60-697: Heydekrug may refer to places in former East Prussia: Šilutė , now Lithuania, the site of Stalag Luft VI - a World War II German allied aircrew POW camp Landkreis Heydekrug : Former district of East Prussia until 1945 Places now in Kaliningrad Oblast , Russia, the sites of the Battle of Königsberg at the Vistula Lagoon to the west of Königsberg: Groß-Heydekrug (now Vzmorye ) Klein-Heydekrug (probably Cherepanovo ) Topics referred to by
120-487: A Soviet prisoner-of-war camp No. 184 (1945–1948), finally transforming into a Soviet GULAG forced-labour camp (1945–1955). In the 17th century, Macikai was home to an estate manor, famous for its brewery. After the incorporation of Klaipėda Region into Lithuania in 1924, the Defence Ministry purchased some of the buildings of the former Macikai manor near Šilutė and repurposed them to use as barracks for
180-569: A group of British POWs organized a secret resistance movement in the camp. In cooperation with the Polish resistance movement , they organized escapes of British POWs through the port cities of Gdynia and Gdańsk to neutral Sweden . After an unsuccessful attempt by one English POW to escape on his own, the Gestapo discovered the British resistance and arrested its members. As of April 1944,
240-795: A light machine gun – mounted the truck and drove away in an unknown direction. In August 1943 the headquarters of the Armia Krajowa ordered Operation Belt which was one of the large-scale anti-Nazi operations of the AK during the war. By February 1944, 13 German outposts were destroyed with few losses on the Polish side. Operation Heads began: the serial executions of German personnel who had been sentenced to death by Polish underground Special Courts for crimes against Polish citizens in German-occupied Poland. On 7 September 1943,
300-693: A museum, which became a branch of the Hugo Scheu museum in Šilutė in 1995. In 2019, the government of the Republic of Lithuania approved the plan for the management and memorialisation of the Macikai camps. On September 25, 2020, Macikai hosted a solemn international ceremony to pay respect to the victims of the German POW camp and the Soviet GULAG camps (1939–1955) killed in Macikai. During
360-553: A road in Village Armalėnai, Šilutė district , in 2011. An archaeological survey was done in 2020 to exhume the remains of more than 1,200 people. The remains were then buried next to the old cemeteries of the Macikai camps. After the second Soviet occupation of Lithuania , the Soviets established in Macikai, the former German prisoner-of-war camp, the following: Political prisoners sentenced to 25 years of correctional work at
420-599: A series of combat actions carried out by the Home Army during the uprising between 19 April 1943 and May 16, 1943. Some units of the AK tried to assist the ghetto rising, but for the most part, the resistance was unprepared and unable to defeat the Germans. One Polish AK unit, the National Security Corps ( Państwowy Korpus Bezpieczeństwa ), under the command of Henryk Iwański ("Bystry"), fought inside
480-555: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Stalag Luft VI Macikai POW and GULAG Camps is the complex of prisoner-of-war camp and forced labor camps located near the village og Macikai (Matzicken) in German-occupied Lithuania and later, the Lithuanian SSR . The camp was opened and operated by Nazi Germany (1939–1944), and later became
540-457: The 7th Infantry Regiment 's 2nd Battalion. After the region was annexed by Germany in 1939, the barracks became Stalag 331 , a POW camp . Later, it was renamed Stalag 1C Heydekrug , later still, Stalag Luft VI Heydekrug . First, the camp was used to hold Polish prisoners of war. Since 1940, captive Belgians and French would be interned there as well. In 1943, British and Canadian air force non-commissioned officers were held prisoners at
600-584: The Battle of Murowana Oszmianka the largest clash between the Polish anti-Nazi Armia Krajowa and the Nazi Lithuanian Territorial Defense Force a Lithuanian volunteer security force subordinated to Nazi Germany . The battle took place in and near the village of Murowana Oszmianka in the Generalbezirk Litauen of Reichskommissariat Ostland . The outcome of the battle was that the 301st LVR battalion
660-557: The Bureau of Information and Propaganda of the Union for Armed Struggle started Operation N headed by Tadeusz Żenczykowski . It involved sabotage , subversion and black-propaganda activities. From March 1941, Witold Pilecki's reports were forwarded to the Polish government in exile and through it, to the British and other Allied governments. These reports informed the Allies about
