Cemetery-Monument in Wawer

At first glance, the grassy square on a suburban Warsaw backstreet looks like an ordinary park. But closer examination reveals statues, an obelisk, and a row of symbolic graves.

The square, tucked away in Warsaw's western district of Wawer, was the site of the first mass execution of Poles during WWII. 107 men and boys, between the ages of 16-70, were gathered here on the night of December 27, 1939 and executed by Nazis before being buried in ditches. The event came to be known as the Wawer Massacre.

Although the bodies of the victims were later exhumed and moved to a variety of local cemeteries, the families of the victims established the site as a memorial to the victims. Today, a symbolic cemetery marks the site of the atrocity. The rows of graves are flanked by two large sculptures representing the figures of Polonia and a fighter against fascism. 

The Wawer Massacre caused outrage across Poland. Resistance groups began to write the words "pomścimy Wawer" or "we shall avenge Wawer" on walls across the city. This statement was later shortened to the letters PW and these letters finally became the famous Kotwica (anchor) symbol used as the emblem of the Home Army, the biggest resistance army of WWII.