AB action

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The so-called AB-Aktion (complete extraordinary pacification action ) was a murder campaign by the German occupying power during the Second World War on Polish territory and had the character of genocide . The aim was to nip the resistance against the German occupation of Poland in the bud by the targeted killing of potential resistance leaders. In the spring and summer of 1940, about 7,500 people were arrested and murdered in the Generalgouvernement as part of this action . The forerunner was the Intelligence Action , which aimed to murder the Polish Inteligencja .

Forerunner "intelligence action"

Polish teachers from Bromberg are led to execution in Death Valley by the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz , November 1, 1939

A forerunner of the AB-Aktion was the so-called "Intelligence Action", which had been started immediately after the German attack on Poland in 1939. The aim was to murder the Polish intelligentsia, such as doctors, teachers or clergy. It was initially limited to the areas incorporated into the German Empire ( Danzig-West Prussia , Wartheland ). It was carried out by the Einsatzgruppen of the Security Police and the SD and by the “ Volksdeutsche Selbstschutz ”. Reinhard Heydrich had limited this action until November 1, 1939, but it was continued for some time after that. In total, around 60,000 Poles fell victim to the intelligence campaign.

Preparation and course

The security authorities of the German Reich had no precise knowledge of the existence of a Polish resistance movement. Based on some information from the Wehrmacht , a general uprising was feared. Governor General Hans Frank wanted to counter this danger by eliminating the Polish leadership. The Reich Defense Council decided in February and March 1940 that potential leaders of a feared uprising should be eliminated. The Polish intelligentsia was seen as the leader in this case. At a meeting on April 22, 1940, SS-Brigadführer Bruno Fahrtbach , who as the commander of the Security Police and the SD in Krakow, was responsible for the security police for the entire area of ​​the General Government, reported that from the end of November 1939 to the end of January 1940 the number of resistance groups had increased was observed. At the end of February, there were then signs of the emergence of a unified line. Due to the division of the leaders, however, it was possible to infiltrate the resistance movement. Based on the knowledge gained in this way, around 1,000 Poles were arrested on March 30, 1940, of which around 700 played a role in the resistance movement. Overall, according to routesbach, the security authorities had 2,200 to 2,400 aliases of members of the resistance movement, 1,200 of which were identified.

Empty trucks returning from mass executions in Palmiry, 1940

Hans Frank put the start of the campaign on May 16. Frank justified this date at a police meeting on May 30th with the fact that the interest of the world public had been concentrating on the events in the West since May 10th . At the above-mentioned meeting he referred to a direct instruction from Hitler for the AB-Aktion: “What we have now found in the leadership class in Poland must be liquidated, what grows back must be secured by us and removed again within an appropriate period. “For Frank it was important that any appearance of arbitrariness was avoided, which is why he attached importance to the use of the court martial. He had entrusted SS-Obergruppenführer Friedrich-Wilhelm Krüger and SS-Brigadführer Bruno Fahrtbach with the implementation and coordination of the action .

During the action, around 3,500 people who were considered to be the ruling class and 3,000 people labeled as criminals were arrested and executed according to summary court proceedings . The action was supposed to be over by mid-June 1940, but continued beyond that. After the German invasion of the Soviet Union, it was even extended to eastern Poland, which had been occupied by the Soviet Union since September 17, 1939.

Criminal law processing

The AB action and the crimes committed in its course were dealt with in the Nuremberg Trials and the trials before the Supreme National Tribunal of Poland .

Interpretations

The goal of the extraordinary pacification operation was not achieved. The resistance movements, for example the Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Association for Armed Struggle), were hit hard at times by the action, but they recovered and continued the fight against the Germans. Neither was the German side's intention that the Polish population would see no point in further resistance after the French defeat in June 1940.

The action was not repeated, although Hitler wanted similar actions. The fight against opponents then took place through increased admissions to concentration camps, whereby the recruitment of labor for concentration camps played a role as a motive.

According to Kuwałek, the extremely violent phase of the repression measures was so imprinted on the national collective memory that “after the end of the war it shaped the image of the entire period of German occupation in Poland and the non-Jewish Polish population felt that the German occupation was primarily directed against itself . "

See also

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Benz / Graml / Weiß (Ed.): Enzyklopädie des Nationalozialismus, p. 524.
  2. ↑ Geiss / Jacobmeyer, p. 70.
  3. ↑ Werner Präg (Ed.): The service diary of the German Governor General in Poland 1939 - 1945. Stuttgart 1975, ISBN 3-421-01700-X , p. 212 and Geiss / Jacobmeyer, p. 71; however, there is no written record of the order.
  4. ↑ a b Eberhard Jäckel, Peter Longerich; Julius H. Schoeps (Ed.): Encyclopedia of the Holocaust. The persecution and murder of the European Jews. Berlin 1993, ISBN 3-87024-301-5 , vol. 1, p. 1.
  5. ^ Zygmunt Albert: Murder of Professors Lwów (Lemberg) July 1941. In: lwow.com.pl. December 15, 2007, accessed on November 28, 2018 (from: Kazn Profesorow Lwowskich 1941. University of Wroclaw, 1989, ISBN 83-229-0351-0 ).
  6. ↑ a b Wolfgang Benz et al. (Ed.): Encyclopedia of National Socialism. Klett-Cotta, Stuttgart 1997, ISBN 3-608-91805-1 , p. 384.
  7. ^ Robert Kuwałek: The Belzec extermination camp. Berlin 2013, ISBN 978-3-86331-079-0 , p. 25.