The assassination of Franz Kutschera, the Higher SS and Police Leader for the Warsaw District.
On 25 September 1943, Franz Kutschera was appointed SS and Police Commander in the Warsaw district of the General Government . He took up this position in October .
Kutschera's arrival in Warsaw coincided with a drastic intensification of terror against the inhabitants of the Polish capital. The methods by which the Nazis tried to terrorize the city were mass round-ups and executions of hostages , carried out in retaliation for any anti-German protests or signs of resistance. The shootings were carried out not only relatively secretly, in the ruins of the Warsaw Ghetto , but also openly, on the streets of the city. Moreover, in addition to political prisoners arrested by the Gestapo , ordinary Warsaw residents who left their homes either to go to work or shopping or for some other reason could be picked up in street roundups. The result could be being sent to work as labourers in Germany or to be held as a hostage in order to be shot in revenge for resistance activity. In these circumstances, no resident could be sure of his or her life, and every departure from home became a journey into the unknown.
Kutschera was not the originator of this policy. It existed before he arrived in Warsaw. However, Kutschera implemented it consistently and without reservations, apparently even overruling the occupation police who sought a less aggressive stance believing that acts of terror by the occupier led to increased resistance activity. The posters that appeared informing the locals of the mass killings bore his position, even if they were signed anonymously "SS and Police Commander for the Warsaw district") .
During the time that Kutschera was head of the police and SS in the Polish capital, at least one Varsavian was killed every hour – at least 4,300 people. This is how he got the name of "the executioner of Warsaw".
The Directorate of Underground Resistance, a branch of the Polish Home Army issued a death warrant for Kutschera in December 1943. At the same time, and totally independently, acting on his own initiative, Aleksander Kunicki, a former army officer who had voluntarily returned to Poland in the summer of 1940 and now working with the Home Army, attempted to locate the residence of Kutschera. His route from home to office was discovered and plans were made to assassinate him.
The first attempt on Kutschera's life was prepared for 28 January 1944 but had to be aborted after Kutschera failed to leave his home that day. A second attempt was made on 1 February 1944. At 8:50 that morning a group of Home Army soldiers were in place, armed with various British, Polish and German weapons.
At 9:09 Kutschera left his apartment at Aleja Róż number 2, in his limousine. As he approached the gate of the SS HQ, the Gawrońscy Villa at Al. Ujazdowskie 23, he was blocked by an Adler Triumph Junior driven by Michał Issajewicz, known as Miś. Bronisław Pietraszewicz and Zdzisław Poradzki jumped out of the Adler, ran up to Kutschera’s vehicle and opened fire. The driver was killed and Kutschera badly wounded. Michał Issajewicz, following up finished off Kutschera with a shot to the head. They searched his body for documents. Meanwhile, two other vehicles moved into position as German guards stationed nearby opened fire. An intense shootout erupted which led to three of the attackers being wounded, although all managed to get away.
In retaliation for Kutschera's death, the Nazis shot 300 hostages the next day – people who had had absolutely nothing to do with the attack. 100 hostages were murdered in a street execution on the corner of Al. Ujazdowskie and ul. Chopina, near the site of the attack. A poster went up in Warsaw on 2 February 1944 informing about the execution of Polish hostages in retaliation for the death of two Germans. It was signed by the commander of the SD and security police for the Warsaw district, Ludwig Hahn. I have done a separate video on the life and crimes of Ludwig Hahn.
The remaining two hundred were murdered in the ruins of the Warsaw ghetto. A fine of PLZ100m was levied on the population of the Warsaw district. Polish restaurants were ordered to close, Poles were banned from driving cars and motorcycles in Warsaw, and the curfew was moved from 20:00 to 19:00.
As with Heydrich, less than two years earlier in Prague, on 4 February 1944, the German occupation authorities organized a ceremonial funeral for Kutschera.The Polish population was temporarily displaced from the houses along the funeral procession route. A very peculiar element of the funeral ceremony was the wedding of the deceased Kutschera with Jane Lillian Steen - his Norwegian partner who was pregnant.
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