page_title: Mausoleum of Polish Rural Martyrology in Michniów
section_title: Michniów massacre
hierarchical_section_title: Mausoleum of Polish Rural Martyrology in Michniów / Michniów massacre
caption_attribution_description: English: The Black Book of Poland. Plates 21–24 inserted between pages 74 and 75 of The Black Book, illustrating Part&#160;I. Massacres and Tortures
context_page_description: The Mausoleum of the Martyrdom of Polish Villages in Michniów is a museum located in Michniów, in Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship, in Poland, constituting a branch of the Museum of the Kielce Village, commemorating the martyrdom of Polish villages during World War II.
  The initiative to build the Mausoleum was put forward in 1979 by the Chief Commission for the Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation. The Mausoleum Organizing Committee was established in 1984, and the cornerstone was laid in 1989. Since 1999, the Mausoleum in Michniów has been under the protection of the Kielce Countryside Museum, while since 2008 it has been a branch of this Museum. The mausoleum currently includes: House of National Remembrance, Sanctuary of the Martyr's Polish Villages, cemetery and grave of victims of pacification, and a monument - "Pieta of Michniów".
  In 2014, the museum was visited by 30 137 people compared to 28,311 in 2013.
context_section_description: During World War II and the occupation of Poland by Nazi Germany (1939-1945), Poles were subjected to terror and mass German repression. Both in cities and in the villages. Hundreds of Polish villages were subjected to pacifications, massacres of people, executions of civilians, burning, often entire villages. During war, the inhabitants of Michniów actively cooperated with the Polish resistance movement, in particular with the Świętokrzyskie Home Army Groupings commanded by lieutenant Jan Piwnik, pseudonym "Ponury" ("Grim"), cichociemny ("Silent Unseen" special-operations paratroopers of the Polish Army in exile in SOE). Probably as a result of denunciators' reports, especially Jerzy Wojnowski pseudonym "Motor", the occupiers from Nazi Germany decided to carry out extensive repression in Michniów. On July 12, 1943, the village was massacred by a German forces, which included subunits of the 17th and 22nd Police Regiment, gendarmerie from nearby facilities, and Gestapo officers from Kielce. At that time, Germans partly burned Michniów and murdered 102 inhabitants (mostly by burning alive in barns). In retaliation that same night, soldiers of the Polish resistance movement from Jan Piwnik's unit attacked the express train Kraków-Warsaw in the area of Podłazie, killing or injuring at least a dozen soldiers of Nazi Germany. The next day, German policemen returned to Michniów, completely burning the village and murdering almost all Poles staying there. In total, at least 204 people were victims of the massacre in Michniów, including 54 women and 48 children, as many as ten of them were less than 10 years old. The youngest victim was a nine-day Stefanek Dąbrowa, thrown by a German military policeman into a burning barn. 10 people suspected of cooperating with the underground were deported to German concentration camps (only three survived), and 18 young women and girls were sent to forced labor in Nazi Germany. The village was completely burned (only two buildings survived). Occupational authorities forbade the reconstruction of Michniów and cultivation of the surrounding fields.
  In the repressive actions of 1939-1945, the Germans murdered 19,792 people.
caption: German atrocities in German-occupied Poland 1939-1945. The Black Book of Poland (21–24)
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