Massacre in Ciepielów

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Mass grave of 300 Polish POWs of the Polish 74 Infantry Regiment murdered near Ciepielów by the German 15th Motorized Infantry Regiment of German 29th Motorized Division Commanded by General Joachim Lemelsen
Mass grave of 300 Polish POWs of the Polish 74 Infantry Regiment murdered near Ciepielów by the German 15th Motorized Infantry Regiment of German 29th Motorized Division Commanded by General Joachim Lemelsen

Massacre in Ciepielów on 8 September 1939 was one of the largest and best documented war crimes of the Wehrmacht during its Invasion of Poland.

On September 8, 1939, after the Invasion of Poland, the village of Dąbrowa (near Ciepielów) was the site of a mass murder of approximately 300 Polish prisoners of war from the Polish 74th Infantry Regiment of Upper Silesia commanded by Major Józef Pelc. They were ordered to be shot as partisans by the German 15th Motorized Infantry Regiment's commander, Oberst Walter Wessel, after the commanding officer of the 11th Company was killed by a sniper.[citation needed] This Division was later destroyed while supporting the Sixth Army at Stalingrad. 29. Infanterie-Division (mot.) was later reformed with new recruits in Spring 1943 as 29. Panzergrenadier-Division which served in Italy against the US Army at Anzio-Nettuno and San Pietro.

In December of 1941, a minor ghetto was established in Ciepielów by German authorities for approximately 600 people of Jewish descent, living in the area.[citation needed] In October of 1942 all of them were sent to gas chambers of Treblinka extermination camp. The emptied ghetto was then occupied by an SS unit, which organized mass executions of approximately 500 additional Poles.[citation needed] The village was liberated by the Home Army during the Operation Tempest of 1944. In September every year, a feast is held in Ciepielów to commemorate the victims.

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[edit] References

  • Datner, Szymon. Zbrodnie Wehrmachtu na jeńcach wojennych w II wojnie światowej. Warszawa : Wydawnictwo Ministerstwa Obrony Narodowej, 1961, s.50,51

[edit] Further reading

  • Jochen Böhler Auftakt zum Vernichtungskrieg - Die Wehrmacht in Polen 1939. Eine Publikation des Dt. Historischen Instituts Warschau Frankfurt a.M.: Fischer TB 2006, ISBN 3596163072
  • Jochen Böhler „Tragische Verstrickung“ oder Auftakt zum vernichtungskrieg? - Die Wehrmacht in Polen 1939, in: Klaus-Michael Mallmann/ Bogdan Musial (Hrsg.): Genesis des Genozids - Polen 1939-1941 Darmstadt 2004, S. 36-56, ISBN 3534180968
  • Janusz Piekałkiewicz: Polenfeldzug. Hitler und Stalin zerschlagen die Polnische Republik. Augsburg 1998, ISBN 3860479075
  • Robert Seidel: Deutsche Besatzungspolitik in Polen - Der Distrikt Radom 1939-1945, Paderborn/ München/ Wien/ Zürich 2006, ISBN 9783506756282
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