Verbrennungskommando Warschau
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''Verbrennungskommando Warschau'' (german: Warsaw burning detachment) was a
slave labour Slavery and enslavement are both the state and the condition of being a slave—someone forbidden to quit one's service for an enslaver, and who is treated by the enslaver as property. Slavery typically involves slaves being made to perf ...
unit formed by the '' SS'' following the
Wola massacre The Wola massacre ( pl, 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 Wehrmacht and fellow Axis collaborators in the Az ...
of around 40,000 to 50,000 Polish civilians by the Germans in the early days of the
Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...
of 1944. The purpose of the ''Verbrennungskommando'' was to remove evidence of the citywide campaign of mass murder that took place during the Uprising, by collecting corpses into large piles and burning them in open-air
pyre A pyre ( grc, πυρά; ''pyrá'', from , ''pyr'', "fire"), also known as a funeral pyre, is a structure, usually made of wood, for burning a body as part of a funeral rite or execution. As a form of cremation, a body is placed upon or under the ...
s on Elektoralna and Chłodna Streets among others. The squad was directly subordinated to '' SS-Obersturmführer'' Neumann and was also earmarked for execution after the completion of their work.


Background

During the
Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...
, Polish civilians were indiscriminately killed by the Germans and their Ukrainian and Russian collaborators in punitive mass executions, the most notorious of which took place in
Wola Wola (, ) is a district in western Warsaw, Poland, formerly the village of Wielka Wola, incorporated into Warsaw in 1916. An industrial area with traditions reaching back to the early 19th century, it underwent a transformation into an office (co ...
,
Ochota Ochota () is a district of Warsaw, Poland, located in the central part of the Polish capital city's urban agglomeration. The biggest housing estates of Ochota are: * Kolonia Lubeckiego * Kolonia Staszica * Filtry * Rakowiec * Szosa Krakowska ...
and in Warsaw's Old Town, based on the explicit orders of
Heinrich Himmler Heinrich Luitpold Himmler (; 7 October 1900 – 23 May 1945) was of the (Protection Squadron; SS), and a leading member of the Nazi Party of Germany. Himmler was one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany and a main architect of th ...
, who said: "Every inhabitant of Warsaw is to be shot. Prisoners will not be taken; the town is to be razed to the ground." Most of the atrocities were committed by troops under the command of SS men
Oskar Dirlewanger Oskar Paul Dirlewanger (26 September 1895 – ) was a German military officer ('' SS-Oberführer'') who served as the founder and commander of the Nazi SS penal unit "Dirlewanger" during World War II. Serving in Poland and in Belarus, his nam ...
,French L. MacLean, The Cruel Hunters: SS-Sonderkommando Dirlewanger Hitler's Most Notorious Anti-Partisan Unit (Atglen:
Schiffer Publishing Schiffer Publishing Ltd. (also known for its imprints Schiffer, Schiffer Craft, Schiffer Military History, Schiffer Kids, REDFeather MBS, Cornell Maritime Press, Tidewater Publishers, Thrums Books, Geared Up Publications ) is a family-owned publi ...
, 1998), pp. 175-99.
Heinrich Reinefarth, and
Bronislav Kaminski Bronislav Vladislavovich Stroganof Kaminski (russian: Бронисла́в Владисла́вович Ками́нский, 16 June 1899 – 28 August 1944) was a Russian Nazi collaborator and the commander of the Kaminski Brigade, an anti-par ...
. Between 8 and 23 August 1944, the Germans organised several dozen captured Poles into a cremation commando which they named ''Verbrennungskommando''. These men were forced to pick through the ruins and collect thousands of the victims' bodies under strict supervision of German overseers. In the first two weeks the ''Verbrennungskommando'' cremated an estimated 6,000 bodies. Tadeusz Klimaszewski, a prisoner who survived the cremation commando, and later wrote a
memoir A memoir (; , ) is any nonfiction narrative writing based in the author's personal memories. The assertions made in the work are thus understood to be factual. While memoir has historically been defined as a subcategory of biography or autobi ...
about the experience called ''Verbrennungskommando Warschau'' (published in 1959 in Warsaw), described his first day of corpse disposal at the Franaszek Factory in the following way: The ''Verbrennungskommando'' members were not informed about Himmler's true intentions, but were promised a return to "normalcy", as soon as the "bandits" were punished. They were told that their "duty" to burn the dead bodies was therefore in their own interest. There was one Jewish prisoner among them. After the war, most of the ashes dumped into bomb holes and ditches by the cremation commando were exhumed in 1947 and buried in Warsaw cemeteries. They included 5,578 kilograms of human remains from Stalina Avenue, 2,180 kilograms from the military prison at Zamenhofa, 1,029 kilograms from 60 Wolska Street, 1,120 kilograms from Sowinski Park, 600 kilograms from 47 Dzielna Street, 600 kilograms from the Franaszek Factory, 192 kilograms from 59 Okopowa Street, and 120 kilograms from "Dobrolin"
Wolska Street Wolska ( pl, Ulica Wolska, lit. Wola Street) is the main artery of Warsaw's borough of Wola. Initially Wola district was but a western suburb of Warsaw and a road leading to it was dubbed "droga wolska" - Wola road. In 1725 parts of that road close ...
, among several other locations. The full list of burial sites was then delivered to the Regional Commission for the Investigation of Nazi German Crimes in Poland.


See also

*
Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising ( pl, powstanie warszawskie; german: Warschauer Aufstand) was a major World War II operation by the Polish resistance movement in World War II, Polish underground resistance to liberate Warsaw from German occupation. It occ ...
*
Wola Massacre The Wola massacre ( pl, 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 Wehrmacht and fellow Axis collaborators in the Az ...
* Monument to Victims of the Wola Massacre * Wola Massacre Memorial on Górczewska Street *
Ochota massacre The Ochota Massacre (in Polish: ''Rzeź Ochoty'' – ''"Ochota slaughter"'') was a wave of German-orchestrated mass murder, looting, arson, torture and rape, which swept through the Warsaw district of Ochota from 4–25 August 1944, during the Wa ...
*
Warsaw Uprising Museum The Warsaw Rising Museum ( pl, Muzeum Powstania Warszawskiego), in the Wola district of Warsaw, Poland, is dedicated to the Warsaw Uprising of 1944. The institution of the museum was established in 1983, but no construction work took place for m ...
*
Military history of the Warsaw Uprising The Warsaw Uprising began with simultaneous coordinated attacks at 17:00 hours on August 1, 1944 (W-hour). The uprising was intended to last a few days until Soviet forces arrived; however, this never happened, and the Polish forces had to fight a ...
*
Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles Crimes against the Polish nation committed by Nazi Germany and Axis collaborationist forces during the invasion of Poland, along with auxiliary battalions during the subsequent occupation of Poland in World War II, consisted of the murder of ...
*
Chronicles of Terror Chronicles of Terror is a digital internet archive established by the in August 2016. Initially, it provided access to the depositions of Polish citizens who after World War II were interviewed as witnesses before the Main Commission for the Inves ...


Notes and references

* ''Zbrodnie okupanta w czasie powstania warszawskiego w 1944 roku'' (w dokumentach), wydawnictwo MON, Warszawa 1962, pp. 244–260. * Marek Getter, ''Straty Ludzkie i materialne w Powstaniu Warszawskim''. BIULETYN Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej NR 8-9/2004. * Tomasz Szarota, ''Karuzela na placu Krasińskich: studia i szkice z lat wojny i okupacji'', {{ISBN, 8373993363, Verlag Rytm, 2007, p. 393. Nazi war crimes during the Warsaw Uprising