Zieleniak

In the wake of the Warsaw uprisning (August 1 – October 2, 1944), the germans carried out a series of raids and massacres in Warsaw’s Ochota district. Residences was looted and its occupants arrested. The Germans therefore set up a temporary camp in a local market called Zieleniak. Already in the evening of August 5, between 10,000 – 20,000 people had been imprisoned. The camp was surrounded by a brick wall and within the camp, murders, rapes and beatings of the prisoners were committed. Many of the perpetrators came from the SS Sturmbrigade RONA, an anti-partisan unit composed of voluntary Russians. The camp quickly became overcrowded and a few days later the Germans began deporting prisoners to a larger camp in Pruszkow, western Warsaw. The Germans closed the camp on August 19, and during its brief existence, about 1,000 people were murdered.