''Puszcza Darżlubska'' () or ''Lasy Piaśnickie'' (), located in the northernmost part of

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, is a Polish forests complex on the

Baltic Sea The Baltic Sea is an arm of the Atlantic Ocean that is enclosed by the countries of Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Sweden, and the North European Plain, North and Central European Plain regions. It is the ...

, within the geographical region of ''Pobrzeże Kaszubskie''; on the south-side bordering the

Tricity Landscape Park Tricity Landscape Park (; ) is a protected area in northern Poland ( Polish Landscape Park), established in 1979, and covering the area of . The Park lies within the Pomeranian Voivodeship, in Wejherowo County (Gmina Szemud, Gmina Wejherowo). On ...

(''Trójmiejski Park Krajobrazowy'') from which it is separated by the

Reda Reda may refer to: * Reda (surname), list of people with the surname * Reda (given name), list of people with the given name * Reda, Poland, a town in Poland * Reda (river), a river in Poland * Reda railway station, a railway station in Reda, Polan ...

river. Inside Darżlubie Forest there are two

nature reserves A nature reserve (also known as a wildlife refuge, wildlife sanctuary, biosphere reserve or bioreserve, natural or nature preserve, or nature conservation area) is a protected area of importance for flora, fauna, funga, or features of geolog ...

( Polish protected areas). The wilderness is also the source of two rivers:

Piaśnica The Piaśnica is a river in northern Poland, in Puck County near Gdańsk, in Pomeranian Voivodeship. It begins inside the Puszcza Darżlubska Wilderness, located in the northernmost part of the geographical region of Pobrzeże Kaszubskie. Darżl ...

and Gizdepka. The name of Puszcza Darżlubska comes from the nearby village of

Darżlubie Darżlubie is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Puck, within Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately west of Puck, Poland, Puck and north-west of the regional capital Gdańsk. The village g ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Puck __NOTOC__ Gmina Puck is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. Its seat is the town of Puck, although the town is not part of the territory of the gmina. The gmina covers an area of , a ...

, north of

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

. Puszcza Darżlubska is the second largest site of mass killings of Polish civilians in

Pomerania Pomerania ( ; ; ; ) is a historical region on the southern shore of the Baltic Sea in Central Europe, split between Poland and Germany. The central and eastern part belongs to the West Pomeranian Voivodeship, West Pomeranian, Pomeranian Voivod ...

(after

Stutthof Stutthof was a Nazi concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in a secluded, marshy, and wooded area near the village of Stutthof (now Sztutowo) 34 km (21 mi) east of the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) in the territory of the German-an ...

) during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

, with up to 16,000 victims murdered on the site. Polish migrant worker families residing in Germany pre-war were the largest group executed. Besides Poles and Kashubs, the victims included patients from mental health hospitals (including Germans), Czechs and Jews. see also
"Polish Prime Minister at the anniversary celebrations in Piaśnica"
, (paragraph 2, line 2) by

Google Translate Google Translate is a multilingualism, multilingual neural machine translation, neural machine translation service developed by Google to translation, translate text, documents and websites from one language into another. It offers a web applic ...

The waves of

Nazi German Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a totalitarian dictat ...

executions, known as the Mass murders in Piaśnica, of about 12,000–16,000 victims, were committed between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1940 near the town of

Wielka Piaśnica Wielka Piaśnica is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Puck, within Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, in northern Poland. It lies approximately west of Puck and north-west of the regional capital Gdańsk. History According to ...

. With the total area of Puszcza Darżlubska includes two

protected landscape areas Protection is any measure taken to guard something against damage caused by outside forces. Protection can be provided to physical objects, including organisms, to systems, and to intangible things like civil and political rights. Although ...

called ''Darżlubskie Buki'' and ''Źródliska Czarnej Wody Nature Reserve''. The

flora Flora (: floras or florae) is all the plant life present in a particular region or time, generally the naturally occurring (indigenous (ecology), indigenous) native plant, native plants. The corresponding term for animals is ''fauna'', and for f ...

of both is similar to that of the Tricity Landscape Park established in 1979. The dominant tree is European Beech (

Fagus sylvatica ''Fagus sylvatica'', the European beech or common beech, is a large, graceful deciduous tree in the Fagaceae, beech family with smooth silvery-gray bark, large leaf area, and a short trunk with low branches. Description ''Fagus sylvatica'' i ...

