Intelligenzaktion Pommern
1939–1940 massacres in Pomerania committed by Nazi Germany / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dear Wikiwand AI, let's keep it short by simply answering these key questions:
Can you list the top facts and stats about Intelligenzaktion Pommern?
Summarize this article for a 10 year old
The Intelligenzaktion Pommern[1][2][3][4] was a Nazi German operation aimed at the eradication of the Polish intelligentsia in Pomeranian Voivodeship and the surrounding areas at the beginning of World War II. It was part of a larger genocidal Intelligenzaktion[5][6] that took place across most of Nazi-occupied western Poland in the course of Operation Tannenberg (Unternehmen Tannenberg),[7] purposed to install Nazi officials from SiPo, Kripo, Gestapo and SD at the helm of a new administrative machine.[6]
Intelligenzaktion Pommern | |
---|---|
Part of Generalplan Ost | |
Location | German occupied Pomeranian Voivodeship, Free City of Danzig annexed as Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany |
Date | 1939–1940 |
Target | Polish intellectuals and the upper classes from prescribed list. |
Attack type | Massacres |
Weapons | Automatic weapons |
Deaths | 23,000 [1] |
Perpetrators | Nazi Germany, SS-armed militia from German minority in Poland |
Motive | Anti-Polish sentiment, Antisemitism, Anti-slavism |
On the direct orders from Adolf Hitler, carried out by Reinhard Heydrich's bureau of Referat Tannenberg along with Heinrich Himmler’s established Reich Security Main Office (RSHA), Poles from among intelligentsia and elites were rounded up,[7] and executed without any due process by the SS-Einsatzgruppen in dozens of remote locations such as the forest massacres in Piaśnica and the cavernous Valley of Death.[8] Starting right after the invasion in September 1939,[7] with a second wave in the spring of 1940,[9] these actions were an early measure of the German Generalplan Ost colonization.[10]