Ochota Massacre - The Radium Institute

The Radium Institute

On August 5–6, the RONA units broke into the Radium Institute (Pol.: Instytut Radowy, founded by Maria Skłodowska-Curie) on Wawelska 15 street, first looting the hospital and robbing the staff and patients, then destroying the hospital (library set on fire; food stock, pharmacy and hospital equipment destroyed). The 90 patients of the Institute and the 80 members of its staff (including family members) were to be immediately executed, but after a half hour debate, it was decided that the patients and eight staff members would be left, while the rest were marched off to the "Zieleniak" transitional camp. On the night of August 5, rapes began on the remaining hospital staff. On August 6, the building was set on fire, with some patients burning alive. The remaining 60 people managed to avoid death by seeking shelter in the building's cellar and chimneys.

On August 9–10, the survivors were discovered, and RONA set the building on fire again. On August 19, RONA troops pulled all people still alive out of the building and killed the critically ill patients on the spot. Some 50 surviving patients of the Radium Institute were sent to the "Zieleniak" transitional camp and on August 19 they, too, were executed (according to evidence of eyewitnesses, by a shot in the back of the head) and then burned in a pile in the gymnasium. Prior to the execution, one female patient (of Ukrainian descent) scheduled for execution, was released. In total, about 170 people (patients and staff) were murdered.