Pinczata

About six kilometers south of Wloclawek (german Leslau) and just outside a village called Pinczata, there is a forest where the Germans in the autumn of 1939 murdered about hundred Poles from the villages of Pinczata, Grzmiaca and Widon. 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. The victims were taken from Wloclawek prisons, where they had been subjected to interrogation, beatings and torture to extract confessions and disclosures. Many died or were killed in prison. The murders were most often carried out by the Gestapo or by local paramilitary units (Selbshutz) consisting of ethnic Germans under the control of the Gestapo. 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.