Palmiry massacre
52°20′N 20°44′E / 52.33°N 20.74°EThe Palmiry massacre was a series of mass executions carried out by Nazi German forces, during World War II, near the village of Palmiry in the Kampinos Forest northwest of Warsaw.
Massacres[edit]
Between December 1939 and July 1941 more than 1700 Poles and Jews – mostly inmates of Warsaw's Pawiak prison – were executed by the SS (Schutzstaffel) and Ordnungspolizei in a forest glade near Palmiry. The best documented of these massacres took place on 20–21 June 1940, when 358 members of the Polish political, cultural, and social elite were murdered in a single operation.
Palmiry is one of the most infamous sites of German crimes in Poland, and "one of the most notorious places of mass executions" in Poland.[1] Along with the Katyn massacre, it has become emblematic of the martyrdom of Polish intelligentsia during World War II.
Timeline of the Palmiry massacre[edit]
First executions[edit]
Probably the first executions in the forest glade near Palmiry were carried out on 7 and 8 December 1939, when 70 and 80 people were murdered, respectively. According to the Wehrmacht soldiers who guarded a nearby ammunition warehouse, all the victims were Jewish.
[19]
The next execution was conducted on 14 December 1939 when 46 people were shot dead. At least some of the victims came from Pruszków. Among them were Stanisław Kalbarczyk, a Polish teacher from Pruszków, and two unidentified women.[20]
Justice[edit]
Some of the Palmiry murderers were brought to justice. Ludwig Fischer, governor of Warsaw district in 1939–1945, and SS-Standartenführer Josef Meisinger, who occupied the post of SD and SiPo Commander in Warsaw in years 1939–1941, were arrested after the war by Allied forces and handed over to the Polish authorities. Their trial took place between 17 December 1946 and 24 February 1947. On 3 March 1947, the Supreme National Tribunal in Warsaw condemned both of them to death. Meisinger and Fischer were hanged in Mokotów Prison in March 1947.[59]
SS-Gruppenführer Paul Moder, SS and Police Leader in Warsaw district in 1940–1941, was killed in action on the Eastern Front in February 1942.[60]