Wola Massacre - Aftermath

Aftermath

Up until mid September, the Nazis were shooting all captured insurgents on the spot. After SS-Obergruppenführer Erich von dem Bach arrived in Warsaw (7 August 1944), it became clear that atrocities only stiffened the resistance and that some political solution should be found, considering the limited forces at the disposal of the German commander. The aim was to gain a significant victory to show the Polish Home Army the futility of further fighting and make them surrender. This did not immediately succeed, but from the end of September on, some of the captured Polish fighters were treated as prisoners of war and civilians were spared, and in the end the districts of Warsaw still held by insurgents capitulated on 3 October 1944.

No one belonging to the German forces who took part in the atrocities committed during the Warsaw uprising was ever prosecuted after the end of the war. The main perpetrators of the Wola and Ochota massacres were Heinz Reinefarth and Oskar Dirlewanger. Dirlewanger, who presided over the worst acts of violence, was arrested on June 1, 1945 by the French occupation troops while hiding under a false name near the town of Altshausen in Upper Swabia. He died on June 7, 1945 in a French prison camp at Altshausen, probably as a result of ill-treatment by his Polish guards. In 1945, Reinefarth was taken into custody by the British and American authorities but was never prosecuted for his actions in Warsaw despite Polish requests for his extradition. After a West German court released him citing a lack of evidence, Reinefarth enjoyed a successful post-war career as a lawyer becoming the mayor of Westerland, and a member of the Landtag of Schleswig-Holstein. The West German government also gave the former SS-Obergruppenführer a general's pension. He died in 1979.

A list of several former SS Dirlewanger members still alive in May 2008 was made available by the Warsaw Uprising Museum in May 2008.