Comment: On the 26th of October 1939 on a part of Polish lands which had not been incorporated into the Third Reich Germans established General Governorship with a capitol in Cracow. Warsaw, deprived of a metropolitan role, was to become a provincial town with future number of population about 130 thousand and area covering 1/20 of the previous one. It remained a residence of administration of a district which governor was throughout the occupation Ludwig Fischer.

After president Stefan Starzynski was arrested, a position of Polish major of the city was taken over by previous vice-president Julian Kulski. Polish City Board was supervised by a German starost (Stadthauptmann). Throughout the occupation German rules in Warsaw were basing on police structures and system of terror. The Nazi police and SS were a base of German system of oppression. In Warsaw the police forces were subordinate to a commnader of SS and police who had under his authority commanders of: security police (Kommandeur der Sicherheitspolizei und SD – KdS) and order police (Kommandeur der Ordungspolizei – KdO). Commander of SS and police was subordinate to higher SS and police commander in Cracow and to a governor of a district. Subsequent commanders of SS and police responsible for range and forms of terror and extermination in Warsaw and the district were:

SS – Gruppenführer Paul Moder (1940-1941)
SS – Oberführer Arpad Wigand (1941-1942)
SS – Oberführer dr Ferdinand von Sammern – Frankenegg (1942-19 IV 1943)
SS – Brigadeführer Jürgen Stroop (20IV 1943-IX 1943)
SS – Brigadeführer Franz Kutchera (X 1943-1 II 1944)
SS – Oberführer dr Herbert Böttcher (luty 1944)
SS – Brigadeführer Paul Otto Geibel (3 III 1944-17 I 1945)

A commander of the security police (KdS) office consisted of 5 departments, which dealt with administration and supervision of prison buildings and organization of prisons of the security police: Pawiak, a detention on 25 Szucha St. and so-called "educational labor camp" on Gesia St. and later on Litewska St.

The most numerous staff was employed at department IV - Gestapo. It was given special tasks of fighting resistance movement, applying means of repression against society and executing death plans. There were different kinds of kommandos, such as Sonderkommando SS of Hauptsturmführer Alfred Spilker, which in 1942-1944 was coordinating all actions against resistance movement of country scale.

Department V - the criminal police (kripo) dealt with cases of evasion of registration, ID fabrication, illegal trade, failure to observe curfew. The department was also preparing technical expertises for Gestapo.

Subsequent commanders of the security police were:

SS – Standartenführer dr Josef Meisinger (X1939-II 1941
SS – Obersturmbannführer Johannes Müller (III-X 1941)
SS – Obersturmbannführer dr Ludwig Hahn (X 1941- to the end of Nazi occupation).

Duties of the order police (Ordnungspolizei - Orpo) included: protection of offices and objects, traffic control, fire safety and air security, supervision of Polish police, protection of interests of German population, fighting illegal trade. Apart from the mentioned tasks the order police was taking part in round-ups, carried out executions, took part in collecting levies, it was also included in fight with resistance movement.

Since first days of the occupation Warsaw became a place of arrests and executions. Death penalty could be inflicted on anyone even for petty offences against German regulations. During first period of Nazi terror (from October 1939 to autumn 1940) executions were carried out in secret, usually out of the city, in Wawer, Zielonka, Palmiry, Szwedzkie Gorki and Las Kabacki. Within the city victims were being shot in the Sejm's gardens on Wiejska St. Already since May 1940 in course of "Action A-B" German were organizing mass arrests of Polish intelligentsia. Most of the arrested, including Maciej Rataj, a former marshal of the Sejm, Mieczyslaw Niedzialkowski, editor of "Robotnik", Jan Pohoski, a vice-president of Warsaw and Janusz Kusocinski, an Olympian, were then shot in Palmiry. Others were deported to concentration camps in Sachsenhausen and Oswiecim. Since autumn 1940 to September 1942 executions were being carried out in forests around the city in Palmiry, Las Kabacki, Magdalenka and in area of ghetto. Transports to concentration camps in Oswiecim and Ravensbrück were also intensified. Between July and half of September 1942 310 thousand Jews were deported to a concentration camp in Treblinka.

In next period, between October 1942 and October 1943, repressions against intelligentsia and workers. Among the arrested were Jan Piekalkiewicz, a Delegate of Government in the Country, general Stefan Grot-Rowecki, a AK commander, and two subsequent secretaries of KW PPR.

On the 16th of October 1942 Germans carried out the first public execution in Warsaw. Round-ups and executions in forests near Warsaw and in ruins of ghetto were continued. Military actions against the occupant and assassinations attempts organized by Home Army and People's Guard became also more frequent.

Another wave of terror began in October 1943 with a decree of general governor Hans Frank on "fighting attacks on German work of rebuilding GG (General Governorship)". The decree simplified procedure allowing for immediate rulings of death penalty by court-martials of the security police.

From the 13th of October 1943 to the 15th of February 1944 Germans increased number of street round-ups. Street megaphones were broadcasting decrees of Frank Kutschera, SS and police commander, on public execution of "hostages". Total number of executions, carried out in different points of the city, was 35. After a successful assassination attempt by AK on general Kutschera on the 2nd February 1944 Germans ended public executions and came back to secret executions in ruins of ghetto. Large transport of the arrested were also sent to concentration camps - Oswiecim, Ravensbrück, Gross-Rosen, Stutthof.

According to information on Nazi posters since the 15th of October 1943 to the 31st of July 1944 3215 people were executed in Warsaw. Real number of victims was much higher, reaching at least 9500 persons - secret executions were still carried out and number of people killed in public executions were higher than that given on the posters.

Aim of the posters was to intimidate Polish society. They were drawn up according to one pattern, presenting "offences" for which hostages had been sentenced to death. Most often those were assassinations attempts on a clerk, a soldier or a German policeman. There were also appeals to people of Warsaw for cooperation with the occupant and not attacking Germans anymore. Otherwise further executions of "hostages" were announced. In reality in often happened that people from lists of hostages were already dead when the posters were being hanged and names publicly announced. Contrary to the occupant's assumption public executions did not bring expected results. (Danuta Skorwider-Skiba)