Dopiewiec is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Dopiewo __NOTOC__ Gmina Dopiewo is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Poznań County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. Its seat is the village of Dopiewo, which lies approximately west of the regional capital Poznań. The gmin ...

, within Poznań County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately east of

Dopiewo Dopiewo is a village in Poznań County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Dopiewo. It lies approximately west of the regional capital Poznań. History During Wo ...

and west of the regional capital

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John ...

History

As part of the region of

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; german: Großpolen, sv, Storpolen, la, Polonia Maior), is a Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed ...

, i.e. the cradle of the Polish state, the area formed part of Poland since its establishment in the 10th century. Dopiewiec was a private village of

Polish nobility The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in the ...

, administratively located in the Poznań County in the

Poznań Voivodeship Poznań Voivodeship was the name of several former administrative regions (''województwo'', rendered as ''voivodeship'' and usually translated as "province") in Poland, centered on the city of Poznań, although the exact boundaries changed over t ...

in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. During the

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

, the local forest was the site of large massacres of

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

from the region committed by the occupiers in 1939–1940 (see ''

Nazi crimes against the Polish nation Crimes against the Polish nation committed by Nazi Germany and Axis collaborationist forces during the invasion of Poland, along with auxiliary battalions during the subsequent occupation of Poland in World War II, consisted of the murder of ...

''). In the autumn of 1939, the Germans massacred over 630 Poles brought from the

Fort VII Fort VII, officially ''Konzentrationslager Posen'' (renamed later), was a Nazi German death camp set up in Poznań in German-occupied Poland during World War II, located in one of the 19th-century forts circling the city. According to different e ...

concentration camp in Poznań, incl. 70 students of Poznań universities and colleges, who were murdered on 7 November 1939, and 70 nuns, who were murdered in December 1939 (see ''

Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland During the German Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), the Nazis brutally suppressed the Catholic Church in Poland, most severely in German-occupied areas of Poland. Thousands of churches and monasteries were systematically closed, seized or dest ...

'').Wardzyńska, p. 191 The victims were murdered with shots to the back of the head. After each execution there were alcoholic drinking parties of the German execution squad. In early 1940 further executions took place, in which over 2,000 Poles were brought from Fort VII to the forest and murdered. The bodies were buried in seven mass graves. In the last months of the war the occupiers burnt the bodies of the victims in an attempt to cover up the crime.

Transport

The Polish A2 motorway runs near Dopiewiec, south of the village.

References

Villages in Poznań County Sites of World War II massacres of Poles Sites of Nazi war crimes during the Invasion of Poland {{Poznań-geo-stub