Wola massacre

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Wola genocide
Part of Generalplan Ost and Nazi crimes against the Polish nation
The Wola Genocide Memorial on Górczewska Street at the location of the railway embankment where up to 10,000 people were shot and then burned by the Germans between 5 and 8 August 1944
Location	Wola, Warsaw
Date	5–12 August 1944
Target	Poles
Attack type	Mass murder, Collective punishment, Reprisal
Deaths	40,000–50,000[1]
Perpetrators	Nazi Germany, SS, Kaminski Brigade, Dirlewanger Brigade, Azerbaijani Legion
Motive	Warsaw Uprising suppression, Anti-Polish sentiment,

The Wola massacre (Polish: Rzeź Woli, lit. 'Wola slaughter') was the systematic killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 Poles in the Wola neighbourhood of the Polish capital city, Warsaw, by the German Waffen-SS as well as the mostly Russian SS-Sturmbrigade RONA[8] and the SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger, which took place from 5 to 12 August 1944. The massacre was ordered by Heinrich Himmler, who directed to kill "anything that moves" to stop the Warsaw Uprising soon after it began.^[a]

Tens of thousands of Polish civilians along with captured Home Army resistance fighters were murdered by the Germans in organised mass executions throughout Wola. Whole families, including babies, children and the elderly, were often shot on the spot, but some were killed after torture and sexual assault.^[2] Soldiers murdered patients in hospitals, killing them in their beds, as well as the doctors and nurses caring for them. Dogs were let loose to find survivors to be killed. The operation was led by Erich von dem Bach-Zelewski, though its main perpetrators were the Dirlewanger Brigade and the "RONA" Kaminski Brigade, whose forces committed the cruelest atrocities,^[3] drawing criticism from Bach-Zelewski himself.^[4] However, recent research has shown that the participation of the Dirlewanger and Kaminiski brigades in the beginning days of the massacre was limited, and it was the German police forces under Heinz Reinefarth that carried out the majority of murders.^[5]

The Germans anticipated that these atrocities would crush the insurrectionists' will to fight and put the uprising to a swift end.^[6] However, the ruthless pacification of Wola only stiffened Polish resistance, and it took another two months of heavy fighting for the Germans to force an agreement providing for the forces in Warsaw to give themselves up.

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