IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF SLAUGHTER OF WOLA

It is estimated that during the Warsaw Uprising some 200,000 Warsaw residents who resided on the left bank of the Vistula River – where the fighting took place – were murdered in mass executions conducted by the German military units that were designated to fight the Uprising.
In line with the order by Reichsfuhrer SS Himmler “every inhabitant must be killed” and the town “must be leveled to the ground”.

Himmler ordered the mobilization of special units and the SS Obergruppenfuhrer - Erich von dem Bach-Zalewski, experienced in the guerilla warfare, was given the overall command. On his orders, the SS Gruppenfuhrer Heinz Reinefarth formed a military unit, made up of:
• a regiment from S.S. RONA ( this was a collaborationist formation composed of Soviet nationals) under the command of Brigadefuhrer Bronisław Kamiński,
• an SS regiment under the command of Standartenfuhrer Oskar Dirlewanger,
• the 608 security regiment from Breslau under the command of Colonel Willy Schmidt, and
• a support battalion from the Paratroop Panzer “Herman Goring” SS Division.
• Cossack and Azerbaijani units, formed using the Soviet prisoners of war, were also used to quash the Warsaw Uprising.

On August 4, German special units were placed in readiness and on the next day, they attacked the western suburbs of Warsaw: Wola and Ochota.
The Germans used the tenements, courtyards, cellars, hospitals, churches, factory yards and cemeteries as places of brutal extermination. The blood of the murdered women, men, terrified children, priests, sick and helpless elderly and the ashes from their burned bodies covered every inch of the ground.

In the Warsaw suburb of Wola, many places bear testimony to the hideous and brutal murders by the German war criminals.

In the suburb of Wola, there are many monuments, commemorative stones and sometimes just simple crosses, often erected by private persons, standing where those terrible events took place.
There is no place in the Warsaw suburb of Wola that has not been soaked with the blood of its inhabitants.

The Warsaw suburb of Wola cries out for remembrance, for homage to the victims and for the JUDGEMENT of this crime!

The following eyewitnesses talked about the "Slaughter of Wola":
Czesław Adamusik, Piotr Brulikis (a relative of eyewitnesses), Wiesław Kępiński, Father Stanisaw Kicman, Jadwiga Łukasik,Elżbieta Rogala, Władysława Sławecka.
The tragic history of doctors and patients of the Wolski hospital was presented by prof. Jan Zielinski