The village of Mątwy (german: 'Montwy') is located about 8 km south of

Inowrocław Inowrocław (; german: Hohensalza; before 1904: Inowrazlaw; archaic: Jungleslau) is a city in central Poland with a total population of 70,713 in December 2021. It is situated in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship since 1999, previously in the By ...

in northern

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 ...

. Formerly an independent village, it is a part of the town of

Industry

It is a significant

caustic soda Sodium hydroxide, also known as lye and caustic soda, is an inorganic compound with the formula NaOH. It is a white solid ionic compound consisting of sodium cations and hydroxide anions . Sodium hydroxide is a highly caustic base and alka ...

production site.

History

Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

In 1666, Mątwy was the site of a

battle A battle is an occurrence of combat in warfare between opposing military units of any number or size. A war usually consists of multiple battles. In general, a battle is a military engagement that is well defined in duration, area, and force ...

in which the army of King

John II Casimir Vasa John II Casimir ( pl, Jan II Kazimierz Waza; lt, Jonas Kazimieras Vaza; 22 March 1609 – 16 December 1672) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1648 until his abdication in 1668 as well as titular King of Sweden from 1648 ...

was defeated in a

rebellion Rebellion, uprising, or insurrection is a refusal of obedience or order. It refers to the open resistance against the orders of an established authority. A rebellion originates from a sentiment of indignation and disapproval of a situation and ...

led by

Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski Prince Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski (20 January 1616 – 31 December 1667) was a Polish noble ( szlachcic), magnate, politician and military commander, and Prince of the Holy Roman Empire. He was the initiator of the Lubomirski Rebellion of 1 ...

known as '

Lubomirski's Rokosz Lubomirski's rebellion or Lubomirski's rokosz ( pl, rokosz Lubomirskiego), was a rebellion against Polish King John II Casimir, initiated by the Polish nobleman Jerzy Sebastian Lubomirski. In 1665–66, Lubomirski's supporters paralyzed the proceed ...

Prussia

Following the

Congress of Vienna The Congress of Vienna (, ) of 1814–1815 was a series of international diplomatic meetings to discuss and agree upon a possible new layout of the European political and constitutional order after the downfall of the French Emperor Napoleon B ...

in 1815,

and its surroundings were made a district of the

Prussia Prussia, , Old Prussian: ''Prūsa'' or ''Prūsija'' was a German state on the southeast coast of the Baltic Sea. It formed the German Empire under Prussian rule when it united the German states in 1871. It was ''de facto'' dissolved by an em ...

Province of Posen The Province of Posen (german: Provinz Posen, pl, Prowincja Poznańska) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1848 to 1920. Posen was established in 1848 following the Greater Poland Uprising as a successor to the Grand Duchy of Posen, w ...

. After the German defeat in

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

and the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

becoming effective in 1920, the area was returned to Poland.

World War II

Following the

Nazi Nazism ( ; german: Nazismus), the common name in English for National Socialism (german: Nationalsozialismus, ), is the far-right totalitarian political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in ...

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 1939 and the establishment of the

Reichsgau Wartheland The ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' (initially ''Reichsgau Posen'', also: ''Warthegau'') was a Nazi German ''Reichsgau'' formed from parts of Polish territory annexed in 1939 during World War II. It comprised the region of Greater Poland and adjacent a ...

, from 1940 onwards many

prisoners of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held Captivity, captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold priso ...

were stationed in Mątwy. From December 1942 to August 1943 this included a

Jewish 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 ...

forced labour camp working in the caustic soda factory.

Prisoner of war camps 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 ...

located here included a Heilag (repatriation camp) (closed September 1943), Stalag 391 (I D) (1941-December 1942), Oflag 10 (from December 1942),

Oflag XXI-B Oflag XXI-B and Stalag XXI-B were World War II German prisoner-of-war camps for officers and enlisted men, located at Szubin a few miles southwest of Bydgoszcz, Poland, which at that time was occupied by Nazi Germany. Timeline * September 193 ...

(June - September 1943) and

Stalag XXI-D Stalag XXI-D was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp based in Poznań in German-occupied Poland, operated in 1940–1945. Description Following the invasion of Poland in 1939 and the establishment of the Reichsgau Wartheland, Poznań b ...

(September - December 1943).

Oflag 64 Oflag 64 was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for officers located at Szubin a few miles south of Bydgoszcz, in Pomorze, Poland, which at that time was occupied by Nazi Germany. It was probably the only German POW camp set up exclusive ...

and Construction and Labour Battalion 146 for

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

prisoners were also stationed here. Over 900 deaths were recorded during this period.

References

Neighbourhoods in Poland Inowrocław County Geography of Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Holocaust locations in Poland {{KuyavianPomeranian-geo-stub