The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of

mass murder Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more p ...

s which was committed against the Polish

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 ...

(teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) early in the Second World War (1939–45) by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

. The Germans conducted the operations in accordance with their plan to Germanize the western regions of

occupied Poland ' ( Norwegian: ') is a Norwegian political thriller TV series that premiered on TV2 on 5 October 2015. Based on an original idea by Jo Nesbø, the series is co-created with Karianne Lund and Erik Skjoldbjærg. Season 2 premiered on 10 Octo ...

, before their territorial annexation to the

German Reich German ''Reich'' (lit. German Realm, German Empire, from german: Deutsches Reich, ) was the constitutional name for the German nation state that existed from 1871 to 1945. The ''Reich'' became understood as deriving its authority and sovereignty ...

. The mass murder operations of the ''Intelligenzaktion'' resulted in the killing of 100,000 Polish people; by way of

forced disappearance An enforced disappearance (or forced disappearance) is the secret abduction or imprisonment of a person by a state or political organization, or by a third party with the authorization, support, or acquiescence of a state or political organiz ...

, the Germans imprisoned and killed select members of Polish society, identified as enemies of the Reich before the war; they were buried in mass graves which were dug in remote places. In order to facilitate the depopulation of Poland, the Germans terrorised the general populace by carrying out public,

summary execution A summary execution is an execution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without the benefit of a Right to a fair trial, full and fair trial. Executions as the result of summary offense, summary justice (such as a drumhea ...

s of select intellectuals and community leaders, before they effected the expulsion of the general population from occupied Poland. The executioners of 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 ...

'' death squads and members of the local ''

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

'', the German-minority militia, justified their actions by falsely stating that the purpose of their police-work was to remove politically dangerous people from Polish society. The ''Intelligenzaktion'' was a major step towards the implementation of ''

Sonderaktion Tannenberg Operation Tannenberg (german: Unternehmen Tannenberg) was a codename for one of the anti-Polish extermination actions by Nazi Germany that were directed at the Poles during the opening stages of World War II in Europe, as part of the '' Generalpl ...

'' (Special Operation Tannenberg), the installation of Nazi policemen and functionaries — from the

SiPo The ''Sicherheitspolizei'' ( en, Security Police), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for security police. In the Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by th ...

(composed of Kripo and

Gestapo The (), 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 Prussia into one or ...

members), and members of the SD — to manage the occupation and facilitate the realization of ''

Generalplan Ost The ''Generalplan Ost'' (; en, Master Plan for the East), abbreviated GPO, was the Nazi German government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a state. In the case of its broa ...

'', the German colonization of Poland.Prof. Dietrich Eichholtz (2004)
»Generalplan Ost« zur Versklavung osteuropäischer Völker.
PDF file, direct download 74.5 KB. Among the 100,000 people who were killed in the ''Intelligenzaktion'' operations, approximately 61,000 of them were members of the Polish intelligentsia, people who the Germans considered political targets according to the

Special Prosecution Book-Poland ''Special Prosecution Book-Poland'' (german: Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen, pl, Specjalna księga Polaków ściganych listem gończym) was the proscription list prepared by the Germans immediately before the onset of war, that identified more than 61, ...

, a book which was compiled before the war began in September 1939.Dr. Jan Moor-Jankowski
Holocaust of Non-Jewish Poles During WWII.
Polish American Congress, Washington. 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 AB-Aktion.Tadeusz Piotrowski,
Poland's Holocaust: ethnic strife, collaboration with occupying forces and genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947
', McFarland, 1998, p. 25.

Purpose

Adolf Hitler ordered the murder of the

and the social élites of Poland to prevent them from organising the Poles against their German masters, and thwart the occupation and colonisation of the country; the mass murder was to occur before the annexation of Poland to the

Greater Germanic Reich The Greater Germanic Reich (german: Großgermanisches Reich), fully styled the Greater Germanic Reich of the German Nation (german: Großgermanisches Reich deutscher Nation), was the official state name of the political entity that Nazi Germany ...

:International Military Tribunal at Nurnberg,
Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression
', Office of the United States Chief of Counsel For Prosecution of Axis Criminality. Nuremberg 1946

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;Richard C. Lukas,
Did the Children Cry? Hitler's War against Jewish and Polish Children
', 1939-1945. Hippocrene Books, New York, 2001. 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.Northwestern University
Hitlers Plans for Eastern Europe
www.dac.neu.edu 2012. Moreover, by way of the ''Rassenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP'' ( Nazi Party Office of Racial Policy), the racially valuable (Aryan-looking) children of the Polish intelligentsia were to be

kidnapped Kidnapped may refer to: * subject to the crime of kidnapping In criminal law, kidnapping is the unlawful confinement of a person against their will, often including transportation/asportation. The asportation and abduction element is typically ...

to the Reich proper, for Germanization; 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.

Method

Upon controlling Poland, the Germans 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 ''

'' (''Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen''), which 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

(Security Police) and the SD (Security Service). The ''Einsatzgruppen'' and the ''

'', the Ethnic Self-defence militia of the German minority in Poland, were to kill the intelligentsia identified in the Special Prosecution Book–Poland. Aware they would be killing unarmed civilians, the commanders of the paramilitary militias strengthened morale with ideological and racialist instructions to the soldier–policemen, that their political role in the

ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population trans ...

of Poland (executions,

counterinsurgency Counterinsurgency (COIN) is "the totality of actions aimed at defeating irregular forces". The Oxford English Dictionary defines counterinsurgency as any "military or political action taken against the activities of guerrillas or revolutionari ...

