Valley of Death (Bydgoszcz)
| Valley of Death | |
|---|---|
| Part of Intelligenzaktion Pommern | |
Polish teachers from Bydgoszcz led by members of the Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz to their execution site | |
| Location | German occupied Poland |
| Coordinates | 53°9′23″N 18°8′5″E / 53.15639°N 18.13472°E |
| Date | October and November 1939 |
| Target | Polish intelligentsia |
| Victims | 1,200 – 1,400 |
| Perpetrators | Gestapo, Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz |
| Motive | Anti-Polish sentiment, antisemitism |
Valley of Death (Polish: Dolina Śmierci) in Fordon, Bydgoszcz, northern Poland, is a site of Nazi German mass murder committed at the beginning of World War II and a mass grave of 1,200–1,400 Poles and Jews murdered in October and November 1939 by the local German Selbstschutz and the Gestapo. The murders were a part of Intelligenzaktion in Pomerania, a Nazi action aimed at the elimination of the Polish intelligentsia in Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia, which included the former Pomeranian Voivodeship ("Polish Corridor"). It was part of a larger genocidal action that took place in all German occupied Poland, code-named Operation Tannenberg.