Battle for Modlin

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The battle for the Modlin Fortress occurred during the invasion of Poland .

Ruins of the southern bridgehead of the Modlin Fortress on the Narew River
Situation development after September 14th. The associations included in Modlin can be seen on the map.
Wiktor Thommée handing over the Modlin Fortress to Adolf Strauss on September 29, 1939

The Modlin Fortress was the headquarters of the Polish Armia Modlin (Modlin Army) after their withdrawal from the border fortifications. From September 13th to September 29th 1939 the fortress Modlin was besieged by German troops. The fortress troops were commanded by the Polish general Wiktor Thommée . The battles for Modlin were strategically linked to the Battle of Warsaw (1939), which took place a few kilometers to the south . The Polish armored train Śmierć (translated: "death") was also stationed in the fortress. The Modlin Fortress surrendered to the German Wehrmacht on September 29, 1939 . Around 35,000 Polish soldiers were taken prisoner by Germany .

In the course of the fighting over Modlin the first documented war crime of the Second World War occurred : At this point in time Kurt Meyer and the anti-tank company of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler commanded by him were involved in heavy fighting in the Modlin area. Kurt Meyer was accused in an Allied investigation report of having rounded up and shot 50 Jews near Modlin. Meyer was sentenced to death by the Canadians in 1945 for other war crimes, later pardoned and released from prison in 1954.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Peter Lieb : Conventional war or Nazi ideological war? Warfare and anti-partisan measures in France 1943/44 . Oldenbourg, Munich 2007, ISBN 3-486-57992-4 , ( Sources and representations on contemporary history 69) p. 159.

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