Intelligenzaktion in Pomerania
Encyclopedia
The "Intelligenzaktion Pommern" was a Nazi
action aimed at the elimination of the Polish
intelligentsia in Pomeranian Voivodeship and other adjacent areas, at the beginning of World War II
. It was part of a larger genocidal
action that took place in all Nazi-occupied Poland, named Operation Tannenberg
after its planners or Intelligenzaktion
after its victims: the action was planned on direct order of Adolf Hitler
by Reinhard Heydrich
's bureau "Referat Tannenberg" of Heinrich Himmler
's SS
-Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), executed primarily by SS-Einsatzgruppen
, and targeted the Polish intelligentsia
and elites. Starting in September 1939 with a second wave in the spring of 1940, it was an early measure of the Generalplan Ost
.
population of Polish Pomerania was immediately subjected to brutal terror.Poles were seen by German state during the war as subhuman
. Prisoners of war, as well as many Polish intellectuals and community leaders were murdered. Many of the crimes were carried out, with official approval, by the so-called Einsatzkommando 16
and "Selbstschutz
", or paramilitary organizations of ethnic Germans with previously Polish
citizenship. They in turn were encouraged to participate in the violence and pogroms by the local Gauleiter
Albert Forster
, who in a speech at the Prusinski Hotel in Wejherowo agitated ethnic Germans to attack Poles by saying "We have to eliminate the lice ridden Poles, starting with those in the cradle… in your hands I give the fate of the Poles, you can do with them what you want". The crowd gathered before the hotel chanted "Kill the Polish dogs!" and "Death to the Poles". The Selbstschutz participated in the early massacres as Piaśnica, and many of their members later joined police and SS formations which continued the massacres until the Fall of 1940.
Organized action aimed at exterminating the Polish population of the region however, began only after the end of the September campaign, with the Intelligenzaktion Pommern, a part of an overall Intelligenzaktion
by Nazi Germany aimed at liquidating the Polish elite. Its main targets were the Polish intelligentsia
, which was blamed by the Nazis for pro-Polish policies in the Polish corridor
during the interwar period. Educated Poles were also perceived by the Nazis as the main obstacle to the planned complete Germanization of the region.
cooperated with German minority in Poland
intelligence, prepared special lists of Poles "Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen
" whom they regarded as representative of Polish government, administration, culture and life in the region. People on this list were called ""The enemies of Reich" and were designated to be executed. According to official criteria, the Polish "intelligentsia" included anyone with a middle school or higher education
, priests, teachers
, doctors
, dentists, veterinarians, veteran military officers, bureaucrats, members of Polish administration, police, medium and large businessmen and merchants, medium and large landowners, writers, journalists and newspaper editors. Furthermore, all persons who during the interwar period had belonged to many Polish cultural and patriotic organizations such as Polski Związek Zachodni (Polish Union of the West), Związek Obrony Kresów Zachodnich, Polish Gymnastic Society "Falcon" and Maritime and Colonial League
.
Between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1940, in the "Intelligenzakition" and other actions, Nazis killed around 60,000 Polish intellectuals and others. The main site of these murders were the forests around Wielka Piasnica
.
death squads - Einsatzcommando 16
and paramilitary organisation of German minority in Poland
- Selbstschutz
. Aim of this action was elimination of Polish society elite: Polish nobles
, inteligentia, teachers, polish entrepreneurs, social workers, military veterans, members of national organisations, priests, judges and political activists. People was arrested according to "enemies of Reich list" prepared before war by members of German minority in Poland
cooperated with German Intelligence.
, Mniszek near Świecie
and in Szpęgawski forests near Starogard Gdański
. Local Germans (Selbstschutz
) and the Gestapo
murdered 5,000 – 6,600 Poles
and Jews
in October and November 1939 in Fordon
, Bydgoszcz, northern Poland
in a place known as "Fordon Valley of Death
" . In a similar mass murder near Chojnice
, known as "Choinice Valley of Death" , 2000 citizens from Chojnice were murdered between 1939 and 1945. Most victims were Polish intelligentia and patients from local mental hospitals murdered in "Euthanasia
Program" called Action T4
.
