Black Saturday | The Nazi bloodbath in Warsaw

Описание: Today we remember Black Saturday, one of the darkest days of the Warsaw Uprising…

‘German tactics were clear from the outset: no distinction was to be made between AK soldiers wearing identifying armbands & the civilian population. The SS units were responsible for terrible atrocities in the suburb of Wola, where they went from house to house pulling out all inhabitants… & slaughtering them. On… 5 August, it is estimated that 40,000 civilians were murdered… Von dem Bach recalled what he witnessed on entering Warsaw:

“Unbelievable confusion was reigning. Wild masses of policemen & soldiers were shooting civilians. I saw the heap of bodies splashed with gasoline & set afire. Toward that fire a woman with a small child in her arms was being led. I turned her about & asked her, ‘What is going on here?’ [From her escort] I received the answer that Hitler’s order, which did not allow for taking prisoners, but called for the total destruction of Warsaw, was being carried out. I… then called all the officers, who authenticated the existence of such an order. On my own responsibility, I nullified it immediately.”

‘The effect of the slaughter in Wola was that survivors fled into AK-held areas, & the knowledge that the Germans drew no distinction between civilians & fighters led to an increased feeling of solidarity between them. The Germans killed patients in hospitals, making no attempt to distinguish between civilian patients & wounded AK soldiers. They also used Polish civilians to shield their advance. Groups of men & women would be tied to ladders held horizontally & forced to advance on foot ahead of the German infantry, & women were forced to get on to German tanks to prevent Polish attacks. A nurse at an AK nursing station noted: “The legs of these women were like sieves, full of holes.”

‘The AK began the uprising planning to treat all Germans they took prisoner according to the Geneva Convention, & the evidence suggests that soldiers of the Wehrmacht were treated well. But the SS were tried by the underground courts & shot: “One SS officer who had murdered Jews… offered a suitcase full of jewellery for his life. It was not accepted.”’

~ Halik Kochanski