|
The Wola massacre ((ポーランド語:Rzeź Woli, "Wola slaughter")) was the systematic killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 people in the Wola district of Poland's capital city Warsaw by Nazi German troops and collaborationist forces during the early phase of the Warsaw Uprising. From 5 to 12 August 1944, tens of thousands of Polish civilians along with captured Home Army resistance fighters were brutally and systematically murdered by the Germans in organised mass executions throughout Wola. The Germans anticipated that these atrocities would crush the insurgents' will to fight and put the uprising to a swift end.〔 However, the ruthless pacification of Wola only stiffened Polish resistance, and it took another two months of heavy fighting for the Germans to regain control of the city. ==Massacre== The Warsaw Uprising broke out on 1 August 1944 and during the first few days the Polish resistance managed to liberate most of Warsaw on the left bank of the river Vistula (an uprising also broke out in the small suburb of Praga on the right bank but was quickly suppressed by the Germans). Two days after the start of the fighting, ''SS'' General Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski was placed in command of all German forces in Warsaw. Following direct orders from ''SS-Reichfuhrer'' Heinrich Himmler to suppress the uprising without mercy, his strategy was to include the use of terror tactics against the inhabitants of Warsaw.〔(THE SLAUGHTER IN WOLA ) at Warsaw Uprising Museum〕 No distinction would be made between insurgents and civilians. Himmler's orders explicitly stated that Warsaw was to be completely destroyed and that the civilian population was to be exterminated. Professor Timothy Snyder, of Yale University, wrote that "the massacres in Wola had nothing in common with combat" as "the ratio of civilian to military dead was more than a thousand to one, even if military casualties on both sides are counted". On 5 August, three German battle groups started their advance towards the city centre from the western outskirts of the Wola district, along Wolska Street and Górczewska Street. The German forces consisted of units from the ''Wehrmacht'' and the SS Police Battalions, as well as the mostly Russian ''SS-Sturmbrigade RONA'' and the ''SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger'', an infamous ''Waffen SS'' penal unit led by Oskar Dirlewanger. British historian Martin Windrow described Dirlewanger's unit as a "terrifying rabble" of "cut-throats, () renegades, sadistic morons, and cashiered rejects from other units". Shortly after their advance towards the centre of Warsaw began, the two lead battle groups ''Kampfgruppe'' "Rohr" (led by Generalmajor Günter Rohr) and ''Kampfgruppe'' "Reinefarth" (led by Heinz Reinefarth) were halted by heavy fire from Polish resistance fighters. Unable to proceed forward, some of the German troops began to go from house to house carrying out their orders to shoot all inhabitants. Many civilians were shot on the spot but some were killed after torture and sexual assault. Estimates vary, but Reinefarth himself has estimated that up to 10,000 civilians were killed in the Wola district on 5 August alone, the first day of the operation.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=The Rape of Warsaw )〕 Most of the victims were the elderly, women and children. The majority of these atrocities were committed by troops under the command of ''SS-Oberführer'' Oskar Dirlewanger and ''SS-Brigadeführer'' Bronislav Kaminski. Research historian Martin Gilbert, from the University of Oxford, wrote:
On 5 August, the ''Zośka battalion'' of the Home Army had managed to liberate the Gęsiówka concentration camp and to take control of the strategically important surrounding area of the former Warsaw Ghetto with the aid of two captured Panther tanks belonging to a unit commanded by Wacław Micuta. Over the next few days of fighting this area became one of the main communication links between Wola and Warsaw's Old Town district, allowing insurgents and civilians alike to gradually withdraw from Wola ahead of the overwhelmingly superior German forces that had been deployed against them. On 7 August, the German ground forces were strengthened further. To enhance their effectiveness, the Germans began to use civilians as human shields when approaching positions held by the Polish resistance. These tactics combined with their superior numbers and firepower helped them to fight their way to Bankowy Square in the northern part of Warsaw's city centre and cut the Wola district in half. German units also burned down two local hospitals with some of the patients still inside. Hundreds of other patients and personnel were killed by indiscriminate gunfire and grenade attacks, or selected and led away for executions.〔 (Służba sanitarna w Powstaniu Warszawskim: Wola ), SPPW1944〕 The greatest number of killings took place at the railway embankment on Górczewska Street and two large factories on Wolska Street - the Ursus Factory at Wolska 55 and the Franaszka Factory at Wolska 41/45 - as well as the Pfeiffer Factory at 57/59 Okopowa Street. At each of these four locations, thousands of people were systematically executed in mass shootings, having been previously rounded up in other places and taken there in groups. Between 8 and 23 August the SS formed groups of men from the Wola district into the so-called ''Verbrennungskommando'' ("burning detachment"), who were forced to hide evidence of the massacre by burning the victims' bodies and homes.〔(【引用サイトリンク】title=Timeline )〕 Most of the men put to work in such groups were also later executed. On 12 August, the order was given to stop the indiscriminate killing of Polish civilians in Wola. Erich von dem Bach issued a new directive stating that captured civilians were to be evacuated from the city and deported to concentration camps or to ''Arbeitslager'' labour camps. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Wola massacre」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
|