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@ramonfliek.bsky.social Sep 9, 2026, 3:22 AM

September 8, 1939: German Wehrmacht soldiers massacred some 300 Polish prisoners of war near the village of #Ciepielów (Ciepielów massacre).
One of the largest and most documented war crimes of the German Wehrmacht during its invasion of Poland.

#RememberHistory #USAtoday

One of the largest and most documented war crimes of the German 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.
This event has been described as the "most infamous" war crime committed by Germans during their invasion of Poland.
The massacre was documented in photos and memoirs of an anonymous German soldier, who witnessed an engagement in which Polish soldiers ambushed and killed over a dozen German soldiers from the 11th Company of the 15th Regiment, including the company's commander, Captain Lewinsky. A number of Polish soldiers were then captured, and Oberst (Colonel) Walter Wessel, commander of the German 15th Motorized Infantry Regiment, 29th Motorized Infantry Division, ordered them stripped of their uniforms and declared partisans and had them taken to a secluded location near the village of Dąbrowa (itself near a larger village of Ciepielów), where they were shot. The anonymous author of the memoirs arrived at that location after hearing gunfire, and counted approximately 300 bodies in a roadside ditch. Those documents were received by the Polish Military Mission in Germany in West Berlin in 1950.
Photo: Polish POWs and German soldiers shortly before the massacre.

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