Konin Żagański is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Iłowa __NOTOC__ Gmina Iłowa is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Żagań County, Lubusz Voivodeship, in western Poland. Its seat is the town of Iłowa, which lies approximately south-west of Żagań and south-west of Zielona Góra. Th ...

, within

Żagań County __NOTOC__ Żagań County ( pl, powiat żagański) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lubusz Voivodeship, western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms ...

Lubusz Voivodeship Lubusz Voivodeship, or Lubuskie Province ( pl, województwo lubuskie ), is a voivodeship (province) in western Poland. It was created on January 1, 1999, out of the former Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra Voivodeships, pursuant to the Po ...

, in western Poland. It lies approximately north of

Iłowa Iłowa (german: Halbau) is a town in Żagań County, in Lubusz Voivodeship, Poland, the administrative seat of the Gmina Iłowa. Geography It lies in the easternmost part of the historic Upper Lusatia region, at the border with Lower Silesia. Th ...

, south-west of

Żagań Żagań ( French and german: Sagan, hsb, Zahań, la, Saganum) is a town in western Poland, on the Bóbr river, with 25,731 inhabitants (2019). The town is the capital of Żagań County in the historic region of Silesia. Previously in the Zielon ...

, and south-west of

Zielona Góra Zielona Góra is the largest city in Lubusz Voivodeship, located in western Poland, with 140,403 inhabitants (2021). Zielona Góra has a favourable geographical position, being close to the Polish-German border and on several international road ...

History

The name of the village is of Polish origin and comes from the word ''koń'', which means "horse". In 1939–1940, it was the site of a German Dulag transit

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. P ...

. Its prisoners were mostly

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 Ce ...

captured during the

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 opposin ...

, but also some

Czechs The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, c ...

. Following its dissolution the POWs were moved to the

Stalag VIII-A Stalag VIII-A was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp, located just to the south of the town of Görlitz in Lower Silesia, east of the River Neisse. The location of the camp lies in today's Polish town of Zgorzelec, which lies over the river ...

and

Stalag VIII-C Stalag VIII-C was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp, near Sagan, Lower Silesia (now Żagań, Poland). It was adjacent to the famous Stalag Luft III, and was built at the beginning of World War II, occupying . It housed Allied POWs of vario ...

POW camps.

Transport

The A18 motorway runs nearby, south of the village.

References

Villages in Żagań County {{Żagań-geo-stub