[Poster Displayed in Warsaw May 1941]
PROCLAMATION
Several cases of damages inflicted upon military installations and equipment, serving the defense of the country, induce me to state that even the removal of insignificant objects (as wooden poles and iron parts) constitutes an injury to military installations.
The intentional damaging of military equipment and installations of the German army will be sentenced by death in pursuant to the decree concerning the combating of violence in the General Government dated 31 October 1939.
I reserve the right to arrest hostages from communities located in the territory where the crimes take place in all those cases when the culprit is not found.
Warsaw, 5 of May 1941
The District Chief in Warsaw
[signed] Dr. Fischer
Governor
Certificate of authenticity, and a proclamation stating the the removal of items from military installations is punishable by death, and that hostages will be taken if the culprits are not found
Authors
Stanislav Piotrowski (Dr., Polish War Crimes commission)
Stanislav Piotrowski
Polish prosecutor (1901-1972)
- Born: 1901-07-15 (Lviv)
- Died: 1972-04-29 (Warsaw)
- Country of citizenship: Poland
- VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/101712952
- ISNI: https://isni.org/isni/0000000082856830
- WorldCat Identities ID: https://worldcat.org/identities/viaf-101712952
Fischer (Dr., German governor of Warsaw (1941))
Ludwig Fischer
SA officer (1905-1947); Governor of Warsaw district
- Born: 1905-04-16 (Kaiserslautern) (country: German Empire)
- Died: 1947-03-08 (Warsaw) (country: Poland)
- Country of citizenship: German Empire; Nazi Germany; Weimar Republic
- Occupation: jurist; politician
- Member of political party: Nazi Party
- Member of: Sturmabteilung
- Position held: member of the Reichstag of Nazi Germany
- VIAF ID: https://viaf.org/viaf/1122391
Date: 07 June 1946
Literal Title: Statement[.] [second page:] Proclamation
Total Pages: 2
Language of Text: English
Source of Text: Nazi conspiracy and aggression (Office of United States Chief of Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Washington, D.C. : U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946.)
Evidence Code: PS-4039
HLSL Item No.: 451519
Notes:Piotrowski certified the document in 1946; Fischer issued the proclamation in 1941. PS 4039 (not necessarily this copy) was entered as UK exhibit 558 in the trial. The document was entered to show that crimes had been committed by German civil administrators.
Trial Issues
Criminal organizations (Gestapo, Leadership Corps, Cabinet, SS, SD, OKW) (… Hostage-taking and reprisal actions, including killings and fines (IMT, NM…
Document Summary
PS-4039: Photostat of poster made public in Warsaw, containing an announcement by Dr. Fischer, Governor of Warsaw, threatening to take hostages in retaliation for damage inflicted on German military installations
PS-4039: Poster published in Warsaw by Dr. Fischer, German governor, May 1941: the death penalty is imposed for intentional damage, however slight, done to German military installations; hostages May be taken if the perpetrator is not found