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Warsaw to commemorate 1944 Wola massacre victims

05.08.2019 13:55
The Polish capital was on Monday set to commemorate a bloody Nazi German massacre in the city’s western Wola district during the first days of the 1944 Warsaw Uprising.
Renovated plaque commemorating nurses killed in the massacre. Powązki military cemetery in Warsaw.
Renovated plaque commemorating nurses killed in the massacre. Powązki military cemetery in Warsaw.Photo: PAP/Piotr Nowak

The massacre was the systematic killing of between 30,000 and 65,000 people by German troops during the early phase of the uprising, which started on August 1.

Monday’s commemorations were scheduled to be attended by former underground fighters who took part in the insurgency against the German occupation of Warsaw during World War II.

Between August 5 and 12, 1944, tens of thousands of Polish civilians along with captured Home Army resistance fighters were systematically murdered by the Germans in mass executions.

It is estimated that up to 10,000 civilians were killed in the Wola district on August 5 alone, the first day of the German operation. Many of the victims were the elderly, women and children.

The 1944 Warsaw Uprising lasted 63 days before being put down by better equipped and more numerous German forces.

The insurgency resulted in the death of some 18,000 Polish fighters and 200,000 civilians.

(jh/pk)

Source: IAR