Karnkowo

In a forest outside a small village called Karnkowo, about 100 kilometres southeast of Bydgoszcz, the Germans murdered about 200 Poles from Karnkowo. The murders were part of a pacification action called Intelligenzaktion that aimed to murder prominent and educated Poles who, as their position or education, were considered to be a threat to German supremacy and must therefore be eliminated. Most of those murdered had been taken from Gestapo’s prison in Lipno, where they had been subjected to interrogation, beatings and torture to extract confessions and disclosures. Many died or were killed in prison before being taken to Karnkowo and shot. Local Selbschutz units (paramilitary units of ethnic Germans) took part in the murders. The bodies were buried in mass graves. In 1944, the bodies were dug up and cremated over open fires in an attempt to conceal the murders. The work of digging up and cremating the bodies was carried out by prisoners taken from different places for the task.