Kozienice (; yi, קאזשניץ ''Kozhnits''; german: Koschnitz) is a
town
A town is a human settlement. Towns are generally larger than villages and smaller than cities, though the criteria to distinguish between them vary considerably in different parts of the world.
Origin and use
The word "town" shares an ori ...
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 populous ...
with 21,500 inhabitants (1995). Located four miles from the
Vistula
The Vistula (; pl, Wisła, ) is the longest river in Poland and the ninth-longest river in Europe, at in length. The drainage basin, reaching into three other nations, covers , of which is in Poland.
The Vistula rises at Barania Góra in ...
, it is the capital of
Kozienice County
__NOTOC__
Kozienice County ( pl, powiat kozienicki) 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 governmen ...
.
Even though Kozienice is part of
Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a s ...
, it is situated 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. The ...
(since 1999); previously, it was in
Radom Voivodeship
Radom Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by Masovian Voivodeship. Its capital city was Radom.
Major cities and towns (population in 1995)
* Radom (232,300)
...
(1975–1998) and in
Kielce Voivodeship
Kielce Voivodeship ( pl, województwo kieleckie) is a former unit of administrative division and the local government in Poland. It was originally formed during Poland's return to independence in the aftermath of World War One, and recreated within ...
(1919–1939, 1945–1975). North-west of Kozienice, in
Świerże Górne
Świerże Górne () is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Kozienice, within Kozienice County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It lies approximately north-west of Kozienice and south-east of Warsaw.
Kozienice Power ...
, Poland's second largest coal-fired thermal
Kozienice Power Station
The Kozienice Power Station is a coal-fired thermal power station in Świerże Górne near Kozienice, Poland. It is Poland's second largest power station with an installed capacity of 4,016 MW.
The power station has one high flue gas stack, ...
is located. Kozienice gives its name to the
protected area
Protected areas or conservation areas are locations which receive protection because of their recognized natural, ecological or cultural values. There are several kinds of protected areas, which vary by level of protection depending on the ena ...
called
Kozienice Landscape Park
Kozienice Landscape Park ( pl, Kozienicki Park Krajobrazowy) is a protected area ( Landscape Park) in east-central Poland, established in 1983, covering an area of .[Latin
Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...](_blank)
''Coszinicze'' (''Kozinice''). In 1569 it was called ''Kozienycze'' – the name comes from the given name Kozina.
History
![POL Kozienice2](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/32/POL_Kozienice2.jpg)
History of the town dates back to 1206, when – together with neighboring villages, Kozienice was owned by the Norbertine Nuns from
Płock
Płock (pronounced ) is a city in central Poland, on the Vistula river, in the Masovian Voivodeship. According to the data provided by GUS on 31 December 2021, there were 116,962 inhabitants in the city. Its full ceremonial name, according to th ...
. Subsequently, it used to belong to Polish crown, and remained so until the
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...
. In 1326 Kozienice was
incorporated by King
Władysław I the Elbow-high Władysław is a Polish given male name, cognate with Vladislav. The feminine form is Władysława, archaic forms are Włodzisław (male) and Włodzisława (female), and Wladislaw is a variation. These names may refer to:
Famous people Mononym
* ...
. Located on the ancient road from
Kraków
Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 1596 ...
to
Vilnius
Vilnius ( , ; see also other names) is the capital and largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the municipality of Vilnius). The population of Vilnius's functional urb ...
and on the edge of the Kozienice Forest, the town became one of favorite retreats of King
Władysław II Jagiełło
Jogaila (; 1 June 1434), later Władysław II Jagiełło ()He is known under a number of names: lt, Jogaila Algirdaitis; pl, Władysław II Jagiełło; be, Jahajła (Ягайла). See also: Names and titles of Władysław II Jagiełło. ...
, who founded a church there in 1394. Due to close proximity of the Kozienice Forest and, thus the easily accessible wood supply a
pontoon bridge
A pontoon bridge (or ponton bridge), also known as a floating bridge, uses float (nautical), floats or shallow-draft (hull), draft boats to support a continuous deck for pedestrian and vehicle travel. The buoyancy of the supports limits the maxi ...
was built over the river, which was later moved to
Czerwińsk and used by Polish troops to cross the Vistula (Wisła) between June 30 and July 3, 1410 (see
Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War
The Polish–Lithuanian–Teutonic War, also known as the Great War, occurred between 1409 and 1411 between the Teutonic Knights and the allied Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania. Inspired by the local Samogitian uprising, the war beg ...
).
In 1467, future King
Sigismund I the Old was born in Kozienice at a
manor house
A manor house was historically the main residence of the lord of the manor. The house formed the administrative centre of a manor in the European feudal system; within its great hall were held the lord's manorial courts, communal meals w ...
, which is marked by a monument, erected in 1518 (the oldest non-religious monument in Poland). Kozienice was incorporated as a city in 1549, by King
Sigismund II Augustus
Sigismund II Augustus ( pl, Zygmunt II August, lt, Žygimantas Augustas; 1 August 1520 – 7 July 1572) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first ruler ...
