Fischer Ambushed

Fischer Ambushed

Fischer Ambushed

Yesterday in 1944 during the Warsaw Uprising the occupation governor Ludwig Fischer was evacuating his HQ at Brühl Palace and was ambushed by Polish forces In the attack. 

In the attack Fischer was wounded, and several members of his entourage were either killed or wounded.

He would later be executed as a war criminal. 

He was targeted as part of the Underground’s “Operation Heads”. 

This was the code name for a series of assassinations of German officials by the Polish Resistance. 

Those targeted for assassination had been sentenced to death by Polish Underground Special Courts for crimes against Polish citizens. 

The operation's code name, literally "Operation Little Heads", was a sardonic reference to the Totenkopf ("Death's Head") insignia on Nazi German SS uniforms and headgear.

The crimes against the Poles were unlike those in the west, more draconian, brutal, and terrifying. 

The Home Army killed 361 gendarmes in 1943, and in 1944 another 584. 

In Warsaw alone 10 Germans were killed daily

From August to December 1942, the Home Army carried out 87 attacks on the German administration and members of the occupation forces. 

In 1943 this number grew radically. During the first four months of 1943, the Home Army increased these attacks to 514.

Some notable executions follow:

Franz Bürkl was an SS-Oberscharführer, member of the Gestapo, and commandant of Pawiak prison. He was killed on September 7, 1943.

August Kretschmann was an SS-Hauptscharfuhrer and commandant of the Gęsiówka prison camp. He was executed on September 24, 1943.

Herbert Schultz SS-Obersturmführer assassinated on 6 May 1943 during Operation Schultz.

Ewald Lange SS-Rottenführer, Gestapo assassinated on 22 May 1943 during Operation Lange by Kedyw section of Battalion Zośka.

Ernst Weffels was an SS-Sturmmann member of personnel of Pawiak prison. He was executed on October 1, 1943 for cruelty and executions in the Women's Prison in Pawiak

Franz Kutschera was an SS-Brigadeführer and Generalmajor of Polizei, SS and Police Leader of the Warsaw District. He was killed on February 1, 1944 by the Polish home army.

Eugen Bollodino worked in the unemployment office and organized łapanka (Polish euphemism for rounding up on the streets of civilians) of Poles to be sent to labor camps. He was killed in 1944.

Karl Freudenthal Kreishauptmann of powiat Garwolin responsible for the murder of Jews and Poles, and for the deportation of the local Jewish population to the ghetto. Killed July 5, 1944.

These are a few, more German war criminals were executed.