Operation Tannenberg (, ) was one of the first anti-Polish extermination actions by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in German-occupied Poland from September 1939 to January 1940. The operation was conducted with the use of the '' Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen'', a

proscription Proscription () is, in current usage, a 'decree of condemnation to death or banishment' (''Oxford English Dictionary'') and can be used in a political context to refer to state-approved murder or banishment. The term originated in Ancient Rome ...

list of more than 61,000 members of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

's elite were to be arrested then

interned Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without Criminal charge, charges or Indictment, intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects ...

or shot. Around 20,000 Poles were arrested and killed by the ''

Einsatzgruppen (, ; also 'task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...

'' in a number of

mass killing Mass killing is a concept which has been proposed by genocide scholars who wish to define incidents of non-combat killing which are perpetrated by a government or a state. A mass killing is commonly defined as the killing of group members without ...

s during Operation Tannenberg, which was followed by the shooting and gassing of hospital patients and disabled adults as part of the wider

Aktion T4 (German, ) was a campaign of Homicide#By state actors, mass murder by involuntary euthanasia which targeted Disability, people with disabilities and the mentally ill in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-WWII, war trials against d ...

programme.

Implementation

Between 1937 and 1939,

produced the '' Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen'' (Special Prosecution Book – Poland), a list of individuals in the

who were seen as a potential threat to future German conquest and rule. These included 61,000 prominent

activist Activism consists of efforts to promote, impede, direct or intervene in social, political, economic or environmental reform with the desire to make changes in society toward a perceived common good. Forms of activism range from mandate build ...

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

scholar A scholar is a person who is a researcher or has expertise in an academic discipline. A scholar can also be an academic, who works as a professor, teacher, or researcher at a university. An academic usually holds an advanced degree or a termina ...

clergy Clergy are formal leaders within established religions. Their roles and functions vary in different religious traditions, but usually involve presiding over specific rituals and teaching their religion's doctrines and practices. Some of the ter ...

, actors, former officers and others of cultural or political importance. The list was compiled by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

, the

secret police image:Putin-Stasi-Ausweis.png, 300px, Vladimir Putin's secret police identity card, issued by the East German Stasi while he was working as a Soviet KGB liaison officer from 1985 to 1989. Both organizations used similar forms of repression. Secre ...

agency under the

Reich Security Main Office The Reich Security Main Office ( , RSHA) was an organization under Heinrich Himmler in his dual capacity as ''Chef der Deutschen Polizei'' (Chief of German Police) and , the head of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS). The organization's stat ...

, with the assistance of members of the

German minority in Poland The registered German minority in Poland (; ) is a group of German people that inhabit Poland, being the largest minority of the country. As of 2021, it had a population of 144,177. The German language is spoken in certain areas in Opole Voiv ...

.Unternehmen Tannenberg - August 1939: Wie der SD den Überfall auf Polen vorbereitete (III)
bei wissen.spiegel.d

Following the orders of

Adolf Hitler Adolf Hitler (20 April 1889 – 30 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was the dictator of Nazi Germany from 1933 until Death of Adolf Hitler, his suicide in 1945. Adolf Hitler's rise to power, He rose to power as the lea ...

, a special unit dubbed ''Tannenberg'' was created within the Reich Security Main Office, commanding five ''

'' units of 27,000 men formed with Gestapo,

Kripo ''Kriminalpolizei'' (, "criminal police") is the standard term for the criminal investigation agency within the police forces of Germany, Austria, and the German-speaking cantons of Switzerland. In Nazi Germany, the Kripo was the criminal polic ...

and ''

Sicherheitsdienst ' (, "Security Service"), full title ' ("Security Service of the ''Reichsführer-SS''"), or SD, was the intelligence agency of the Schutzstaffel, SS and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany. Established in 1931, the SD was the first Nazi intelligence ...

'' (SD) officers. These men were theoretically to follow the ''

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...

