Attack on the NKVD Camp in Rembertów On May 21 , 1945 , a unit of the Home Army ( Armia Krajowa , AK ) , led by Colonel Edward Wasilewski , attacked a Soviet NKVD camp located in Rembertów on the eastern outskirts of Warsaw . The Russians incarcerated there many hundreds of Polish citizens ; members of the Home Army and underground fighters , whom they were systematically deporting to Siberia . However , this action of the pro - independence Polish resistance freed all Polish political prisoners from the camp . Background . Rembertów is now located within the boundaries of Warsaw , but in the 1940s it was a separate town . There , in the summer of 1941 , after the German invasion of the Soviet Union , the Wehrmacht opened " Stalag 333 " — a camp for Soviet POWs , located in the former munitions factory " Pocisk " [ bullet ] . Three years later , the advancing Soviets captured the camp and soon afterwards opened it again . This time , the prisoners were mostly members of the Home Army — a Polish resistance movement , treated by Moscow as hostile to the Soviet authorities due to its loyalty to the Polish government in exile . NKVD camp . Rembertów was seized by the Red Army on September 11 , 1944 . NKVD opened the camp some time later , apart from Poles , they kept their German POWs as well as Soviet POWs who had been held by the Nazis , and who were regarded by NKVD as traitors . However , in the course of the time , more Poles were brought in . They were not only soldiers of the Home Army , but also other Polish underground organizations , such as Narodowe Siły Zbrojne ( NZS ) [ National Army Forces ] and Bataliony Chłopskie ( BCh ) [ Peasant Battalions ] . NKVD agents had free hand to act on Polish territories . This was granted to them by the puppet , pro - communist Polish government Polish Committee of National Liberation , by a decree of July 26 , 1944 . Rembertów camp was regarded as a gathering point - Polish patriots were brought there on their way to Siberia . NKVD guards would call the Polish soldiers in broken German , to convince the locals they kept German POWs . Camp ' s area . The camp was surrounded by two fences enhanced with barbed wire . Between the fences there was a path used by armed guards and their patrol dogs . In several places there were towers with NKVD officers armed with machine guns . A day at a camp would begin at 6 a . m . by an assembly , during which Colonel Alexandrov of NKVD would check on number of prisoners . Half an hour later was breakfast . The day would end with another assembly at 6 p . m . , after that time nobody was allowed to leave their barracks . Polish prisoners were tortured by the Soviets on a regular basis , hunger and disease were common . According to witnesses , in the winter of 1944 / 45 hundreds of Home Army members died , their bodies were buried in a nearby park or in a specially dug pit . Norman Davies mentions the camp in his book " Rising ' 44 " . He writes that " A man who passed through Rembertów described the conditions . They were not to be compared to the relative luxury at Sandbostel or Murnau " . According to Davies , throughout the freezing 1944 - 45 winter , " prisoners were frequently held in the open , without shelter , in a compound surrounded by barbed wire ( . . . ) According to the reports , when locals enquired about the suffering prisoners , who were clearly visible from a nearby road , they were told that the compound contained Volksdeutsche and Nazis " . Deportations to Siberia . First rail transport of Polish soldiers left Rembertów for Siberia on March 25 , 1945 . It consisted of more than a thousand people , of whom some 25 % died on the way . The dead were carried to a special rail car , attached to the last one . It was forbidden to bury them as , according to Soviet regulations , the number of people at the destination had to be the same as the number of people at the starting point . Unsuccessful first plan of attack . In early March 1945 the NKVD arrested General Emil Fieldorf , aka " Nil " . The Soviets did not know whom they had caught , as Fieldorf was using fake name Walenty Gdanicki . Polish resistance quickly found out that the General was kept in Rembertów and Colonel Jan Mazurkiewicz aka " Radosław " gave an order to work out a plan to free " Nil " . It was not carried out , and Fieldorf was quickly sent in one of the transports to Siberia . The attack . In April and May 1945 NKVD brought to the camp hundreds of Home Army and NSZ soldiers , caught in several counties around Warsaw . Among the captured there were such notable figures as General Edward Gruber , Colonel Kazimierz Marszewski and a famous philosopher , professor Kazimierz Ajdukiewicz . The final decision of attack was taken by the commandant of Home Army District of Mińsk Mazowiecki , Captain Walenty Suda aka " Młot " [ Hammer ] . The Poles calculated that the Soviets would send another transport on May 25 , thus an attack must have been carried out before this