Operation Tannenberg
Operation Tannenberg (German: Unternehmen Tannenberg) was a codename for one of the anti-Polish extermination actions by Nazi Germany. The shootings were conducted with the use of a proscription list (Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen) targeting Poland’s elite, compiled by the Gestapo in the two years before the invasion of Poland.
| Operation Tannenberg Unternehmen Tannenberg | |
|---|---|
Operation Tannenberg, 20 October 1939. The mass murder of Polish townsmen in Reichsgau Wartheland (western Poland) | |
| Location | General Government (German-occupied Poland) |
| Date | September 1939 – January 1940 |
| Target | Poles |
Attack type | Genocidal massacre, mass shooting |
| Weapons | Firearms |
| Deaths | 20,000 deaths (during 1–2 months) in 760 mass executions by SS Einsatzgruppen |
| Perpetrators | Nazi Germany |
The secret lists identified more than 61,000 members of the Polish elite: activists, intelligentsia, scholars, clergy, actors, former officers and others, who were to be interned or shot. Members of the German minority living in Poland assisted in preparing the lists.
Operation Tannenberg was followed by the shooting and gassing of hospital patients and disabled adults, as part of the wider Aktion T4 programme.
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.