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#1732800780196720-598: The Hollywood film industry and artists, but without success. Many of those he spoke to did not believe him, or supposed that his testimony was much exaggerated or was propaganda from the Polish government in exile . In April 1943 the Germans began deporting the remaining Jews from the Warsaw ghetto provoking the Warsaw Ghetto Rising , 19 April to 16 May. Polish Underground State ordered Ghetto Action –
780-715: The Holocaust and were the principal source of intelligence on Auschwitz-Birkenau for the Western Allies. On 7 March 1941, two Polish agents of the Home Army killed Nazi collaborator actor Igo Sym in his apartment in Warsaw. In reprisal, 21 Polish hostages were executed. Several Polish actors were also arrested by the Nazis and sent to Auschwitz , among them such notable figures as directors Stefan Jaracz and Leon Schiller . In July 1941 Mieczysław Słowikowski (using
840-695: The Polish government in Exile . Most of the other Polish underground armed organizations were created by a political party or faction, and included: The largest groups that refused to join the AK were the National Armed Forces and the pro-Soviet and communist People's Army (Polish Armia Ludowa or AL), backed by the Soviet Union and established by the Polish Workers' Party (Polish Polska Partia Robotnicza or PPR). Regarding
900-540: The Secret Polish Army ( Tajna Armia Polska , TAP), one of the first underground organizations in Poland after defeat. Pilecki became its organizational commander as TAP expanded to cover not only Warsaw but Siedlce , Radom , Lublin and other major cities of central Poland. By 1940, TAP had approximately 8,000 men (more than half of them armed), some 20 machine guns and several anti-tank rifles . Later,
960-594: The Szare Szeregi (Gray Ranks) Polish Underground The successful operation led to the release of arrested troop leader Jan Bytnar "Rudy" . In an attack on the prison, Bytnar and 24 other prisoners were freed. In 1943 in London Jan Karski met the then much known journalist Arthur Koestler . He then traveled to the United States and reported to President Franklin D. Roosevelt . His report
1020-715: The resistance movement during World War II was led by the Home Army . The Polish resistance is notable among others for disrupting German supply lines to the Eastern Front (damaging or destroying 1/8 of all rail transports), and providing intelligence reports to the British intelligence agencies (providing 43% of all reports from occupied Europe ). It was a part of the Polish Underground State . The largest of all Polish resistance organizations
1080-739: The "rocket assembly hall', 'experimental pit', and 'launching tower'. When reconnaissance and intelligence information regarding the V-2 rocket became convincing, the War Cabinet Defence Committee (Operations) directed the campaign's first planned raid (the Operation Hydra bombing of Peenemünde in August 1943) and Operation Crossbow . On 26 March 1943 in Warsaw Operation Arsenal was launched by
1140-621: The AK could take and hold Warsaw for the return of the London government was never likely to be achieved. After 63 days of savage fighting the city was reduced to rubble, and the reprisals were savage. The SS and auxiliary units were particularly brutal. After Bór-Komorowski's surrender, the AK fighters were treated as prisoners-of-war by the Germans, much to the outrage of Stalin, but the civilian population were ruthlessly punished. Overall Polish casualties are estimated to be between 150,000 and 300,000 killed, 90,000 civilians were sent to labor camps in
1200-767: The British foreign secretary, and included a detailed statement on what he had seen in Warsaw and Bełżec. The Zamość Uprising was an armed uprising of Armia Krajowa and Bataliony Chłopskie against the forced expulsion of Poles from the Zamość region under the Nazi Generalplan Ost . The Germans attempted to remove the local Poles from the Greater Zamość area (through forced removal, transfer to forced labor camps, or, in some cases, mass murder ) to get it ready for German colonization . It lasted from 1942 until 1944 and despite heavy casualties suffered by
