Massacre of Lviv professors

Background

Before September 1939 and the joint Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland, Lviv (Lwów in Polish), then in the Second Polish Republic, had 318,000 inhabitants of different ethnic groups and religions, 60% of whom were Poles, 30% Jews and about 10% Ukrainians and Germans. The city was one of the most important cultural centers of prewar Poland, housing five tertiary educational facilities including Lwów University and Lwów Polytechnic. It was the home for many Polish and Polish Jewish intellectuals, political and cultural activists, scientists and members of Poland's interwar intelligentsia.

After Lviv was occupied by the Soviets in September 1939, Lwów University was renamed in honor of Ivan Franko, a major Ukrainian literary figure who lived in Lviv, and the language of instruction was changed from Polish to Ukrainian. Lwów was then captured by German forces on 30 June 1941 after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Along with German Wehrmacht units, a number of Abwehr and SS formations entered the city. During the Nazi occupation, almost all of the 120,000 Jewish inhabitants of the city were killed, within the city's ghetto or in Bełżec extermination camp. By the end of the war, only 200–800 Jews survived.

To control the population, prominent citizens and intellectuals, particularly Jews and Poles, were either confined in ghettos or transported to execution sites such as the Gestapo prison on Pełczyńska Street, the Brygidki Prison, the former military prison at Zamarstynów and to the fields surrounding the city — in the suburb of Winniki, the Kortumówka hills and the Jewish Cemetery. Many of those killed were prominent leaders of Polish society: politicians, artists, aristocrats, sportsmen, scientists, priests, rabbis and other members of the intelligentsia. This mass murder is regarded as a pre-emptive measure to keep the Polish resistance scattered and to prevent Poles from revolting against Nazi rule. It was a direct continuation of the infamous Ausserordentliche Befriedungsaktion, one of the early stages of Generalplan Ost, after the German campaign against the USSR started and the eastern half of prewar Poland fell under German occupation in place of that of the Soviet Union. One of the earliest Nazi crimes in Lviv was the mass murder of Polish professors together with some of their relatives and guests, carried out at the beginning of July 1941.

History

By 2 July 1941, the individual, planned executions continued. At approximately 3 o'clock in the evening Prof. Kazimierz Bartel was arrested by one of the Einsatzgruppen operating in the area. During the night of 3/4 July, several dozen professors and their families were arrested by German detachments - each one consisting of an officer, several soldiers, Ukrainian guides and interpreters. The lists were prepared by their Ukrainian students associated with OUN. Some of the professors mentioned on the lists were already dead, specifically Adam Bednarski and Roman Leszczyński. Among those arrested was Prof Roman Rencki, a director of the Clinic for Internal Diseases at Lwów University, who was kept in NKVD prison and whose name was also on the list of Soviet prisoners sentenced to death. The detained were transported to the Abrahamowicz's dormitory, where despite the preconceived intention to kill them, they were tortured and interrogated. The head of the department in the Jewish hospital, Prof Adam Ruff, was shot during an epileptic attack.

In the early morning of July 4 one of the professors and most of his servants were set free while the rest were either brought to the Wulka hills or shot to death in the courtyard of the Bursa Abrahamowiczów building. The victims were buried on the spot, but several days after the massacre their bodies were exhumed and transported by the Wehrmacht to an unknown place. According to Polish historians the victims were not involved in politics in any way. According to a Ukrainian historian, out of approximately 160 Polish professors living in Lviv in June 1941, the professors chosen for execution were specifically those who actively cooperated with the Soviet regime in some way between 1940-1941.

Methods of killing

There are accounts of four different methods used by the German troops. The victims were either beaten to death, killed with a bayonet, killed with a hammer, or shot to death. The professors themselves were shot to death.

Responsibility

The decision was taken by the highest level of the Third Reich authorities. The direct decision maker concerning the massacre was the commander of the Sicherheitspolizei (Befehlshaber der Sicherheitspolizei und des SD- BdS) in Krakau District Generalgouvernement, Brigadeführer Karl Eberhard Schöngarth. The following Gestapo officers also participated: Walter Kutschmann, Felix Landau, Heinz Heim (Chief of Staff Schöngarth), Hans Krueger (Krüger) and Kurt Stawizki. None of these was ever punished for their role(s) in the Lviv massacre. Kutschmann lived under a fake identity in Argentina until January 1975, when he was found and exposed by journalist Alfredo Serra in the resort town of Miramar. He was arrested ten years later in Florida, Buenos Aires, by Interpol agents but died of a heart attack in jail before he could be extradited, on 30 August 1986.

Some sources contend that members of the Ukrainian auxiliaries from the Nachtigall Battalion were responsible for the murders. According to others, this claim originated with the Soviet sources (Soviet propaganda campaign against the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) and has been disputed.

Memorial has published documents which claim to document the Nachtigall participation in those events as a KGB disinformation. Stanisław Bogaczewicz, of the Institute of National Remembrance said that Nachtigall soldiers took part in the arrests, but not in the murders, and that their role in this event needs further investigation. Sociologist Tadeusz Piotrowski noted that while the Nachtigall role is disputed, they were present in the town during the events, their activities are not properly documented, and that at the very least they are guilty of the passive collaboration in this event, for not opposing the atrocities. According to a Lviv historian, Vasyl Rasevych, the claims that Ukrainians participated in the July 1941 massacre are untrue and that no archival evidence exists to support this contention.

