Pacification operations in German-occupied Poland

The pacification operations in German-occupied Poland was the use of military force and punitive measures conducted during World War II by Nazi Germany with the goal of suppressing any Polish resistance.

"Pacification" operations are one example of the extermination policies used against Poland and were of a massive scale, resulting in the murders of approximately 20,000 villagers. They were mainly conducted in the areas of General Government, Pomorze, and in the vicinities of Białystok and Greater Poland. The number of villages which were an object of pacification in Poland is approximately 825. Collective punishment was used during such operations to discourage offering shelter to Jews or Soviet POWs, and providing aid to any guerilla forces. Pacifications included the extermination of entire villages including women and children, expulsions, the burning of homes, confiscation of private property, and arrests. In many instances these operations were characterized by extreme brutality. An example of such behaviour is the burning alive of 81 civilians and the shooting of 15 others in the village of Jabłoń-Dobki. The first pacifications were conducted on the ground by Wehrmacht officers and soldiers, and took place in Złoczew on September 3 and 4, 1939, in which the German soldiers murdered some 200 Poles. From the air, Luftwaffe planes bombed the villages of Momoty Dolne, Momoty Górne, Pawłów, Tokary, Sochy and Klew. Some places were subjected to multiple pacification operations. In the town of Aleksandrów in Biłgoraj County between 1939 and 1944, German authorities murdered 290 civilians (444 according to WIEM), wounded 43, deported 434 to forced labour camps, and burned at least 113 households.

At least 750 villages had at least 10 inhabitants murdered, and at least 75 villages were destroyed completely (see: table for partial list of names of villages and the number of dead victims).

Modern international law considers these kinds of actions against civilians to be genocide, whether conducted within national boundaries or in occupied territories.