It was the last mass execution. To this day, it is not known why the Germans murdered them
“One of those who were to be shot was also Mrs. Maria Kumela, who was pregnant. I don’t know, maybe I’ll find out yet, but I liked the withdrawal. I remember this lady, I had a swarthy, Hungarian beauty (and what her relatives told her – raven hair). She turned gray during the night. son, Jan Kumel, whom I later became friends with – says Antoni Wiatr, who was born and grew up in the shadow of the shock, in fact with Głos24. Five days before withdrawing from Kraków, the German occupiers murdered 79 people in Dąbie.
Dąbie, currently part of District II Grzegórzki, until the official ID card in 1911. During the war, it was more of a suburb, inhabited by the main farmers and workers. The events up to January 15, 1945, were unexpected and not investigated from the level of what was done by the occupant, who conducted a study of the mass murder of his devices. they said that no one expected such actions. – The long-time collective shootings in the streets of the city were no longer used, certain concessions were made in the field of, for example, culture, attempts were made to cooperate and cooperate in the extremely violent milieu of collaborators, the official propaganda thundered against them the Bolshevik effect bringing benefits to Germans, Poles and all of Europe. Meanwhile, unexpectedly decided to take a sharp step – Ryszard Kotarba from the Krakow Institute of National Remembrance speaks in fact with Głos24 and provides: – For the residents, the independent part of the events has been preserved. soon after being notified, the alleged causes of the crime, retaliation for underground activities, liquidation of a local informer and other matters were discussed.
Antoni Wiatr knows stories about mass murder from stories. was born in 1950 and grew up in the shadow of the tragedy of war, which through crime was an unhealed wound. – On Monday, January 15, my godfather, Stefan Wiatr, my dad’s brother, was stopped around 5:00-6:00 am by the Germans on his way to work. Before they stopped him, they managed to throw a bunch of keys to the secret hiding places in the attic of the barrack at work on ul. Fabryczna, where rifles were introduced. They checked him in and let him go. He told me about it later. He was lucky because he was equal to the underground, but the higher leftist – Antoni said and presented: – Later, people said that Dabie called early in the morning, around 4:00 am, guarded by the order police and the Gestapo. Dąbie had natural borders in the form of the Vistula and Białucha rivers and the state embankment. Already like this. So if Dąbie was taken by force with small forces. The Germans knocked on the door, prepared lists according to them, they made captives. People were led to the place of interrogation, which the Germans organized in the “Rybacki” bar on the corner of the former ul. Krucza and ul. Miedziana (now Widok, the bar was more or less opposite the figure of St. John). From there, in groups, they led people to their deaths.
– In the vicinity of the present ul. My uncle lives in a semicircle, not far from Mr. and Mrs. Kumel. It was on their property, under the embankment, that the Germans marked the place of execution. There they led the captured, ordered them to lie on the ground and shot them in the back of the head. Those who showed signs of life were killed. One of the convicts, Jan Hajduga, managed to achieve it. His brother later told about it that after the Germans had left, it was all bloody on the Vistula embankment and I didn’t know which way it was supposed to run, sounding like that. There was one more person who was executed, Władysław Trynka, but he was so badly injured that he died after two days – says Mr Anthony. “One of those who were to be shot was also Mrs. Maria Kumela, who was pregnant. I don’t know, maybe I’ll find out yet, but I liked the withdrawal. I remember this lady, I had a swarthy, Hungarian beauty (and what her relatives told her – raven hair). She turned gray during the night. son, Jan Kumel, whom I later became friends with, he said.
About the tragic events that took place on January 15, 1945 in Dąbie, we installed with Ryszard Kotarba, a historian and an employee of the Krakow branch of the Institute of National Remembrance.
The mass execution in Krakow’s Dąbie takes on a particularly tragic connotation when we realize that it was carried out 5 days before the Red Army entered the city and that it was a sensation in itself, if we look at the way the occupation policy was conducted by the Germans towards the end. Would you agree?
– an achievement in the last stage of the occupation, from autumn 1944. Certain changes in the occupant’s policy towards Polish society. The long-time collective shootings in the streets of the city were no longer used, certain concessions were made in the field of, for example, culture, attempts were made to cooperate and cooperate in the extremely violent milieu of collaborators, the official propaganda thundered against them the Bolshevik effect bringing benefits to Germans, Poles and all of Europe. Meanwhile, unexpectedly, he decided to take a sharp step.
How to execute?
