Żabikowo (german: Poggenburg) is a formerly independent village and now one of 3

city districts A City district is a designated administrative division that is generally managed by a local government. It is used to divide a city into several administrative units. City districts are used in Russia (raion), Pakistan and Croatia ( hr, gradsk ...

Luboń Luboń (german: Luban) is a town in Poland, situated on the Warta River, in the Poznań metropolitan area, in the Poznań County in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. It has 29,301 inhabitants (2010). The town was created in 1954 by the merger of 3 ...

, however without an admistrative function.Atlas historyczny Polski. Wielkopolska w drugiej połowie XVI wieku. Część II. Komentarz. Indeksy, Warszawa 2017, s. 245.

History

The oldest known mention of Żabikowo dates back to 1283. In 1870, a College of Agriculture (''Wyższa Szkoła Rolnicza'') was established in Żabikowo, as a Polish college, and was forced to close in 1876 as a result of Anti-Polish policies of the German authorities. During the Nazi occupation in

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

the Germans established a forced labour camp for

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

called ''Poggenburg''. In 1943–1945 Żabikowo was also the site of a Nazi prison camp, which replaced the

Fort VII Fort VII, officially ''Konzentrationslager Posen'' (renamed later), was a Nazi German death camp set up in Poznań in German-occupied Poland during World War II, located in one of the 19th-century forts circling the city. According to different e ...

camp in western

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

, and in which over 20,000 people were imprisoned. The prisoners were mainly members of the Polish resistance movement, but also

Luxembourgers Luxembourgers ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerger ) are a Germanic ethnic group and nation native to their nation state of Luxembourg, where they make up around half of the population. They share the culture of Luxembourg and speak Luxembourgish. Luxembour ...

, Dutch, Hungarians, Slovaks, Americans, Soviet prisoners of war and deserters from the

Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...

. Prisoners were subjected to inhuman living conditions, torture and executions. There is now a museum and a monument entitled ''Nigdy wojny'' ("Never War") by Józef Gosławski, as well other monuments to various people imprisoned and murdered in the camp. It was given town rights and incorporated into the newly created town of Luboń on 13 November 1954.

References

Luboń Villages in Poznań County {{Poland-stub