AUGUST 5 - DAILY CHRONICLES OF HISTORY

AUGUST 5

1944

Wola Massacre of Polish Citizens:  Through the initial phase of the Warsaw Uprising, between 40,000 and 50,000 Polish citizens, including members of the Polish resistance movement, Armia Krajowa (Home Army) were massacred by Nazi Germans and collaborators, in the Wola district of Warsaw.  Units of  Dirlewanger's Gang were joined by local police units in the mass shooting of Polish civilians. In a matter of two days, they rounded up and shot over 40,000 Polish people.  The Dirlewanger Gang burned three hospitals with patients still inside, while the nurses were "whipped, gang-raped and finally hanged naked, together with the doctors" to the accompaniment of the a popular German song "In München steht ein Hofbräuhaus". This was followed by a drunken melee as they raped and murdered their way through the Old Town of Warsaw, slaughtering citizens at random.  They murdered several thousand of the wounded in field hospitals, and set the buildings on fire with flamethrowers. According to reports, "the Dirlewanger brigade burned prisoners alive with gasoline, impaled babies on bayonets and stuck them out of windows and hanged women upside down from balconies." The Germans expected to quash the Uprising easily, but Polish resistance was unrelenting and fierce. The fighting in Wola  continued until August 5 to 12,  1944 after which the Germans regained control of the district.


Polish insurgents liberated Jews from a Nazi forced-labor camp:   During the first days of the Warsaw Uprising,  the "Zośka" scouting battalion of the Armia Krajowa's Radosław Group led by Ryszard Białous and Eugeniusz Stasiecki stormed into the Gęsiówka sub-camp in one of two German panther tanks where they captured and engaged the Germans in a fierce battle that ensued for about an hour and a half. The Poles succeeded in killing most of the SD guards, and captured others. Many of the Germans fled. The Polish insurgents set free 360 Jewish men and women, before they were forced to withdraw. Many of the freed Jews joined the ranks of the Polish resistance to fight against the Germans.  (Gęsiówka camp  was then used by the Soviet NKVD to imprison Polish resistance fighters, who subsisted in captivity under appalling living conditions.  Later the camp was taken over by the Polish communist secret police using the camp as a prison and labor camp, for criminal and political prisoners until 1956.)


Radium Institute:  Soon after the Warsaw Uprising began, the notorious SS RONA troops broke into the Radium Institute, a hospital and research centre, at 15 Wawelska Street, that was founded by Marie Curie.  After they looted the hospital, robbed the staff and patients, they set fire to the library, destroyed the food, pharmacy and much of the hospital equipment.  They were about to execute the staff and patients but decided to keep the patients and eight staff members, while the remainder were sent to Zieleniak camp. That evening, the nurses were gang-raped.  The next day the building was set on fire and some of the patients were burned alive. About  60 people escaped death by hiding in the building's cellar and chimneys.  By August 19, RONA troops captured the remaining survivors in the building, and murdered 50 critically-ill patients on the spot.  The remainder were sent to the Zieleniak camp, where they were, according to eye-witness reports,  executed by a shot to the back of the head. In total, about 170 people (patients and staff) were murdered


SECRET AND PERSONAL FROM PREMIER J. V. STALIN TO THE PRIME MINISTER, Mr W. CHURCHILL (no.313)  "I am in receipt of your message about Warsaw.  I think that the information given to you by the Poles is greatly exaggerated and unreliable. I am impelled to this conclusion by the mere fact that the Polish émigrés claim that they have all but captured Vilna with Home Army units, and have even announced this on the radio. But, of course, that has nothing at all to do with the facts. The Home Army consists of a few detachments misnamed divisions. They have neither guns, aircraft nor tanks. I cannot imagine detachments like those taking Warsaw, which the Germans are defending with four armoured divisions, including the Hermann Goering Division."  (August 5, 1944)

Warsaw Uprising 1944: August 10 - Secret Polish Radio Stations

Polish-controlled area (in red)

The Brigade SS-RONA continues its killing spree in Ochota. Hundreds more fall victim to random shootings. Meanwhile, in City Centre the Germans are attempting to clear an East-West artery but are meeting heavy resistance from Polish insurgents.

