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.
Polish POWs murdered by the Wehrmacht
Polish POWs and German soldiers shortly before the massacre
Memorial in Dąbrowa
War crimes of the Wehrmacht
During World War II, the German Wehrmacht committed systematic war crimes, including massacres, mass rape, looting, the exploitation of forced labour, the murder of three million Soviet prisoners of war, and participated in the extermination of Jews. While the Nazi Party's own SS forces was the organization most responsible for the genocidal killing of the Holocaust, the regular armed forces of the Wehrmacht committed many war crimes of their own, particularly on the Eastern Front.
Soviet prisoners of war were often subjected to forced marches without adequate food or water and commonly shot.
The Nazi Security Police rounding up Polish intelligentsia at Palmiry near Warsaw in 1940
During World War II 85% of buildings in Warsaw were destroyed by German troops.
About 300 Polish POWs executed by the soldiers of the German 15th motorized infantry regiment in Ciepielów on September 9, 1939
