-Oberführer Walther Bierkamp, head of the SD and security police in the General Government, emphasized that the planned actions were intended to make the Polish population feel that the German authorities were now really getting serious.
The drastic intensification of terror against the capital's population coincided with SS-Brigadeführer Franz Kutschera taking over as SS and police leader for the Warsaw District (25 September 1943). The new SS- und Polizeiführer was a proponent of a hardline policy against the nations conquered by the Third Reich. The means by which he intended to pacify Warsaw were mass executions of hostages, carried out in retaliation for any anti-German actions. Unlike previous practices, part of the victims was planned to be publicly executed on the city's streets. The Germans hoped this would intimidate the capital's residents and drive a wedge between the resistance and the civilian population.
Street executions during Kutschera's rule
Beginning of the repressive operation
In the first decade of October 1943, rumors began circulating in Warsaw about a major repressive action planned by the occupier, allegedly aiming to murder 20,000 city residents. Meanwhile, on October 13 – three days after the Regulation on combating attacks on German reconstruction work… came into effect – Warsaw was struck by an unprecedented wave of street roundups. Mass raids took place in many parts of the city, particularly affecting the Śródmieście area (including the vicinity of the Warszawa Główna railway station and Three Crosses Square). Many people were also arrested in their homes. The underground Biuletyn Informacyjny estimated that the Germans arrested nearly 1,500 Warsaw residents that day. In Pawiak alone, between 350 and 450 people were detained. "Old" prisoners noted that the new arrivals were not registered in the prison records. Additionally, they were not subjected to the usual procedure, which included being sent to the baths or having their personal belongings deposited. Instead, the new prisoners were directed to special cells marked Aktion (English: Operation). Previously, only Jews caught on the "Aryan side" were treated this way in Pawiak, who were then executed summarily after a short stay in prison. For the next several days, Pawiak guards brutally tortured the prisoners brought in from the roundups. Several murders occurred.
From then on, roundups were carried out by the Germans almost daily – sometimes several times a day, in different parts of the city. The roundups involved Gestapo and Ordnungspolizei officers, Waffen-SS members, and occasionally Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe soldiers, as well as German youth from the Hitler Youth. Typically, German cordons closed off a larger section of a street or even entire blocks, after which the raid methodically rounded up all Polish men present on the streets, in shops, in cafes, or on halted trams. Sometimes women and elderly people were also caught. Those arrested were forced to stand with their hands raised against the nearest building, and after a superficial search – sometimes even without checking documents – they were loaded into police trucks and taken to Pawiak or to transition cells in the basement of the Gestapo building at 25 Szucha Avenue (so-called "trams"). The Germans did not honor any certificates, except those confirming employment in institutions working for the war effort (). Anyone trying to escape or reacting too slowly to commands was shot without warning. In the first week of the "operation" alone, 27 bodies of people shot during street roundups were brought to the Warsaw morgue at (including the bodies of several women). In Pawiak, roundup victims were crammed into crowded cells – without registration in prison records or fulfilling other formalities. They were not subjected to any investigation or even interrogations. Additionally, those detained in the "operation" were kept in strict isolation from the other prisoners. Only German or Ukrainian guards had access to their cells, who brutally mistreated the detainees. Murders in cells or in the prison yard were frequent.
Street roundups were accompanied by numerous individual arrests. These included officials of the Polish Municipal Board. Over time, the Germans reduced the frequency of the roundups, replacing them with increased activity of street patrols, which massively checked and searched random passersby. Anyone arousing any suspicion or attracting attention for various reasons was arrested and taken to Pawiak (sometimes up to 200 people were arrested in this way daily). Additionally, in the fall of 1943, roundups and mass arrests affected numerous towns in the Warsaw District – including Błonie, Garwolin, Legionowo, Łowicz, Mińsk Mazowiecki, Ostrów Mazowiecka, Pruszków, Radzymin, Rembertów, Sochaczew, Tłuszcz, and Żyrardów. People detained there were usually brought to Pawiak.
Large-scale roundups were not new to Warsaw residents. However, while they were previously organized to gather contingents of forced labor or to form transports to concentration camps, the victims of the October raids were treated as hostages. On the morning of October 15, the first of many Kutschera's announcements (appearing anonymously as Commander of the SS and police for the Warsaw District) was made through street loudspeakers. The announcement reported the execution of 7 people and announced that for every injured German, 10 Poles would be executed – the same day and at the site of the attack. Additionally, a list of 60 hostages to be executed first was published (in announcements broadcast in the evening, this list expanded to 100 names). Among the hostages were several women. The first street execution by the Germans took place the next day. Around 4:00 PM, 25 prisoners were taken from Pawiak, their hands tied with ropes and their eyes blindfolded with black bands. Five hostages were shot in the ruins of the ghetto, and the remaining twenty were executed at 141 in Mokotów (between Madaliński and Różana streets). On the night between October 16 and 17, another 9 prisoners were shot in the ghetto. The next day, another 25 hostages were taken from Pawiak. Five prisoners were murdered in the ghetto ruins, and the remaining twenty were executed next to the building at 17 Pius XI Street (now ). Street executions continued uninterrupted until mid-February 1944.
Course of a typical street execution
The executions carried out on the streets of Warsaw are often referred to as "public executions". This is a misleading term, as the Germans made efforts to prevent the residents of the capital from witnessing the executions. Streets where the executions were planned were cordoned off in advance by police lines. Nearby shops were closed, and all potential onlookers were chased away. The Germans also banned observing executions from the windows of houses. Those who did not comply with this order were shot without warning.