Kutschera Execution

On February 1, 1944, the AK (Armia Krajowa, or Home Army), which was the military arm of the Polish Underground, mounted a successful operation to execute German General Franz Kutschera, the brutal and ruthless commander of the SS and German Police in occupied Warsaw.

“Operation Kutschera” was part of the larger “Operation Heads,” to assassinate those German officials sentenced to death by the Special Court of the Underground.

Kutschera arrived in Warsaw in September 1943 to take up his new post. He soon increased terror tactics against the civilian population—public executions, random round-ups, hostages and reprisals for any act against a German—to quash the Polish will to resist.

In the Underground’s Special Court, Kutschera was judged in abstentia and sentenced to death.

The 1st Platoon of the AK Parasol Battalion, consisting primarily of the “Gray Ranks” (Szare Szeregi, members of the Polish Scouting Association who worked with the AK) was assigned to carry out the sentence. They planned carefully.

Shortly after 9 a.m. on February 1, 1944, as Kutschera’s limousine left his flat and approached SS headquarters at Aleje Ujazdowskie 23, the 12-person team sprang into action. One of their cars blocked Kutschera’s, the men opened machine-gun fire, killing the driver and wounding Kutschera, who was finished off with a gunshot to the head.

Five members of the team died during this operation. In reprisal for Kutschera’s death, the Germans shot 300 Polish civilians.

Click here to read about Operation Kutschera in more detail.  Below is a clip from the 1958 film Zamach, re-enacting the execution of Kutschera.