 About two weeks after the fall of the Warsaw Uprising, on October 17, 1944, the commander of the German 9th Army stationed in Warsaw, Smilo von Lüttwitz, issued an order in which he informed his soldiers that there was a large number of "sneaky Poles" still hiding in the ruins of Warsaw. According to Smilo, they "posed a threat to the German forces". Von Lüttwitz ordered a large scale łapanka (police action / round-up) to "cleanse the city" of them. The order also sanctioned immediate execution of any individuals found hiding in the ruins. In some rare cases, those found were placed in a specially created concentration camp, and used as manual labor as the German army looted the remnants of the city.