. In 1559 the king established three annual
fairs in Kozienice. It was a
royal town, administratively located in the Radom County in the
Sandomierz Voivodeship
Sandomierz Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo Sandomierskie, la, Palatinatus Sandomirensis) was a unit of administration and local government in Poland from the 14th century to the partitions of Poland in 1772–1795. It was part of the Lesser Polan ...
in the
. In 1652, the town was decimated by a
cholera
Cholera is an infection of the small intestine by some strains of the bacterium ''Vibrio cholerae''. Symptoms may range from none, to mild, to severe. The classic symptom is large amounts of watery diarrhea that lasts a few days. Vomiting and ...
outbreak, and four years later, during the
Deluge
A deluge is a large downpour of rain, often a flood.
The Deluge refers to the flood narrative in the Biblical book of Genesis.
Deluge may also refer to:
History
*Deluge (history), the Swedish and Russian invasion of the Polish-Lithuanian Com ...
, a battle between Poles and Swedes took place there. In 1782 Kozienice burns in a fire, and due to the efforts of King
Stanisław August Poniatowski, the town was rebuilt, and wooden buildings were replaced by stone houses. In 1784-1788, a manufacture, producing rifles, was founded in Kozienice.
The town was annexed by
Austria
Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...
in the
Third Partition of Poland
The Third Partition of Poland (1795) was the last in a series of the Partitions of Poland–Lithuania and the land of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth among Prussia, the Habsburg monarchy, and the Russian Empire which effectively ended Polis ...
in 1795. In 1809, Poles led by General
Józef Zajączek
Prince Józef Zajączek (; 1 November 1752 – 28 August 1826) was a Polish general and politician.
Zajączek started his career in the Army of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, an aide-de-camp to hetman Franciszek Ksawery Branicki. He ...
defeated the Austrians in the Battle of Kozienice, and the town then became part of the short-lived Polish
Duchy of Warsaw
The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...
. After its dissolution in 1815 it fell to the
Russian Partition
The Russian Partition ( pl, zabór rosyjski), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Po ...
of Poland. In 1867, for the first time in history, Kozienice became the seat of a county. A road to Radom was built, as well as barracks of the
Imperial Russian Army
The Imperial Russian Army (russian: Ру́сская импера́торская а́рмия, tr. ) was the armed land force of the Russian Empire, active from around 1721 to the Russian Revolution of 1917. In the early 1850s, the Russian Ar ...
. In 1897 it was inhabited by 6,391 people (including 3,764
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 ...
). In 1918 Poland regained independence and the town was reintegrated with the reborn state.
After 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 opposin ...
, the town was
occupied by Germany from 1939 to 1945, administratively included in the Radom District of the
General Government (German-occupied central Poland). As part of the ''
AB-Aktion
, location = Palmiry Forest and similar locations in occupied Poland
, date = Spring–summer 1940
, incident_type = Mass murder with automatic weapons
, perpetrators = Wehrmacht, ''Einsatzgruppen''
, participants =
, o ...
'', in June 1940, the Germans carried out mass arrests of Poles, who were afterwards imprisoned and tortured in
Skarżysko-Kamienna
Skarżysko-Kamienna is a city in northern Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship in south-central Poland by Kamienna river, to the north of Świętokrzyskie Mountains; one of the voivodship's major cities. Prior to 1928, it bore the name of ''Kamienna''; i ...
and then murdered in a forest near Skarżysko-Kamienna. The
Polish resistance movement was active in the town.
Jews in Kozienice
Kozienice had a
Jewish community
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 ...
with a long history dating back to 1596.
Kozienice is pronounced as "Kozhnitz" in
Yiddish
Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...
. In the early 19th century, the Kozhnitzer Magid
Yisroel Hopsztajn
Yisroel Hopstein (1737–1814), also known as the Maggid of Kozhnitz, was the founder of Kozhnitz Hasidism, and a noted '' hasidic'' leader in Poland during the late 18th and early 19th century. He was a student of both the Magid/Dov Ber of Me ...
was one of the pioneers of
Hasidism in Poland. He established the
Kozhnitz dynasty. In 1856, there were 2,885 people in Kozienice with 1,961 Jews, and in 1897, there were 6,882 people and 3,700 were Jews. Before World War II, about 15,000 souls lived in this region. The Jewish community lived there for about 400 years. The two main industries there were tourism, with Jewish pilgrims visiting the Maggid's tomb, and shoe manufacturing. Kozienice had approximately 5,000 Jews before World War II.
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 ...
in September 1939, the Germans forced 2,000 Jews into a small local church, where many of them died of suffocation. Kozienice had 15 streets. The Germans established a ghetto in the Fall of 1940 in an area of only three streets. A Jewish ''
Judenrat
A ''Judenrat'' (, "Jewish council") was a World War II administrative agency imposed by Nazi Germany on Jewish communities across occupied Europe, principally within the Nazi ghettos. The Germans required Jews to form a ''Judenrat'' in every c ...