Aftermath

After World War II the leadership of the Soviet Union made attempts to diminish the Polish cultural and historic legacy of Lviv. Crimes committed east of the Curzon line could not be prosecuted by Polish courts. Information on the atrocities that took place in Lviv was restricted. In 1960, Dr Helena Krukowska, the widow of Professor Włodzimierz Krukowski, launched an appeal to the court in Hamburg. After five years the German court closed the judicial proceedings. A German public prosecutor claimed the people responsible for the crime were already dead, however SS-Hauptsturmführer Hans Krueger (also spelled Krüger), commander of the Gestapo unit supervising the massacres in Lviv in 1941, was being held in Hamburg prison (having been sentenced to life imprisonment for the mass murder of Jews and Poles in Stanisławów, committed several weeks after his unit was transferred from Lviv). As a result no person has ever been held responsible for this atrocity.

In the 1970s, Abrahamowicz Street in Lviv was renamed Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński Street. Various Polish organisations have made deputations to remember the victims of the atrocity with a monument or a symbolic grave in Lviv. The case of the murder of the professors is currently under investigation by the Institute of National Remembrance. In May 2009, the monument to the victims in Lviv was defaced with red paint bearing the words "Death to the Lachs [Poles]". On 3 July 2011, a memorial dedicated to the 39 Polish professors murdered by the Gestapo on 4 July 1941 opened in Lviv.

Victims

Abbreviations used:

• UJK = Uniwersytet Jana Kazimierza (Lwów University, now Ivan Franko National University of Lviv)
• PSP = Państwowy Szpital Powszechny (National Public Hospital)
• PL = Politechnika Lwowska (Lwów Polytechnic, now Lviv Polytechic National University)
• AWL = Akademia Weterynaryjna we Lwowie (Academy of Veterinary Sciences in Lwów)
• AHZ = Akademia Handlu Zagranicznego we Lwowie (Academy of Foreign Trade in Lwów)

Murdered in the Wulka hills

1. Prof Dr Antoni Cieszyński, Professor of Stomatology UJK
2. Prof Dr Władysław Dobrzaniecki, head of the ord. Oddz. Chirurgii PSP
3. Prof Dr Jan Grek, Professor of Internal Medicine, UJK
4. Maria Grekowa, wife of Jan Grek
5. Doc Dr Jerzy Grzędzielski, head of the Institute of Ophthalmology, UJK
6. Prof Dr Edward Hamerski, Chief of Internal Medicine, AWL
7. Prof Dr Henryk Hilarowicz, Professor of Surgery, UJK
8. Rev Dr Władysław Komornicki, theologian, a relative of the Ostrowski family
9. Eugeniusz Kostecki, husband of Prof. Dobrzaniecki's servant
10. Prof Dr Włodzimierz Krukowski, Chief of the Institute of Electrical Measurement, PL
11. Prof Dr Roman Longchamps de Bérier, Chief of the Institute of Civil Law, UJK
12. Bronisław Longchamps de Bérier, son of Prof. Longchamps de Bérier
13. Zygmunt Longchamps de Bérier, son of Prof. Longchamps de Bérier
14. Kazimierz Longchamps de Bérier, son of Prof. Longchamps de Bérier
15. Prof Dr Antoni Łomnicki, Chief of the Institute of Mathematics, PL
16. Adam Mięsowicz, grandson of Prof. Sołowij
17. Prof Dr Witołd Nowicki, Dean of the Faculty of Anatomy and Pathology, UJK
18. Dr Med Jerzy Nowicki, assistant at the Institute of Hygiene, UJK, son of Prof. Witołd Nowicki
19. Prof Dr Tadeusz Ostrowski, Chief of the Institute of Surgery, UJK
20. Jadwiga Ostrowska, wife of Prof. Ostrowski
21. Prof Dr Stanisław Pilat, Chief of the Institute of Technology of Petroleum and Natural Gases, PL
22. Prof Dr Stanisław Progulski, pediatrician, UJK
23. Andrzej Progulski, son of Prof. Progulski
24. Prof Dr Roman Rencki, Chief of the Institute of Internal Medicine, UJK
25. Dr Med Stanisław Ruff, Chief of the Department of Surgery of the Jewish Hospital
26. Anna Ruffowa, Dr Ruff's wife
27. Inż. Adam Ruff, Dr Ruff's son
28. Prof Dr Włodzimierz Sieradzki, Dean of the faculty of Court Medicine, UJK
29. Prof Dr Adam Sołowij, former Chief of the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of the PSP
30. Prof Dr Włodzimierz Stożek, Dean of the Faculty of Mathematics, PL
31. Inż. Eustachy Stożek, assistant at the Politechnika Lwowska, son of Prof Włodzimierz Stożek
32. Emanuel Stożek, son of Prof Włodzimierz Stożek
33. Dr. Tadeusz Tapkowski, lawyer
34. Prof Dr Kazimierz Vetulani, Dean of the Faculty of Theoretical Mechanics, PL
35. Prof Dr Kacper Weigel, Chief of the Institute of Measures, PL
36. Mgr Józef Weigel, son of Prof Kacper Weigel
37. Prof Dr Roman Witkiewicz, Chief of the Institute of Machinery, PL
38. Prof Dr Tadeusz Boy-Żeleński, writer and gynaecologist, Chief of the Institute of French Literature

Murdered in the courtyard of Bursa Abrahamowiczów, a former school in Lviv, now a hospital

1. Katarzyna Demko, English language teacher
2. Dr Stanisław Mączewski, head of the Department of Gynaecology and Obstetrics of the PSP
3. Maria Reymanowa, nurse
4. Wolisch (forename unknown), merchant

Murdered on 12 July

1. Prof Dr Henryk Korowicz, Chief of the Institute of Economics, AHZ
2. Prof Dr Stanisław Ruziewicz, Chief of the Institute of Mathematics, AHZ

Murdered on 26 July in Brygidki Prison

1. Prof Dr Kazimierz Bartel, former Prime Minister of Poland, former Rector of PL, Chairman of the Department of Geometry, PL