[1] At that time, the Polish forces in the region were already in retreat, with the 7th Division being effectively destroyed on 3–4 September around Częstochowa, with its commander, General Janusz Gąsiorowski, taken prisoner.

[6] During the invasion of Poland, the Wehrmacht committed a number of war crimes, including several prisoner-of-war massacres, of which Ciepielów became the most widely known.

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.

[7] 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.

A number of Polish soldiers were then captured, and Oberst (Colonel) Walter Wessel, commander of the German 15th Motorized Infantry Regiment, 29th Motorized Infantry Division, ordered them stripped of their uniforms and declared partisans and had them taken to a secluded location near the village of Dąbrowa (itself near a larger village of Ciepielów), where they were shot.

The anonymous author of the memoirs arrived at that location after hearing gunfire, and counted approximately 300 bodies in a roadside ditch.

The commemoration activities include concerts of patriotic songs including the anthem of Poland, a religious field mass, flower bouquet offering and a speech by the wójt of the Gmina Ciepielów, award ceremony for individuals promoting local history, and the public distribution of the traditional military pea soup.