23-623: The Intelligenzaktion ( German pronunciation: [ɪntɛliˈɡɛnt͡s.akˌt͡sjoːn] ), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings , was a series of mass murders which was committed against the Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) early in the Second World War (1939–45) by Nazi Germany . The Germans conducted the operations in accordance with their plan to Germanize
46-490: A crime involving an assault rifle ; as a case of a mentally ill person committing acts of violence ; and so on." How such rarely occurring incidents of homicide are classified tends to change significantly with time. "In the 1960s and 1970s,... it was understood that the key feature of [a number of such] cases was a high body count. These early discussions of mass murder lumped together [a variety of] cases that varied along what would come to be seen as important dimensions: In
69-449: A definition of "mass killing" as three or more killings during an incident. A mass murder may be further classified as a mass shooting or a mass stabbing . Mass murderers differ from spree killers , who kill at two or more locations with almost no time break between murders and are not defined by the number of victims, and serial killers , who kill people over long periods of time. Many terrorist groups in recent times have used
92-822: Is no consent to such, hence, all representatives of the Polish intelligentsia are to be killed. . . . The General Government is a Polish reservation, a great Polish labour camp. As part of Generalplan Ost , the political purpose of the Intelligenzaktion was extermination of the élites of Polish society, which the Nazis broadly defined as the Szlachta (Polish nobles), the intelligentsia, teachers, social workers, judges, military veterans, priests and businessmen; any Polish man and woman who had attended secondary school, and so could provide nationalist leadership to resist
115-574: The German invasion of Poland (1 September 1939), and lasted from the autumn of 1939 until the spring of 1940; the mass murder of the Polish intellectuals continued with the operations of the AB-Aktion . Adolf Hitler ordered the murder of the intelligentsia and the social élites of Poland to prevent them from organising the Poles against their German masters, and thwart the occupation and colonisation of
138-778: The SD (Security Service). The Einsatzgruppen and the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz , the Ethnic Self-defence militia of the German minority in Poland, were to kill the intelligentsia identified in the Special Prosecution Book–Poland. Aware they would be killing unarmed civilians, the commanders of the paramilitary militias strengthened morale with ideological and racialist instructions to
161-724: The United States , Congress defined mass murders as the killing of three or more persons during an event with no "cooling-off period" between the homicides. The Investigative Assistance for Violent Crimes Act of 2012, passed in the aftermath of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting , clarified the statutory authority for federal law enforcement agencies, including those in the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security , to assist state law enforcement agencies, and mandated across federal agencies
184-497: The Columbine shooting, the perpetrators, Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold , were able to murder 13 people, then commit suicide before the first SWAT team even entered the school. Average response time by law enforcement to a mass shooting is typically much longer than the time the shooter is engaged in killing. While immediate action may be extremely dangerous, it could save lives which would be lost if victims and bystanders involved in
207-646: The German Reich, all of whom were identified as the intelligentsia of each city, town, and village. Each man and woman was biographically listed in the Special Prosecution Book-Poland ( Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen ), which German citizens of Poland loyal to the Nazi party in the German Reich compiled before the war for the German police and security forces of the SiPo (Security Police) and
230-406: The German occupation of Poland. Mass murder Note: Varies by jurisdiction Note: Varies by jurisdiction Mass murder is the violent crime of killing a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. A mass murder typically occurs in a single location where one or more persons kill several others. In
253-596: The Polish élites as being most likely of German blood, because their style of dynamic leadership contrasted positively against the “Slavonic fatalism” of the Russian people; nonetheless, the extermination of such national leaders was necessary, because their patriotism (moral authority) would prevent the full-scale Germanization of the enslaved populace of Poland. Moreover, by way of the Rassenpolitisches Amt der NSDAP ( Nazi Party Office of Racial Policy ),
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#1732772632490276-565: The country; the mass murder was to occur before the annexation of Poland to the Greater Germanic Reich : Once more, the Führer must point out that the Poles can only have one master, and that is the German; two masters cannot and must not exist side by side; therefore, all representatives of the Polish intelligentsia should be eliminated [ umbringen ]. This sounds harsh, but such are the laws of life. Nazi racialism considered
