Figure 1.--Here the SS are killing Polish women. The women are blinfolded and seem to have stripped of their clothing, although they bare allowed to wear coats for modesty. Therecare being led to their execuation place in the Palmiry Foest near Warsaw. Thousands of Warsaw's citizens were shot here. We do not know who these women are. They are probably the wives of men targeted under Aktion A-B. We do not know what happened to their children. We are not sure who the Germans are, but we believe they are an SD detachment. Notice thateach woman is escorted by a German. The Germans would quickly develop more efficient killing operations.

Piasnika Wielka was just one of the places Poles were shot. There were other killing fields. The Germans seem to have separated the men and women before being shot in numbers. There were also individual shootings. Aristocrats and land owners might not be arrested, but shot on their estates along with wives, relatives, and older children. I am not sure what happened to the younger children. Many of the arrests took place in homes and often wives were arested with the men. Whether this was always the case we do not know. Again we do not yet know what happened to the younger children. Some older girls were sent to the Reich to work as servants. How extensive this was we do not know. Aristocrats were hereditary thus wipeing out the aristocracy meant the family. Most important positions in Poland were filled by men (doctors, lawyers, politicans, ect). We know that wives were arrested, but we are not positive just how common this was. We know that nuns and teachers were among the arrested. We do not know what age dectinctiions were made for children or if the police detained children when they arrested Poles at home. The actual killing operations were mostlly lining people up and shooting them. The operation was not very efficienr\t compared to later SS operations. We notice some poles being escorted individually to where they were to be shot.

Created: 6:56 AM 6/22/2010
Last updated: 6:56 AM 6/22/2010