Valley of Death (Bydgoszcz)

 valley, memorial, interesting place

Valley of Death (Polish: Dolina Śmierci) in Fordon, Bydgoszcz, northern Poland, is a site of Nazi German mass murder and a mass grave of 5,000 – 6,600 Poles and Jews murdered in October and November 1939 by the local Germans (Selbstschutz) and the Gestapo.

Victims, mainly Polish intelligentsia: teachers, priests, office workers, were listed on so called Fahndungsbuch (a list of people destined to be executed, made by Third Reich officials before World War II) and another list made by Gestapo during the war.

Established investigations point to Ludolf von Alvensleben and Jakub Löllgen, as the main culprits of mass murder. Other involved in the crimes were Sturmbannführers Spaarmann, Meier, Schnugg, Baks, Volksdeutsches Wilhelm Neumann, Herbert Beitsch, Otto Erlichmann (Nazi mayor of Fordon), Walter Gassmann.

Other Nazi German mass murder sites in Bydgoszcz area are the villages of Tryszczyn and Borówno.