What is (if there is any) the red pill on the Intelligenzaktion?

[WW2History]

The Intelligenzaktion although brutal, is something found historically such as when Charles the Great wiped out the Saxon elites which then fully allowed Christianity to take over, the Roman Destruction of the Jewish Elite During the First Jewish Revolt, the Mongol Massacres of Persian Elites During the Invasion of Khwarazm, etc.


Is there anything behind the Intelligenzaktion? The document records for deaths seem to be all in order?

[Archie]

I think we had a thread on this on the old forum, but I don't think it survived since it was from later in 2023.

This an area that could probably use some more investigation.

[fireofice]

I figured I should post what evidence is used for the Intelligenzaktion here. It's claimed about 100,000 were killed in it from about between 1939-1940, and then around 3,500 killed in Aktion AB. I'm sure there are individual documents that can be found of some of the Polish intelligentsia being killed or arrested, but nothing that I am aware that demonstrates it to be 100,000.

There is also the Special Prosecution Book – Poland or Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen that gives a list of around 61,000 Polish intellectuals. As far as I can tell, there is nothing in the book says they should all be killed. Under section B giving instructions, it just says to arrest them, but nothing about killing. Of course, it could be argued that they didn't want to mention it for cover. One interesting person on the list is Orłowicz, Marian (I think? The name isn't completely clear) on page 116 which says "Vorsicht! Zum Tode verurteilt" which translates to "Beware! Sentenced to death"

Now that is a very strange thing to add for a "Prosecution Book" where everyone has already supposedly been "sentenced to death". Although perhaps one response could be that he was already known for being more dangerous than the rest of the intelligentsia and so that's why the death sentence, presumably in absentia, was given before this list was drawn up. So perhaps not completely decisive, but still a bit unexpected given that they saw the entire intelligentsia as a threat, which is why the list was drawn up with all of them being sentenced to death anyway.

https://sbc.org.pl/Content/24330/PDF/ii ... 0-0001.pdf

Then there is 172-USSR, a document written by Bormann on October 2, 1940 of what Hitler said. This is probably the best evidence for the orthodox interpretation of the Intelligenzaktion. It describes several harsh policies Hitler advocated for the Poles, but this is the most relevant part for this:

Unbedingt zu beachten sei, dass es keine ,,polnischen Herren" geben diirfte; wo polnische Herren vorhanden seien, sollten sie, so hart das klingen moge, umgebracht werden.

Noch einmal. musse der Fuhrer betonen, dass es fur die Polen nur einen Herren geben diirfe und das sei der Deutsche; zwei Herren nebeneinander konne es nicht geben und diirfe es nicht geben, daher seien alle Vertreter der polnischen Intelligenz umzu bringen. Dies klinge hart, aber es sei nun einmal das Lebensgesetz.

Translated:

It must be absolutely borne in mind that there must be no ‘Polish masters’; wherever Polish masters exist, they should, however harsh that may sound, be killed.
...
Once again, the Führer had to emphasize that for the Poles there could be only one master, and that was the German; two masters could not and must not exist side by side. Therefore, all representatives of the Polish intelligentsia are to be killed. This may sound harsh, but it is simply the law of life.

https://tile.loc.gov/storage-services/s ... -XXXIX.pdf
pp. 427-428

If one wants to have a revisionist view of the Intelligenzaktion, it seems the only way to view this document would be to either argue it's a forgery or that Hitler was being hyperbolic.

[Archie]

...
Then there is 172-USSR, ...

It gives me some pause that the key document is a Soviet submission. After all, taking out the elites was a signature Bolshevik move, Katyn being a notable example. (Another would be Stalin's proposal to shoot 50,000 German leaders after the war). Moreover, with Katyn, the Soviets made a concerted effort to project their own practices onto the Germans, including forgery of documents.

Assuming the document is real - we might still ask whether Bormann is accurately reflecting official Reich policy and, if such thing was contemplated, to what extent it was ever actually carried out.

Another thing that doesn't make sense to me with this is that we know they were sending lots of Communists and other political enemies to the camps. But why would they have an even harsher policy against "intellectuals" in general, many of whom would not be causing any trouble? Seems totally unnecessary since Poland fell quickly and did not have the same sort of fierce partisan fighting as there was in the East.