Garwolin is a town on the Wilga river in eastern

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 ...

, capital of Garwolin County, situated in the southeast part of the Garwolin plateau in

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 ...

, 62 km southeast 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 officiall ...

, 100 km northwest of

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of ...

. As of December 2021, the town has 17,566 inhabitants.

History

The name of the town occurs in the medieval notes in 1386 and 1404. Name Garwolin comes from a Garwoł, which is a name. However, there is a popular legend connecting the town's name with

rooks Rook (''Corvus frugilegus'') is a bird of the corvid family. Rook or rooks may also refer to: Games *Rook (chess), a piece in chess *Rook (card game), a trick-taking card game Military *Sukhoi Su-25 The Sukhoi Su-25 ''Grach'' (russian: � ...

(Polish: ''gawrony''). Traces of settlement on terrains of present days boundaries of Garwolin are more than 2000 years old. It is believed that Garwolin received its city charter in 1423, but the exact date is unknown; it is almost certain that the document from 1423 was only acknowledgement of before-stated city laws. In time of the Deluge casualties exceeded 90%. During the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (Polish–Bolshevik War, Polish–Soviet War, Polish–Russian War 1919–1921) * russian: Советско-польская война (''Sovetsko-polskaya voyna'', Soviet-Polish War), Польский фронт (' ...

, the town was captured and briefly occupied by the invading Russians, before it was recaptured by the Poles led by Gen. Konarzewski on August 16, 1920. Polish Marshal

Józef Piłsudski Józef Klemens Piłsudski (; 5 December 1867 – 12 May 1935) was a Polish statesman who served as the Naczelnik państwa, Chief of State (1918–1922) and Marshal of Poland, First Marshal of Second Polish Republic, Poland (from 1920). He was ...

stayed in the town the next day. During

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

and the Nazi occupation of Poland, about 70% of the city was destroyed. The town and the

powiat A ''powiat'' (pronounced ; Polish plural: ''powiaty'') is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture ( LAU-1, formerly NUTS-4) in other countries. The term "''powiat ...

were administered by Kreishauptmann

Karl Freudenthal Karl Freudenthal (died 5 July 1944) was a German lawyer, a Nazi and an officer of the Schutzstaffel. In 1941 he was made a Kreishauptmann of powiat Garwolin in German occupied Poland. He was a relative of Hans Frank, the Governor-General of the Ge ...

, who was responsible for the murder of more than 1000 inhabitants, the deportation of several thousand local

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 ...

concentration camps Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

and slave labor in Nazi Germany, and the transfer of the local

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 ...

to various ghettos in the region. For his war crimes, Freudenthal was sentenced to death by the Polish underground, and the sentence was carried out by the

Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) es ...

on 5 July 1944, as part of

Operacja Główki Operation Heads ( pl, Operacja Główki) was the code name for a series of assassinations of Nazi officials by the World War II Polish Resistance. Those targeted for assassination had been sentenced to death by Polish Underground Special Court ...

("Operation Heads"). Two Poles from Garwolin were also murdered by the Russians in the large

Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...

in 1940, and six died in Soviet

Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the State Political Directorate, GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= ...

camps between 1939 and 1947. At the end of July 1944 the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

2nd Guards Tank Army The 2nd Guards Tank Army () was a large military formation of the Red Army and later the Soviet Army, now part of the Russian Ground Forces of the Russian Federation. The army was originally formed in early 1943 as the 2nd Tank Army. It was the ...

, under the command of Alexei Radzievsky, routed the German 73rd Infantry Division at Garwolin, capturing its commander,

Friedrich Franek __NOTOC__ Friedrich Franek (16 July 1891 – 8 April 1976) was an Austrian general in the armed forces of Nazi Germany during World War II. Along with Alois Windisch, he was one of only two recipients of both the Knight's Cross of the Iron Cr ...

.Robert Forczyk, ''Warsaw 1944: Poland's bid for freedom'' (2009, )
p. 13
/ref> After the war Garwolin was restored to Poland and enlarged. From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in the

Siedlce Voivodeship Siedlce Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by Masovian Voivodeship and Lublin Voivodeship. Its capital city was Siedlce. Major cities and towns (population ...

. The Neo-Baroque church, dating from the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, is a notable building.

Education

* the

grammar school, * two vocational schools, * Academy of Management in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of ca ...

, branch in Garwolin.

Economy

Centre of industry and services; machine, means of transport, nutritive (milk co-operative, meat) industries, clothing, leather, construction materials, furniture and cosmetics manufactures.

Transport

Roads

* S17 expressway: direction

-Garwolin-

- Hrebenne, * National road 76: direction Łuków-Garwolin- Wilga.

Rail

Garwolin railway station is located 5 km west from the center of town in the nearby village Wola Rębkowska, on rail route

Warszawa 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 officiall ...

Culture and sports

* "Wilga" cinema 3D * Centre of Sports and Culture * "Garwolanka" swimming pool * Wilga Garwolin sports Club.

References

External links

County of Garwolin

City's Hall Official Page

Garwolin County's Community Association

Community of Garwolin

Jewish Community in Garwolin
on Virtual Shtetl
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Masovian Voivodeship Garwolin County Masovia Masovian Voivodeship (1526–1795) Siedlce Governorate Lublin Governorate Lublin Voivodeship (1919–1939) Warsaw Voivodeship (1919–1939) Holocaust locations in Poland