Grójec is a town in

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 ...

, located in the

Masovian Voivodeship The Masovian Voivodeship, also known as the Mazovia Province ( pl, województwo mazowieckie ) is a voivodeship (province) in east-central Poland, with its capital located in the city of Warsaw, which also serves as the capital of the country. Th ...

, about south of

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. It is the capital of the urban-rural

administrative district Local government is a generic term for the lowest tiers of public administration within a particular sovereign state. This particular usage of the word government refers specifically to a level of administration that is both geographically-loca ...

Grójec and

Grójec County __NOTOC__ Grójec County ( pl, powiat grójecki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Masovian Voivodeship, east-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government r ...

. It has 16,674 inhabitants (2017). Grójec surroundings are considered to be the biggest apple-growing area of Poland. It is said that the region makes up also for the biggest apple orchard of Europe. Statistically, every third apple sold in Poland is grown in Grójec – a unique local

microclimate A microclimate (or micro-climate) is a local set of atmospheric conditions that differ from those in the surrounding areas, often with a slight difference but sometimes with a substantial one. The term may refer to areas as small as a few squ ...

provides for their beautiful red colour.Michał Mackiewicz
"Okolice Grójca." Mazowiecki Urząd Wojewódzki w Warszawie.

History

In the 11th and 12th centuries, Grójec was the seat of a castellany, which was then moved to

Czersk Czersk (; ; formerly german: Czersk, (1942-5): ) is a town in northern Poland in Chojnice County, Pomeranian Voivodeship. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 9,844. Today the center of the city of Czersk in is the Village Square. ...

. It was granted town rights in 1419 by Duke

Janusz I of Warsaw Janusz I of Warsaw (pl: ''Janusz I warszawski''), also known as Janusz I the Old (pl: ''Janusz I Starszy'') (c. 1347/52 – 8 December 1429), was a Polish prince member of the House of Piast in the Masovian branch, from 1373/74 Duke of Warsaw an ...

from the Piast dynasty.

World War II

In September 1939, during the joint German-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week aft ...

which started

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 town was bombed by the ''

Luftwaffe The ''Luftwaffe'' () was the aerial-warfare branch of the German ''Wehrmacht'' before and during World War II. Germany's military air arms during World War I, the ''Luftstreitkräfte'' of the Imperial Army and the '' Marine-Fliegerabtei ...

'' and afterwards captured by Germany. In November 1940, during the Nazi

occupation of Poland Occupation commonly refers to: * Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, t ...

, German authorities established a

Jewish ghetto In the Jewish diaspora, a Jewish quarter (also known as jewry, ''juiverie'', ''Judengasse'', Jewynstreet, Jewtown, or proto-ghetto) is the area of a city traditionally inhabited by Jews. Jewish quarters, like the Jewish ghettos in Europe, were ...

in Grójec, in order to confine its

Jewish population As of 2020, the world's "core" Jewish population (those identifying as Jews above all else) was estimated at 15 million, 0.2% of the 8 billion worldwide population. This number rises to 18 million with the addition of the "connected" Jewish pop ...

for the purpose of persecution and exploitation. The ghetto was liquidated in February 1941, when almost all of its inhabitants (5,200–6,000) were transported on trains used for cattle to

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (german: Warschauer Ghetto, officially , "Jewish Residential District in Warsaw"; pl, getto warszawskie) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the G ...

, the largest ghetto in all of Nazi occupied Europe with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of . From there, most inmates were sent to

Treblinka extermination camp Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...

.Warsaw Ghetto

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust hi ...

(USHMM),

Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Richard C. Lukas, ''Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust'', University Press of Kentucky 1989 - 201 pages. Page 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, ''The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944'', University Press of Kentucky, 1986
Google Print, p.13
Gunnar S. Paulsson, "The Rescue of Jews by Non-Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland," ''Journal of Holocaust Education'', Vol.7, Nos.1&2, 1998, pp.19-44. Published by Frank Cass, London.Edward Victor
"Ghettos and Other Jewish Communities."
''Judaica Philatelic''. Accessed June 20, 2011. Only a group of Jewish craftsmen was left in Grójec, however, they were also annihilated in a mass execution in Dębówka, near

Góra Kalwaria Góra Kalwaria (; " Calvary Mountain", yi, גער, ''Ger'') is a town on the Vistula River in the Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is situated approximately southeast of Warsaw and has a population of around 12,109 (as of 2019). ...

. German occupation of Grójec ended in January 1945.

