Massacre of Civilian Population
As the situation seemed to calm down, new forces from Saxony arrived, while major Preusker's soldiers were withdrawn. Soon another incident happened, on 7 August on Main Market Square, a lone horse started to run free, and German soldiers as a result started shooting in disorganised way, which led to death of some soldiers. Artillery was positioned within the city and Germans started to fire at civilian buildings for over an hour. Circa 100 civilians died in this incident. Afterwards, the German soldiers searched for survivors and when they found wounded civilians, they stabbed them to death with bayonets.
During the afternoon, the City Hall was set on fire, and officials executed. Afterwards Germans retreated and new shooting was started which continued during the whole night between 7 and 8 August. On Saturday morning, Germans returned to the city, taking 800 men prisoner and executing 80 of them on a nearby hill. The following day Germans started to systematically burn down the city and destroy it. It is mentioned that in cases civilians tried to stop the fire, they were murdered by German soldiers.
Shootings, murderer, plunder of shops and homes as well as burning down of the whole city lasted until 22 August, when the last home was burned on Nowoogrodowska street.
The Polish press in all territories of Partitions reported heavily on the event, some calling it "monstrous madness, that is unbelievable". The damages in Kalisz constituted 29,5% of the losses in the entire Congress Poland during World War I. The destruction has been compared to the massacre of Louvain, where a city was destroyed in similar manner by the Germans. Before the war Kalisz had 65,000 citizens; after the war, only 5,000.
Read more about this topic: Destruction Of Kalisz
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