Mass murder in Szpęgawski Forest:
Mass murder in Mniszek:
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
action aimed at the elimination of the Polish
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
intelligentsia in Pomeranian Voivodeship and other adjacent areas, at the beginning of World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
. It was part of a larger genocidal
Genocide
Genocide is defined as "the deliberate and systematic destruction, in whole or in part, of an ethnic, racial, religious, or national group", though what constitutes enough of a "part" to qualify as genocide has been subject to much debate by legal scholars...
action that took place in all Nazi-occupied Poland, named Operation Tannenberg
Operation Tannenberg
Operation Tannenberg was the codename for one of the extermination actions directed at the Polish people during World War II, part of the Generalplan Ost...
after its planners or Intelligenzaktion
Intelligenzaktion
Intelligenzaktion was a genocidal action of Nazi Germany targeting Polish elites as part of elimination of potentially dangerous elements. It was an early measure of the Generalplan Ost. About 60,000 people were killed as the result of this operation...
after its victims: the action was planned on direct order of Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
by Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Heydrich
Reinhard Tristan Eugen Heydrich , also known as The Hangman, was a high-ranking German Nazi official.He was SS-Obergruppenführer and General der Polizei, chief of the Reich Main Security Office and Stellvertretender Reichsprotektor of Bohemia and Moravia...
's bureau "Referat Tannenberg" of Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Himmler
Heinrich Luitpold Himmler was Reichsführer of the SS, a military commander, and a leading member of the Nazi Party. As Chief of the German Police and the Minister of the Interior from 1943, Himmler oversaw all internal and external police and security forces, including the Gestapo...
's SS
Schutzstaffel
The Schutzstaffel |Sig runes]]) was a major paramilitary organization under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party. Built upon the Nazi ideology, the SS under Heinrich Himmler's command was responsible for many of the crimes against humanity during World War II...
-Reichssicherheitshauptamt (RSHA), executed primarily by SS-Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
, and targeted the Polish intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
and elites. Starting in September 1939 with a second wave in the spring of 1940, it was an early measure of the Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost
Generalplan Ost was a secret Nazi German plan for the colonization of Eastern Europe. Implementing it would have necessitated genocide and ethnic cleansing to be undertaken in the Eastern European territories occupied by Germany during World War II...
.
Background
After the Nazi invasion of Poland, the Polish and KashubianKashubians
Kashubians/Kaszubians , also called Kashubs, Kashubes, Kaszubians, Kassubians or Cassubians, are a West Slavic ethnic group in Pomerelia, north-central Poland. Their settlement area is referred to as Kashubia ....
population of Polish Pomerania was immediately subjected to brutal terror.Poles were seen by German state during the war as subhuman
Subhuman
- Biology :* Any of the extinct or living members of the clade Hominoidea other than Homo or alternatively just H. sapiens sapiens.-Music:* subHuman , a 2007 music album by Recoil...
. Prisoners of war, as well as many Polish intellectuals and community leaders were murdered. Many of the crimes were carried out, with official approval, by the so-called Einsatzkommando 16
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
and "Selbstschutz
Selbstschutz
Selbstschutz stands for two organisations:# A name used by a number of paramilitary organisations created by ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe# A name for self-defence measures and units in ethnic German, Austrian, and Swiss civil defence....
", or paramilitary organizations of ethnic Germans with previously Polish
Second Polish Republic
The Second Polish Republic, Second Commonwealth of Poland or interwar Poland refers to Poland between the two world wars; a period in Polish history in which Poland was restored as an independent state. Officially known as the Republic of Poland or the Commonwealth of Poland , the Polish state was...
citizenship. They in turn were encouraged to participate in the violence and pogroms by the local Gauleiter
Gauleiter
A Gauleiter was the party leader of a regional branch of the NSDAP or the head of a Gau or of a Reichsgau.-Creation and Early Usage:...
Albert Forster
Albert Forster
Albert Maria Forster was a Nazi German politician. Under his administration as the Gauleiter of Danzig-West Prussia during the Second World War, the local non-German population suffered ethnic cleansing, mass murder, and forceful Germanisation...
, who in a speech at the Prusinski Hotel in Wejherowo agitated ethnic Germans to attack Poles by saying "We have to eliminate the lice ridden Poles, starting with those in the cradle… in your hands I give the fate of the Poles, you can do with them what you want". The crowd gathered before the hotel chanted "Kill the Polish dogs!" and "Death to the Poles". The Selbstschutz participated in the early massacres as Piaśnica, and many of their members later joined police and SS formations which continued the massacres until the Fall of 1940.
Organized action aimed at exterminating the Polish population of the region however, began only after the end of the September campaign, with the Intelligenzaktion Pommern, a part of an overall Intelligenzaktion
Intelligenzaktion
Intelligenzaktion was a genocidal action of Nazi Germany targeting Polish elites as part of elimination of potentially dangerous elements. It was an early measure of the Generalplan Ost. About 60,000 people were killed as the result of this operation...
by Nazi Germany aimed at liquidating the Polish elite. Its main targets were the Polish intelligentsia
Intelligentsia
The intelligentsia is a social class of people engaged in complex, mental and creative labor directed to the development and dissemination of culture, encompassing intellectuals and social groups close to them...