) forming

thicket A thicket is a very dense stand of trees or tall shrubs, often dominated by only one or a few species, to the exclusion of all others. They may be formed by species that shed large numbers of highly viable seeds that are able to germinate in th ...

s with pine and other

coniferous Conifers () are a group of conifer cone, cone-bearing Spermatophyte, seed plants, a subset of gymnosperms. Scientifically, they make up the phylum, division Pinophyta (), also known as Coniferophyta () or Coniferae. The division contains a sin ...

trees.

Geography

The area is covered mainly by coniferous forest in which the dominating tree is beech forming lowland groves. The beach is relatively young in the region. After the retreating glacier and the gradual warming of the climate around c.8,000 BC, the whole area was first covered by

tundra In physical geography, a tundra () is a type of biome where tree growth is hindered by frigid temperatures and short growing seasons. There are three regions and associated types of tundra: #Arctic, Arctic, Alpine tundra, Alpine, and #Antarctic ...

. Along with the rise of temperature, the flora of the tundra gave way to new forest

ecosystem An ecosystem (or ecological system) is a system formed by Organism, organisms in interaction with their Biophysical environment, environment. The Biotic material, biotic and abiotic components are linked together through nutrient cycles and en ...

s in which most prominent were birches (

Betula A birch is a thin-leaved deciduous hardwood tree of the genus ''Betula'' (), in the family Betulaceae, which also includes alders, hazels, and hornbeams. It is closely related to the beech- oak family Fagaceae. The genus ''Betula'' contains 3 ...

), pines (

Pinus A pine is any conifer tree or shrub in the genus ''Pinus'' () of the family Pinaceae. ''Pinus'' is the sole genus in the subfamily Pinoideae. ''World Flora Online'' accepts 134 species-rank taxa (119 species and 15 nothospecies) of pines as c ...

) and hazel (

Corylus Hazels are plants of the genus ''Corylus'' of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family, Betulaceae,Germplasmgobills Information Network''Corylus''Rushforth, ...

). The ecosystem of the

primeval forest An old-growth forest or primary forest is a forest that has developed over a long period of time without Disturbance (ecology), disturbance. Due to this, old-growth forests exhibit unique ecological features. The Food and Agriculture Organizati ...

changed again with additional, warmer (

stenothermic A stenotherm (from Greek στενός ''stenos'' "narrow" and θέρμη ''therme'' "heat") is a species or living organism capable of surviving only within a narrow temperature range. This specialization is often found in organisms that inhabit ...

) varieties entering the landscape, including aspen (

Populus tremula ''Populus tremula'' (commonly called aspen, common aspen, Eurasian aspen, European aspen, or quaking aspen) is a species of poplar native to cool temperate regions of the Old World. Description It is a substantial deciduous tree growing to t ...

), elm tree (

Ulmus Elms are deciduous and semi-deciduous trees comprising the genus ''Ulmus'' in the family Ulmaceae. They are distributed over most of the Northern Hemisphere, inhabiting the temperate and tropical- montane regions of North America and Eurasia, ...

), oak (

Quercus An oak is a hardwood tree or shrub in the genus ''Quercus'' of the beech family. They have spirally arranged leaves, often with lobed edges, and a nut called an acorn, borne within a cup. The genus is widely distributed in the Northern Hemisp ...

) and ash tree (

Fraxinus ''Fraxinus'' (), commonly called ash, is a genus of plants in the olive and lilac family, Oleaceae, and comprises 45–65 species of usually medium-to-large trees, most of which are deciduous trees, although some Subtropics, subtropical specie ...

). In spite of the scarcity of tourist trails, Puszcza Darżlubska, is also a good recreational area with many natural, historical and cultural artifacts and various points of interest for the visitors.

The killing ground

The waves of

executions, known as the Mass murders in Piaśnica, of about 12,000–16,000 hostages (mostly members of Polish migrant workers families residing in interwar Germany and members of Polish

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

), were committed between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1940 near the town of

. There are various commemoration sites in the forest, at 26 mass graves of victims and elsewhere.LET US NOT FORGET ABOUT GRAVES OF PIAŚNICA MASSACRE VICTIMS
Piaśnica museum, 26 October 2016

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Puszcza Darzlubska Forests of Poland Holocaust locations in Poland Intelligenzaktion massacre locations

Geography

The killing ground

See also

References