Sonderaktion Krakau
Sonderaktion Krakau was a German operation against professors and academics of the Jagiellonian University and other universities in German-occupied Kraków, Poland, at the beginning of World War II. It was carried out as part of the much broader action plan, the "Intelligenzaktion", to eradicate the Polish intellectual elite, especially in those centers (such as Kraków) that were intended by the Germans to become culturally German. It is not clear if "Sonderaktion Krakau" (special operation Kraków) was the actual German codename. The reason for the detention was communicated to professors in the concentration camp. Course of operation. Soon  after the establishment of the German occupation of Poland, following the invasion of Poland, on October 19, 1939, the Senate of the Jagiellonian University decided to open the university for a new academic year, which was to start on 13 November. This decision was communicated to German occupation authorities, who did not express objections. However, on November 3, the Gestapo chief in Kraków "" Bruno Müller, commanded Jagiellonian University rector Professor Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński to require all professors to attend his lecture about German plans for Polish education. The rector agreed and sent an invitation throughout the university for a meeting  scheduled at the administrative center building in the Collegium Novum "(entrance pictured)". On November 6, 1939, in lecture room no. 66 (currently no. 56) at noon, all academics and their guests gathered; among them, 105 professors and 33 lecturers from Jagiellonian University (UJ), four from University of Economics (AE) and four from Lublin and Wilno. There were also 34 professors and doctors from University of Technology (AG), who did not intend to start the academic year, and attended their own meeting in a different room. The academics filled the hall but no "Vortrag" (lecture) on education was given. Instead, they  were told by Müller that the university did not have permission to start a new academic year and that Poles were hostile toward German science and acted in bad faith. They were arrested on the spot by armed policemen, frisked, and escorted out. Some senior professors were kicked, slapped in the face (Stanisław Estreicher) and hit with rifle butts. An additional 13–15 university employees and students who were on site were also arrested, as well as the President of Kraków, Dr Stanisław Klimecki who was apprehended at home that afternoon. All 184 persons were transported first to prison at Montelupich  Street, then to barracks at Mazowiecka, and—three days later—to a detention center in Breslau, Germany (now Wrocław, Poland), where they spent 18 days split between two prison facilities: the detention center ("Untersuchungsgefängnis", at the Świebodzka 1 Street), and the "Strafgefängnis" penal complex at Kleczkowska 35. The Gestapo were unprepared for such a large transfer of prisoners, and awaited permission to send them to Buchenwald concentration camp. However, that was filled to capacity and so, on November 27, 1939, at night, they were loaded onto a train to Sachsenhausen concentration camp located on the other side of Berlin, and  in March 1940, sent further to Dachau concentration camp near Munich after a new batch of arrested younger academics arrived. Release. Following loud international protest by prominent Italians including Benito Mussolini and the Vatican, 101 professors who were older than 40 were released from Sachsenhausen on February 8, 1940. Additional academics were released later. Some elderly professors did not survive the roll-calls, held three times a day even in ice and snow, and the grim living conditions where dysentery was common, warm clothes rare and food rations scarce. Twelve died in the camp within three months, and another five  within weeks of release. Three professors of Jewish origin were separated and later were murdered or died of other causes: (Leon Sternbach, Wiktor Ormicki and Joachim Metallmann). Among the notable professors who died in the camp were Ignacy Chrzanowski (UJ; Jan 19, 1940), Stanisław Estreicher (UJ; Dec 29, 1939), Kazimierz Kostanecki (UJ; Jan 11, 1940), (AGH; Dec 24, 1939), and Michał Siedlecki (UJ; Jan 11, 1940, after roll-call). In March 1940, the able prisoners from Kraków who remained alive were sent to Dachau concentration camp and most released in January 1941 on intervention. The last one, Kazimierz Piwarski, was  released in late 1941. Many of those who went through "Sonderaktion Krakau" and the internment formed an underground university in 1942 in defiance of the German punitive edicts. Among the 800 students of their underground college was Karol Wojtyła, the future Pope John Paul II, taught by Prof. Tadeusz Lehr-Spławiński among others. Today there is a plaque commemorating the events of "Sonderaktion Krakau" in front of Collegium Novum in Kraków. Every November 6, black flags are hung outside all Jagiellonian University buildings, and the Rector of the University lays wreaths to honor those who suffered. Prominent personalities arrested during  Sonderaktion Krakau. Below is a partial list of selected prominent academics and university graduates arrested on November 6, 1939.