, which was blamed by the Nazis for pro-Polish policies in the Polish corridor
Polish Corridor
The Polish Corridor , also known as Danzig Corridor, Corridor to the Sea or Gdańsk Corridor, was a territory located in the region of Pomerelia , which provided the Second Republic of Poland with access to the Baltic Sea, thus dividing the bulk of Germany from the province of East...
during the interwar period. Educated Poles were also perceived by the Nazis as the main obstacle to the planned complete Germanization of the region.
"The enemies of Reich list"
Even before the Nazi invasion of Poland, German police and GestapoGestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
cooperated with German minority in Poland
German minority in Poland
The registered German minority in Poland consists of 152,900 people, according to a 2002 census.The German language is used in certain areas in Opole Voivodeship , where most of the minority resides...
intelligence, prepared special lists of Poles "Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen
Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen
Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen – was the proscription list prepared by Germans, before the war, that identified more than 61,000 members of Polish elites: activists, intelligentsia, scholars, actors, former officers, and others, who were to be interned or...
" whom they regarded as representative of Polish government, administration, culture and life in the region. People on this list were called ""The enemies of Reich" and were designated to be executed. According to official criteria, the Polish "intelligentsia" included anyone with a middle school or higher education
Higher education
Higher, post-secondary, tertiary, or third level education refers to the stage of learning that occurs at universities, academies, colleges, seminaries, and institutes of technology...
, priests, teachers
Teachers
Teachers may refer to:* Teachers, people who provide schooling for pupils and students* Teachers , one of the five Ascension Gift Ministries* Teachers , a British sitcom* Teachers Teachers may refer to:* Teachers, people who provide schooling for pupils and students* Teachers (ministry), one of the...
, doctors
Physician
A physician is a health care provider who practices the profession of medicine, which is concerned with promoting, maintaining or restoring human health through the study, diagnosis, and treatment of disease, injury and other physical and mental impairments...
, dentists, veterinarians, veteran military officers, bureaucrats, members of Polish administration, police, medium and large businessmen and merchants, medium and large landowners, writers, journalists and newspaper editors. Furthermore, all persons who during the interwar period had belonged to many Polish cultural and patriotic organizations such as Polski Związek Zachodni (Polish Union of the West), Związek Obrony Kresów Zachodnich, Polish Gymnastic Society "Falcon" and Maritime and Colonial League
Maritime and Colonial League
The Maritime and Colonial League was a mass Polish social organization, created in 1930 out of the Maritime and River League . In the late 1930s it was directed by general Mariusz Zaruski and its purpose was to educate the Polish nation about maritime issues...
.
Between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1940, in the "Intelligenzakition" and other actions, Nazis killed around 60,000 Polish intellectuals and others. The main site of these murders were the forests around Wielka Piasnica
Mass murders in Piaśnica
The mass murders in Piaśnica were a set of mass executions carried out by Germans, during World War II, between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1940 in Piasnica Wielka in the Darzlubska Wilderness near Wejherowo. Standard estimates put the number of victims at between twelve thousand and fourteen...
.
Method of realisation
Action was realised by SS paramilitaryParamilitary
A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
death squads - Einsatzcommando 16
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...
and paramilitary organisation of German minority in Poland
German minority in Poland
The registered German minority in Poland consists of 152,900 people, according to a 2002 census.The German language is used in certain areas in Opole Voivodeship , where most of the minority resides...
- Selbstschutz
Selbstschutz
Selbstschutz stands for two organisations:# A name used by a number of paramilitary organisations created by ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe# A name for self-defence measures and units in ethnic German, Austrian, and Swiss civil defence....
. Aim of this action was elimination of Polish society elite: Polish nobles
Szlachta
The szlachta was a legally privileged noble class with origins in the Kingdom of Poland. It gained considerable institutional privileges during the 1333-1370 reign of Casimir the Great. In 1413, following a series of tentative personal unions between the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the Kingdom of...
, inteligentia, teachers, polish entrepreneurs, social workers, military veterans, members of national organisations, priests, judges and political activists. People was arrested according to "enemies of Reich list" prepared before war by members of German minority in Poland
German minority in Poland
The registered German minority in Poland consists of 152,900 people, according to a 2002 census.The German language is used in certain areas in Opole Voivodeship , where most of the minority resides...
cooperated with German Intelligence.
Places
Most executions of this regional action took place in forests near Piaśnica WielkaMass murders in Piaśnica
The mass murders in Piaśnica were a set of mass executions carried out by Germans, during World War II, between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1940 in Piasnica Wielka in the Darzlubska Wilderness near Wejherowo. Standard estimates put the number of victims at between twelve thousand and fourteen...
