Operation Tannenberg

Nazi extermination operation directed at Poles in early World War II

Key facts

Location: German-occupied Poland
Date: September 1939 – January 1940
Target: Poles
Attack type: Mass shooting , summary execution , genocidal massacres
Weapons: Firearms , Gas vans
Deaths: 20,000 deaths (during 1–2 months) in 760 mass executions by SS Einsatzgruppen
Perpetrators: Nazi Germany , specifically the Einsatzgruppen
Motive: Anti-Polish sentiment , Nazi racism , destruction of the Polish Intelligentsia

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Wikidata facts

Image: Bundesarchiv Bild 146-1968-034-19A, Exekution von polnischen Geiseln.jpg
Number of deaths: 20000

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start time: 1939-09-00
end time: 1940-01-00

Sources (3)

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Article

Operation Tannenberg (German: Unternehmen Tannenberg, Polish: Operacja Tannenberg) was one of the first anti-Polish extermination actions by Nazi Germany in German-occupied Poland from September 1939 to January 1940. The operation was conducted with the use of the Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen, a proscription list of more than 61,000 members of the Second Polish Republic's elite who were to be arrested then interned or shot.

Around 20,000 Poles were arrested and killed by the Einsatzgruppen in a number of mass killings during Operation Tannenberg, which was followed by the shooting and gassing of hospital patients and disabled adults as part of the wider Aktion T4 programme.