Święciany massacre
The Święciany massacre or the Švenčionys massacre (Polish: Zbrodnia w Święcianach) took place on 19–20 May 1942 when the Lithuanian Security Police murdered around 400[1] to 1,200[2] Poles in the German-occupied village of Święciany (now Švenčionys, Lithuania) and its surroundings.
| Święciany massacre | |
|---|---|
| Part of World War II | |
| Location | Święciany |
| Coordinates | 55°08′N 26°10′E |
| Date | May 19, 1942- May 20, 1942 |
Attack type | War crime, massacre |
| Deaths | 400 to 1,200 |
| Victims | Poles |
| Perpetrators | Lithuanian Security Police |
| Assailants | Jonas Maciulevičius and co-conspirators |
The massacre was a reprisal action for the assassination of three German officers[3] including Joseph Beck carried out by Soviet partisans. Germans ordered arrests and execution of local Poles, with over 1,200 fatalities among the local Polish populace over the next few days. The reprisals have been carried out by the Lithuanian Security Police under the command of Jonas Maciulevičius.[4] Maciulevičius was sentenced to death and executed in Poland in 1950. In early 2000s Polish Institute of National Remembrance reinvestigated the crime, and concluded that no other living perpetrators of this crime remain identified and alive, closing the investigation in 2005.[1]
See also
References
- Narodowej, Instytut Pamięci. "Śledztwa zakończone wydaniem postanowienia o umorzeniu". Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (in Polish). Retrieved 2021-01-17.
- "PRZEGLĄD MEDIÓW - 15 marca 2005 r." (in Polish). Institute of National Remembrance. 2005-03-15. Archived from the original on 2011-06-11.
- Rokicki 2015, p. 135.
- Tadeusz Piotrowski (1998). Poland's Holocaust: Ethnic Strife, Collaboration with Occupying Forces and Genocide in the Second Republic, 1918-1947. McFarland. p. 168. ISBN 978-0-7864-0371-4.
Bibliography
- Rokicki, Paweł (2015). Glinciszki i Dubinki. Zbrodnie wojenne na Wileńszczyźnie w połowie 1944 roku i ich konsekwencje we współczesnych relacjach polsko-litewskich [Glinciszki and Dubinki. War crimes in the Vilnius Region in mid-1944 and their consequences in contemporary Polish-Lithuanian relations] (PDF). Monografie (in Polish). Warsaw: Institute of National Remembrance. ISBN 978-83-8229-224-4.