Wielka Piaśnica


Wielka Piaśnica is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Puck, within Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately west of Puck and north-west of the regional capital Gdańsk.

World War II

After the 1939 Invasion of Poland, German SS from Danzig and local German Selbstschutz members executed about 12,000 civilians, mainly Polish and Kashubian intelligentsia from the Pomeranian Voivodeship, in the Darżlubska forest next to the village. Among the victims were approximately 1,200 mentally ill persons from local hospitals, killed in the course of the forced euthanasia policy dubbed Action T4.
The mass executions began in October 1939 and lasted until April 1940. An exhumation of mass graves was carried after World War II in 1946. Out of total number of 35 graves, 30 were localised of which 26 were exhumed. Only 305 bodies were found, the rest of the bodies was burnt by Germans in August–September 1944. Sonderkommandos from Stutthof concentration camp were used to cover up the tracks and were later executed.