1260-543: The German V-2 rocket . In effect some 50 kg of the most important parts of the captured V-2, as well as the final report, analyses, sketches and photos, were transported to Brindisi by a Royal Air Force Douglas Dakota aircraft. In late July 1944, the V-2 parts were delivered to London. In early 1943 the strength of the forest-based groups can be estimated at 40 groups numbering in total 1,200 to 4,000 fighters, but
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#17328007801961320-509: The Germans defeated this action. AK and GL engaged the Germans between 19 and 23 April at six different locations outside the ghetto walls, shooting at German sentries and positions and in one case attempting to blow up a gate. Participation of the Polish underground in the uprising was many times confirmed by a report of the German commander – Jürgen Stroop . When we invaded the Ghetto for
1380-427: The Home Army killed Franz Bürkl during Operation Bürkl . Bürkl was a high-ranking Gestapo agent responsible for the murder and brutal interrogation of thousands of Polish Jews and resistance fighters and supporters. In reprisal, 20 inmates of Pawiak were murdered in a public execution by the Nazis. In November 1943, Operation Most III started. The Armia Krajowa provided the Allies with crucial intelligence on
1440-684: The Home Army units cooperated with reconnaissance groups of the Soviet 3rd Belorussian Front . The Red Army entered the city on 15 July, and the NKVD started to intern all Polish soldiers. On 16 July, the HQ of the 3rd Belorussian Front invited Polish officers to a meeting and arrested them. On 23 July the Lwów Uprising – the armed struggle started by the Armia Krajowa against
1500-471: The Macikai Gulag camp. Dead prisoners would be buried next to the camp. Currently, the cemetery is surrounded by a fence; however, there are no exact data as to how many people are actually buried there. The Gulag camp was closed on June 18, 1955. After that, efforts were made to tear down the prisoner cemetery. An irrigation project for the territory of the cemetery was drawn in 1955. Even though
1560-673: The Nazi occupiers in Lwów during World War II – started. It started in July 1944 as a part of a plan of all-national uprising codenamed Operation Tempest. The fighting lasted until 27 July and resulted in liberation of the city. However, shortly afterwards the Polish soldiers were arrested by the invading Soviets and either forced to join the Red Army or sent to the Gulags . The city itself
1620-439: The Polish resistance, presented to his superiors a plan to enter Germany's Auschwitz concentration camp , gather intelligence on the camp from the inside, and organize inmate resistance. The Home Army approved this plan, provided him a false identity card, and on 19 September 1940, he deliberately went out during a street roundup ( łapanka ) in Warsaw and was caught by the Germans along with other civilians and sent to Auschwitz. In
1680-746: The Underground, the Germans failed. On the night from 7 to 8 October 1942 Operation Wieniec started. It targeted rail infrastructure near Warsaw. Similar operations aimed at disrupting and harrying German transport and communication in occupied Poland occurred in the coming months and years. It targeted railroads, bridges and supply depots, primarily near transport hubs such as Warsaw and Lublin . In early 1943 two Polish janitors of Peenemünde's Camp Trassenheide provided maps, sketches and reports to Armia Krajowa Intelligence, and in June 1943 British intelligence had received two such reports which identified
1740-667: The camp he organized the underground organization – Związek Organizacji Wojskowej – ZOW. From October 1940, ZOW sent its first report about the camp and the genocide in November 1940 to Home Army Headquarters in Warsaw through the resistance network organized in Auschwitz. During the night of 21–22 January 1940, in the Soviet-occupied Podolian town of Czortków , the Czortków Uprising started; it
1800-557: The camp held mostly British and American POWs, but also Canadians, Australians, New Zealanders, Poles, South Africans, Czechs, Dutchmen, Norwegians and a Belgian. As the front line drew near in 1944, the prisoners were transferred to other camps. Most of them were brought by train to Stalag XX-A in Toruń in German-occupied Poland . Nearly 900 men brought to Klaipėda were shipped by the commercial vessel Instenburg to
