Operation "Tannenberg" (German Unternehmen "Tannenberg") - the code name of the German operation for the mass destruction of the Poles during the Second World War (part of the Plan "Ost" ).
The lists of Poles ( Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen ), prepared by the Germans before the war, numbered more than 61,000 representatives of the Polish elite: activists, intellectuals, scientists, actors, statesmen, etc., who were to be destroyed. Participated in the preparation of lists " Folksdeuyche ".
The plan was created in May 1939. After the order of Adolf Hitler, a special unit was created to carry out the operation Tannenberg in the General Directorate of Imperial Security . It commanded many Einsatzgruppen der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD , formed from the Gestapo , the German Criminal Police ( Kripo ) and SD officials, who were theoretically subordinate to the command of the Wehrmacht . Their task was to arrest all the people listed in the lists.
First, in August 1939, approximately 2,000 activists of Polish minority organizations in Germany were arrested and killed. The second part of the operation began on September 1, 1939, and ended in October, resulting in at least 20,000 victims killed in 760 mass executions carried out by special units ( Einsatzgruppen ) using Wehrmacht regular units.
In addition, units ( Selbstschutz ) were created from Volksdeutsche and other Nazi supporters living in Poland, whose members were trained in sabotage and guerrilla warfare before the war in Germany. The formation was responsible for the massacre and, due to its bad reputation, was dissolved by the Nazi authorities after the complete occupation of Poland .
Bibliography
- Various authors. Monografia obozu KL Stutthof . - Państwowe Muzeum Stutthof w Sztutowie, 2000. Archival copy of July 29, 2009 on the Wayback Machine
- Andrzej Leszek Szcześniak. Plan zagłady Słowian - Generalplan OST. - Radom, POLWEN, 2001. - ISBN 83-88822-03-9 .
- Alfred Spiess, Heiner Lichtenstein: Unternehmen Tannenberg. Der Anlass zum Zweiten Weltkrieg. Korrigierte und erweiterte Ausgabe. (Ullstein-Buch; Nr. 33118: Zeitgeschichte) Ullstein, Frankfurt / M; Berlin 1989, ISBN 3-548-33118-1 .
Links
- (English) Verbatim transcript of the book of "The German New Year of the Order in Poland". June, 1941
- (him.) Hitlers Vorbereitungen zum Angriff und zur Vernichtung der Polen in Pommern und der Freien Stadt Danzig
- (fr.) La Station de Radiodiffusion de Gleiwitz (Gliwice) - L'Opération TANNENBERG
- Unternehmen Tannenberg - August 1939: Wie der SD den Überfall auf Polen vorbereitete (III) bei wissen.spiegel.de PDF
- ZEIT ONLINE 45/1971 S. 56: Unternehmen Tannenberg - Polnische Dokumentation über die Einsatzgruppen, von Joseph Wulf PDF (not available link)