Nature

Forest Inspectorate Reserves

There are as many as nine nature reserves in the forest inspectorate. Their total area exceeds 1 thousand ha. DĄBROWA RADZIEJOWSKA Partial forest reserve with an area of 52.50 ha, situated in a large forest complex in the Radziejowice commune. It was created in 1984 in order to preserve and protect one of the most beautiful types of forests in our country - luminous oak wood. OSUCHOWSKIE GRĄDY Partial forest reserve established in 1982. Its area is 99,25 ha. It is located in the highest point of the Mazowiecka lowland. SKULSKI LAS A partial forest reserve of the area of 311.75 ha established in 1984. It includes the major part of the Skuły Wschód range, situated in the Skuły-Wschód forestry unit. SKULSKIE OAKS A partial forest reserve of the area of 30,07 ha established in 1996. It covers the north-western part of the Skuły-Western range belonging to the Grójec Forest Inspectorate. ŁĘGACZ NAD JEZIORKA The reserve is situated by the Jeziorka River, several hundred metres to the north-west of Głuchów village. Protection covers a fragment of the river valley and a riparian forest growing on its right bank and marshy bottom of the valley. The area of the reserve is 37.31 ha. LAKES OF OLSZYNA Nature reserve "Lakes of Olszyny" - established by the order of the Ministry of the Environment of the Republic of Poland (M.O.Ś.Z.N.iL. of 25 January 1995. The forest reserve is located in the southern part of the lake district on the Jeziorkka River. The total area is 5.83 ha, including 4.99 ha of forest. MODRZEWINA Forest reserve established in 1959 on the grounds of the village of Mała Wieś in the commune of Belsk Duży. The reserve is located in the Grójec Forest Inspectorate. The aim of protection is preservation of the northernmost site of Polish larch in the Highland. Larches grow here to a height of 40 metres and reach a breast height of even 120 cm. TOMCZYCE A landscape reserve of the area of 57.99 ha, established in 1968, located between the villages of Gostomia and Tomczyce to the east of Nowe Miasto. The reserve protects the steep slope of the Pilica valley, cut by several ravines and overgrown by an old pine-oak forest. The slope of the valley, 20 metres high, retains its steepness thanks to the lively side erosion of the river, whose bed runs at the foot of the slope, undercutting it from time to time. SOKÓŁ A forest reserve established in 1995 in the commune of Wyśmierzyce. The object of protection is the area of forests, meadows and marshes of natural character, while the aim is to preserve for scientific and didactic reasons the plant complexes with the dominant mountain ash. Within the territorial range of Grójec Forest Inspectorate there are four areas of protected landscape created along picturesque and extremely valuable in nature river valleys: Landscape Protection Areas "Jeziorka River Valley", Landscape Protection Areas "Pilica and Drzewiczka River Valley", Landscape Protection Areas "Bolimowsko Radziejowicki with the Central Rawka River Valley" and Landscape Protection Areas "Chojnatka River Valley".

Sports

The local football team is . It competes in the lower leagues.

Notable people

Piotr Skarga Piotr Skarga (less often Piotr Powęski; 2 February 1536 – 27 September 1612) was a Polish Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer, polemicist, and leading figure of the Counter-Reformation in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Due to his oratoric ...

(1536–1612),

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, w ...

Jesuit, preacher, hagiographer and polemicist. *

Asher Rabinowicz of Przedbórz Asher ben Elhanan Rabinowicz of Przedbórz (Yiddish: אשר ראבינאוויטש פון פשעדבאָרז; – January 20, 1798) also known as the Maggid of Przedbórz was an 18th-century Hasidic Maggid (preacher). Born in Grojec, Poland to a ...

(ca.1720–1798) an 18th-century Hasidic

Maggid A maggid ( he, מַגִּיד), also spelled as magid, is a traditional Jewish religious itinerant preacher, skilled as a narrator of Torah and religious stories. A chaplain of the more scholarly sort is called a '' darshan'' (). The title of '' ...

(preacher). * Jan Jagmin-Sadowski (1895–1977), a general of the

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...

* Marek Suski (born 1958), a Polish politician *

Justyna Kozdryk Justyna Kozdryk (born 4 March 1980) is a Polish powerlifter who won silver at the 2008 Summer Paralympics The 2008 Summer Paralympic Games (), the 13th Summer Paralympic Games, took place in Beijing, China from September 6 to 17, 2008. As w ...

(born 1980, a Polish Paralympic powerlifter * Bartłomiej Niedziela (born 1985), a Polish

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby ...

with over 250 club caps

International relations

Twin towns – Sister cities

Grójec is twinned with: *

Spišská Nová Ves Spišská Nová Ves (; hu, Igló; german: (Zipser) Neu(en)dorf) is a town in the Košice Region of Slovakia. The town is located southeast of the High Tatras in the Spiš region, and lies on both banks of the Hornád River. It is the biggest tow ...

, Slovakia * Strumica, North Macedonia *

Canosa di Puglia Canosa di Puglia, generally known simply as Canosa ( nap, label= Canosino, Canaus), is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Barletta-Andria-Trani, Apulia, southern Italy. It is located between Bari and Foggia, on the northwestern edge of the ...

, Italy *

Horki Horki ( be, Горкі, , pl, Horki) or Gorki (russian: Горки) is a town in the Mogilev Region of Belarus, an administrative center of Horki District. As of 2009, its population was 32,777. History For the first time Horki was mentioned ...

, Belarus

Notes and references

Grójec city government webpage

Jewish Community in Grójec
on Virtual Shtetl {{DEFAULTSORT:Grojec Cities and towns in Masovian Voivodeship Grójec County Masovia Masovian Voivodeship (1526–1795) Warsaw Governorate Warsaw Voivodeship (1919–1939) Holocaust locations in Poland