• Mass Graves of Polish Victims of National Socialist Crimes
39 mass graves and a monument in the forest of Szpęgawsk commemorate the Polish civilians who were shot by German units from September 1939 on.
Image: Forest of Szpęgawsk, 1941, Site of the mass shootings, Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna im. ks. Bernarda Sychty w Starogardzie Gdańskim
Forest of Szpęgawsk, 1941, Site of the mass shootings, Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna im. ks. Bernarda Sychty w Starogardzie Gdańskim

Image: Forest of Szpęgawsk, 2010, Central monument at the memorial complex on the site of the shootings, Stiftung Denkmal
Forest of Szpęgawsk, 2010, Central monument at the memorial complex on the site of the shootings, Stiftung Denkmal
Szpęgawsk (German: Spengawsken) is located close to Starogard Gdański (Preußisch Stargard). Between 1920 and 1939, it was part of the so-called Polish corridor which separated East Prussia from the rest of the German Reich. In September 1939, at the beginning of the Second World War, the systematic persecution of the Polish upper classes began. SS units and members of the German »Selbstschutz« carried out shootings of thousands of civilians in the occupied territories as part of the »Intelligenzaktion«. Targeted at the Polish intelligentsia, its aim was to eliminate the Polish state and to »Germanise« the region. Until May 1940, a total of 30,000 to 40,000 people fell victim to these mass murders. Between 5,000 and 7,000 Poles were killed in the forest of Szpęgawsk, mostly by local Germans.
At the end of 1944, members of an SS-Sonderkommando exhumed many of the corpses and burned them in order to erase traces of the crimes. After Piaśnica (Piasnitz) near Gdańsk (Danzig), Szpęgawsk claimed the highest number of victims in this first wave of executions in this part of Poland - 13,000 people were murdered.
Image: Forest of Szpęgawsk, 1941, Site of the mass shootings, Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna im. ks. Bernarda Sychty w Starogardzie Gdańskim
Forest of Szpęgawsk, 1941, Site of the mass shootings, Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna im. ks. Bernarda Sychty w Starogardzie Gdańskim

Image: Forest of Szpęgawsk, 2010, Central monument at the memorial complex on the site of the shootings, Stiftung Denkmal
Forest of Szpęgawsk, 2010, Central monument at the memorial complex on the site of the shootings, Stiftung Denkmal
The memorial complex in the forest near Szpęgawsk is dedicated to up to 7,000 executed Polish civilians, mostly representatives of the elites - teachers, priests - but also Jews and 2,000 psychiatric patients from the Kocborowo (Konradstein) hospital near Starogard Gdański.
Image: Forest of Szpęgawsk, 1947, Exhumation of victims of the mass shootings, Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna im. ks. Bernarda Sychty w Starogardzie Gdańskim
Forest of Szpęgawsk, 1947, Exhumation of victims of the mass shootings, Miejska Biblioteka Publiczna im. ks. Bernarda Sychty w Starogardzie Gdańskim

Image: Forest of Szpęgawsk,  2010, Mass grave no. 16, Stiftung Denkmal
Forest of Szpęgawsk, 2010, Mass grave no. 16, Stiftung Denkmal
After the end of the war, a Polish commission was entrusted with investigating the murder site in the forest between 1945 and 1947. 32 mass graves, each with 250 to 450 bodies, were opened. The remains were incinerated in Starogard Gdański and laid to rest in a large memorial complex comprising 39 mass graves. On April 24, 1954, the memorial complex was dedicated. The inscription on the central monument reads: »This earth has been hallowed by the blood of Poles who died for the liberty of the fatherland«. Today, different groups, such as scouts, tend to the site.
Image: Forest of Szpęgawsk,, 2010, Mass grave no. 14, Stiftung Denkmal
Forest of Szpęgawsk,, 2010, Mass grave no. 14, Stiftung Denkmal

Image: Forest of Szpęgawsk, 2010, Central monument on the site of the shootings, Stiftung Denkmal
Forest of Szpęgawsk, 2010, Central monument on the site of the shootings, Stiftung Denkmal
Name
Masowe groby polskich ofiar hitleryzmu
Address
Las Szpęgawski / Forest of Szpęgawsk, along through road 22
Szpęgawsk
Open
The memorial complex is accessible at all times.