• Piaśnica Memorial
A monument in a forest outside of the village of Piaśnica (German: Piasnitz) near Gdańsk (German: Danzig) commemorates the approximately 10,000 to 12,000 people who were murdered there by SS units between 1939 and 1940.
Image: Piaśnica, 2011, Grave complex for the victims of the massacre, Jakub Raciborski
Piaśnica, 2011, Grave complex for the victims of the massacre, Jakub Raciborski
The village of Piaśnica (formerly Piasnitz) lies close to the city of Gdańsk. Pomerania, which had before World War I been German, was again annexed by the German Reich following the German invasion of Poland in September 1939. Already in the autumn of that year, SS units and ethnic Germans of the »Selbstschutz« began persecuting the educated Polish upper classes and members of the Kashubian minority, thereby trying to choke Polish resistance. The Kashubians, a Slavic minority which considered itself neither Polish nor German, were targeted by the local SS, even despite their positive »racial profile«. About 2,000 representatives of the upper middle class in the area of Piasnitz, including Catholic priests, Polish soldiers and several Jews, were shot by members of the SS and the Selbstschutz. In November and December 1939, at least 1,200 patients from mental hospitals in western Pomerania were brought to Piasnitz and murdered in a nearby forest. Further crimes took place in that forest: Beginning 1939, the SS deported thousands of German citizens of Polish and Czech origin as well as political opponents of the regime to Piasnitz and shot them at the execution site in the forest. When the Red Army was approaching in August 1944, the SS forced some 30 prisoners of the Stutthof concentration camp to dig up the mass graves and burn the bodies. After about 7 weeks of strenuous labour these prisoners too were shot by the SS. They were the last to be murdered at Piasnitz.
Image: Piaśnica, 2011, Grave complex for the victims of the massacre, Jakub Raciborski
Piaśnica, 2011, Grave complex for the victims of the massacre, Jakub Raciborski
In all, between 10,000 and 13,000 people were murdered in the forest near Piasnitz. It is no longer possible to determine the exact number of victims, since the SS tried to destroy the evidence. The largest victim group consisted of political opponents of the National Socialist regime and German citizens with Polish and Czech roots. There were also 400 children among the victims: The SS murdered entire families deported from the German Reich, between 8,000 and 10,000 people in total. The number of psychiatric ward patients murdered at Piasnitz can also only be estimated: Some 1,200 names are known, yet the actual number of victims could be much higher. The first victims killed at Piasnitz were Poles and Kashubians from the region. Most of them were from the educated classes, including many priests and civil servants.
Image: Piaśnica, 2011, Memorial plaque, Pawelko111
Piaśnica, 2011, Memorial plaque, Pawelko111

Since the end of World War II, Piasnitz - now Piaśnica - and the surrounding region have been part of Poland. In 1946, the approximately 30 mass graves were uncovered and the remaining bodies exhumed. 26 numbered honorary graves were built on site. Still, the crimes of the SS and the Selbstschutz fell into oblivion after the war, both in Poland and in Germany, despite the fact that the massacres at Piasnitz had been the first mass murders committed by the National Socialists in occupied Europe. The Kashubian minority set up an unauthorized memorial in 1955. Up until the 1970s any publication of research on the forest murders was hampered by the Polish secret police. This was mainly due to the fact that most of the victims hadn't been Poles, but Germans and Kashubians, and that most of the Polish victims of the killings at Piaśnica hadn't been members of the working class, which according to the official state line had suffered most in the struggle against the German occupation. Today, the victims are appropriately commemorated at Piaśnica. In 2004, a new memorial plaque was affixed at the complex, and in 2010 a chapel was dedicated.
Image: Piaśnica, 2011, Forest chapel for the victims, Pawelko111
Piaśnica, 2011, Forest chapel for the victims, Pawelko111

Image: Piaśnica, 2011, Grave complex for the victims of the massacre, Jakub Raciborski
Piaśnica, 2011, Grave complex for the victims of the massacre, Jakub Raciborski
Name
Pomnik Ofiar Piaśnicy
Phone
+48 (0)58 736 11 11
Fax
+48 (0)58 736 11 12
Web
https://muzeumpiasnickie.pl/piasnica
E-Mail
muzeum@muzeumpiasnickie.pl
Open
The memorial complex is always open. It is located about 10 km north of Wejherowo (German: Neustadt in Westpreußen) on road no. 218.