Wola slaughter was the systematic killing of between 40,000 and 50,000 people in the Wola district of Poland’s capitalcity Warsaw by Nazi German troops during the early phase of the Warsaw Uprising.
From the 5th to the 12th of August 1944, tens of thousands of Polish civilians along with captured Home Army soldiers were brutally and systematically murdered by the Germans in organised mass executions throughout Wola. The Germans anticipated that these atrocitieswould crush the insurgents’ will to fight and put the uprising to a swift end.
However, the ruthless pacification of Wola only stiffenned Polish resistance, and it took another two months of heavy fighting for the Germans to regain the control of the city.