Operation Tannenberg

Operation Tannenberg
Unternehmen Tannenberg
The mass murder of Polish townsmen in Reichsgau Wartheland (western Poland) during Operation Tannenberg on October 20, 1939.
LocationNazi-occupied Poland
DateSeptember 1939–January 1940
TargetPoles
Attack type
Mass shooting, summary execution and genocidal massacres
WeaponsFirearms
Gas vans
Deaths20,000 deaths in 760 mass executions by SS Einsatzgruppen in the first phase; 100,000 deaths in the second phase
PerpetratorsNazi Germany Nazi Germany
MotiveAnti-Polish racism
Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen. symbols
Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen. Page with names under the letter "G" with abbreviations. EK stands for Einsatzkommando and EG represents an escaped prisoner.

Operation Tannenberg (German: Unternehmen Tannenberg; Polish: Operacja Tannenberg) was one of the first anti-Polish mass murders by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland from September 1939 to January 1940. The operation was conducted based on the Special Prosecution Book – Poland (German: Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen), a list with the names of over 61,000 Poles chosen for execution.

Events

About 20,000 Poles were killed in the first phase of Operation Tannenberg, which involved the shooting and gassing of hospital patients and disabled people as part of the operation Aktion T4.

The second phase of Operation Tannenberg saw the mass murder of 36,000–42,000 in Pomerania by the end of 1939 under the codename Intelligenzaktion ("Actions against the Intelligentsia"). The victims included children, doctors, priests etc. The Intelligenzaktion is estimated to have ultimately killed 100,000 Poles.

Polish teachers from Bydgoszcz guarded by members of Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz before execution.
In occupied Poland, on September 9, 1939, the Germans publicly executed twenty-five prominent citizens, before the Municipal Museum, in the Market Square of Bydgoszcz, as part of the mass shootings of Polish intelligentsia. To terrorise the townsfolk, the Germans displayed the bodies for six hours.
Germans murdered Polish civilians in Leszno, Poland dated October 21, 1939.
Intelligenzaktion in the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia (1939-1940).

Mass murder of hospital patients

The mass murder of hospital patients was led by the SS commander Herbert Lange, who was later appointed as Chełmno extermination camp's commandment. By mid-1940, Lange was responsible for the death of at least 1,100 patients in Owińska, 2,750 patients at Kościan, 1,558 patients at Działdowo, and hundreds of Poles at Fort VII where the mobile gas chamber (Einsatzwagen) was made along with the first gassing bunker.

References

  1. ↑ Lazar, Seth (2015). Sparing Civilians. Oxford University Press. p. 21. ISBN 9780198712985.
  2. ↑ Bloxham, Donald; Gerwarth, Robert, eds. (10 March 2011). Political Violence in Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge University Press. p. 71. ISBN 9781107005037.
  3. 1 2 3
    • Meier, Anna (2008). Die Intelligenzaktion. Die Vernichtung der polnischen Oberschicht im Gau Danzig-Westpreußen. VDM Verlag Dr. Müller. ISBN 978-36-3904-721-9.
    • Maria Wardzyńska, "Intelligenzaktion" na Warmii, Mazurach oraz Północnym Mazowszu. Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu. Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej nr. 12/1, 2003/2004, ss. 38-42. ceeol.com
    • Wardzyńska, Maria (2009). Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion [The Year was 1939: Operation of German Security Police in Poland. Intelligenzaktion] (PDF) (in Polish). Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance). ISBN 978-83-7629-063-8. Archived from the original (PDF file) on 29 November 2014. Retrieved 16 November 2014. Oblicza się, że akcja „Inteligencja" pochłonęła ponad 100 tys. ofiar. Translation: It is estimated that Intelligenzaktion took the lives of 100,000 Poles.
  4. ↑ Brewing, Daniel (2022). In the Shadow of Auschwitz German Massacres against Polish Civilians, 1939–1945. Berghahn Book. pp. 141–142. ISBN 9781800730892.
  5. ↑ Stanisław Dąbrowa-Kostka, Hitlerowskie afisze śmierci (eng. "Nazi death posters"), KAW Warszawa 1983, p.339, (Polish),(German),(English)
  6. ↑ Piotr Semków, IPN Gdańsk (September 2006). "Kolebka (Cradle)" (PDF). IPN Bulletin No. 8–9 (67–68), 152 Pages. Warsaw, Poland: Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance). 42–50 (44–51/152 in PDF). ISSN 1641-9561. Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 September 2018. Retrieved 8 November 2015 – via direct download: 3.44 MB.
  7. 1 2 3 4 Semków, Piotr (2006). "Martyrologia Polaków z Pomorza Gdańskiego w latach II wojny światowej" (PDF). IPN Bulletin (in Polish) (8–9). Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance): 46–48. ISSN 1641-9561. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2018-09-17.
  8. ↑ Jerzy Ślaski, Polska walcząca, vol. 2, 3rd ed., augm., Warsaw, Oficyna Wydawnicza Rytm, 1999, p. 554. ISBN 8387893315.
  9. ↑ Janusz Kutta, "Rola Kościoła katolickiego w dziejach Bydgoszczy" (The Role of the Catholic Church in the History of Bydgoszcz), Kronika Bydgoska, vol. 19, ed. W. Jastrzębski, et al., Bydgoszcz, Towarzystwo Miłośników miasta Bydgoszczy, 1998, p. 14. ISSN 0454-5451.
  10. ↑ Ryszard Wojan, Bydgoszcz: niedziela 3 września 1939 r., Poznań, Wydawnictwo Poznańskie (Towarzystwo Rozwoju Ziem Zachodnich. Rada Okręgu Bydgoskiego w Toruniu), 1959, p. 68.
  11. ↑ Polish: Intelligenzaktion w Okręgu Rzeszy Gdańsk - Prusy Zachodnie (1939-1940).
  12. 1 2 Artur Hojan; Cameron Munro (2015). "Nazi Euthanasia Programme in Occupied Poland 1939-1945". Overview of the liquidation of the mentally ill during actions on the Polish territory (1939-1945). The Tiergartenstrasse 4 Association, international centre for the documentation, study and interpretation of Nazi crimes. Nazi Euthanasia in European Perspective conference, Berlin, Kleisthaus, Feb. 28-30, 2013. Retrieved 2 July 2015.
  13. 1 2 3 4 Holocaust Research Project.org (2007). "Lange, Herbert; SS-Hauptsturmführer". Chelmno Death Camp Dramatis Personae. Holocaust Education & Archive Research Team. Retrieved 2013-05-13.