Intelligenzaktion: Difference between revisions

| title = Intelligentsia mass shootings

| native_name = ''Intelligenzaktion''

| native_name_lang = de

| image = Bydgoszcz-rozstrzelanie zakładników 9.09.1939.jpg

| image_size = 300

| caption = In occupied Poland, on 9 September 1939, the NazisGermans publicly executed twenty-five prominent citizens, before the Municipal Museum, in the Market Square of [[Bydgoszcz]], as part of the [[German retribution against people of Bydgoszcz|mass shootings]] of Polish intelligentsia.<ref>Jerzy Ślaski, ''Polska walcząca'', vol.&nbsp;2, 3rd ed., augm., Warsaw, Oficyna Wydawnicza Rytm, 1999, p.&nbsp;554. {{ISBN|8387893315}}.</ref><ref>Janusz Kutta, "Rola Kościoła katolickiego w dziejach Bydgoszczy" (The Role of the Catholic Church in the History of Bydgoszcz), ''Kronika Bydgoska'', vol.&nbsp;19, ed. W.&nbsp;Jastrzębski, ''et al.'', Bydgoszcz, Towarzystwo Miłośników miasta Bydgoszczy, 1998, p.&nbsp;14. ISSN 0454-5451.</ref><br>

To terrorise the townsfolk, the NazisGermans displayed the bodies for six hours.<ref name="Wojan59">Ryszard Wojan, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=igGgAAAAMAAJ Bydgoszcz: niedziela 3 września 1939 r.]'', [[Poznań]], Wydawnictwo Poznańskie (Towarzystwo Rozwoju Ziem Zachodnich. Rada Okręgu Bydgoskiego w Toruniu), 1959, p.&nbsp;68.</ref>

| location = [[Occupied Poland]]

| target = [[Polish people|Poles]] (teachers, priests, [[intellectual]]s, civic officials, and the upper classes).

| date = 1939–1940

| time =

| timezone =

| type = [[mass murder]], [[mass =shooting]], [[MassGenocidal murder|Massacresmassacre]] s

| fatalities = 100,000{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|pp=8-10, 295}}<br>(61,000 [[Special Prosecution Book-Poland|from lists]]) <ref name="Jankowski"/>

| injuries =

| perp =

| susperps =

| susperp =

| weapons = [[Automatic weapons]] and small arms

| numparts = =

| numpart = =

| dfens = =

| dfen = =

The Josue'''''Intelligenzaktion''''' Delacruz({{IPA|de|ɪntɛliˈɡɛnt͡s.akˌt͡sjoːn}}), Actor Suck ****the '''Intelligentsia mass shootings''', was alwaysa secret,series of [[mass murder]]s conductedwhich bywas [[Nazi Germany]]committed against the [[PolesPolish people|Polish]] [[intelligentsia]] (teachers, priests, physicians, ''etand al.''other prominent members of Polish society) early in the [[World War II|Second World War (1939–45)]] by [[Nazi Germany]]. The Germans conducted the operations werein conductedaccordance towith realisetheir theplan to [[Germanization|Germanize]] of the western regions of [[occupied Poland]], before their territorial annexation to the [[Nazi Germany|German Reich]].

The mass murder operations of the ''Intelligenzaktion'' killedresulted in the killing of 100,000 Polish people; by way of [[forced disappearance]], the NazisGermans imprisoned and killed selectedselect citizensmembers of Polish society, identified before the war as enemies of the Reich before the war; they were buried in mass graves atwhich were dug in remote places.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|pp=8-10, 295}} ToIn order to facilitate the depopulation of Poland, the NazisGermans [[Terrorism|terrorised]] the general populace withby thecarrying out public, [[summary executionsexecution]]s of selectedselect intellectuals and community leaders, before effectingthey effected the [[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|expulsionsexpulsion of the general population]] from occupied Poland. The executioners of the ''[[Einsatzgruppen]]'' [[death squadssquad]]s and members of the local ''[[Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz]]'', the German-minority militia, pretendedjustified their actions by falsely stating that the purpose of their police-work was meant to eliminateremove politically dangerous people from Polish society.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|pp=8-10, 295}}

