Aktion Warschau. Die Plünderung des polnischen Gutes im aufständischen Warschau [Aktion Warschau. The Plunder of Polish Property in Insurgent Warsaw]

Abstract

The plundering of Polish property by German forces during the Warsaw Uprising of 1944 has been largely overlooked in the existing scholarly literature, or attributed solely to undisciplined individual soldiers and non-German units under Własow and Kamiński. The organized looting operation codenamed "Aktion Warschau", ordered by the highest Nazi authorities, has remained almost entirely unexamined.
This article aims to reconstruct the circumstances, course, and scale of the organized plunder of Polish property in insurgent Warsaw, and to establish the responsibility of the Nazi leadership – in particular Reinefahrt, Greiser, and Himmler – for this operation.
The study draws on previously unexploited archival documents from the Archiwum Państwowe Miasta Poznania i Województwa Poznańskiego, in particular the files of the Reichsstatthalter in the Reichsgau Wartheland (Nos. 2807-2815), as well as materials from the Archive of the Main Commission for the Investigation of Nazi Crimes in Poland.
The analysis demonstrates that the plunder of Polish private and communal property was not a spontaneous act but a well-prepared and coordinated Plünderungsaktion. Within ten days of Reinefahrt's arrival in Warsaw, the basic framework of the operation had been established. By 10 September 1944 alone, between 6,000 and 7,000 railway wagons of Beutegut had arrived in the Wartheland. The looted goods – including foodstuffs, raw materials, machinery, medicines, and furniture – were distributed on the orders of Gauleiter Greiser among Nazi institutions, authorities, and the German civilian population. The study proves that "Aktion Warschau" was carried out on the orders of the highest SS and police authorities and must be assessed as a systematic robbery of Polish property.