Grossaktion Warsaw
The Grossaktion Warsaw ("Great Action") was the Nazi code name for the deportation and mass murder of Jews from the Warsaw Ghetto during the summer of 1942, beginning on 22 July. During the Grossaktion, Jews were terrorized in daily round-ups, marched through the ghetto, and assembled at the Umschlagplatz station square for what was called in the Nazi euphemistic jargon "resettlement to the East". From there, they were sent aboard overcrowded Holocaust trains to the extermination camp in Treblinka.
| Grossaktion Warsaw | |
|---|---|
Deportation of ghetto inmates at the Umschlagplatz | |
Location of Warsaw Ghetto in World War II, southwest of Treblinka extermination camp | |
Warsaw Ghetto Location of Warsaw in Poland today Warsaw Ghetto Warsaw Ghetto (Masovian Voivodeship) | |
| Location | Warsaw, German-occupied Poland 52.1446°N 20.5945°E |
| Date | 23 July 1942 – 21 September 1942 |
| Incident type | Deportations to Treblinka, mass shootings |
| Organizations | Nazi SS |
| Camp | Treblinka extermination camp |
| Ghetto | Warsaw Ghetto |
| Victims | 265,000 Polish Jews |
The largest number of Warsaw Jews were transported to their deaths at Treblinka in the period between the Jewish holidays Tisha B'Av (23 July) and Yom Kippur (21 September) in 1942. The killing centre had been completed 80 kilometres (50 mi) from Warsaw only weeks earlier, specifically for the Final Solution. Treblinka was equipped with gas chambers disguised as showers for the "processing" of entire transports of people. Led by the SS-leader Brigadeführer Odilo Globocnik, the campaign, codenamed Operation Reinhard, became the critical part of the Holocaust in occupied Poland.