During these days, soldiers of the 10th Infantry Division killed 37 Poles, including 34 inhabitants of Torzeniec, while the village itself was partially burned.

[a][5] The following day, Colonel Friedrich Gollwitzer, commander of the 41st Infantry Regiment, ordered a "radical purge and retaliatory action" in the village.

[6] All residents of Torzeniec, including women and children, were gathered near Teofil Baślak's farm at the village center.

The surviving inhabitants of Torzeniec were forced to stand by the road with their hands raised for some time before being driven to a nearby meadow, where they were kept under guard until the afternoon.

[10][11] Men from Wyszanów who were able to carry weapons had been deported to Germany the day before, and en route, two of them were killed by guards.

[14] In 1968, the Central Office of the State Justice Administrations for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg received a letter from Wehrmacht veteran, known by the initials Ferdinand D. In the letter, he provided incriminating testimony against the commander of the 41st Infantry Regiment, Colonel Friedrich Gollwitzer (then a retired general).

During the investigation, it was found that the death sentence imposed on 18 residents of Torzeniec was a gross violation of international law because it was issued without all formal and legal procedures (the accused were not heard, they were not allowed to say the last word, they were not provided with a defense attorney).

In particular, attention was drawn to the fact that Gollwitzer passed the judgment alone, while according to the regulations in force at that time, the court-martial should have included three officers.

[16] However, the prosecutor's office assumed that there was no proof that Gollwitzer was guided by "unnatural joy resulting from the destruction of human life" during his actions in Torzeniec.

Also, the defense argument presented by Gollwitzer that the massacres were a justified response to the attack of Polish partisans was generally accepted, and it was concluded that his culpability for murder could not be proven.