Śledztwo Centrali Badania Zbrodni Narodowosocjalistycznych w Ludwigsburgu w sprawie zbrodni dokonanej na polskich żołnierzach pod Ciepielowem 8 września 1939 roku
Investigation by the Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg into the Crime Committed against Polish soldiers near Ciepielów on 8 September 1939

Summary/Abstract: Between 1965 and 1973, the Central Office for the Investigation of National Socialist Crimes in Ludwigsburg (Germany) investigated the crime committed on 8 September 1939 against Polish soldiers near Ciepielów. In the course of the investigation, three officers and dozens of soldiers of the 29th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht were questioned. The investigation did not produce a breakthrough in reconstructing the events and even led to doubts about, among other things, the fact that one of the photographs, believed to document the crime, shows Lt Col Walter Wessel - according to some witnesses, it showed a Lt Col Walter Fries. The people interrogated denied the claim that Polish prisoners had been murdered, which should be seen as a course of action aimed at avoiding responsibility for the crime. Through the lens of the investigation in question, it is possible to take a closer look at the mechanisms of the German justice system and its attitude towards accounting for Nazi crimes against prisoners of war during World War II. German historiography is very critical of the German state’s reckoning (also after reunification) with its Nazi past.

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