Much of the Polish stronghold has steadily been lost to the Germans. In Wola, German offenses escalate however Polish insurgents continue to hold their positions in Okopowa Street, the cemeteries and Stawki Street. Meanwhile insurgents in Powisle have strengthened their positions. German artillery continues to bomb the power station that supplies Warsaw with electricity. There is no report on the degree of damages sustained.

Soldiers from Kolegium "A" of Kedyw on Stawki Street in Wola district

During the afternoon German airplanes flew over Warsaw dropping leaflets all over the city. The message calls on Varsovians to leave the city and promises them accomodations, jobs and medical care but threatens "consequences" to those who do not comply.

During the night British planes flew over Srodmiescie and Mokotow and made successful airdrops of arms and ammunition. For the first time since the Uprising began, Polish troops in Kampinos receive their first airdrop of arms and ammunition.

The BBC announced acknowledged today that they have been receiving broadcasts from Station Lighting for the past few days. The mood among Polish fighters is one of elation. It has provided them with assurance that the outside world has heard them and that allied intervention is very near.

There are 57 secret Polish radio stations spread out all throughout Nazi-occupied Poland. But shortly after the Uprising began over a week ago, numerous stations have lost direct contact with London. A few stations are still on the air including the one under the direction of Stefan Korbonski, Head of the Department of Civil Resistance. He is sharing radio facilities with other Polish stations including the radio station of the Polish Peasant Party. Polish radio is being transmitted in several languages (Polish, English and German), and to several target areas: to the Polish Supreme Commander-in-Chief in London, to Polish base near Bari, Italy,  and to insurgents fighting in Warsaw, and other areas throughout the nation.

There is constant danger that the Germans will discover the location of the secret radio stations. Needless to say it is most dangerous during broadcasts. German planes have increased their reconnaissance activities in an all-out effort to pinpoint the precise locations of these secret Polish radio transmissions.  If  found, Germans troops are under orders to destroy them with heavy artillery fire and bombs.  Many insurgents are acting as look-outs; some have been spotted clinging to rooftops watching the skies, ready to give the alarm as soon as German planes are spotted on the approach.

Polish Underground Radio

Fake Polish Orders (by Germans)

The Germans have set up a shadow radio station operating under the same frequency as that of the Polish station Lightning. They are broadcasting in the Polish language, supplying misinformation and misleading orders from “Polish Command” in an effort to disrupt Polish communications. On the second day of the Uprising, German planes dropped leaflets claiming to be orders from Polish General Bor, urging Polish insurgents to join the German army in its fight against Soviet troops.

Tass, the Soviet news agency is also conducting extensive interference over Polish radio. It is interesting to note that just days before the Warsaw Uprising broke out the Soviet-based Kosciuszko radio station broadcast a rallying cry for all Poles to begin the Uprising. Tadeusz Kosciuzko was one of Poland’s greatest heroes. He was the Supreme Commander of the Polish Armed Forces and led the 1794 Kosciuszko Uprising against Russia and Prussia. Prior to that he was a Colonel in the Continental Army and fought in the American Revolutionary War. For his meritorious service he was given rank of Brigadier General and became a naturalized citizen of the United States of America.

Colonel Mitkiewicz

Colonel Mitkiewicz was in contact with Polish military headquarters in London and complained that he was stonewalled when he had requested the Combined Chiefs of Staff to provide assistance to the insurgents in Warsaw. The CCS asserted that the decision could only be made by British officials in London, but when Mitkiewicz directed his requests there, he was told that Warsaw is within the zone of activity of the Soviet military. As such, it was impossible for London to intervene without the knowledge and approval of Soviet Command.

Warsaw 1944 (00:03:31m)