Poniatowa is a town in southeastern
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
Opole Lubelskie County, in
Lublin Voivodship, with 10,500 inhabitants (2006). It belongs to the historic province 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 ...
. During the existence of the 17th-century
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
Poniatowa was part of the Lublin Voivodeship also. For most of its history Poniatowa was a village; it did not receive town charter until July 18, 1962. The town has a sports club ''Stal'', established in 1951.
History
Exact date of establishment of Poniatowa is not known, however, it must have existed before the year 1382, because on September 2, 1382, the
Starosta
The starosta or starost (Cyrillic: ''старост/а'', Latin: ''capitaneus'', german: link=no, Starost, Hauptmann) is a term of Slavic origin denoting a community elder whose role was to administer the assets of a clan or family estates. Th ...
of
Lublin
Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of t ...
issued a document co-signed by a man named Gotard, who was the owner of a village named Poniatowa. In the late
Middle Ages
In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...
, the Land of Lublin was located in eastern part of the
Kingdom of Poland, near the border with
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Li ...
and Eastern Slavic lands. After King
Kazimierz Wielki annexed
Red Ruthenia into Poland (1340s), the region became populated with settlers from other parts 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 ...
. In the 15th century, some 178 new villages were founded in the Land of Lublin. They were owned by the ''
szlachta
The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in the ...
'' noble families, who were supposed to answer royal call in case of an armed conflict (see
Pospolite ruszenie
''Pospolite ruszenie'' (, lit. ''mass mobilization''; "Noble Host", lat, motio belli, the French term ''levée en masse'' is also used) is a name for the mobilisation of armed forces during the period of the Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Li ...
). By the early 16th century, Poniatowa was under the authority of a
Castellan
A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant o ...
from nearby
Wąwolnica.
In the
Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth
The Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and, after 1791, as the Commonwealth of Poland, was a bi-confederal state, sometimes called a federation, of Crown of the Kingdom of ...
Poniatowa remained a village, which was part of Lublin Voivodeship. It belonged to the aristocratic
Poniatowski family, which gave Poland its last king –
Stanisław August Poniatowski
Stanisław II August (born Stanisław Antoni Poniatowski; 17 January 1732 – 12 February 1798), known also by his regnal Latin name Stanislaus II Augustus, was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1764 to 1795, and the last monarch ...
. The family gave its name to the settlement, although by the time Poniatowskis got to prominence its members were living elsewhere. The village was in private hands until the mid-19th century, when, after 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 ...
, it became part of the Russian-controlled
Congress Poland
Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It w ...
. The
Bull ("
Ciołek" in
Polish
Polish may refer to:
* Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe
* Polish language
* Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent
* Polish chicken
*Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
) which appears on the town's
coat of arms
A coat of arms is a heraldry, heraldic communication design, visual design on an escutcheon (heraldry), escutcheon (i.e., shield), surcoat, or tabard (the latter two being outer garments). The coat of arms on an escutcheon forms the central ele ...
is borrowed from one of the Poniatowskis heraldic designs.
20th century
The present town of Poniatowa was founded in the late 1930s, to house arriving workers of the new telecommunications equipment factory PZT (''Zaklady Tele i Radiotechniczne - Filia nr 2''), construction of which began in 1937. The factory was part of the
Central Industrial Region, and was to supply radio equipment to the
Polish Army. First buildings of the ''new town'' were put up in 1939, just before the outbreak of
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 ...
and the German
conquest of Poland. During the
German occupation
German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...
, the already erected factory was used by the Nazis to support the war effort using slave labor.
Holocaust history of PZT and Többens
In the latter half of 1941 (following
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after ...
), the Germans established the first camp for the Soviet
POW
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person who is held 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 prisoners of war ...
s on the factory grounds.
[Michał Kaźmierczak]
Poniatowa unofficial site
with links to History and Gallery of photographs. Retrieved November 15, 2012. Location of Poniatowa factory: By mid-1942, about 20,000 Soviet prisoners had perished there. In April 1943, during the liquidation of the
Warsaw Ghetto, about 15,000
Polish Jews
The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the lo ...
– mostly tailors and seamstresses – were brought to the camp where, for the next six months, they worked as forced labour in war-supply workshops owned by German
war profiteer
A war profiteer is any person or organization that derives profit from warfare or by selling weapons and other goods to parties at war. The term typically carries strong negative connotations. General profiteering, making a profit criticized a ...
Walter Caspar Többens from Hamburg. The
Poniatowa camp facilities included kitchen, medical room, a kindergarten where the children were kept while the adults and adolescents were making garments for the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previous ...
. The entire workforce of the camp including 3,000 Slovakian and Austrian Jews (the camp elite), were executed during the Operation Harvest Festival (''
Aktion Erntefest
Operation Harvest Festival (german: Aktion Erntefest) was the murder of up to 43,000 Jews at the Majdanek, Poniatowa and Trawniki concentration camps by the SS, the Order Police battalions, and the Ukrainian ''Sonderdienst'' on 3–4 Novembe ...
'') of November 4, 1943, into fake anti-aircraft trenches.
[Alexander Donat]
''The Holocaust kingdom: a memoir''
(London, 1965), 216-217.[ Re: Morgen affidavit at International Military Tribunal](_blank)
(Red Volume series), Supplement Volume B, pp. 1309-11 (Part II. 5. "Ernst Kaltenbrunner"). Nuremberg War Crimes Trials. PDF direct download, 25.0 MB. Retrieved November 16, 2012.
The monument in memory of the victims of the Holocaust was unveiled in Poniatowa on November 4, 2008 in the presence of the ambassador of Israel to Poland
David Peleg
David Akiva Peleg (1942 − 27 November 2013) was an Israelis, Israeli historian and diplomat. From 2004 to 2009, he served as the ambassador of Israel to Poland. He was later appointed director of the World Jewish Congress#Organization and rela ...
, the ambassador of Austria, minister from the German
embassy
A diplomatic mission or foreign mission is a group of people from a state or organization present in another state to represent the sending state or organization officially in the receiving or host state. In practice, the phrase usually deno ...
, minister from the Czech embassy, voivode of Lublin; the town's mayor, and many other officials, including Warsaw rabbi and priests.
Germans left Poniatowa in July 1944 ahead of the Soviet offensive. After the war, in 1949, the industrial development of Poniatowa resumed, with a reconstituted factory reestablished in the town. As a result of the period of intensive growth after 1952, the town received its city charter in 1962. In its heyday, during the Communist regime, the factory employed some 5,000 workers, about half of the town's population. It produced components for refrigerators and other household appliances. After the collapse of the Soviet empire and the subsequent free market reforms of 1989 the factory experienced economic difficulties, and in 1998 entered into bankruptcy. Presently, attempts are being made to attract new investors to take advantage of the factory's excellent infrastructure.
References
Poniatowa unofficial site''(under construction)''
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Lublin Voivodeship
Opole Lubelskie County
Lesser Poland
Lublin Governorate
Lublin Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Holocaust locations in Poland