1860-423: The camp were held in a separate enclosed area. Even though official documents would often falsify the causes of prisoner deaths, it is a known fact that people would be executed by firing squad or exterminated in gas chambers; some of them would die from cold and hunger. The camp had a branch on Rusnė Island, which was founded in 1951 and held a population of around 200. In 1948 to 1955, nearly 450 people perished at
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1920-538: The camp. Later on, a shipment of American , Australian, and even New Zealand POWs was brought to the camp. Soviet soldiers were also imprisoned in the camp. According to US intelligence, at least 10,000 people could have been held at Macikai prior to the Soviet occupation . This number included a few Allied ace pilots. It was the northern-most POW camp within the bounds of the German Reich . In October 1943,
1980-647: The ceremony, the remains of the prisoners, which had been transferred from the discovered mass grave and re-interred near the old Macikai cemetery, were consecrated by Catholic , Evangelical Lutheran , and orthodox bishops. Polish resistance movement in World War II Polish Victory [REDACTED] Germany [REDACTED] Polish Underground State [REDACTED] Germany [REDACTED] Ukrainian Insurgent Army [REDACTED] Polish Underground State [REDACTED] Polish People's Army In Poland,
2040-584: The codename "Rygor" – Polish for "Rigor") set up " Agency Africa ", one of World War II's most successful intelligence organizations. His Polish allies in these endeavors included Lt. Col. Gwido Langer and Major Maksymilian Ciężki . The information gathered by the Agency was used by the Americans and British in planning the amphibious November 1942 Operation Torch landings in North Africa. These were
2100-557: The communist Armia Ludowa, which never merged with AK, numbered about 30,000 people. One estimate for the summer 1944 strength of AK and its allies, including NSZ, gives its strength at 650,000. Overall, the Polish resistance have often been described as the largest or one of the largest resistance organizations in World War II Europe. On 9 November 1939, two soldiers of the Polish army – Witold Pilecki and Major Jan Włodarkiewicz – founded
2160-531: The first large-scale Allied landings of the war, and their success in turn paved the way for the Allies' Italian campaign. On 20 June 1942, the most spectacular escape from Auschwitz concentration camp took place. Four Poles, Eugeniusz Bendera, Kazimierz Piechowski , Stanisław Gustaw Jaster and Józef Lempart made a daring escape. The escapees were dressed as members of the SS-Totenkopfverbände , fully armed and in an SS staff car. They drove out
2220-504: The first time, the Jews and the Polish bandits succeeded in repelling the participating units, including tanks and armored cars, by a well-prepared concentration of fire. (...) The main Jewish battle group, mixed with Polish bandits, had already retired during the first and second day to the so-called Muranowski Square. There, it was reinforced by a considerable number of Polish bandits. Its plan
2280-420: The ghetto along with ŻZW . Subsequently, both groups retreated together (including 34 Jewish fighters). Although Iwański's action is the most well-known rescue mission, it was only one of many actions undertaken by the Polish resistance to help the Jewish fighters. In one attack, three cell units of AK under the command of Kapitan Józef Pszenny ("Chwacki") tried to breach the ghetto walls with explosives, but
2340-526: The ghetto. In 1942 Jan Karski reported to the Polish, British and U.S. governments on the situation in Poland, especially the Holocaust of the Jews. He met with Polish politicians in exile including the prime minister, and members of political parties such as the Socialist Party , National Party , Labor Party , People's Party , Jewish Bund and Poalei Zion . He also spoke to Anthony Eden ,
2400-456: The irrigation was never completed, the remaining area of the cemetery is now smaller, because its western side had been washed and eroded by the River Šyša for an extended period of time, and its northern and eastern territory was used as pastures and tilled land. In the second half of the 20th century, residential buildings were erected on a portion of the cemetery. Archaeological excavations of
2460-479: The largest battles between the Polish resistance and Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II – was fought, in what was essentially a continuation of the Zamość Uprising . In 1943 the Home Army built up its forces in preparation for a national uprising. The plan of national anti-Nazi uprising on areas of prewar Poland was code-named Operation Tempest . Preparation began in late 1943 but
