Praszka (german: Praschkau) is a town in

Olesno County __NOTOC__ Olesno County ( pl, powiat oleski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Opole Voivodeship, south-western Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms ...

Opole Voivodeship Opole Voivodeship, or Opole Province ( pl, województwo opolskie ), is the smallest and least populated voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province's name derives from that of the region's capital and largest city, Opole. It is part of Upper Si ...

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 populou ...

, with 7,655 inhabitants (2019).

History

The oldest known mention of the settlement dates back to 1260. It was granted

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

in 1392 by Polish 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. ...

and new privileges in 1542 and 1620. It was annexed by

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 ...

in the

Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian W ...

in 1793. In 1807 regained by the Poles as part of the short-lived

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 ...

, in 1815 it became part of Congress Poland, later forcibly integrated with Imperial Russia. During the January Uprising weapons for Polish insurgents were smuggled through the town and on April 11, 1863, a Polish unit commanded by Józef Oxiński fought the Battle of Praszka against the Russians nearby. As part of Russian reprisals after the uprising, Praszka was stripped of its town rights in 1870. During

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 ...

the town was occupied by

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. It became again part of Poland after the county regained its independence in 1918, and town rights were restored in 1919. During 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 opposing ...

, in September 1939, it was invaded by Germany, and the '' Einsatzgruppe II'' entered the town to commit various atrocities against the populace. The Germans robbed, conscripted labor, forced into a

ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished t ...

, and then murdered almost all of the town's

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 ...

population, about one-third of the total population. Most were deported to the

Chełmno extermination camp , known for = , location = Near Chełmno nad Nerem, ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' (German-occupied Poland) , built by = , operated by = , commandant = Herbert Lange, Christian Wirth , original use = , construction = , in operatio ...

where they were immediately gassed. Others were murdered in the town or at the Jewish cemetery. Only about 10 of Plaszka's pre-war Jewish population of around 1000 is thought to have survived the war. In 1943, the Germans expelled 252

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 C ...

and deported them to forced labour to Germany. More than 30% of the town's population died. 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 ...

ended in 1945.

Culture

There is a museum in Praszka, dedicated to the history of the town and its surroudings.

Sports

The local football team is . It competes in the lower leagues.

Notable people

* Daniel Neufeld (1814–1874), Jewish Polish poet * (1869–1933), politician, activist, member of the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

(Polish parliament) *

Stefan Korboński Stefan Korboński (2 March 1901 in Praszka - 23 April 1989 in Washington, D.C., USA) was a Polish agrarian politician, lawyer, journalist, and a notable member of the wartime authorities of the Polish Secret State. Among others, he was the last ...

(1901–1989), politician, lawyer, journalist, member of the Polish resistance movement in World War II

Twin towns – sister cities

See twin towns of Gmina Praszka.

References

External links

*
Jewish Community in Praszka
on Virtual Shtetl Cities and towns in Opole Voivodeship Olesno County Kalisz Governorate Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939) Cities in Silesia Jewish communities destroyed in the Holocaust {{Opole-geo-stub