Palmiry

Palmiry (pronounce: IPA| [pal'miri] ) is a small village in Poland in Mazovian Voivodeship, near Nowy Dwór Mazowiecki, north of Warsaw. It is located at the edge of the Kampinos Forest and as of 2000 it had approximately 220 inhabitants.

During World War II, between 1939 and 1943, the village and the surrounding forest was one of the sites of German mass executions of Polish intelligentsia, politicians and athletes, killed during the AB Action. Most of the victims were first arrested and tortured in the Pawiak prison in Warsaw, and then transferred to the execution site. Altogether, the remains of at least 2,115 men and women were exhumed, but it is probable that not all bodies were found. Among the known victims were:

* Juliusz Dąbrowski, journalist and one of the leaders of Polish Scouting
* Witold Hulewicz, poet and radio journalist
* Stefan Kopeć, biologist and physiologist, professor of the University of Warsaw
* Janusz Kusociński, athlete, winner of 10 000 m at the 1932 Summer Olympics.
* Mieczysław Niedziałkowski, politician of the Polish Socialist Party
* Stanisław Piasecki, journalist, politician and art critic
* Jan Pohoski, politician, former deputy president of Warsaw
* Dawid Przepiórka, chess master
* Maciej Rataj, politician, Marshal of the Sejm
* Kazimierz Zakrzewski, scientist, professor of the University of Warsaw

After the war, in 1946, the bodies of the victims of the Germans' atrocity were disinterred and moved to a cemetery, located some 5 kilometres from the village itself. Since 1948, the place is one of the Polish national mausolea.