Public execution of prisoners of the Pawiak prison in Warsaw (1942)

Execution in Rembertów / Warsaw

Public execution of prisoners of the Pawiak prison in Warsaw (1942) was a crime committed by the German occupiers as part of repressive measures taken after the Polish Home Army soldiers' attack on the Warsaw railway junction. On October 16th, 1942, fifty prisoners of Pawiak were hanged in five places on the outskirts of Warsaw. It was the first public execution carried out by the Germans in the Nazi-occupied capital. Fifty convicts were hanged at dawn. From the evidence submitted by witnesses of executions it appears, that prisoners were brought in heavy goods vehicles to the gallows prepared in advance from telegraph poles. Halters were put on the necks of the convicts standing on transport boxes and then the vehicles left. In each of the places of execution there were two gallows. They were set up in the five points on the outskirts of Warsaw and in the suburban area - but always near the railway tracks:

- next to the level crossing, at Mszczonowska Street, Wola District;

- close to the Szczęśliwce Depot;

- in Toruńska Street (on the corner of Wysockiego Street), on Pelcowizna;

- next to the train station in Rembertów;

- close to the tracks of the railway in Marki;

On October 16th, notices appeared on the walls of  Warsaw, signed by dr Ludwig Hahn - SD and the police security commander for the Warsaw District. The notices reported that "fifty communists" had been hanged in retaliation for blowing up the railway tracks near the town.

Public execution made a big impression on the inhabitants of Warsaw. Crowds of people gathered under the gallows. Many of them tried to verify whether there weren't any of their relatives or friends among the victims. In the evening the convicts' bodies were removed from the gallows. At night Germans secretly buried the twenty bodies of those executed  on the "Skra" pitch, and the remaining bodies - on the nearby Jewish cemetery, at Okopowa Street. 

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