Zbrodnia pomorska 1939 roku – Chełmża i okolice

• Authors: Wicherek Bartłomiej

Title variants

DE

Das pommersche Verbrechen von 1939 – Culmsee (Chełmża) und Umgebung

EN

The Pomeranian crime of 1939 – Chełmża and its surroundings

• Languages of publication: PL

Abstracts

EN

In the first months of the German occupation, a number of executions were carried out in Pomerania to exterminate the local population, including the intelligentsia, clergy, scouts, farmers, etc. These events were eventually collected and defined by the scientific term that is the Pomeranian Crime of 1939. The most tragic place related to it in the vicinity of Toruń is the Barbarka forest, where some of the prisoners held in the nearby Fort VII, the Selbstschutz prison for those arrested the city and the entire county, including Chełmża., were shot. Formation officers who were mainly responsible for these crimes did not form this prison until mid-October 1939. It seems that earlier, individual groups of the members of the formation, being less organized, acted more locally and independently. The purpose of this article is primarily an attempt to show the origins of the criminal activities of the Selbstschutz in Chełmża and the nearby villages. Up to now, executions taking place near the city have been seen rather as isolated incidents having little in common. Analyzing them, however, we can come across a number of similarities that seem to tell us a bit more about the organization of the local Selbstschutz, as well as its related establishments. The article concludes with a subsection that aims to show the development of the crime mechanism, once the extermination on a larger scale had begun.

• Publisher: Muzeum w Grudziądzu
• Journal: Rocznik Grudziądzki
• Year: 2023
• Volume: 31
• Pages: 147-159

Dates

published

2023

Contributors

author

Wicherek Bartłomiej