'' into occupied territories, and their task was to track down and arrest all the people listed on the proscription lists exactly as it had been compiled before the outbreak of war. The plan was finalized in May 1939 by the Central Office II P (Poland).Peter Longerich (2012)
War and Settlement in Poland.
''Heinrich Himmler: A Life.'' OUP Oxford, pp. 425–429. . The first phase of the action occurred in September 1939, and was perpetrated by the ''Einsatzgruppen'', with assistance from the local ''

Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz The ''Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz'' was an Selbstschutz, ethnic-German self-protection militia, a paramilitary organization comprising ethnic Germans (''Volksdeutsche'') mobilized from among the German minority in Poland. The ''Volksdeutsche ...

'' and ''

Sturmabteilung The (; SA; or 'Storm Troopers') was the original paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party of Germany. It played a significant role in Adolf Hitler's rise to power, Hitler's rise to power in the 1920s and early 1930s. I ...

'' militias. Around 20,000 people on the list were caught and subsequently killed in 760 mass killings over a 4-month period, some which included pregnant women.

Massacres of hospital patients

After the extermination of the Polish elite, patients from Polish hospitals were murdered in ''Wartheland'' (

Wielkopolska Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...

) by ''Einsatzgruppe'' VI men. They were led by Herbert Lange, who was under the command of Erich Naumann. He was appointed commandant of the first

Chełmno extermination camp Chełmno, or Kulmhof, was the first of Nazi Germany's extermination camps and was situated north of Łódź, near the village of Chełmno nad Nerem. Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, Germany annexed ...

soon thereafter. By mid-1940, Lange and his men were responsible for the murder of about 1,100 patients in Owińska, 2,750 patients at

Kościan Kościan () () is a town on the Obra, Greater Poland Voivodeship, Obra canal in west-central Poland, with a population of 23,952 inhabitants as of June 2014. Situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, it is the capital of Kościan County. History ...

, 1,558 patients and 300 Poles at

Działdowo Działdowo (; , ) is a town in northern Poland with 20,935 inhabitants as of December 2021, the capital of Działdowo County. As part of Masuria, it is situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (since 1999), Działdowo belonged previously to Cie ...

who were shot in the back of the neck; and hundreds of Poles at

Fort VII Fort VII, officially ''Konzentrationslager Posen'' (renamed later), was a Nazi German death camp set up in Poznań in German-occupied Poland during World War II, located in one of the 19th-century forts circling the city. According to differen ...

where the mobile gas-chamber (''Einsatzwagen'') was first developed along with the first gassing bunker. According to the historian

Peter Longerich Heinz Peter Longerich (born 1955) is a German professor of history and historian. He is regarded by Ian Kershaw, Richard Evans, Timothy Snyder, Mark Roseman and Richard Overy, as one of the leading German authorities on the Holocaust. Career ...

, the hospital massacres were conducted on the initiative of ''Einsatzgruppen'', because they were not ordered by SS chief Heinreich Himmler.Longerich 2012, p. 430. Lange's experience in the mass killing of Poles during Operation Tannenberg was the reason why Ernst Damzog, the Commander of ''

Sicherheitspolizei The often abbreviated as SiPo, is a German term meaning "security police". In the Nazi Germany, Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agency, security agencies. It was made up by the combined forces of ...

'' (Security Police) and SD stationed in occupied

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

(Posen) placed him in charge of the ''

SS-Sonderkommando The ''Schutzstaffel'' (; ; SS; also stylised with SS runes as ''ᛋᛋ'') was a major paramilitary organisation under Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party in Nazi Germany, and later throughout German-occupied Europe during World War II. It bega ...

Lange'' (special detachment) for the purpose of mass gassing operations which led to the eventual annihilation of the

Łódź Ghetto The Łódź Ghetto or Litzmannstadt Ghetto (after the Nazi German name for Łódź) was a Nazi ghetto established by the German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma following the Invasion of Poland. It was the second-largest ghetto in all of ...

Notes

Footnotes and references

Bibliography

* Verbatim transcript of Part I of the book
The German New Order in Poland
' published for the Polish Ministry of Information by Hutchinson & Co., London, in late 1941. The period covered by the book is September, 1939 to June, 1941.

Implementation

Massacres of hospital patients

See also

Notes

Footnotes and references

Bibliography

Further reading