Zambrów massacre
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The Zambrów massacre was a war crime that took place on the night of 13–14 September 1939. It was one of the major war crimes of the Wehrmacht during the invasion of Poland. During that night, the makeshift prisoner-of-war camp in Zambrów was disturbed by a number of panicked horses, and more than 200 Polish soldiers, trying to move out of their way, were gunned down by German sentries.[1] Some witnesses later said the horses had been purposely released into the camp by the German sentries, who used the incident as a pretext to massacre the prisoners.[2]
Tactical situation
The Battle of Zambrów, lasting from 11 to 13 September 1939, involved units of Polish General Czesław Młot-Fijałkowski's Special Operation Group "Narew", particularly the Polish 18th Infantry Division under command of Colonel Stefan Kossecki, facing an offensive by the German XIX Army Corps under General Heinz Guderian and the XXI Army Corps under General Nikolaus von Falkenhorst. The Polish forces were pushed back, and in the process the 18th Infantry Division sustained heavy losses and was effectively destroyed, with several thousands soldiers being taken prisoner-of-war.[3]
Context of German war crimes
During the 1939 invasion of Poland, Germany's Wehrmacht committed a number of war crimes, including several prisoner-of-war massacres. Reasons for the prisoner-of-war massacres, suggested by historians, include contempt for Poles and Polish soldiers, encouraged by Nazi propaganda, which described them as German-hating Untermenschen; and lack of preparation, resources, and will to secure surrendered Polish soldiers. However, many other western historians point to plans formulated by the German General Staff, prior to the invasion, which authorized the SS to carry out security tasks on behalf of the army that included the imprisonment or execution of Polish citizens, whether Jewish or gentile.[4] On 19 September, shortly after the onset of hostilities, Franz Halder, Chief of the German General Staff, noted in his diary that he had received information from Reinhard Heydrich. The SS were beginning their campaign to "clean house" in Poland of Jews, intelligentsia, Catholic clergy, and the aristocracy. Halder was aware of the murders but did not object.[5] He dismissed the crimes as aberrations and refused one general's request to pursue the SS and police perpetrators.[6] Further, German officers often treated Polish soldiers of disorganized units captured behind German lines as partisans, not as regular soldiers, and felt justified in ordering their summary execution. This led to several dozen executions of groups of Polish soldiers, in addition to a hard-to-estimate number of murders of individual soldiers.[1]
In addition to the Zambrów event, there were other instances when German military units killed Polish prisoners of war. They include those at Ciepielów (the Ciepielów massacre, estimated at 250 or more fatalities), Katowice (the Katowice massacre, some 80 fatalities), Majdan Wielki (the Majdan Wielki massacre, some 42 fatalities), Serock (the Serock massacre, some 80 fatalities), Sochaczew (the Sochaczew massacre, some 50 fatalities), Szczucin (the Szczucin massacre, some 40 fatalities), and Zakroczym (the Massacre in Zakroczym, some 60 fatalities).[1]
The Soviets, who also occupied portions of Poland during this period, undertook the systematic mass executions of Polish military officers and intelligentsia. Of the estimated 22,000 prisoners murdered in the Katyn forest in Russia, about 8,000 were Polish military officers imprisoned during the 1939 Soviet invasion of Poland, another 6,000 were police officers, and the rest were Polish intelligentsia.[7]