🇵🇱 In the massacres of 1939-1940 in Piaśnica Wielka, an estimated 12,000 - 14,000 Polish civilians were murdered by Nazi forces. Most were from the region of Gdańsk (Danzig). Shortly before the massacres German officer Albert Forster said "We have to eliminate the lice-ridden Poles, starting with those in the cradle…" Between this massacre and other similar ones around that time, the Germans killed about 65,000 Polish intellectuals. Before the invasion of Poland, the Nazis prepared special lists of Poles they regarded as representative of Polish culture who were to be executed. Per official criteria, the Polish "intelligentsia" included anyone with a middle school or higher education, priests, teachers, doctors, dentists, veterinarians, military officers, bureaucrats, businessmen, medium and large landowners, writers, journalists and anyone who belonged to Polish cultural or patriotic organizations.