date . Polish unit . Captain Suda chose a well - prepared and trained unit of 44 soldiers , under the leadership of Lieutnant Edward Wasilewski aka " Wichura " [ Gale ] . Out of this number , 32 soldiers were members of Wichura ' s unit , the remaining 12 came from a unit of Colonel Edmund Swiderski . Dressed as a soldier of the Polish Communist Army ( Ludowe Wojsko Polskie ) , Wasilewski checked the surroundings of the camp . The night of May 20 – 21 . On Saturday , May 20 , families of the imprisoned brought large quantities of alcohol and that night several NKVD guards were drunk . Taking advantage of this , the POWs were informed about the oncoming attack . Also , Soviet commandant of the camp left for a party at nearby village of Kawęczyn . The Poles did not plan to destroy the whole camp , as this would mean freeing German POWs and Russians from units of General Andrei Vlasov . In the evening of May 20 , the 44 soldiers were transferred to Rembertów by horses from the nearby village of Długa Kościelna . Considering the fact that the camp was guarded by some 150 NKVD officers , the Poles decided to catch the Soviets by surprise . The soldiers were divided into three groups . First one , led by " Wichura " [ gale ] was going to seize the gate , go inside and open the barracks , freeing the prisoners . Second group was going to eliminate the guards , and the third one was keeping an eye on the surroundings . The attack started at midnight on the night of May 20 – 21 and lasted for some 20 – 25 minutes . Everything was carried out promptly , the guards , totally shocked , did not resist . Around 100 wounded or sick prisoners were placed on two trucks , and the remaining POWs dispersed in the forests and villages . According to the Home Army dispatch sent to London , NKVD lost 15 men , but witnesses counted as many as 68 dead Soviet soldiers . Polish loses were up to 40 prisoners , who were killed by a Soviet machine gun while running away . Home Army did not lose anybody , although three men were wounded . Aftermath . It is difficult to establish how many persons were freed on that night . NKVD assessed them at 466 , describing all as " criminals " . However , Home Army members stated to have released some 800 men , and some historians put the number up to 1400 . In the morning of Sunday , May 21 , Soviet troops , supported by aircraft , started to comb the area of Rembertów , searching for prisoners . On the first day they caught 27 persons , most of them Germans , who did not know where to go . Following days were more successful . The Soviets caught up to 50 men , executing some of them on the spot . News of the attack reached Moscow , causing anger in NKVD ' s headquarters . A special investigation was carried out , camp ' s commandant was released from his post and Lavrentiy Beria ordered a check of all camps . Soon afterwards , the camp in Rembertów was closed . On May 21 , 1995 , a monument to commemorate the camp and the attack was unveiled in Rembertów . Here is what the tablet on the monument says : " W miejscu tym na terenie dawnej fabryki " Pocisk " znajdowały się obozy od września 1941 do początku 1944 - hitlerowski obóz pracy jeńców sowieckich - komando stalag 333 - od lipca 1944 do września 1944 - hitlerowski obóz pracy dla więźniów polskich - od września 1944 do lipca 1945 sowiecki obóz specjalny NKWD nr 10 . Żołnierzom oddziału partyzanckiego Armii Krajowej Obozu " Mewa - Kamień " Mińsk Mazowiecki który pod dowództwem ppor . Edwarda Wasilewskiego " Wichury " nocą z 20 na 21 maja 1945 roku rozbił obóz specjalny NKWD nr 10 w Rembertowie . Z obozu uwolniono ponad 500 więźniów akcja ta przerwała zsyłkę więźniów na wschód . Więźniom obozu NKWD nr 10 w Rembertowie żołnierzom i działaczom Polskiego Państwa Podziemnego represjonowanym i mordowanym których szczątki spoczywają na terenie dawnej fabryki amunicji " Pocisk " i na obszarach sowieckiego imperium " . English translation : " In this place on the grounds of the former factory " Pocisk " [ bullet ] the following camps were located : from September 1941 until the beginning of 1944 - Nazi labor camp for Soviet prisoners of war - Komando Stalag 333 , from July 1944 until September 1944 - Nazi labor camp for Polish prisoners , from September 1944 until July 1945 - Soviet NKVD special camp No . 10 . ( The monument is dedicated to ) the soldiers of the partisan unit of the Home Army from Camp " Mewa - Kamień " Mińsk Mazowiecki who under the command of 2nd Lieutnant Edward Wasilewski " Wichura " overran the special NKVD camp No . 10 in Rembertów on the night of 20 / 21 May 1945 . Over 500 prisoners were freed from the camp and this action interrupted the deportation of the prisoners to the East . ( This monument is dedicated to ) prisoners of the NKVD camp No . 10 in Rembertów , soldiers and activists of the Polish Underground State , repressed and murdered , whose remains lay on the grounds of former factory " Pocisk " and in the lands of the Soviet empire " .