Maków Mazowiecki 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 populous ...

, in the

Masovian Voivodship 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 ...

. It is 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 "''powia ...

capital of

Maków County __NOTOC__ Maków County ( pl, powiat makowski) 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 re ...

(or Powiat of Maków). Its population is 10,850.

History

The town obtained its town charter in 1421. It was a Polish royal town, administratively 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. The ...

in the

Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown , subdivision = Province , nation = Poland , year_start = , event_end = Third Partition of Poland , year_end = , image_map = Prowincje I RP.svg , image_map_capt ...

. A battle was fought nearby on August 19, 1920, during the Polish-Soviet War. Before 1939 about 7,000 people lived in Maków, including 4,000

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 ...

and 3,000

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 ...

. During the German

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 '' Einsatzgruppe V'' entered the town on September 10–11, 1939, commit atrocities against the population. The ''Einsatzgruppe V'' immediately carried out searches of Polish offices and organizations.Wardzyńska, p. 112 Medicines from pharmacies and local supplies of grain, sugar and rice were confiscated for the German Army. Under German occupation the name was Germanized to ''Mackeim''. In Maków, the Germans operated a concentration camp for ill and disabled people from the region.Wardzyńska, p. 236 In February 1940, the Germans murdered 560 people from the camp in a forest near

Wyszogród Wyszogród is a town in central Poland, in Masovian Voivodeship, in Płock County, by the Vistula River. The population of Wyszogród was 2,793 in 2004. History The settlement dates back to the 7th century, when there was a Slavic pagan templ ...

, while 50 people from the local hospital were murdered in the nearby village of Grzanka. The Jewish community was murdered by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 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 ...

. Some killings were done in the town; thousands of Maków Mazowiecki Jews were murdered at 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 ...

. The Germans also operated a

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, violence including death, or other forms of ex ...

camp in the town from 1941 to 1944. While
secret protocol
had been struck prior to

between

and the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

that laid plans to split up Poland between them, Germany later abrogated this agreement and struck deeply into Russian territory. The Germans occupied Maków Mazowiecki from September 1939 to April 1945. in January 1945, heavy fighting and artillery barrages destroyed 90% of the town's buildings.

Notable people

David Azrieli David Joshua Azrieli, ( he, דוד יהושע עזריאלי; 10 May 1922 – 9 July 2014) was an Israeli-Canadian real estate tycoon, developer, designer, architect, and philanthropist. With an estimated net worth of US$3.1 billion as of ...

- Canadian businessman and philanthropist * Kamil Majkowski - Polish football player *

Hyman G. Rickover Hyman G. Rickover (January 27, 1900 – July 8, 1986) was an admiral in the U.S. Navy. He directed the original development of naval nuclear propulsion and controlled its operations for three decades as director of the U.S. Naval Reactors offic ...

- admiral in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage of ...

, born in Maków in 1900. His leadership in the nuclear propulsion and power generation was instrumental in developing a culture where safety was paramount. * Leib Langfus - Rabbi from Makow, later murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau. His diary of his deportation and time in Auschwitz-Birkenau are considered one of the most valuable Holocaust era eyewitness testimonies.

References

External links

Official town webpageLocation via Encarta Maps

"Mapping the Holocaust" -- pictures Soviet and German officers dividing Poland

Jewish Community in Maków Mazowiecki
on Virtual Shtetl {{DEFAULTSORT:Makow Mazowiecki Cities and towns in Masovian Voivodeship Maków County Masovian Voivodeship (1526–1795) Łomża Governorate Warsaw Voivodeship (1919–1939) Holocaust locations in Poland