Siennica is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

Mińsk County __NOTOC__ Mińsk County ( pl, powiat miński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Masovian Voivodeship, east-central Poland. It was (re)created on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government re ...

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 east-central Poland. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

(administrative district) called

Gmina Siennica Gmina Siennica is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Mińsk County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. Its seat is the village of Siennica, which lies approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) south-east of Mińsk Mazowiecki and ...

. It lies approximately south of

Mińsk Mazowiecki Mińsk Mazowiecki () "''Masovian Minsk''") is a town in eastern Poland with 40,999 inhabitants (2020). It is situated in the Masovian Voivodeship (since 1999) and is a part of the Warsaw Agglomeration. It is the capital of Mińsk County. Locate ...

and east of

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is officia ...

. The village has a population of 2,600.

Historical overview

The village was first mentioned in early 15th century as Szenic. In 1526 Princess Anna founded the town of Janów at the site of Siennica. Two years later, a Catholic parish was established there. Notably, in 1564 the town returned to its old name according to census. In 1577 a new church was built with larch bales in place of an old one. A second church was constructed in 1693–1698, augmented by the construction of a monastery and church of Blessed Virgin Mary in 1749–1760. In 1864 the Russian imperial authorities liquidated the monastery (for more details see:

Anti-Polish sentiment Polonophobia, also referred to as anti-Polonism, ( pl, Antypolonizm), and anti-Polish sentiment are terms for negative attitudes, prejudices, and actions against Poles as an ethnic group, Poland as their country, and their culture. These incl ...

); nevertheless, two years later a theological college was founded there by the Catholics. In 1869 Siennica lost its civic rights by a Tsarist decree. On September 13, 1939, Nazi German troops entered Siennica and burned it down. 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 ...

they deported about 700 Jewish residents of town to extermination camps. The Red Army arrived on July 30, 1944, and in the course of action burned down the monastery church.

External links

Oficjalna strona GKS Fenix Siennica

Oficjalna strona Zespołu Szkół w Siennicy

Jewish Community in Siennica
on Virtual Shtetl
Villages in Mińsk County Holocaust locations in Poland {{Mińsk-geo-stub