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2520-634: The main gate in a stolen Steyr 220 automobile with a smuggled report from Witold Pilecki about the Holocaust. Three of the escapees remained free until the end of the war; Jaster, who joined the Polish Underground, was recaptured in 1943 and died shortly afterwards in German custody. In September 1942 "The Żegota Council for the Aid of the Jews" was founded by Zofia Kossak-Szczucka and Wanda Krahelska-Filipowicz ("Alinka") and made up of Polish Democrats as well as other Catholic activists. Poland
2580-517: The mass graves of the Gulag camp in Macikai, discovered in 2020, will also be launched in the near future. Today, the camp complex in Macikai consists of the camp-site, a solitary cell, the prisoner cemetery, a bath, and possibly barracks. In 1993, at the initiative of the Šilutė chapter of the Association of Exiles and Political Prisoners, the former building of the solitary cell was turned into
2640-468: The military actions started in 1944. Its most widely known elements were Operation Ostra Brama, Lwów Uprising and the Warsaw Uprising. On 7 July, Operation Ostra Brama started. Approximately 12,500 Home Army soldiers attacked the German garrison and managed to seize most of the city center. Heavy street fighting in the outskirts of the city lasted until 14 July. In Vilnius' eastern suburbs,
2700-474: The numbers grew significantly next year. On 11 February 1944 the Resistance fighters of Polish Home Army 's unit Agat executed Franz Kutschera , SS and Reich 's Police Chief in Warsaw in action known as Operation Kutschera . In a reprisal of this action 27 February 140 inmates of Pawiak – Poles and Jews – were shot in a public execution by the Germans. 13–14 May 1944
2760-433: The organization was incorporated into the Union for Armed Struggle ( Związek Walki Zbrojnej ), later renamed and better known as the Home Army ( Armia Krajowa ). In March 1940, a partisan unit of the first guerrilla commanders in the Second World War in Europe under Major Henryk Dobrzański "Hubal" destroyed a battalion of German infantry in a skirmish near the village of Huciska . A few days later in an ambush near
2820-418: The port of Świnoujście (then Swinemunde ) near Szczecin bay ; the journey was 60 hours long. After that, they took a train and had to walk the rest of the way to Stalag Luft IV near Tychowo in today's Poland . Some of the prisoners died or were killed along the way. This march was one of the "Long Marches" . Numerous remains of prisoners from the Nazi Germany ’s POW camp were discovered buried under
2880-415: The same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Heydekrug . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Heydekrug&oldid=1022571936 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description
2940-604: The scale and scope of the Polish resistance, Reichsfuhrer-SS Heinrich Himmler noted: "Within the framework of the entire enemy intelligence operations directed against Germany, the intelligence service of the Polish resistance movement assumed major significance. The scope and importance of the operations of the Polish resistance movement, which was ramified down to the smallest splinter group and brilliantly organized, have been in (various sources) disclosed in connection with carrying out of major police security operations." Heinrich Himmler, 31 December 1942 In February 1942, when AK
3000-486: The uprising as a "criminal adventure". The Poles appealed to the Western Allies for help. The Royal Air Force , and the Polish Air Force based in Italy, dropped some munitions, but it was almost impossible for the Allies to help the Poles without Soviet assistance. The fighting in Warsaw was desperate. The AK had between 12,000 and 20,000 armed soldiers, most with only small arms, against a well-armed German Army of 20,000 SS and regular Army units. Bór-Komorowski's hope that
3060-437: The village of Szałasy it inflicted heavy casualties upon another German unit. To counter this threat the German authorities formed a special 1,000 men strong counter-insurgency unit of combined SS – Wehrmacht forces, including a Panzer group. Although the unit of Major Dobrzański never exceeded 300 men, the Germans fielded at least 8,000 men in the area to secure it. In 1940, Witold Pilecki , an intelligence officer for
