Massacres in Piaśnica
Most of them were Polish intellectuals from Gdańsk Pomerania, but Poles, Kashubians, Jews, Czechs and German inmates from mental hospitals from the General Government and the Third Reich were also murdered.
After the Stutthof concentration camp, Piaśnica was the largest site of killings of Polish civilians in Pomerania by the Germans, and for this reason, is sometimes referred to as the "second" or "Pomeranian" Katyn.
Many of the crimes were carried out, with official approval, by the so-called "Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz", or paramilitary organizations of ethnic Germans with previously Polish citizenship.
As a result, even before the Nazi invasion of Poland, German police and Gestapo prepared special lists of Poles which they regarded as representative of Polish culture and life in the region, who were to be executed.
The forests around it were chosen by the Germans as the site of the mass murders because it was easily accessible by bus and truck, it had a nearby rail line, and at the same time, it was located far enough from other villages and centers of population.
[6] Witnesses report that on numerous occasions, prior to the executions, the victims were tortured and children, in particular, were treated with utmost cruelty, and often killed by having their heads smashed against trees by German SS soldiers.
According to the testimony of former Gestapo and later, Smersh agent, Hans Kassner (alias Jan Kaszubowski [pl]), made in 1952, the executions on that day lasted from early morning until three in the afternoon.
[5] During the post-war exhumation, Alicja's corpse was not identified but a grave was found containing a rosary of the kind worn by sisters of her order.
[5] The area around the forests where the massacres were taking place was surrounded with police and paramilitary groups in order both to prevent any victims from escaping and also to preclude access to any potential witnesses from the outside.
[1] The last transports to the site were seen in the spring of 1940 and contained mostly patients from mental hospitals from within the Third Reich, in particular from Stettin (Szczecin) and Lauenburg (Lębork).
[7] The total number of victims, killed in an area around Piaśnica of about 250 square kilometers, is estimated at between twelve and sixteen thousand, including women, children and infants.
[6] Due to the fact that in 1944, the Germans exhumed and burned many of the corpses in an attempt to hide the crime, the exact number of victims is not known, nor are many of their names and national origins.
[5] Chained and bound, they were forced to dig up the graves, remove the bodies and burn them in specially prepared forest crematoria.
[5] Richard Hildebrandt, Higher SS and Police Leader in Pomerania, was sentenced to death by a Polish court in Bydgoszcz for his part and role in organizing the murders.
