The Malmedy massacre was a German war crime committed by soldiers of the Waffen-SS on 17 December 1944 at the Baugnez crossroads near the city of Malmedy, Belgium, during the Battle of the Bulge. Soldiers of Kampfgruppe Peiper summarily killed eighty-four U.S. Army prisoners of war (POWs) who had surrendered after a brief battle. The Waffen-SS soldiers had grouped the U.S. POWs in a farmer's field, where they used machine guns to shoot and kill the grouped POWs; many of the prisoners of war who survived the gunfire of the massacre were killed with a coup de grâce gunshot to the head. A few survived.
The Battle of Modlin took place during the 1939 German invasion of Poland at the beginning of the Second World War. Modlin Fortress was initially the headquarters of the Modlin Army until its retreat eastwards. From 13 to 29 September 1939, it served as a defensive citadel for Polish forces under the command of General Wiktor Thommée against assaulting German units. The fighting was closely linked with the strategic situation of the Battle of Warsaw.
The Panzer Division "Kempf", also East Prussia Panzer Formation was an ad hoc combined arms formation consisting of regular German Army personnel and SS. It was created for operations out of East Prussia during the Invasion of Poland in 1939. The formation was generally called Panzer Division "Kempf" after General der Panzertruppe Werner Kempf assumed command, though it was only about half the strength of the other Panzer Divisions of the time.
The 74 Upper Silesian Infantry Regiment was a Polish military unit. Created during the Greater Poland Uprising, it entered the Polish Army and fought in the Polish-Soviet War and Invasion of Poland. During Operation Tempest of 1944 it was re-created by the Home Army.
Zakroczym is a small town in the Masovian Voivodeship, Poland. It is located at around 52°26′16″N20°36′43″E. The Vistula River flows through the town. Zakroczym has a long and rich history: in the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, it was the capital of an administrative unit (ziemia), part of Mazovian Voivodeship. Also, Zakroczym was a royal town of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland. The town lies at the intersection of two main roads - national road 62, and national road 7.
The Przyszowice massacre was a massacre perpetrated by the Red Army against civilian inhabitants of the Polish village of Przyszowice in Upper Silesia during the period January 26 to January 28, 1945. Sources vary on the number of victims, which range from 54 to over 60 – and possibly as many as 69. The Institute of National Remembrance, a Polish organization that carried out research into these events, has declared that the Przyszowice massacre was a crime against humanity.
The Ciepielów massacre that took place on 8 September 1939 was one of the largest and most documented war crimes of the Wehrmacht during its invasion of Poland. On that day, the forest near Ciepielów was the site of a mass murder of Polish prisoners of war from the Polish Upper Silesian 74th Infantry Regiment. The massacre was carried out by soldiers from the German Army's 15th Motorized Infantry Regiment, 29th Motorized Infantry Division, under the command of Colonel Walter Wessel.
The Ochota Massacre was a wave of German-orchestrated mass murder, looting, arson, torture and rape, which swept through the Warsaw district of Ochota from 4–25 August 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising. The principal perpetrators of these war crimes were the Nazi collaborationist S.S. Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A., the so-called "Russian National Liberation Army", commanded by Bronislav Kaminski.
The Sub-district III of Wola – a territorial organisational unit of the District of Warsaw of Armia Krajowa, acting during the German occupation of Poland. Military units of the district took part in the Warsaw Uprising. During the house-to-house fighting, Nazi troops from the S.S. Sturmbrigade R.O.N.A. and the SS-Dirlewanger Brigade committed the Wola Massacre killing between 40,000 and 50,000 Polish civilians.
The Częstochowa massacre, also known as the Bloody Monday, was committed by the German Wehrmacht forces beginning on the 4th day of World War II in the Polish city of Częstochowa, between 4 and 6 September 1939. The shootings, beatings and plunder continued for three days in more than a dozen separate locations around the city. Approximately 1,140 Polish civilians, were murdered.
The Massacre in the Jesuit monastery on Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw was a Nazi German war crime perpetrated by members of the Waffen-SS on the second day of the Warsaw Uprising, during the Second World War. On 2 August 1944 about 40 Poles were murdered and their bodies burnt in the basement of the Jesuit monastery at 61 Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw. Among the victims were 16 priests and religious brothers of the Society of Jesus.
The Palmiry massacre was a series of mass executions carried out by Nazi German forces, during World War II, near the village of Palmiry in the Kampinos Forest northwest of Warsaw.
Massacre on Bracka Street - a series of murders, arson and other serious violations of the wartime law committed by soldiers of the German Wehrmacht during attempts to unblock the section of Jerozolimskie Avenue held by the insurgents in Warsaw.
Stauferkaserne prison was a provisional prison, and at the same time a gathering point for expelled Warsaw residents, established by the Germans during the first days of the Warsaw Uprising on the grounds of the SS-Stauferkaserne barracks at 4 Rakowiecka Street. In August and September 1944 over a thousand residents of the district passed through the SS barracks in Mokotów. They were detained there in harsh conditions and were subjected to extremely brutal treatment. During the Warsaw Uprising, the Stauferkaserne area was the scene of numerous executions, the victims of which were at least 100 people.
The Suppression of Mokotów was a wave of mass murders, looting, arson and rapes that swept through the Warsaw district of Mokotów during the Warsaw Uprising in 1944. Crimes against prisoners of war and civilians of the district were committed by the Germans until the capitulation of Mokotów on September 27, 1944, although they intensified in the first days of the uprising.
The Massacre in the Mokotów prison was a mass murder of residents of the Mokotów Prison in Warsaw by the Germans on the second day of the Warsaw Uprising. On August 2, 1944, soldiers of the Waffen-SS - SS-Pz. Gren. Ausb.-und Ers. Btl. 3 shot about 600 Poles on the premises of the prison at 37 Rakowiecka Street. It was one of the biggest crimes committed by the Germans in Mokotów during the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising. During the massacre, some prisoners actively resisted the Nazis, which allowed several hundred people to escape to the area controlled by the insurgents.
The Zambrów massacre was a war crime that took place on the night of 13–14 September 1939. It was one of the major war crimes of the Wehrmacht during the invasion of Poland. During that night, the makeshift prisoner-of-war camp in Zambrów was disturbed by a number of panicked horses, and more than 200 Polish soldiers, trying to move out of their way, were gunned down by German sentries. Some witnesses later said the horses had been purposely released into the camp by the German sentries, who used the incident as a pretext to massacre the prisoners.
The Katowice massacre or the Bloody Monday in Katowice that took place on 4 September 1939 was one of the largest war crimes of the Wehrmacht during its invasion of Poland. On that day, German Wehrmacht soldiers aided by the Freikorps militia executed about 80 of the Polish defenders of the city. Those defenders were self-defense militia volunteers, including former Silesian Insurgents, Polish Boy and Girl Scouts, and possibly a number of Polish soldier stragglers from retreating Polish regular forces who joined the militia.
During the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, Nazi Germany carried out a number of atrocities involving Polish prisoners of war (POWs). During that period, the Wehrmacht is estimated to have mass murdered at least 3,000 Polish POWs, with the largest atrocities being the Ciepielów massacre of 8 September 1939 and the Zambrów massacre of 13–14 September. Most of those atrocities are classified as war crimes of the Wehrmacht. Jewish soldiers with the Polish Army were also more likely than others to be victims of various atrocities.