, Mniszek near Świecie
Swiecie
Świecie is a town in northern Poland with 25,968 inhabitants , situated in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship ; it was previously in Bydgoszcz Voivodeship . It is the capital of Świecie County.-History:...
and in Szpęgawski forests near Starogard Gdański
Starogard Gdanski
Starogard Gdański is a town in Eastern Pomerania in northwestern Poland with 48,328 inhabitants...
. Local Germans (Selbstschutz
Selbstschutz
Selbstschutz stands for two organisations:# A name used by a number of paramilitary organisations created by ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe# A name for self-defence measures and units in ethnic German, Austrian, and Swiss civil defence....
) and the Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
murdered 5,000 – 6,600 Poles
Poles
thumb|right|180px|The state flag of [[Poland]] as used by Polish government and diplomatic authoritiesThe Polish people, or Poles , are a nation indigenous to Poland. They are united by the Polish language, which belongs to the historical Lechitic subgroup of West Slavic languages of Central Europe...
and Jews
Jews
The Jews , also known as the Jewish people, are a nation and ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation...
in October and November 1939 in Fordon
Fordon, Bydgoszcz
Fordon, a district in Bydgoszcz, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, the number of residents is about 75,000. However, at the beginning the district had only 8,000 residents...
, Bydgoszcz, northern Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
in a place known as "Fordon Valley of Death
Valley of Death (Bydgoszcz)
Valley of Death in Fordon, Bydgoszcz, northern Poland, is a site of Nazi German mass murder and a mass grave of 5,000 – 6,600 Poles and Jews murdered in October and November 1939 by the local Germans and the Gestapo...
" . In a similar mass murder near Chojnice
Chojnice
Chojnice is a town in northern Poland with 39 670 inhabitants , near famous Tuchola Forest, Lake Charzykowskie and many other water reservoirs. It is the capital of the Chojnice County....
, known as "Choinice Valley of Death" , 2000 citizens from Chojnice were murdered between 1939 and 1945. Most victims were Polish intelligentia and patients from local mental hospitals murdered in "Euthanasia
Euthanasia
Euthanasia refers to the practice of intentionally ending a life in order to relieve pain and suffering....
Program" called Action T4
Action T4
Action T4 was the name used after World War II for Nazi Germany's eugenics-based "euthanasia" program during which physicians killed thousands of people who were "judged incurably sick, by critical medical examination"...
.
German forces
Mass murder in Piaśnica participated:- Einsatzkommando 16EinsatzkommandoDuring World War II, the Nazi German Einsatzkommandos were a sub-group of five Einsatzgruppen mobile killing squads—up to 3,000 men each—usually composed of 500-1,000 functionaries of the SS and Gestapo, whose mission was to kill Jews, Romani, communists and the NKVD collaborators in the captured...
, under command of head Danzig gestapoGestapoThe Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
- Rudolf Tröger, - special unit of SS - 36 Regiment SS Wachsturmbann ˝Eimann˝, under command of Kurt Eimann,
- members of local SelbstschutzSelbstschutzSelbstschutz stands for two organisations:# A name used by a number of paramilitary organisations created by ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe# A name for self-defence measures and units in ethnic German, Austrian, and Swiss civil defence....
Mass murder in Szpęgawski Forest:
- special unit of SS - 36 Regiment SS Wachsturmbann ˝Eimann˝, under command of Kurt Eimann,
- members of Selbstschutz from Starogard GdańskiStarogard GdanskiStarogard Gdański is a town in Eastern Pomerania in northwestern Poland with 48,328 inhabitants...
under command of SS-Unterscharführer Paul Drews, - 12 members of SS Heimwehr DanzigSS Heimwehr DanzigSS Heimwehr "Danzig" was an SS unit established in the Free City of Danzig before the Second World War. It fought with the German army against the Polish Army during the invasion of Poland...
under command of SS-Obersturmführer Wilhelm Fast
Mass murder in Mniszek:
- special unit of SS - 36 Regiment SS Wachsturmbann ˝Eimann˝, under command of Kurt Eimann,
- members of local SelbstschutzSelbstschutzSelbstschutz stands for two organisations:# A name used by a number of paramilitary organisations created by ethnic Germans in Central and Eastern Europe# A name for self-defence measures and units in ethnic German, Austrian, and Swiss civil defence....
Internet
See also
- Aktion KrakauAktion KrakauOperation Reinhard in Kraków was a major 1942 German Nazi anti-Jewish operation in Kraków, Poland, headed by SS-Oberführer Julian Scherner as part of the countrywide Aktion Reinhard , mass murder of Polish Jews in General Government under the command of SS and Polizeifuhrer Odilo...
- German AB Action operation in Poland
- Massacre of Lwów professorsMassacre of Lwów professorsIn July 1941, 25 Polish academics from the city of Lwów, Poland ; now in Ukraine) were killed by Nazi German occupation forces along with their families and guests...