Massacre of Lviv professors
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The murder of the Lviv professors was an organized execution of approximately 45 Polish professors from various tertiary educational establishments in Lviv, their families and guests, committed in July 1941 in Lemberg (now Lviv), then occupied by Nazi Germany in World War II. The organized murder of the civilian population was a continuation of the AB Action, or Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion, started in 1940.
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[edit] History
After the German invasion of the Soviet Union started in June 1941, Lviv was captured on June 30. Along with the Wehrmacht, a number of smaller Abwehr units entered the city.
During the Nazi occupation almost all of the 120,000 Jewish inhabitants of the city were killed. All that survived at the end of the war were 200-800 Jewish inhabitants.
Members of other ethnic groups also suffered. In order to control the population, prominent citizens and intellectuals were transported to known execution sites such as the Gestapo prison on Pełczyńska Street, the Brygidki Prison, the former military prison at Zamarstynów and to the fields surrounding the city: in the suburb of Winniky, the Kortumówky hills and the Jewish Cemetery. Many of the people killed were prominent Polish politicians, artists, sportsmen, scientists and priests.
By July 2, 1941, many of the initial terror actions were halted, yet the individual, planned executions continued. At approximately 3 o'clock in the evening Prof. Kazimierz Bartel was arrested by one of the Einsatzgruppen operating in the area.
During the night of July 3 and July 4 several dozen professors and their families were arrested. The lists were prepared by their Ukrainian students[citation needed] . In the early morning of July 4 one of the professors and most of his servants were set free while the rest were either brought to the Wulka hills or shot to death in the courtyard of the Bursa Abrahamowiczów building. The victims were initially buried on the spot, but several days after the massacre their bodies were exhumed and transported by the Wehrmacht to an unknown place.
[edit] Methodology of the crime
There are accounts of four different methods used by the German troops. The victims were either beaten to death, killed with a bayonet, killed with a hammer, or shot to death.
The professors themselves were shot to death, although it is highly probable that at least two of them were buried alive.[citation needed]
[edit] Victims
Abbreviations used:
- UJK = Lviv University (Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza, now Ivan Franko National University of Lviv)
- PSP = National Public Hospital (Państwowy Szpital Powszechny)
- PL = Lviv Polytechnic (Politechnika Lwowska, now Lviv Polytechnic National University)
- AWL = Academy of Veterinary Sciences in Lviv (Akademia Weterynaryjna we Lwowie)
- AHZ = Academy of Foreign Trade (Akademia Handlu Zagranicznego)
[edit] Murdered on the Wulka hills
- Prof. Dr. Antoni Cieszyński, Professor of Stomatology UJK
- Prof. Dr. Władysław Dobrzaniecki, head of the ord. Oddz. Chirurgii PSP
- Prof. Dr. Jan Grek, Professor of Internal Medicine, UJK
- Maria Grekowa, wife of Jan Grek
- Doc. Dr. Jerzy Grzędzielski, head of the Institute of Ophthalmology, UJK
- Prof. Dr. Edward Hamerski, Chief of Internal Medicine, AWL
- Prof. Dr. Henryk Hilarowicz, Professor of Surgery, UJK
- Rev. Dr. Władysław Komornicki, theologian, a relative of the Ostrowski family
- Eugeniusz Kostecki, husband of Prof. Dobrzaniecki's servant
- Prof. Dr. Włodzimierz Krukowski, Chief of the Institute of Electrical Measurement, PL
- Prof. Dr. Roman Longchamps de Bérier, Chief of the Institute of Civil Law, UJK
- Bronisław Longchamps de Bérier, son of Prof. Longchamps de Bérier
- Zygmunt Longchamps de Bérier, son of Prof. Longchamps de Bérier
- Kazimierz Longchamps de Bérier, son of Prof. Longchamps de Bérier
- Prof. Dr. Antoni Łomnicki, Chief of the Institute of Mathematics, PL
- Adam Mięsowicz, grandson of Prof. Sołowij
- Prof. Dr. Witołd Nowicki, Dean of the Faculty of Anatomy and Pathology, UJK
- Dr. Med. Jerzy Nowicki, assistant at the Institute of Hygiene, UJK, son of Prof. Nowicki
- Prof. Dr. Tadeusz Ostrowski, Chief of the Institute of Surgery, UJK
- Jadwiga Ostrowska, wife of Prof. Ostrowski
- Prof. Dr. Stanisław Pilat, Chief of the Institute of Technology of Petroleum and Natural Gases, PL
- Prof. Dr. Stanisław Progulski, pediatrician, UJK
- Andrzej Progulski, son of Prof. Progulski
- Prof. Dr. Roman Rencki, Chief of the Institute of Internal Medicine, UJK
- Dr. Med. Stanisław Ruff, Chief of the Department of Surgery of the Jewish Hospital
