In this location – later called the Valley of Death – paramilitary members of the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz and officers of the Einsatzgruppen murdered between 1,200 and 3,000 residents of Bydgoszcz and nearby localities in the autumn of 1939.

Fordon's Valley of Death is the largest mass grave in Bydgoszcz and serves as the most well-known symbol of the martyrdom of the city's inhabitants during World War II.

[1] Arrests and executions during the early days of the occupation, carried out by Wehrmacht soldiers and members of Einsatzgruppen, initially occurred in a chaotic atmosphere and served as acts of revenge for the so-called Bloody Sunday of 1939 (Bromberger Blutsonntag) and for the resistance put up by the local Civic Guard against the advancing German forces.

[2] From late September 1939, a series of German "cleansing operations" took place in Bydgoszcz, targeting specific professional groups, such as teachers and Catholic clergy, as well as social circles and members of organizations and associations promoting Polish culture, including the Polish Western Union [pl], the Maritime and Colonial League, and the Union of Insurgents and Soldiers.

On October 20, a large roundup near Kujawska Street captured approximately 1,200 people, among whom 27 were identified based on proscription lists, police files, or denunciations by local Volksdeutsche.

[5] Most Poles and Jews detained during these operations were sent to the internment camp (Internierungslager) established in the barracks of the 15th Light Artillery Regiment at 147 Gdańska Street.

Initially, executions took place in Gdańsk Forest [pl], the woods near Borówno Lake, areas around Otorowo, and especially in trench lines near the village of Tryszczyn.

[14] Fordon had already experienced Nazi terror earlier, carried out mainly by members of the local Selbstschutz unit led by Friedrich Walther Gassmann.

[20] Adam Gorzkiewicz testified:[21]I saw two trucks stopping near the German farmer Lawrenz's property, where about a hundred Poles, men and women, were unloaded and led to the hills of the Miedzyń estate.

[4] Historians have been unable to determine the exact number of Poles and Jews murdered in the Valley of Death, partly because no documented records of the Fordon massacre have been found.

[27] The exhumation at the execution site in the Valley of Death took place from April 28 to 2 May 1947, involving 12 committees with 8 judges and 12 doctors, as well as relatives and others capable of identifying the victims.

[15] During this process, the remains of 306 bodies were recovered, but only 39 could be identified (identification was hindered by the fact that victims had been stripped of all personal belongings before their execution).

The parson of St. Nicholas Church, Father Alfons Sylka (who had ties to the Home Army during the war), erected a stone obelisk to commemorate the genocide committed there.

[15] Richard Hildebrandt, the senior SS and Police Leader in the Reich District of Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, was sentenced to death by a Polish court in Bydgoszcz.

[15] In the same trial, SS-Brigadeführer Max Henze, who served as the president of the police in Bydgoszcz from 12 October 1939, was also sentenced to death and executed on the same day as Hildebrandt.

[30] In 1965, the prosecutor's office in Munich requested the cessation of proceedings against Werner Kampe, the former head of the Nazi Party county organization and mayor of Bydgoszcz.

[30] Dr. Rudolf Oebsger-Röder, a member of Bydgoszcz's SD, later served as the head of the West German intelligence residency in Jakarta and worked as a spokesperson for the household of Indonesian dictator Suharto.

The indictment accused them of causing the deaths of 349 people in Bydgoszcz during extermination operations, including 74 teachers, 3 doctors, and the mayor, Leon Barciszewski.