Massacre in Ciepielow, Poland, was one of the largest, best documented war crimes of the Wehrmacht, during its Invasion of Poland. On September 8, 1939, after the Invasion of Poland, the village of Dabrowa (near Ciepielow) was the site of a mass murder of approximately 300 Polish prisoners of war from the Polish 74th Infantry Regiment of Upper Silesia commanded by Major Jozef Pelc. They were ordered to be shot as partisans by Oberst Walter Wessel, after the commanding officer of the 11th Company was killed by a sniper.