299-625: The depopulation of Poland, the Germans terrorised the general populace by carrying out public, summary executions of select intellectuals and community leaders, before they effected the expulsion of the general population from occupied Poland. The executioners of the Einsatzgruppen death squads and members of the local Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz , the German-minority militia, justified their actions by falsely stating that
322-454: The late decades of the 20th century and early years of the 2000s, the most popular classifications moved to include method, time and place. While such classifications may assist in gaining human meaning, as human-selected categories, they can also carry significant meaning and reflect a particular point of view of the commentator who assigned the descriptor. Special Prosecution Book-Poland Too Many Requests If you report this error to
345-580: The need for attention or fame. Acting on the orders of Joseph Stalin , Vasili Blokhin 's war crime of killing of 7,000 Polish prisoners of war , shot over 28 days, was one of the most organized and protracted mass murders by a single individual on record. Analysis of the Columbine High School massacre and other incidents where law enforcement officers waited for backup has resulted in changed recommendations regarding what victims, bystanders, and law enforcement officers should do. In
368-411: The purpose of their police-work was to remove politically dangerous people from Polish society. The Intelligenzaktion was a major step towards the implementation of Sonderaktion Tannenberg (Special Operation Tannenberg), the installation of Nazi policemen and functionaries — from the SiPo (composed of Kripo and Gestapo members), and members of the SD — to manage the occupation and facilitate
391-577: The racially valuable (Aryan-looking) children of the Polish intelligentsia were to be kidnapped to the Reich proper, for Germanization; Nazi ideology claimed that such non-Slavic acculturation would prevent the generational resurgence of the Polish intelligentsia, and thus prevent the resurgence of Polish nationalism in Germanised Poland. Upon controlling Poland, the Germans arrested, imprisoned, and killed approximately 61,000 people as enemies of
414-582: The realization of Generalplan Ost , the German colonization of Poland. Among the 100,000 people who were killed in the Intelligenzaktion operations, approximately 61,000 of them were members of the Polish intelligenzia, people who the Germans considered political targets according to the Special Prosecution Book-Poland , a book which was compiled before the war began in September 1939. The Intelligenzaktion occurred soon after
437-537: The situation remain passive, or law enforcement response is delayed until overwhelming force can be deployed. It is recommended that victims and bystanders involved in the incident take active steps to flee, hide, or fight the shooter and that law enforcement officers present or first arriving at the scene attempt immediately to engage the shooter. In many instances, immediate action by victims, bystanders, or law enforcement officers has saved lives. However, law enforcement programs and actions have so far been unable to reduce
460-502: The soldier–policemen, that their political role in the ethnic cleansing of Poland (executions, counterinsurgency , policing) would be more difficult than fighting in battle against soldiers; as noted by Martin Bormann , in a meeting (2 October 1940) between Hitler and Hans Frank: The Führer must emphasize, once again, that for Poles there is only one master, and he is a German; there can be no two masters, beside each other, and there
483-437: The tactic of killing many victims to fulfill their political aims. Such incidents have included: Certain cults , especially religious cults, have committed a number of mass killings and mass murder–suicides . Mass murderers may be categorized into killers of family, of coworkers, of students, and of random strangers. Their motives vary. One motivation for mass murder is revenge , but other motivations are possible, including
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#1732772632490506-423: The total number of incidents. In 2020, a record number of 600 mass shootings occurred. Commentators have pointed out that there are a wide variety of ways that homicides with more than several victims might be classified. Such incidents can be, and have been even in recent decades, classified many different ways including "as a mass shooting ; as a school shooting ; as mass murder ; as workplace violence ...; as
529-507: The western regions of occupied Poland , before their territorial annexation to the German Reich . The mass murder operations of the Intelligenzaktion resulted in the killing of 100,000 Polish people; by way of forced disappearance , the Germans imprisoned and killed select members of Polish society, identified as enemies of the Reich before the war; they were buried in mass graves which were dug in remote places. In order to facilitate
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