German AB-Aktion in Poland

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AB-Aktion
automatic weapons
PerpetratorsWehrmacht, Einsatzgruppen
Participants Nazi Germany
OrganizationsWaffen-SS, Schutzstaffel, Order Police battalions, Sicherheitsdienst
Victims7,000 intellectuals and leaders of the Second Polish Republic
DocumentationPawiak and Gestapo
MemorialsMurder site and deportation points
NotesLethal phase of the invasion of Poland

The 1940 AB-Aktion (German: Außerordentliche Befriedungsaktion, English: Extraordinary Operation of Pacification), a second stage of the Nazi German campaign of violence in Poland during World War II, aimed to eliminate the intellectuals and the upper classes of the Second Polish Republic across the territories slated for eventual annexation by the German Reich.

Most of the killings were arranged in a form of

forced disappearances from multiple cities and towns upon the arrival of German forces.[1] In the spring and summer of 1940 the Nazi authorities in German-occupied central Poland (the so-called General Government) arrested more than 30,000 Polish citizens.[2] About 7,000 of them, including community leaders, professors, teachers and priests (labeled as suspected of criminal activities), were subsequently massacred secretly at various locations - including at the Palmiry forest complex near Palmiry.[3][4] The others were sent to Nazi concentration camps
.

History

The mass murder of Polish leaders, politicians, artists, aristocrats, the

Gestapo–NKVD Conferences.[3][6]

The first killings of Polish intelligentsia took place soon after the

Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen (Special Prosecution Book-Poland).[3]

Prior to AB-Aktion, in late 1939 and early 1940, most Polish university professors, intellectuals, writers, politicians, teachers and other members of the elite of Polish society were briefly arrested by the

Mauthausen. Approximately 3,500 members of the Polish intelligentsia were executed at the mass murder sites in Palmiry near Warsaw, Firlej, Wincentynów near Radom, and in the Bliżyn forest near Skarżysko-Kamienna.[3]

Tomb of Janusz Kusociński in Palmiry
Further information: Palmiry massacre

Among those killed were

Stefan Kopec. Actions were started on a similar scale in other Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany. According to many historians, including Norman Davies, the action against Polish leaders was coordinated with the authorities of the Soviet Union, who at the same time perpetrated the mass murder of 22,000 Polish military officers at Katyń
and other places.

The active persecution of Polish intellectuals was continued until the end of the war. The direct continuation of the AB Action was a German campaign in the east started after the

Lwów were murdered together with their families and guests. Among those killed in the massacre were Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, former Polish prime minister Kazimierz Bartel, Włodzimierz Stożek, and Stanisław Ruziewicz. Thousands more perished in the Ponary massacre, in German concentration camps, and in ghettos.[3]

Aftermath

The total number of victims and the specific dates of executions of members of the Polish intelligentsia can only be approximated due to their multitude.

Nuremberg Military Tribunals. However, the majority of responsible commanders vanished during and after the war, before being held legally accountable for their crimes.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0786403713
    .
  2. ^ Chapter "Hitler's Plans for Poland." Noakes and Pridham, Nazism: A History in Documents Archived 2013-10-15 at the Wayback Machine, p. 988.
  3. ^ a b c d e AB-Aktion, Shoah Resource Center, The International School for Holocaust Studies.
  4. ^ "Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era" at the "United States Holocaust Memorial Museum". Archived from the original on June 7, 2007. Retrieved 2013-05-24.
  5. ^ Noakes and Pridham, Nazism: A History in Documents Archived 2013-10-15 at the Wayback Machine, p. 965.
  6. ^
    ISBN 978-83-7629-063-8
  7. ISBN 978-36-3904 721-9
    .
  8. ISBN 978-019280436-5
    .

External links
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