Piłsudski Square, Warsaw: A Night of SS Brutality

This blog is about Piłsudski Square in Warsaw. Today it is the big empty square between City Center and Old Town, it is where the Polish Tomb of the Unknown Soldiers is located. I used to walk this thinking it was a peaceful spacious walk area next to a park where you can honor the resting place for unknown soldiers and see the eternal fire and Polish Army guards. Until I read the testimony of Matthias Schenk, an 18 year old Wehrmacht sapper/explosives engineer sent as reinforcements to Warsaw attached to SS DIrlewanger units. What he said he witnessed on guard duty one night during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising is a great testimony of what kind of man Oskar Dirlewanger was and the kind of men that were in Warsaw during the Uprising. They terrified the other traditional SS men and Wehrmacht men and made them wonder what happened in Belarus during the anti-partisan years. Matthias’ testimony just this part alone while reading it in Warsaw made me emotional, disgusted, scared, sad, mad and makes my hair stand up with goosebumps when I stand here in Warsaw now. This is what he witnessed one night, remember this is just a small excerpt from his entire testimony.

“I was setting explosives under big doors, somewhere in Old Town. From inside we heard Nicht schießen! Nicht schießen! (don't shoot in German). The doors opened and a nurse appeared with a tiny white flag. We went inside with fixed bayonets. A huge hall with beds and mattresses on the floor. Wounded were everywhere. Besides Poles there were also wounded Germans. They begged the SS-men not to kill the Poles. A Polish officer, a doctor and 15 Polish Red Cross nurses surrendered the military hospital to us. The Dirlewangerers were following us. I hid one of the nurses behind the doors and managed to lock them. I heard after the war that she has survived. The SS-men killed all the wounded. They were breaking their heads with rifle butts. The wounded Germans were screaming and crying in despair. After that, the Dirlewangerers ran after the nurses; they were ripping clothes off them. We were driven out for guard duty. We heard women screaming.

In the evening, on Adolph Hitler's Square (now Piłsudzki Square) there was a roar as loud as during boxing fights. So I and my friend climbed the wall to see what was happening there. Soldiers of all units: Wehrmacht, SS, Kaminski's Cossacks (RONA), boys from Hitlerjugend (Hitler Youth); whistles, exhortations. Dirlewanger stood with his men and laughed. The nurses from the hospital were rushed through the square, naked with hands on their heads. Blood ran down their legs. The doctor was dragged behind them with a noose on his neck. He wore a rag, red maybe from blood and a thorn crown on top of the head. All were lead to the gallows where a few bodies were hanging already. When they were hanging one of the nurses, Dirlewanger kicked the bricks she was standing on. I couldn't watch that anymore. We ran to our quarters, but before we reached them we saw Kaminski’s Cossacks rushing with civilians. We called those 'Cossacks Hiwis' – from Hilfswillige (volunteers, willing to help). Next to them a Polish pregnant woman fell down. One of the Hiwis turned back and whipped her, she tried to escape on knees, but they killed her running over her with horses.”

This was after Wola and Ochota, two of the most brutal chapters of the Uprising. By this time, even Bach-Zelewski had attempted to rein in his men. If this is what Matthias Schenks witnessed after things had supposedly "calmed down," one can only imagine what it was like firsthand or what Belarus was like, where Dirlewanger himself admitted they did far worse… And yet, Warsaw today is a peaceful city, its streets no longer echoing with gunfire but with the footsteps of everyday life. Photos below are personal ones I took in Warsaw in January 2024