, policing) would be more difficult than fighting in battle against soldiers; as noted by Martin Bormann, in a meeting (2 October 1940) between Hitler and Hans Frank: As part of ''

'', the political purpose of the ''Intelligenzaktion'' was extermination of the élites of Polish society, which the Nazis broadly defined as the ''

Szlachta The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in ...

'' (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 German occupation of Poland.

Regional operations

# ''

Intelligenzaktion Pommern The ''Intelligenzaktion Pommern''Stefan Sutkowski (2001), ''The history of music in Poland: The Contemporary Era. 1939–1974''. Vol. 7, page 37 "...some 183 professors of the Jagiellonian University and the Academy of Mining and Foundry in Craco ...

'', a regional mass murder operation in the

Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship, Pomorskie Region, or Pomerania Province ( Polish: ''Województwo pomorskie'' ; (Kashubian: ''Pòmòrsczé wòjewództwò'' ), is a voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk. The ...

; 23,000 Poles were arrested, imprisoned, and killed soon after identification and arrest. To terrorise the general populace, the Germans 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. # ''Intelligenzaktion Posen'', the mass murder of 2,000 victims from

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

. # ''Intelligenzaktion Masovien'', regional mass murder in the

Masovian Voivodeship The Masovian Voivodeship, also known as the Mazovia Province ( pl, województwo mazowieckie ) is a voivodeship (province) in east-central Poland, with its capital located in the city of Warsaw, which also serves as the capital of the country. The ...

, 1939–40, 6,700 people killed, from

Ostrołęka , image_flag = POL Ostrołęka flag.svg , image_shield = POL Ostrołęka COA.svg , pushpin_map = Poland Masovian Voivodeship#Poland , pushpin_label_position = bottom , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name = , subdivision_type1 = ...

Wyszków Wyszków (; yi, ווישקאָוו ''Vishkov'') is a town in eastern Poland with 26,500 inhabitants (2018). It is the capital of Wyszków County in Masovian Voivodeship. History The village of Wyszków was first documented in 1203. It was gr ...

Ciechanów Ciechanów is a city in north-central Poland. From 1975 to 1998, it was the capital of the Ciechanów Voivodeship. Since 1999, it has been situated in the Masovian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, it has a population of 43,495. History The ...

Wysokie Mazowieckie Wysokie Mazowieckie is a town in north-eastern Poland, in Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the capital of Wysokie Mazowieckie County. Population is 10,034 . In town there is one of the biggest dairy companies in this part of Europe - " Mlekovita ...

, and Giełczyn, near Łomża. # ''Intelligenzaktion Schlesien'', regional mass murder in the

Silesian Voivodeship Silesian Voivodeship, or Silesia Province ( pl, województwo śląskie ) is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centered on the historic region known as Upper Silesia ('), with Katowice serving as its capital. Despite the Silesian ...

in 1940; 2,000 Poles killed. # ''Intelligenzaktion Litzmannstadt'', regional mass murder in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

, 1939; 1,500 people killed. # '' Sonderaktion Krakau'', mass arrest of intelligentsia, 183 professors from Jagiellonian University, whom the Germans deported to Sachsenhausen concentration camp. # ''Zweite Sonderaktion Krakau'' # ''Sonderaktion Tschenstochau'' in

Częstochowa Częstochowa ( , ; german: Tschenstochau, Czenstochau; la, Czanstochova) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (admi ...

# ''Sonderaktion Lublin'', regional mass murder in

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of ...

; 2,000 people killed, most were priests of the Roman Catholic Church. # ''Sonderaktion Bürgerbräukeller'' in the

Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship (also known as Lodz Province, or by its Polish language, Polish name ''Województwo łódzkie'' ) is a province-Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź ...

# ''Professorenmord'', mass murder of the intelligentsia in the Stanisławów, the

Kresy Eastern Borderlands ( pl, Kresy Wschodnie) or simply Borderlands ( pl, Kresy, ) was a term coined for the eastern part of the Second Polish Republic during the History of Poland (1918–1939), interwar period (1918–1939). Largely agricultural ...

region, Czarny Las Massacre; 250–300 Polish academics killed.

Notes

References

* * * * Maria Wardzyńska, ''"Intelligenzaktion" na Warmii, Mazurach oraz Północnym Mazowszu''. Główna Komisja Ścigania Zbrodni Przeciwko Narodowi Polskiemu. Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej nr. 12/1, 2003/2004, ss. 38-42
ceeol.com
*

External links

*Elżbieta Grot, ''Ludobójstwo w Piaśnicy z uwzględnieniem losów mieszkańców powiatu wejherowskiego'' ("Genocide in Piaśnica with a discussion of the fate of the inhabitants of Wejherow county"), Public Library of Wejherowo

*Tadeusz Piotrowski, ''Poland's holocaust: ethnic strife, collaboration with occupying forces and genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947'', McFarland, 1998, p. 25

, Encyklopedia WIEM
''Intelligenzaktion''
Encyklopedia PWN
Testimonies concerning genocide of Polish elites during WWII in 'Chronicles of Terror' collection
{{Einsatzgruppen 1939 in Poland 1940 in Poland Massacres in Poland Nazi war crimes in Poland Germany–Poland relations Germanization Persecution by Nazi Germany Persecution of Poles Persecution of Jews Persecution of intellectuals