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#17328007801963120-423: Was a major factor in informing the West. In July 1943, again personally reported to Roosevelt about the situation in Poland. He also met with many other government and civic leaders in the United States, including Felix Frankfurter , Cordell Hull , William Joseph Donovan , and Stephen Wise . Karski also presented his report to media, bishops of various denominations (including Cardinal Samuel Stritch ), members of
3180-442: Was drawing graffiti in Warsaw around Christmas Eve of 1940 commemorating the Wawer massacre . Members of the AK Wawer "Small Sabotage" units painted "Pomścimy Wawer" ("We'll avenge Wawer") on Warsaw walls. At first they painted the whole text, then to save time they shortened it to two letters, P and W. Later they invented Kotwica – "Anchor" – which became the symbol of all Polish resistance in occupied Poland. From April 1941
3240-665: Was formed, it numbered about 100,000 members. In the beginning of 1943, it had reached a strength of about 200,000. In the summer of 1944 when Operation Tempest began, AK reached its highest membership numbers, though the estimates vary from 300,000 to 500,000. The strength of the second largest resistance organization, Bataliony Chłopskie (Peasants' Battalions), can be estimated for summer 1944 (at which time they were mostly merged with AK ) at about 160,000 men. The third largest group include NSZ (National Armed Forces) with approximately 70,000 men around 1943–1944; only small parts of that force were merged with AK. At its height in 1944,
3300-450: Was occupied by the Soviet Union. In August 1944, as the Soviet armed forces approached Warsaw, the government in exile called for an uprising in the city, so that they could return to a liberated Warsaw and try to prevent a communist take-over. The AK, led by Tadeusz Bór-Komorowski , launched the Warsaw Uprising . Soviet forces were less than 20 km away but on the orders of Soviet High Command they gave no assistance. Stalin described
3360-402: Was routed and the entire force was disbanded by the Germans soon afterwards. On 14 June 1944 the Battle of Porytowe Wzgórze took place between Polish and Russian partisans, numbering around 3,000, and the Nazi German units consisted of between 25,000 and 30,000 soldiers, with artillery, tanks and armored cars and air support. On 25–26 June 1944 the Battle of Osuchy – one of
3420-419: Was the Armia Krajowa (Home Army, AK), loyal to the Polish government in exile in London. The AK was formed in 1942 from the Union of Armed Struggle ( Związek Walki Zbrojnej or ZWZ, itself created in 1939) and would eventually incorporate most other Polish armed resistance groups (except for the communists and some far-right groups). It was the military arm of the Polish Underground State and loyal to
3480-511: Was the first Polish uprising during World War II. Anti-Soviet Poles, most of them teenagers from local high schools, stormed the local Red Army barracks and a prison, in order to release Polish soldiers kept there. At the end of 1940 Aleksander Kamiński created a Polish youth resistance organization, known as "Wawer". It was part of the Szare Szeregi (the underground Polish Scouting Association ). This organisation carried out many minor sabotage operations in occupied Poland. Its first action
3540-481: Was the only country in occupied Europe where there existed such a dedicated secret organization. Half of the Jews in Poland who survived the war (thus over 50,000) were aided in some shape or form by Żegota. The best-known activist of Żegota was Irena Sendler , head of the children's division, who saved 2,500 Jewish children by smuggling them out of the Warsaw Ghetto , providing them with false documents, and sheltering them in individual and group children's homes outside
3600-525: Was to hold the Ghetto by every means in order to prevent us from invading it. (...) Time and again Polish bandits found refuge in the Ghetto and remained there undisturbed, since we had no forces at our disposal to comb out this maze. (...) One such battle group succeeded in mounting a truck by ascending from a sewer in the so-called Prosta [Street], and in escaping with it (about 30 to 35 bandits). (...) The bandits and Jews – there were Polish bandits among these gangs armed with carbines, small arms, and in one case
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