- Anna Ruffowa, Dr. Ruff's wife
- Inż. Adam Ruff, Dr. Ruff's son
- Prof. Dr. Włodzimierz Sieradzki, Dean of the faculty of Court Medicine, UJK
- Prof. Dr. Adam Sołowij, former Chief of the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of the PSP
- Prof. Dr. Włodzimierz Stożek, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, PL
- Inż. Eustachy Stożek, assistant at the Politechnika Lwowska, son of Prof. Stożek
- Emanuel Stożek, son of Prof. Stożek
- Dr. Tadeusz Tapkowski, lawyer
- Prof. Dr. Kazimierz Vetulani, Dean of the Faculty of Theoretical Mechanics, PL
- Prof. Dr. Kacper Weigel, Chief of the Institute of Measures, PL
- Mgr Józef Weigel, son of Prof. Weigel
- Prof. Dr. Roman Witkiewicz, Chief of the Institute of Machinery, PL
- Prof. Dr. Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, writer and gynaecologist, Chief of the Institute of French Literature
[edit] Murdered in the courtyard of Bursa Abrahamowiczów
- Katarzyna Demko, English language teacher
- Doc. Dr. Stanisław Mączewski, head of the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of the PSP
- Maria Reymanowa, nurse
- Wolisch (name unknown), merchant
[edit] Murdered on July 12
- Prof. Dr. Henryk Korowicz, Chief of the Institute of Economics, AHZ
- Prof. Dr. Stanisław Ruziewicz, Chief of the Institute of Mathematics, AHZ
[edit] Murdered on July 26 in Brygidki Prison
- Prof. Dr. Kazimierz Bartel, former Prime Minister of Poland, former Rector of PL, Chairman of the Department of Geometry, PL
[edit] Aftermath
After World War II the government of the Soviet Union, made attempts to diminishing the Polish cultural and historic legacy of Lviv. Crimes committed east of the Curzon line could not prosecuted by Polish courts. Information on the atrocities that took place in Lviv was restricted.
In 1960 Dr. Helena Krukowska, the widow of Prof. Dr. Włodzimierz Krukowski, launched an appeal to the court in Hamburg. After five years the German court closed the judicial proceeding. Public prosecutor von Beelow argued that the people responsible for the crime were already dead. This however was not true since at the same time SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Krüger, commander of the Gestapo unit supervising the massacres in Lviv in 1941, was being held in Hamburg prison (he was sentenced to life imprisonment for the mass murder of Jews and Poles in Stanisłaviv, committed several weeks after his unit was transferred from Lviv). As a result no person has ever been held responsible for this atrocity.
In the 1970s Abrahamowicz Street in Lviv was renamed Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński Street.
Various Polish organisations have made deputations to remember the victims of the atrocity with a monument or a symbolic grave in Lviv. These requests have been so-far rejected.
The case of the murder of the professors is currently under investigation by the Institute of National Remembrance.
[edit] Controversy
Some Polish sources contend that members of the Nachtigall Battalion killed the Polish professors, including the ex-Polish Prime minister Kazimierz Bartel, Tadeusz Boy-Zelenski and others.
Russian sources state "That on June 30 in Lviv the German administration started mass repressions. The commander of the Einzatzgruppen C Dr. Rasch had incriminated the death of those incarcerated in the Lviv jails to the "Jews from the NKVD" which became the spark for the terror against the Jews and Poles of Lviv. In the bloody murder of the Jews the Einsatzgruppen under the command of brigadeerfuhrer SS Karl Eberhard Schenhardt took prominence. Sections of this group under the command of H. Kruger and W. Kutshman on July 4 murdered 23 Polish professors and their families. On July 11, 2 more were killed, and later the former prime-minister of Poland, professor Bartel."[1].
[edit] References
- ^ * RUSSIAN:Chuyev, Sergei Ukrainskyj Legion - Moskva, 2006 p. 180
[edit] Sources
- Albert, Zygmunt (1989). Kaźń profesorów lwowskich - lipiec 1941 - collection of documents. Wrocław, University of Wrocław Press. ISBN 8322903510.
- Lanckorońska, Karolina (2001). Wspomnienia wojenne. Kraków, Znak. ISBN 8324000771.
- Sterkowicz, Stanisław (1974). Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński; lekarz, pisarz, społecznik. Warsaw, PZWL.
- Szewalski, Robert (1993). Politechnika Lwowska 1844-1945. Wrocław, Wrocław University of Technology Press. ISBN 8370850588.
- Ярослав Грицак (Yaroslav Hrytsak) (1996). Формування модерної української нації XIX-XX ст. (Formation of the Modern Ukrainian Nation in the late 19th–20th centuries). Kiev: Генеза (Heneza). ISBN 966-504-150-9., (in Ukrainian). Available online. Section 5.4 Between two totalitarianisms. The question of collaboration: an attempt at analysis
