Antoni Bartoszek hanged by the Germans near the entrance to
his restaurant at Wawer 27 December 1939
​
The War Cemetery commemorating 107 victims of the Wawer
massacre, committed by German police in German-occupied Poland on 27 December
1939 in Warsaw
The Wawer massacre refers to the execution of 107 Polish
civilians on the night of 26 to 27 December 1939 by the Nazi German occupiers
of Wawer (near Warsaw), Poland. The execution was a response to the deaths of
two German NCOs. 120 people were arrested and 114 were shot, of whom 7
survived.
It is considered to be one of the first large scale
massacres of Polish civilians by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland.
Background
Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Poland in September 1939.
From the start, the war against Poland was intended to be the fulfilment of a
plan described by Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf. The main gist of the
plan was for all of Eastern Europe to become part of a Greater Germany, the
German Lebensraum (“living space”).
On the evening of 26 December, two known Polish criminals,
Marian Prasuła and Stanisław Dąbek, killed two German non-commissioned officers
from Baubataillon 538.[1][2] After learning of it, the acting commander of the
Ordnungspolizei in Warsaw, colonel Max Daume[3] ordered an immediate reprisal,
consisting of a series of arrests of random Polish males, aged 16 to 70, found
in the region where the killings occurred (in Wawer and the neighboring Anin
villages).[1][4]
​
Massacre
After a kangaroo court presided over by Major General
Friedrich Wilhelm Wenzl, 114 of the 120 people arrested – who had no knowledge
of the recent killings, many of whom were roused from their beds – were
sentenced to death.[1] They were not given the opportunity to plead their
case.[1] Of the 114, one managed to escape, 7 were shot but not killed and
managed to escape later, and 107 were shot dead.[1][2][4] The dead included one
professional military officer, one journalist, two Polish-American citizens and
a 12-year-old boy.[1][5] Both Jews and Christians were massacred along with
some Russians.[6] Some of the executed were not locals, but merely visiting
their families for Christmas.[1]
Aftermath
It was one of the earliest massacres (probably the second,
after the Bochnia massacre of 52 civilians on December 18) to occur in occupied
Poland. It was also one of the first instances of the large scale
implementation by Germany of the doctrine of collective responsibility in the
General Government in Poland since the end of the invasion in September.[4][7][8]
Soon after the massacre, a Polish youth resistance
organization, “Wawer”, was created.[1] It was part of the Szare
Szeregi (the underground Polish Scouting Association), and its first act was to
create a series of graffiti in Warsaw around the Christmas of 1940,
commemorating the massacre.[1][2][7] Members of the AK Wawer “Small
Sabotage” unit painted “Pomścimy Wawer” (“We’ll avenge
Wawer”) on Warsaw walls. At first, they painted the whole text, then to
save time they shortened it to two letters, P and W. Later they invented
Kotwica -“Anchor” – the symbol, a combination of these 2 letters, was
easy and fast to paint. Next kotwica gained more meanings – Polska Walcząca
(“Fighting Poland”) . It also stands for Wojsko Polskie (“Polish
Army”) and Powstanie Warszawskie (“Warsaw Uprising”). Finally
“Kotwica” became a patriotic symbol of defiance against the occupiers
and was painted on building walls everywhere. On 3 March 1947, the Polish
Supreme National Tribunal for the Trial of War Criminals (Najwyższy Trybunał
Narodowy) sentenced Max Daume to death.[1] Wilhelm Wenzel was extradited to
Poland by the Soviets in 1950 and executed in November 1951.[1] There is now a
monument in Wawer commemorating the massacre.
2 comments
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2015_Ankara_bombings?wprov=sfla1
2015, 109 people died.
Antoni Bartoszek hanged by the Germans near the entrance to
his restaurant at Wawer 27 December 1939
​
The War Cemetery commemorating 107 victims of the Wawer
massacre, committed by German police in German-occupied Poland on 27 December
1939 in Warsaw
The Wawer massacre refers to the execution of 107 Polish
civilians on the night of 26 to 27 December 1939 by the Nazi German occupiers
of Wawer (near Warsaw), Poland. The execution was a response to the deaths of
two German NCOs. 120 people were arrested and 114 were shot, of whom 7
survived.
It is considered to be one of the first large scale
massacres of Polish civilians by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland.
Background
Nazi Germany invaded and occupied Poland in September 1939.
From the start, the war against Poland was intended to be the fulfilment of a
plan described by Adolf Hitler in his book Mein Kampf. The main gist of the
plan was for all of Eastern Europe to become part of a Greater Germany, the
German Lebensraum (“living space”).
On the evening of 26 December, two known Polish criminals,
Marian Prasuła and Stanisław Dąbek, killed two German non-commissioned officers
from Baubataillon 538.[1][2] After learning of it, the acting commander of the
Ordnungspolizei in Warsaw, colonel Max Daume[3] ordered an immediate reprisal,
consisting of a series of arrests of random Polish males, aged 16 to 70, found
in the region where the killings occurred (in Wawer and the neighboring Anin
villages).[1][4]
​
Massacre
After a kangaroo court presided over by Major General
Friedrich Wilhelm Wenzl, 114 of the 120 people arrested – who had no knowledge
of the recent killings, many of whom were roused from their beds – were
sentenced to death.[1] They were not given the opportunity to plead their
case.[1] Of the 114, one managed to escape, 7 were shot but not killed and
managed to escape later, and 107 were shot dead.[1][2][4] The dead included one
professional military officer, one journalist, two Polish-American citizens and
a 12-year-old boy.[1][5] Both Jews and Christians were massacred along with
some Russians.[6] Some of the executed were not locals, but merely visiting
their families for Christmas.[1]
Aftermath
It was one of the earliest massacres (probably the second,
after the Bochnia massacre of 52 civilians on December 18) to occur in occupied
Poland. It was also one of the first instances of the large scale
implementation by Germany of the doctrine of collective responsibility in the
General Government in Poland since the end of the invasion in September.[4][7][8]
Soon after the massacre, a Polish youth resistance
organization, “Wawer”, was created.[1] It was part of the Szare
Szeregi (the underground Polish Scouting Association), and its first act was to
create a series of graffiti in Warsaw around the Christmas of 1940,
commemorating the massacre.[1][2][7] Members of the AK Wawer “Small
Sabotage” unit painted “Pomścimy Wawer” (“We’ll avenge
Wawer”) on Warsaw walls. At first, they painted the whole text, then to
save time they shortened it to two letters, P and W. Later they invented
Kotwica -“Anchor” – the symbol, a combination of these 2 letters, was
easy and fast to paint. Next kotwica gained more meanings – Polska Walcząca
(“Fighting Poland”) . It also stands for Wojsko Polskie (“Polish
Army”) and Powstanie Warszawskie (“Warsaw Uprising”). Finally
“Kotwica” became a patriotic symbol of defiance against the occupiers
and was painted on building walls everywhere. On 3 March 1947, the Polish
Supreme National Tribunal for the Trial of War Criminals (Najwyższy Trybunał
Narodowy) sentenced Max Daume to death.[1] Wilhelm Wenzel was extradited to
Poland by the Soviets in 1950 and executed in November 1951.[1] There is now a
monument in Wawer commemorating the massacre.