| Operation Tannenberg Unternehmen Tannenberg | |
|---|---|
| Part ofGeneralplan Ost | |
 The mass murder of Polish townsmen inReichsgau Wartheland (western Poland) during Operation Tannenberg on 20 October 1939. | |
| Location | German-occupied Poland |
| Date | September 1939 – January 1940 |
| Target | Poles |
Attack type | Mass shooting,summary execution,genocidal massacres |
| Weapons | Firearms Gas vans |
| Deaths | 20,000 deaths (during 1–2 months)[1][2] in 760 mass executions bySSEinsatzgruppen |
| Perpetrators |  Nazi Germany, specifically theEinsatzgruppen |
| Motive | Anti-Polish sentiment,Nazi racism, destruction of the PolishIntelligentsia |
Operation Tannenberg (German:Unternehmen Tannenberg,Polish:Operacja Tannenberg) was one of the firstanti-Polish extermination actions byNazi Germany inGerman-occupied Poland from September 1939 to January 1940.[3] The operation was conducted with the use of theSonderfahndungsbuch Polen, aproscription list of more than 61,000 members of theSecond Polish Republic's elite were to be arrested theninterned or shot.[4]
Around 20,000 Poles were arrested and killed by theEinsatzgruppen in a number ofmass killings during Operation Tannenberg, which was followed by the shooting and gassing of hospital patients and disabled adults as part of the widerAktion T4 programme.[5][a]
Between 1937 and 1939,Nazi Germany produced theSonderfahndungsbuch Polen (Special Prosecution Book – Poland), a list of individuals in theSecond Polish Republic who were seen as a potential threat to future German conquest and rule. These included 61,000 prominentactivists,intelligentsia,scholars,clergy, actors, former officers and others of cultural or political importance. The list was compiled by theGestapo, thesecret police agency under theReich Security Main Office, with the assistance of members of theGerman minority in Poland.[4]
Following the orders ofAdolf Hitler, a special unit dubbedTannenberg was created within the Reich Security Main Office, commanding fiveEinsatzgruppen units of 27,000 men formed with Gestapo,Kripo andSicherheitsdienst (SD) officers. These men were theoretically to follow theWehrmacht 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).[7]
The first phase of the action occurred in September 1939, and was perpetrated by theEinsatzgruppen, with assistance from the localVolksdeutscher Selbstschutz andSturmabteilung militias. Around 20,000 people on the list were caught and subsequently killed in 760mass killings over a 4-month period, some which included pregnant women.[5]
After the extermination of the Polish elite, patients from Polish hospitals were murdered inWartheland (Wielkopolska) byEinsatzgruppe VI men. They were led byHerbert Lange, who was under the command ofErich Naumann. He was appointed commandant of the firstChełmno extermination camp soon thereafter.[8] By mid-1940, Lange and his men were responsible for the murder of about 1,100 patients inOwińska, 2,750 patients atKościan, 1,558 patients and 300 Poles atDziałdowo who were shot in the back of the neck; and hundreds of Poles atFort VII where the mobile gas-chamber (Einsatzwagen) was first developed along with the first gassing bunker.[9]
According to the historianPeter Longerich, the hospital massacres were conducted on the initiative ofEinsatzgruppen, because they were not ordered by SS chiefHeinrich Himmler.[10] Lange's experience in the mass killing of Poles during Operation Tannenberg was the reason whyErnst Damzog, the Commander ofSicherheitspolizei (Security Police) and SD stationed in occupiedPoznań (Posen) placed him in charge of theSS-Sonderkommando Lange (special detachment) for the purpose of mass gassing operations which led to the eventual annihilation of theŁódź Ghetto.[11]
Organization, Prisoners, Subcamps, Extermination, Responsibility.
