Miejsce Pamięci Bukowiec

Peace and quiet, calm

I quote a text from the plaque commemorating: "PLACE NATIONAL MEMORY Since the beginning of the occupation, many people have been arrested and imprisoned in Wagrowiec prison as part of "Operation Tannenbcrg '' (pacification of Polish society by destroying its leadership layer). The cells included members of the National Defense, participants of the Greater Poland Uprising, local social and political activists, and suspects possession of weapons and hostile towards the local German community. In total, by December 1939, about 260 people were imprisoned there. On December 8, 1939, selection was carried out in the prison in Wągrowiec. Read from the list, they were led out and loaded into a truck delivered to the prison building under the supervision of the SS. The prisoners were told that they were transported to a labor camp in Piła, but they had to leave their packages in prison. The truck along a forest road reached a hill near Lake Kobyłeckie, where pits had been dug the day before, then the prisoners were ordered to leave the truck. They had their hands tied behind, only the last prisoner had free hands in which he held the spade. They were placed above the pit and four SS men were shooting them from close distance in the back of the head. Then the prisoner with a shovel was ordered to bury the bodies of those shot. Burying was supervised by two SS men, the others returned by truck to the Wagrowiec prison for another group of people imprisoned there. After returning everything was the same as it was the first time. After shooting the third group of prisoners and burying them in the prepared grave, they ordered the prisoner to bury the bodies of the murdered to dig a fourth, smaller grave, then shoot him and bury him. A total of 107 men were brought from prison (37 in the first two, 33 in the last). In the autumn of 1944, a special commando stayed for several days in the building of the Durowo Forest District, at that time they dug up mass graves in the Bukowiec forest, the dug bodies were burnt, and the ashes buried again. During this period, the forest was surrounded and inaccessible to civilians, then the crime scene was carefully masked. As a result of the investigation carried out by the Departmental Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation, the Institute of National Remembrance in Poznań determined some of the names of those murdered, the course of the event and the names of the torturers. The memorial obelisk was erected here on January 22, 1966. On September 10, 2005, a patriotic ceremony took place in this place related to the completion of the renovation of the place and the dedication of the Holy Cross. and unveiling of a plaque commemorating Poles murdered by Nazi invaders. During the ceremony prepared by the Honorary Committee, he celebrated mass and the homily was delivered by the parish priest. St. Peter and Paul the Apostles in Łekno and St. Mikołaj in Tarnów Pałucki - father Krzysztof Opioła. The ceremony was attended by: Member of the Seym of the Republic of Poland and Marshals of the Greater Poland Voivodeship, representatives of central and local government administration authorities, representatives of the Institute of National Remembrance in Poznań, combatants, representatives of organizations operating in the commune, as well as numerous members of the Murdered Families. "

A place of reflection