Pajęczno is a town in
Poland, in
Łódź Voivodeship, about north of
Częstochowa
Częstochowa ( , ; german: Tschenstochau, Czenstochau; la, Czanstochova) is a city in southern Poland on the Warta River with 214,342 inhabitants, making it the thirteenth-largest city in Poland. It is situated in the Silesian Voivodeship (admin ...
. It is the capital of
Pajęczno County (''powiat pajęczański''). Population is 6,651 (2020).
History
First mentioned in historical sources from 1140, when it was part of
Piast-ruled
Poland. It had town rights between 1276 and 1870, and again from 1958. It was a
royal town of the Polish Crown, administratively located in the
Sieradz Voivodeship
Sieradz Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by Łódź Voivodeship.
A Voivodeship is an area administered by a voivode (Governor), and the Sieradz Voivodeshi ...
in the
Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown.
A
Jewish community had been residents of Pajęczno since the late 1700s and numbered about 700 at the beginning of
World War II. When the Germans
occupied the town in September 1939, they unleashed a violent attack against the Jewish community, beginning with murder and abuse, then stripping Jews of most of their property, and in 1941, confining them to an overcrowded
ghetto. After that, Jews were expelled to
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 ...
camps and then in August 1942, many were murdered in the town and most of the rest were sent to the
Chełmno extermination camp where they were immediately gassed. In 1942, the Germans also
expelled 312 Poles, who were deported to a transit camp in nearby
Wieluń and then to forced labour in
Germany and
German-occupied France
The Military Administration in France (german: Militärverwaltung in Frankreich; french: Occupation de la France par l'Allemagne) was an interim occupation authority established by Nazi Germany during World War II to administer the occupied zo ...
. The last few dozen Jews were sent to the
Lodz ghetto. Very few Pajęczno Jews survived the war.
On 14 June 2019 an intoxicated man drove through the town in a
T-55 tank and was arrested shortly after.
The current mayor is Dariusz Tokarski.
References
External links
Website created by Pajęczno residentsOfficial town websiteNiezależny Portal Pajęczna
Cities and towns in Łódź Voivodeship
Pajęczno County
Sieradz Voivodeship (1339–1793)
Piotrków Governorate
Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939)
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