Pacification operations in German-occupied Poland
- Pacification operations in German-occupied Poland
The pacification operations in German-occupied Poland were the unlawful use of military force and punitive measures conducted during World War II by the German state with the goal of suppressing any Polish resistance.Pacification operations are one example of the extermination policies used against Poland and were of a massive scale, resulting in the murders of approximately 20,000 villagers. They were mainly conducted in the areas of General Government, Pomorze, and in the vicinities of Białystok and Wielkopolska. The number of villages which were an object of pacification in Poland is approximately 825. Collective punishment was used during such operations to discourage both the hiding of Jews or Soviet POWs, and the aiding of any guerilla forces. Pacifications included the extermination of entire villages including women and children, expulsions, the burning of homes, confiscation of private property, and arrests. In many instances these operations were characterized by extreme brutality. An example of such behaviour is the burning alive of 81 civilians and the shooting of 15 others in the village of Jabłoń-Dobki.
The first pacifications were conducted on the ground by Wehrmacht officers and soldiers, and took place in Złoczew on September 3rd and 4th 1939, in which the German soldiers murdered some 200 Poles.[According to article by Witold Kulesza published in "Komentarze Historyczne" by the Institute of National Remembrance, German Regiment SS-Leibstandarte "Adolf Hitler" of the 17th Division arrived in Złoczew on September 3, 1939 on motorcycles and on bicycles. The burning of the village and mass killings begun the same night. According to eye wittness, Janina Modrzewska, who survived the pacification of Złoczew, the soldiers were killing everyone they saw. Total casualties amounted to 200 dead victims. [http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=8FE62A5A-4E75-4752-A284-5B713AF77AAC Witold Kulesza, Vice-president of GKBZPNP – IPN: "ZBRODNIE WEHRMACHTU W POLSCE – WRZESIEŃ 1939"] ] From the air, Luftwaffe planes bombed the villages of Momoty Dolne, Momoty Górne, Pawłów, Tokary, Sochy and Klew. Some places were subjected to multiple pacification operations. In the town of Aleksandrów in Biłgoraj County between 1939 and 1944, German authorities murdered 290 civilians (444 according to WIEM), wounded 43, deported 434 to forced labour camps, and burned at least 113 households.]At least 750 villages had at least 10 inhabitants murdered and at least 75 villages were destroyed completely[ In his article for "Komentarze Historyczne" by the Institute of National Remembrance Marcin Markiewicz wrote that in September 1939 alone, with no connection with military manouvers, Wehrmacht razed to the ground 30 villages in Bielsko, Masovian, Suwalki and Lomza Voivodeships. 19 villages were burned and destroyed in Bialystok Voivodeship. The most brutal were the pacifications and killings in the villages of Wyliny Rus, Drogoszewo, Rutki and Pietraszki, where the Germans were shooting children and elderly. [http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=EEE24B2A-C3BA-4003-AC74-4E819B7A51BB Marcin Markiewicz, REPRESJE HITLEROWSKIE WOBEC WSI BIAŁOSTOCKIEJ, chapter Polski wrzesień 1939] ] ("see: table for partial list of names of villages and the number of dead victims"). ]Modern international law considers these kinds of actions to be genocide, whether conducted within national boundaries or in occupied territories. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convention_on_the_Prevention_and_Punishment_of_the_Crime_of_Genocide]
Notes
Villages and dead victims
See also
* Genocide
* Anti-Polonism
* Operation Tannenberg
* Generalplan Ost
* World War II atrocities in Poland
* Nazi crimes against ethnic Poles
* Valley of Death (Bydgoszcz)
* Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide
External links
* [http://www.holocaust-trc.org/poles.htm Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era]
* [http://free.of.pl/l/laskare/historia_wanaty.html Pacyfikacja Wanat] description of pacification of the village of Wanaty - in Polish
* [http://netsprint.encyklopedia.pwn.pl/54562_1.html Pacyfikacje] Polish Encyclopedia of PWN entry on pacifications on territory of Poland in Polish
* [http://www.ceeol.com/aspx/getdocument.aspx?logid=5&id=EEE24B2A-C3BA-4003-AC74-4E819B7A51BB Pacifications in Białystok Voivodeship]
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