The Wilno school massacre was a

school shooting A school shooting is an attack at an educational institution, such as a primary school, secondary school, high school or university, involving the use of firearms. Many school shootings are also categorized as mass shootings due to multiple c ...

that occurred on 6 May 1925 at the

Joachim Lelewel Joachim Lelewel (22 March 1786 – 29 May 1861) was a Polish historian, geographer, bibliographer, polyglot and politician. Life Born in Warsaw to a Polonized German family, Lelewel was educated at the Imperial University of Vilna, where in 18 ...

High School in

Wilno Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

(now Vilnius, Lithuania). During the final exams, at about 11 a.m., at least two eighth-grade students attacked the board of examiners with revolvers and hand grenades, killing two students, one teacher, and themselves. It was the first-ever school shooting that took place in

, preceding the Inowrocław school shooting in April 1936, the Kluczbork School of Economics shooting on December 16, 2001 and the Brześć Kujawski school shooting on May 27, 2019.

Attack

Various accounts of the incident were reported by the newspapers worldwide. That the students were in possession of military grade weapons suggests that they might have been in contact with the illegal Soviet agents deployed to Poland for sabotage and espionage operations.Maturalna masakra w wileńskim gimnazjum
''Histmag.org'' (May 6, 2012). The article in British daily ''

Times Time is the continued sequence of existence and events, and a fundamental quantity of measuring systems. Time or times may also refer to: Temporal measurement * Time in physics, defined by its measurement * Time standard, civil time specific ...

'' stated that two students, identified as Stanisław Ławrynowicz and Janusz Obrąbalski, per Polish sources, were involved in the incident. According to the article, Ławrynowicz, who was a member of an organisation that supported

Józef Piłsudski ), Vilna Governorate, Russian Empire (now Lithuania) , death_date = , death_place = Warsaw, Poland , constituency = , party = None (formerly PPS) , spouse = , children = Wan ...

, began shooting at the teachers with a revolver after being told that he had failed exams, whereupon other students tried to disarm him. Ławrynowicz then dropped a hand grenade which killed him and several other students. Immediately after this Obrapalski, his friend, rose from his place and fired several shots at the teachers, wounding a professor and several students, before throwing a hand grenade, which failed to explode. He then committed suicide. Including the perpetrators themselves, five persons were killed, one of them a professor. Six students, as well as the headmaster, were wounded. According to an article in the ''

Neue Freie Presse ''Neue Freie Presse'' ("New Free Press") was a Viennese newspaper founded by Adolf Werthner together with the journalists Max Friedländer and Michael Etienne on 1 September 1864 after the staff had split from the newspaper ''Die Presse''. It ex ...

'' three students carried out the attack, who were identified as Stanislaus Lawrynowicz, Janusz Obrembalski and Thaddäus Domanski, who was also named Ormanski in other reports. The newspaper reported that Lawrynowicz fired several shots at principal Bieganski, after most of the students had refused to take part at the exams, while at the same time Obrembalski began shooting at the teachers. Domanski then tried to throw a bomb into the group of teachers, which slipped out of his hands and exploded at his feet, killing himself, as well as the two other attackers, and a fourth student named Zagorski. Principal Bieganski was mortally wounded in the attack and Professor Jankowski, as well as seven other students were gravely injured. An investigation revealed that the students had established a Communist youth organization to counter the principal's strict management of the school. The members of this organization had met one day before the exams in a tavern to discuss their further actions. However, the most likely motive was the bad mental state of both perpetrators, who were unable to adapt to the school lifestyle after the war experiences (Ławrynowicz took an active part in the Polish-Soviet War, while Obrapalski lost all his family possessions as a result). A bomb was later found in one classroom, large enough to blow up the school building.Die Höllenmaschine im Gymnasium
'' Freiburger Zeitung'' (May 9, 1925)

References

External links

Baisus atsitikimas lenkų gimnazijoj
''Vilniaus Aidas'' (May 7, 1925) (p. 4)
Nelaime gimnazijoj
''Vilniaus Aidas'', (May 9, 1925) (p. 4)
Stupéfiant attentat dans un lycée de Vilna
''

Le Figaro ''Le Figaro'' () is a French daily morning newspaper founded in 1826. It is headquartered on Boulevard Haussmann in the 9th arrondissement of Paris. The oldest national newspaper in France, ''Le Figaro'' is one of three French newspapers of reco ...

'' (May 8, 1925)
Anschlag von Gymnasiasten
''Freiburger Zeitung'' (May 8, 1925)
Die Wilnaer Gymnasiasten-Revolte
''Neues 8 Uhr Blatt'' (May 7, 1925)
Ein weiteres Todesopfer des Attentats im Wilnaer Gymnasium
''

'' (May 8, 1925)
Bombenattentat von Schülern in einem polnischen Gymnasium
''

Prager Tagblatt The ''Prager Tagblatt'' was a German language newspaper published in Prague from 1876 to 1939. Considered to be the most influential liberal-democratic German newspaper in Bohemia, it stopped publication after the German occupation of Czechoslova ...

'' (May 7, 1925)
Schreckenstaten im Wilnaer Gymnasium
''

Reichspost ''Reichspost'' (; "Imperial Mail") was the name of the postal service of Germany from 1866 to 1945. ''Deutsche Reichspost'' Upon the out break of the Austro-Prussian War of 1866 and the break-up of the German Confederation in the Peace of ...

'' (May 7, 1925)
Attentat in einer Wilnaer Schule
''

Wiener Zeitung ''Wiener Zeitung'' is an Austrian newspaper. It is one of the oldest, still published newspapers in the world. It is the official publication used by the Government of the Republic of Austria for legally-required announcements, such as company r ...

'' (May 8, 1925)
Das Attentat im Wilnaer Gymnasium
''

'' (May 9, 1925)
Ein Racheakt polnischer Gymnasiasten
'' Coburger Zeitung'' (May 8, 1925)
Polish Students
''

The Argus (Australia) ''The Argus'' was an Australian daily morning newspaper in Melbourne from 2 June 1846 to 19 January 1957, and was considered to be the general Australian newspaper of record for this period. Widely known as a conservative newspaper for most ...

'' (May 9, 1925) {{DEFAULTSORT:Vilnius School Massacre School massacres Mass murder in 1925 Massacres in 1925 School bombings in Europe 1925 in Poland Deaths by firearm in Poland Murder in Poland History of Vilnius School shootings in Europe May 1925 events 1925 murders in Poland Massacres in Poland

Attack

See also

References

External links