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Funeral held of Polish participant in assassination of Nazi SS chief

PR dla Zagranicy
Nick Hodge 16.02.2016 16:25
The funeral was held on Tuesday of Maria Stypułkowska-Chojecka, a former Polish underground operative who took part in the 1944 assassination of the chief of the SS and police in Nazi-occupied Warsaw.
The funeral of Maria Stypułkowska-Chojecka at Warsaw's Powązki Military Cemetery. Photo: PAP/Tomasz GzellThe funeral of Maria Stypułkowska-Chojecka at Warsaw's Powązki Military Cemetery. Photo: PAP/Tomasz Gzell

Stypułkowska-Chojecka (codename Kama), who died on 5 February aged 89, participated in 'Operation Kutschera'.

The action, which was carried out in broad daylight on 1 February 1944, was undertaken in reaction to a rash of public executions and arrests that took place under Kutschera's authority.

The SS general was pronounced guilty by a court of Poland's underground Home Army (AK).

In keeping with the operation plan, a car was driven directly in front of Kutschera's limousine as the general was driven to work at SS headquarters on the morning of 1 February.

The Poles opened fire and the general died at the scene.

A shoot-out ensued with German guards and nearby police, and four of the 12 Polish participants perished as a result of the action.

The following day, a hundred Polish civilian hostages were shot on Ujazdowski Avenue as a reprisal.

Maria
Maria Stypułkowska-Chojecka (C) with fellow Home Army members during the 1944 Warsaw Uprising. Photo: wikimedia commons.

The operation marked one of the last high level assassinations before the AK launched the Warsaw Uprising, the doomed bid to take control of the entire city that began on August 1, 1944. Stypułkowska-Chojecka also took part in the uprising.

She was laid to rest at Warsaw's Powązki Military Cemetery. (nh/pk)

tags: World War 2
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