The Massacre of WOLA, Warsaw, Poland 1944

This single pink rose represents a memory, a simple symbol of the lives lost in the massacre at Wola, Warsaw, Poland. Many Australians will never have heard of Wola and will not know where it is. In 1944 one of the worst mass murders ever to occur in history happened in Wola, Warsaw. No photos, no glimpses or images of what our relatives looked like have survived - just names and it has taken 30 years to unearth their probable and in some instances certain fate which was already suspected. There are only the survivor stories to tell us what happened to our relatives that lost their lives in a period of seven days (some sources say 3 days) when an estimated 50,000 polish people were machine gunned to death, their bodies piled high and then set on fire in the streets and homes of Warsaw. In Wola some of the most evil atrocities were committed in the name of ""War".

It is difficult always to lose a loved one but just imagine losing your whole family - a generation of loved ones and in many cases to be forever wondering what happened to them.

Taken from the following website: http://www.warsawuprising.com/witness/atrocities3.htm

"According to evidence given by Erich von dem Bach at the Nürnberg trial, Himmler's order (issued on the strength of an order from Adolf Hitler), read as follows: 1. Captured insurrectionists shall be killed whether or not they fight in accordance with the Hague Convention. 2. The non-fighting part of the population, women, children, shall also be killed. 3. The whole city shall be razed to the ground, i.e. its buildings, streets, facilities, and everything within its borders. Wroniszewski 1970, pp. 128–29. "

and the following:

"On August 5, Dirlewanger’s SS convicts advanced about 1,000 yards. In every single street in Wola recaptured by the Germans, even far behind the actual battle line, the inhabitants were ordered to leave their homes, induced by promises of "evacuation." As soon as large groups of civilians assembled on the streets, they were not, however, taken to evacuation points, but were herded together in cemeteries, gardens, backyards, factory forecourts or squares. Soldiers then fired machine gun bursts into the human mass until there was no further sign of movement.

On August 5 no one was spared. Everyone perished, innocents, old men, women and children, too, as well as members of the AK.

The soldiers piled the corpses in large heaps, poured petrol over them and set them on fire. Then the scene of such atrocities was covered with rubble and debris from the ruined houses. Special German troops set all the nearby buildings on fire, and blew up factories and ruins. In the evening, the AK signaled London: "The Germans are burning Warsaw methodically. Many and large fires. Attempts of the civil population to extinguish them are frustrated by the Germans."

This blog is in remembrance of the members of our family "LOST":

My husbands grandfather, Michal Born who lived at 109 Panska, (see my previous blog) Warsaw had three sisters -Feliksa, Anna and Zofia and their families living in and around Warsaw in 1944.

Feliska Born who had married Boleslaw Sulkowski and together with their three children Witold Sulkowski, Roman Sulkowski and Boleslaw Sulkowski lived at Plocka 46, Wola, Warsaw. Also living in the same apartment was Anna Born who had married a Monczewski and had two children Klemens Monczewski and Bronislawa Monczewski. The third sister, Sofia had married an Ebel and lived at Izabelin just out of Warsaw and had 3 children Henryk, Gerard and Hanna Ebel.

Survivors tell as that many of the residents in Plocka were moved out of their homes and murdered on August 5th. Roman Sulkowski was an artist and painter and he was murdered at 26 Plocka Street at the Wola Hospital. He was a private in the Wola Branch of the Polish Home Army. He also operated as a member of the Polish Resistance under the code name KARP. His brother Witold Sulkowski was executed on Gorczewska and Zagloty-Moczydlo Streets, Warsaw. He was a cadet officer in the Polish Resistance and used the pseudonym MAT. Feliksa and Boleslaw and their son Boleslaw Sulkowski were most probably executed near Plocka Street but there is no confirmation of their death - they are still MISSING. It is also probable that the entire Monczewski family were also murdered during the Wola Massacre as they too lived in Plocka. There is no confirmation of their death - they are still MISSING.

Zofia Ebel was executed in Auschwitz Concentration Camp There is no record of her date of death. She had lived at Izabelin and settled in Lakach (or Frysztad) and was arrested and after a short imprisonment in Cesyn she was transported to Auschwitz Camp. Her son, henyrk Ebel was executed in Buchenwald Concentration Camp. The rest of the Ebel family are MISSING. These details we found on the site "LOST" where thousands of names have been contributed by survivors and the Polish Red Cross.

"By the end of the bloodbath seven days later, 40,000 to 60,000 civilians would be dead, most of them shot, many burned alive and plenty raped and mutilated in sickening, bestial ways in an orgy of killing that was so ferocious and perverted that Wola, Warsaw and Poland as a whole have not yet been able to complete properly the process of grieving and closure to this day."

References:

www.thefirstnews.com/article/the-wola-massacre-74-years-ago-today-hitlers-ferocious-ss-began-a-sickening-week-long-orgy-of-killings-in-the-polish-capital---one-of-the-largest-mass-murders-in-history-1511

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wola_massacre