Every inhabitant is to be killed

“Every inhabitant is to be killed, do not take prisoners. Warsaw is to be razed to the ground to set a deterrent example for the whole of Europe” 

- Adolf Hitler - 

Even during the first days of the uprising, this instruction was implemented in full. In certain parts of the city, captured Home Army soldiers and civilians who had been randomly picked up were executed. The Germans considered the rebels to be bandits and denied them treatment under the Geneva Conventions. They devastated every conquered area and committed murders, rapes and looting there. They spared neither women, children nor the sick; they carried out air raids on hospitals, despite visible Red Cross signs, and shot medical personnel and the wounded on the spot. The most cruel crimes were committed by the occupying forces in the western district of Wola. Within only a few days, approximately 40,000 men, women and children were pulled from their homes and shot.