The ''Intelligenzaktion'' was a major step towards implementingthe implementation of ''[[Sonderaktion Tannenberg]]'' (Special Operation Tannenberg), the installation of Nazi policemen and functionaries — from the [[Sicherheitspolizei|SiPo]] (composed of the [[Kriminalpolizei|Kripo]] and [[Gestapo]] members), and members of the [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]] — to manage the occupation and facilitate the realisationrealization of ''[[Generalplan Ost]]'', the German colonization of Poland.<ref name="rosalux.de">Prof. Dietrich Eichholtz (2004), [http://www.rosalux.de/cms/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/167eichholtz.pdf »Generalplan Ost« zur Versklavung osteuropäischer Völker.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080624220118/http://www.rosalux.de/cms/fileadmin/rls_uploads/pdfs/167eichholtz.pdf |date=24 June 2008 }} PDF file, direct download 74.5 KB.</ref> Among the 100,000 people who were killed in the ''Intelligenzaktion'' operations, approximately 61,000 of them were members of the Polish intelligentsiaintelligenzia, whompeople who the NazisGermans identified asconsidered political targets inaccording to the [[Special Prosecution Book-Poland]], a book which was compiled before the war began in September 1939.<ref name="Jankowski">Dr. Jan Moor-Jankowski, [http://www.pacwashmetrodiv.org/events/holoc04/moor-jankowski.htm Holocaust of Non-Jewish Poles During WWII.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160516004415/http://www.pacwashmetrodiv.org/events/holoc04/moor-jankowski.htm |date=16 May 2016 }} Polish American Congress, Washington.</ref> The ''Intelligenzaktion'' occurred soon after the [[German invasion of Poland]] (1 September 1939), and lasted from the autumn of 1939 until the spring of 1940; the mass murder of the Polish intellectuals continued with the operations of the [[German AB-Aktion in Poland|AB-Aktion]].<ref name="Piotrowski1998">Tadeusz Piotrowski, ''[https://books.googlearchive.comorg/books?id=A4FlatJCro4C&pg=PA305&lpg=PA305&dqdetails/polandsholocaust00piot/page/305 <!-- quote=poland+ second+ world+ war+ losses. --> Poland's Holocaust: ethnic strife, collaboration with occupying forces and genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947]'', McFarland, 1998, p. 25.</ref>

{{quoteblockquote|Once more, the ''Führer'' must point out that the Poles can only have one master, and that is the German; two masters cannot and must not exist side by side; therefore, all representatives of the Polish intelligentsia should be eliminated [''umbringen'']. This sounds harsh, but such are the laws of life.<ref>Linda Jacobs Altman (2005), ''[https://booksarchive.google.comorg/books?iddetails/adolfhitlerevilm0000altm <!-- quote=PTWC5YOLrkkC&focus=searchwithinvolume&q=%22Polish+"Polish masters%22+" eliminated. --> Adolf Hitler: Evil Mastermind of the Holocaust]'' (Google Books, snippet view) Enslow Publishers, {{ISBN|0766025330}}. Page 111.</ref>}}

[[Nazism and race|Nazi racialism]] considered the Polish élites as being most likely of German blood, because their style of dynamic leadership contrasted positively against the “Slavonic fatalism” of the Russian people;<ref name="cry">Richard C. Lukas, ''[http://www.projectinposterum.org/docs/lucas2.htm Did the Children Cry? Hitler's War against Jewish and Polish Children]'', 1939-1945. Hippocrene Books, New York, 2001.</ref> nonetheless, the extermination of such national leaders was necessary, because their patriotism (moral authority) would prevent the full-scale [[Germanization]] of the enslaved populace of Poland.<ref name="plans">Northwestern University, [https://archive.istoday/20120527021449/http://www.dac.neu.edu/holocaust/Hitlers_Plans.htm Hitlers Plans for Eastern Europe] www.dac.neu.edu 2012.</ref>

Moreover, by way of the ''Rassenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP'' ([[NSDAP Office of Racial Policy|Nazi Party Office of Racial Policy]]),<ref name=Hrabar28>{{cite book|author=Roman Zbigniew Hrabar|title=Hitlerowski rabunek dzieci polskich: Uprowadzanie i germanizowanie dzieci polskich w latach 1939-1945 | publisher=Śląski Instytut Naukowy w Katowicach, Katowice: Wydawnictwo Śląsk | year = 1960|page =28 | language = Polish}}</ref> the racially valuable (Aryan-looking) children of the Polish intelligentsia were to be [[Kidnapping of Easternchildren Europeanfor childrenforced Germanization by Nazi Germany|kidnapped]] to the Reich proper, for Germanization;<ref name="spoliation"/> Nazi ideology claimed that such non-Slavic acculturation would prevent the generational resurgence of the Polish intelligentsia, and thus prevent the resurgence of Polish nationalism in Germanised Poland.<ref name="cry"/>

Upon controlling Poland, the German NazisGermans arrested, imprisoned, and killed approximately 61,000 people as enemies of the German Reich, all of whom were identified as the intelligentsia of each city, town, and village. Each man and woman was biographically listed in the ''[[Special Prosecution Book-Poland]]'' (''Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen''), which [[German minority in Poland|German citizens of Poland]] loyal to the Nazi party in the German Reich compiled before the war for the German police and security forces of the [[SiPo]] (Security Police) and the [[Sicherheitsdienst|SD]] (Security Service).

