44 studies / 54 · Greater Poland: Owińska, Poznań, the Rożnowo forests
Owińska: Patients Murdered with Gas at Fort VII and near Rożnowo
October–November 1939 · Killing patients, camp violence and experiments
The hospital in Owińska became a place from which defenseless people were taken away to die. German functionaries murdered patients at Poznań's Fort VII and in a gas van in the Rożnowo forests. Prosecutorial findings describe an organized operation against Polish patients, not a military execution. Its final stage was the destruction of graves and the burning of bodies. [1]
Editorial account based on the sources listed below. Sources checked: 5 September 2026.
- Victims and toll
- About 1,000 Polish patients; the investigation concluded in 2016 established the identities of 22 people.
- Perpetrators
- Sonderkommando Lange I, commanded by Herbert Lange; the German hospital administration and the Fort VII guard.
- Documented methods
- selection of patients and forced transports · killing with carbon monoxide in a fixed chamber and a vehicle · destruction of evidence by burning bodies
From hospital to transport
According to the findings of investigation S.83/13/Zn, about one thousand Polish patients were murdered between mid-October and the end of November 1939. Victims were selected from lists. Sedatives were given to people who resisted, and violence was used during loading. Children were taken away last. German doctors Johannes Banse and Otto Meineke participated in preparing the lists. [1]
Two locations of one crime
The Fort VII Museum describes a chamber installed in a former artillery fire station: gaps were sealed with clay and carbon monoxide was fed from cylinders outside. The institution gives about 300 patients from Owińska murdered there. This is part of the hospital's overall victim total, not an additional group. The same facility also killed 27 patients from Poznań's municipal hospital; their fate is a separate episode. [2]
The investigation found that further groups were transported alive to the Rożnowo forests and placed there in a vehicle used for gassing. Polish prisoners were forced to remove bodies and work on the graves. [1]
Traces destroyed, names recovered
In 1944 the perpetrators exhumed and burned bodies, scattering the ashes. The destruction of records and graves explains why the total is an estimate: by the close of the investigation in 2016, only 22 victims had been identified. Proceedings were discontinued because identified perpetrators were dead and others could not be found, not because the crime was questioned. [1]
Limits of the findings
The figure of about 1,000 is an investigative estimate, not a complete nominal list. The figure of about 300 at Fort VII must not be added to the Owińska total. The exact dates of individual transports remain partly undetermined. [1] [2]
Sources and notes
-
Sylwester Napieralski. Zakończenie śledztwa w sprawie zamordowania około 1000 pacjentów Zakładu Psychiatrycznego w Owińskach. IPN, Oddziałowa Komisja w Poznaniu.
Use of this source: Bilans, narodowość, wybór ofiar, transporty, gazowanie i niszczenie śladów.
-
opracowanie muzealne. Uruchomienie komory gazowej w Forcie VII. Muzeum Martyrologii Wielkopolan – Fort VII.
Use of this source: Mechanizm komory oraz rozróżnienie pacjentów Owińsk i szpitala poznańskiego.
How we assess sources
The evidence base consists primarily of Polish scholarly publications, investigative findings, archives, museums and documented witness accounts. Reliability is assessed through the document’s provenance, scholarly method and the ability to check the finding. Statements by perpetrators and family accounts of perpetrators require especially critical comparison with other material. Two pages from the same institution may repeat one finding; they are not automatically treated as independent confirmation.
Full methodology