'' council was established by the Germans, but most prominent Jews refused to serve. On September 27, 1942, 8,000 Jews from Kozienice and nearby towns were sent to the
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 ...
, where they were murdered on arrival. Only 70 - 120 Jews were then left in the Kozienice ghetto, but they were deported in late December 1942 to the Pionki slave labor camp and to Skarzysko Kamienna camp. Some Jews, however, were able to survive
the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; a ...
by
hiding with the Poles. Several Poles from Kozienice were sentenced to death or deported to the
Auschwitz concentration camp
Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...
for rescuing Jews.
After World War II the survivors emigrated and with time created the ''Memorial Book of Kozienice'',
with supplementary ''List of Martyrs from Kozienice'' which includes residents of Kozienice killed in Kozienice itself as well as those
deported to death camps where they were gassed.
[
]![Kulmbach Sigismund I the Old](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/19/Kulmbach_Sigismund_I_the_Old.jpg)
Notable people
* Frans Krajcberg (1921–2017) a Polish Brazilian painter, sculptor, engraver and photographer.
* Edmund Lesisz (1906-1943) a Polish Captain, a leader of the Raid on Fraustadt
The Raid on Fraustadt ( pl, Wypad na Wschowę) was a military raid, carried out by the Polish Army on September 2, 1939, second day of the Invasion of Poland. Polish forces attacked Wehrmacht positions in and around the town of Wschowa, Fraustadt ...
in 1939
* Julia Michalska (born 1985) a Polish rower and team bronze medallist at the 2008 Summer Olympics
The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Na ...
* Irene Gut Opdyke
Irene Gut Opdyke (born Irena Gut, 5 May 1922 – 17 May 2003) was a Polish nurse who gained international recognition for aiding Polish Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during World War II. She was honored as a Righteous Among the Nations by ...
(1922–2003) a Polish nurse, aided Polish Jews persecuted by Nazi Germany during WWII.
* Sigismund I the Old (1467–1548) King of Poland
Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of free election of monarchs made it a uniquely electable position in Europe (16t ...
and Grand Duke of Lithuania
The monarchy of Lithuania concerned the monarchical head of state of Lithuania, which was established as an absolute and hereditary monarchy. Throughout Lithuania's history there were three ducal dynasties that managed to stay in power—House ...
from 1506-1548.
Climate
Kozienice has an oceanic climate
An oceanic climate, also known as a marine climate, is the humid temperate climate sub-type in Köppen classification ''Cfb'', typical of west coasts in higher middle latitudes of continents, generally featuring cool summers and mild winters ( ...
(Köppen climate classification
The Köppen climate classification is one of the most widely used climate classification systems. It was first published by German-Russian climatologist Wladimir Köppen (1846–1940) in 1884, with several later modifications by Köppen, notabl ...
: ''Cfb'') using the isotherm or a humid continental climate
A humid continental climate is a climatic region defined by Russo-German climatologist Wladimir Köppen in 1900, typified by four distinct seasons and large seasonal temperature differences, with warm to hot (and often humid) summers and freezing ...
(Köppen climate classification: ''Dfb'') using the isotherm.
Sport
The local football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
team is . It competes in the lower leagues.
Twin towns — sister cities
Kozienice is twinned with:
* Göllheim
Göllheim () is a municipality in the Donnersbergkreis, in Rhineland-Palatinate, Germany. It is situated north of the Palatinate forest, approx. 25 km west of Worms. It was the site of the 1298 Battle of Göllheim.
Göllheim is the seat of ...
, Germany (1996)
* Chuhuiv
Chuhuiv ( uk, Чугуїв) or Chuguev (russian: Чугуев) is a city in Kharkiv Oblast, Ukraine. The city is the administrative center of Chuhuiv Raion (district). It hosts the administration of Chuhuiv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of ...
, Ukraine (2001)
* Medzilaborce
Medzilaborce ( rue, Міджілабірцї, ''Midzhilabirtsyi''; uk, Міжлабірці, ''Mizhlabirtsi''; hu, Mezőlaborc) is a town in northeastern Slovakia close to the border with Poland, located near the towns of Sanok and Bukowsko (in ...
, Slovakia (2005)
References
External links
* Urząd Miejski w Kozienicach (2016)
Kozienice. Historia 1206–1999 (highlights).
Gmina Kozienice
* ''Sefer Zikaron li-Kehilat Kozhnitz'' (The book of Kozienice; The birth and the destruction of a Jewish community); Editor: Baruch Kaplinski, Tel Aviv – New York, The Kozienice Organization, 1985 (English, 677 pages)
* Former residents of Kozhnitz in Israel, 1969 (Hebrew and Yiddish, 516 pages)
by Chaim Dimant, Paris, ''Yizkor Book Project''
*
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Masovian Voivodeship
Lesser Poland
Sandomierz Voivodeship
Radom Governorate
Kielce Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Holocaust locations in Poland