The ''Einsatzgruppen'' and the ''[[Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz]]'', the Ethnic Self-defence militia of the German minority in Poland, were to kill the intelligentsia identified in the Special Prosecution Book–Poland.{{sfn|Szcześniak|2001|}} Aware they would be killing unarmed civilians, the commanders of the paramilitary militias strengthened morale with ideological and [[Racialism|racialist]] instructions to the soldier–policemen, that their political role in the [[ethnic cleansing]] of Poland (executions, [[counterinsurgency]], policing) would be more difficult than fighting in battle against soldiers; as noted by [[Martin BormanBormann]], in a meeting (2 October 1940) between Hitler and Hans Frank:{{sfn|Lukas|2012|p=8}}

{{quoteblockquote|The ''Führer'' must emphasize, once again, that for Poles there is only one master, and he is a German; there can be no two masters, beside each other, and there is no consent to such, hence, all representatives of the Polish [[intelligentsia]] are to be killed. . . . The [[General Government]] is a Polish reservation, a great Polish labour camp.<ref name="MtM">{{cite book |author1=Adamska, Jolanta |author2=Sziling, Jan |year=2009 |title=Man to man . . . : destruction of the Polish intelligentsia in the years 1939–1945 |location=Warsaw |publisher=[[Council for the Protection of Struggle and Martyrdom Sites]] (Rada Ochrony Pamięci Walk i Męczeństwa) |volume=Catalogue for the exhibition commemorating the 70th anniversary of the destruction of the [[Royal Castle, Warsaw|Royal Castle]] in Warsaw|issue=English version |ppage=11 }}</ref>}}

As part of ''[[Generalplan Ost]]'', the political purpose of the ''Intelligenzaktion'' was extermination of the élites of Polish society, which the Nazis broadly defined as the ''[[Szlachta]]'' (Polish nobles), the intelligentsia, teachers, social workers, judges, military veterans, priests and businessmen; any Polish man and woman who had attended secondary school, and so could provide nationalist leadership to resist the NaziGerman occupation of Poland.{{sfn|Lukas|2012|p=8}}

# ''[[Intelligenzaktion Pommern]]'', a regional mass murder operation in the [[Pomeranian Voivodeship]]; 23,000 Poles were arrested, imprisoned, and killed soon after identification and arrest. To terrorise the general populace, the NazisGermans then selected prominent citizens, from the arrested people, and publicly executed them, leaving the corpses on display, as formal warning against resistance to German occupation.{{sfn|Wardzyńska|2009|pp=8-10, 295}}

# ''[[Sonderaktion Krakau]]'', mass arrest of intelligentsia, 183 professors from [[Jagiellonian University]], whom the NazisGermans deported to [[Sachsenhausen concentration camp]].

*[[Nazi crimes against ethnicthe PolesPolish nation]]

* {{cite book |last=Lukas |first=Richard C. |year=2012 |orig-year=1986 |title=Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation 1939-1944 |publisher=Hippocrene Books |refisbn=harv9780781809016 |url=https://books.google.com/books/about/The_forgotten_Holocaust.html?id=Lv1mAAAAMAAJ

*Tadeusz Piotrowski, ''Poland's holocaust: ethnic strife, collaboration with occupying forces and genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947'', McFarland, 1998, p.&nbsp;25, [https://booksarchive.google.comorg/details/books?id=hC0polandsholocaust00piot/page/25 <!-dk7vpM8C&pg=PA25&dq- quote=Piasnica+ Wielka&as_brr=0#v=onepage&q=Piasnica%20Wielka&f=false. -->]

*{{in lang|pl}} [http://portalwiedzy.onet.pl/36132,,,,intelligenzaktion,haslo.html ''Intelligenzaktion''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170204063727/http://portalwiedzy.onet.pl/36132,,,,intelligenzaktion,haslo.html |date=4 February 2017 }}, [[Encyklopedia WIEM]]