Czempiń is a town in

Kościan County __NOTOC__ Kościan County ( pl, powiat kościański) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Greater Poland Voivodeship, west-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local go ...

Greater Poland Voivodeship Greater Poland Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo wielkopolskie; ), also known as Wielkopolska Voivodeship, Wielkopolska Province, or Greater Poland Province, is a voivodeship, or province, in west-central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 4,921.

History

As part of the region of Greater Poland, i.e. the cradle of the Polish state, the area formed part of Poland since its establishment in the 10th century. It was a

private town A private town is a town owned by a private person or a family. History of Private Towns in Poland In the history of Poland, private towns (''miasta prywatne'') were towns within the lands owned by magnates, bishops, knights, princes, etc. ...

, administratively located in the Kościan County in the

Poznań Voivodeship Poznań Voivodeship was the name of several former administrative regions (''województwo'', rendered as ''voivodeship'' and usually translated as "province") in Poland, centered on the city of Poznań, although the exact boundaries changed over t ...

in the Greater Poland Province. The Szołdrski family erected a Baroque palace in Czempiń. During the

German occupation of Poland German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) **Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ger ...

(

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 ...

), several prominent

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in C ...

from Czempiń were among the victims of massacres of Poles committed by the Germans in nearby

Kościan Kościan (german: Kosten) is a town on the Obra canal in west-central Poland, with a population of 23 952 inhabitants as of June 2014. Situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Leszno Voivodeship (1975–1998), it i ...

on October 2 and 23, 1939 and in the forest near Kościan on November 7, 1939 (see also: ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders which was committed against the Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) early in the ...

''). In 1939, 1941 and 1943, the occupiers carried out expulsions of Poles, whose houses were then handed over to

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany (of or related to) ** Germania (historical use) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizens of Germany, see also German nationality law **Ge ...

colonists as part of the ''

Lebensraum (, ''living space'') is a German concept of settler colonialism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' became a geopolitical goal of Imper ...

'' policy. Poles expelled in 1939 and 1943 were deported to the General Government in the more eastern part of German-occupied Poland, whereas expellees from 1941 were deported to forced labour in Germany. Some local teachers were among Polish teachers murdered in the

Mauthausen concentration camp Mauthausen was a Nazi concentration camp on a hill above the market town of Mauthausen, Upper Austria, Mauthausen (roughly east of Linz), Upper Austria. It was the main camp of a group with List of subcamps of Mauthausen, nearly 100 further ...

.Wardzyńska (2009), p. 214 In 1940, the Germans renamed the town to ''Karlshausen'' in attempt to erase traces of Polish origin.

Transport

The

Voivodeship road According to classes and categories of public roads in Poland, a voivodeship road ( pl, droga wojewódzka) is a category of roads one step below national roads in importance. The roads are numbered from 100 to 993. Total length of voivodeship r ...

310 runs through Czempiń, and the S5 highway passes nearby, west of the town. There is a train station in Czempiń.

Sports

The local football club is Helios Czempiń. It competes in the lower leagues.

References

Cities and towns in Greater Poland Voivodeship Kościan County Poznań Voivodeship (1921–1939) {{GreaterPoland-geo-stub