Pacification operations in German-occupied Poland
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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. 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 Jablonki-Dobki.
The first pacifications were conducted on the ground by Wehrmacht officers and soldiers, and took place in Zloczew on September 3rd and 4th 1939, in which the German soldiers murdered some 200 Poles.[citation needed] 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 between 1939 and 1944, German authorities murdered 290 civilians, 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.
Modern international law considers these kinds of actions to be genocide, whether conducted within national boundaries or in occupied territories.
[edit] External links
- Poles: Victims of the Nazi Era
- Pacyfikacja Wanat description of pacification of the village of Wanaty - in Polish
- Pacyfikacje Polish Encyclopedia of PWN entry on pacifications on territory of Poland in Polish
