Everything about Sonderaktion Krakau totally explained
Sonderaktion Krakau was the codename for a German operation against professors and academics from the
University of Kraków and other
Kraków universities at the beginning of
World War II.
It was carried out as part of the action plan to exterminate the
Polish intellectual elite, especially in those centres, such as Kraków, which were slated by the Nazis to become culturally German.
On
November 6,
1939, Obersturmbannführer
SS Bruno Müller commanded Prof. Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński, then the University's rector, to require all professors to attend a lecture on German plans for Polish education. The rector agreed and sent an invitation throughout the university. When 144
Jagiellonian University professors and assistants arrived at 12:00 at room 66 of the
Collegium Novum building, no lecture was conducted. They were instead imprisoned under the pretense that
the university was working without German consent. 21 Professors from the
Mining Academy (attending a meeting in a different room), 5 visiting professors, and 13 university employees and students who were in the building were also arrested. All 183 were later sent to
Sachsenhausen concentration camp and
Dachau.
Following loud international protest, 101 of those surviving professors who were older than 40 were released on 8 February 1940. Additional academics were released later. Although university professors were not sent directly to
gas chambers, many were elderly and didn't survive even a short stay under the grim living conditions in the camps where
dysentery was common and warm clothes in winter were rare. 15 died in the camps and another 5 died within days of release. Among the notable professors who died in Sachsenhausen were
Ignacy Chrzanowski,
Stanisław Estreicher,
Kazimierz Kostanecki,
Antoni Meyer, and
Michał Siedlecki.
In 1942, many of those who survived Sonderaktion Krakau formed an
underground university in defiance of Nazi edicts. Among the 800 students of the underground university was Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope
John Paul II.
Today, there's a plaque commemorating the events of Sonderaktion Krakau in front of
Collegium Novum in Krakow. Every 6 November, black flags are hung outside all Jagiellonian University buildings and the Rector of the University personally lays wreathes on the graves of those who suffered.
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