German AB-Aktion in Poland

The AB-Aktion (German: Außerordentliche Befriedungsaktion lit. 'Extraordinary Pacification Operation', Polish: Akcja AB) was the second stage of the Nazi German campaign of violence in Poland early in World War II, taking place between March and September 1940. As with the previous Intelligenzaktion, during the 1939 invasion of Poland, it aimed to eliminate the intellectuals and the upper classes of the Second Polish Republic. While the Intelligenzaktion had taken place in the territories of western Poland annexed by Germany, perpetrated by Einsatzgruppen following closely behind the German Army, AB took place in the General Government (GG), the territories that were merely occupied and remained nominally part of Poland. Both primarily targeted present and former government officials, social and political activists, artists, educators, local business leaders and priests, all of whom the Germans believed would be instrumental in leading resistance to their rule, regardless of whether those targeted were actually inclined to do so. With the intellectuals eliminated, the Germans believed the remaining Polish population would be docile and useful to them as unskilled labour as they completed their plans to Germanize Poland and extirpate Polish cultural, ethnic and national identity.

The November 1939 Sonderaktion Krakau, in which 150 faculty and staff at Jagiellonian University in Kraków were arrested and sent to concentration camps on the initiative of the local SS chief Bruno Müller, became a template for the AB Aktion. Most of those arrested survived their time in the camps and were released within months, following pressure from the Vatican and the Italian government. That pressure led Hans Frank, the German General Governor, to conclude that it would be better to execute those arrested shortly afterwards when the security apparatus made their next wave of arrests to coincide with the invasion of France the following year, during which Adolf Hitler had personally charged Frank with keeping Poland stable to avoid distractions.

In spring 1940 Frank, the four district governors and the corresponding security and military officials held several conferences, including some jointly with the Soviet NKVD, to formalize the plans for AB. Shortly afterwards the Gestapo, SS, SD and SiPo in the GG began arrests. Over 30,000 Polish citizens were taken into custody over the next several months. It is believed that about 7,000, including those labeled as suspected of criminal activities), were subsequently massacred secretly at various locations, such as the Palmiry forest complex near Palmiry northwest of Warsaw. Despite Frank's initial intentions to quickly execute all those arrested, at Reichsfüherer Heinrich Himmler's request many were sent to concentration camps, including the first group of prisoners to arrive at Auschwitz, where they often died. Memorials to the victims of AB have been erected in many of the places, usually in remote forests, where they were taken to be shot.

While AB was at first a major setback to the resistance, it soon recovered. By late 1941 the German authorities decided to instead use tactics that more specifically targeted known or suspected underground groups, as Poles from all walks of life began to take action against the occupiers, contrary to German expectations. Mass executions did continue as a method of state terror and, later, the extermination of Jews, Roma and others the Nazis considered racially undesirable. After the war, some of those responsible, such as Frank, were executed for war crimes, while others involved at lower levels either died before they could be tried on the charges they faced, or evaded prosecution by living under assumed names.