– Early in the morning on January 15, 1945. Interested Internet users observe that the area of the district is surrounded by police stations, and the police under the direction of the Gestapo enter the action. Stop for residents coming to work and gathering in the square near the local “Rybacki” bar At noon, the Germans brought 28 convicts from the Montelupich prison, and then they were arrested by employees of the “Hamerski” company and ten other authorities. Both groups of excluded people were led to the Vistula embankment. The victims were ordered to lie on the ground and shot in the back of the head were killed. The executions were carried out in several batches. After noticing the murder, one of the officers spoke in Polish to the gathered local users, declaring that there were people acting to the detriment of the Third Reich. 79 people were murdered. In later years, he was a valuable document describing the details of the crime committed. Before leaving, the Germans ordered the body to be buried at the place of execution. In 1945, the victim’s body was exhumed and ceremoniously transferred to a mass grave at the Rakowicki Cemetery (February 11, 1945). During the exhumation work, the families recognized their patients, only 8 people (among those brought from Montelupich) were buried as nameless victims.
Do we know otherwise that Germany decided to take such a step? In the press information about the mass murder, which appeared on the occasion of its anniversary, it is said that the victims were people involved in the conspiracy.
– For the residents, the preserved part of the events has been preserved. Soon after the notification, the alleged causes of the crime, retaliation for underground activities, the liquidation of a local informer and other matters were discussed. Of course, during the repressive actions, the Gestapo got into the hands of people from the underground, detained or observed, or often thanks to the activities of the agents, various types of informers, denunciations. Such cases are not uncommon in Krakow. There were so many denunciations that Kurt Heinemeyer, a well-known Gestapo officer interrogated after the war, testified that the Gestapo did not have enough people and technical means to check every notification.
Coming back to the events in Dąbie, then it was a distant suburb of Krakow, people were engaged in agriculture, crafts, and helped in their thoughts. Conspiratorial structures were weak. In any case, one must be careful in repeating the thesis about good conspiracy and the fight of the whole society against the occupier, which is encouraging. Among the victims were employees of the company “Johann Hamerski” from ul. Starowiślna, arrested on 8 January 1945 on the premises of the company and in the employment office at ul. Lublin (labor office), as well as attached prisoners from Montelupich – including a list actually confirming the existence of illegal activity. These people were interrogated in Pomorska Street and in prisons. Among other things, they asked about who trades with German soldiers, who has weapons, who killed the informer Sroka from Dąbie. However, these circumstances did not significantly affect the decision useful for execution.
In conclusion, it is difficult to find any events that directly investigate the crime. Even the case of the underground shooting of the informer Sroka (and his wife) – which was discussed a lot – is not a known pretext, moreover, the assassination of Sroka quite a long time ago (18 December 1944). Much earlier, for killing a German or a collaborator of the authorities, the routine shooting of 10 hostages from Montelupich was used, but at that time this form of reprisal was discontinued. It seems that the prerequisite for the authorities was effective propaganda, which is why society should be terrorized in comparison to the original front and prevent a possible act against the Germans leaving the city.
The results posted on a website to investigate the tragic events of January 15, 45, we met after a few years. What was such a delay?
– collected numbers of proceedings for Nazi crimes, which, from 1945, caused the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Krakow under the leadership of judge Jan Sehn, who was extremely distinguished in this field. Hundreds of case studies in Krakow and the Krakow region were examined, although they were dominated by the current needs of a great specialist in extradited crimes, where the accusation material was prepared by the Commission. It is worth mentioning here the trials of Rudolf Höss, the commandant of KL Auschwitz, the 40 entrances to the Auschwitz organization, the management process of the Płaszów camp, the trial of Josef Bühler, head of the management of the GG, and many others. Already at that time, more than 120 pages of documentation of the execution proceedings in Dąbie had been collected (ref. OKBZH Kr 426). After several years of recognized work, the commission was dissolved and, in the 1960s, the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes in Kraków was reactivated and several hundred proceedings were resumed, including proceedings concerning mass executions in Dąbie (p. 4/70). In such cases, it was not deceived that it would be another trial of a criminal, but the benefits of collecting rich information about the execution, course, victims and perpetrators of this and many other crimes could not be overestimated. This gigantic documentation collected from witnesses who were still alive at that time is of priceless value today.
Nothing is known about the perpetrators of this crime?
– Unfortunately, not much. It must be in writing that the German occupation command, including the office of the commander of the security police for the Krakow district, were in the process of evacuation and left the city. The last transports of the Montelupi family left behind, earlier documents concerning offices, e.g. Gestapo files, are not supported after the war.
Witnesses to the execution did not indicate any visible officers of the Krakow Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei). One person who drew attention was recognized. Antoni Kandzik, a twenty-five-year-old Silesian from Siemianowice, before 1939 a seminarian in the Congregation of Salvatorian Fathers in Krakow (dismissed from religious vows in 1942). Recruited by the Gestapo, he was a criminal official and translator in Pomorska Street (in 1944-45). Recognized during the event in Dąbie, he took part in detaining and identifying people, after the execution of speaking Polish to the gathered local residents. After the war, rumors spread that he lived in Hamburg and even had a monastery in Hungary.
Main photo: Archive of the Institute of National Remembrance