Stawiski is a town in northeastern
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 ...
, situated within
Kolno County
__NOTOC__
Kolno County ( pl, powiat kolneński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government ...
, in
Podlaskie Voivodeship, approximately east of
Kolno and west of the regional capital
Białystok. Stawiski is the administrative seat of
Gmina Stawiski. From 1946 to 1975 it belonged administratively to
Białystok Voivodeship, and from 1975 to 1998 to
Łomża Voivodeship
Łomża Voivodeship () was an administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975 to 1998, superseded by the Podlaskie Voivodeship.
Its capital city was Łomża.
Cities and towns
Major cities and towns (population in 1998) ...
. The town is situated on the
Dzierzbia River.
According to
Central Statistical Office (Poland)
Statistics Poland (formerly known in English as the Central Statistical Office ( pl, Główny Urząd Statystyczny, popularly called GUS)) is Poland's chief government executive agency charged with collecting and publishing statistics related to th ...
, the population of Stawiski as of 31 December 2008 was 2,417 persons.
[ ]
History
Stawiski was established in 1407–1411. It received city rights around 1688. The
Franciscan Order built a
monastery
A monastery is a building or complex of buildings comprising the domestic quarters and workplaces of monastics, monks or nuns, whether living in communities or alone ( hermits). A monastery generally includes a place reserved for prayer whi ...
there in 1791. The monks were expelled from Stawiski in 1867 during the
Partitions
Partition may refer to:
Computing Hardware
* Disk partitioning, the division of a hard disk drive
* Memory partition, a subdivision of a computer's memory, usually for use by a single job
Software
* Partition (database), the division of a ...
, as punishment for supporting the Polish
January Uprising against the
Russian imperial
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. The ...
rule. The town was destroyed by fire in 1812 in the course of the French
campaign against Russia, and rebuilt again, to become trades and commercial centre known for its furs, fabrics and hats in
Congress Poland. Stawiski was burned to the ground once more during the Russian–Prussian war of 1915, soon before the re-establishment of the sovereign
Republic of Poland. The
Polish army
The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...
fought a battle with the
Bolsheviks
The Bolsheviks (russian: Большевики́, from большинство́ ''bol'shinstvó'', 'majority'),; derived from ''bol'shinstvó'' (большинство́), "majority", literally meaning "one of the majority". also known in English ...
there in July 1920 during the
Polish-Soviet War.
[Oficjalna strona miasta Stawiski.](_blank)
Jewish community
![Stawiski - zdjęcia lotnicze z okresu II wojny światowej](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ed/Stawiski_-_zdj%C4%99cia_lotnicze_z_okresu_II_wojny_%C5%9Bwiatowej.jpg)
Jewish life in Stawiski had been separate from that of the rest of the town's inhabitants. The Jews had established many institutions of their own, including synagogues and Jewish schools and libraries. By 1932, over 50% of Stawiski's population, some 2,000 persons, was
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 ...
.
During the
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 September 1939, Stawiski was initially 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 ...
. During the month-long German occupation, German soldiers raped Jewish women and plundered Jewish property. Some Poles who had been ordered to supervise Jewish labor brigades humiliated the conscripted workers. After a Stawiski priest blamed the Jews for the murder of some German soldiers, the Germans executed several Jews, burned down the small synagogue or perhaps a ''
bet midrash
A ''beth midrash'' ( he, בית מדרש, or ''beis medrash'', ''beit midrash'', pl. ''batei midrash'' "House of Learning") is a hall dedicated for Torah study, often translated as a "study hall." It is distinct from a synagogue (''beth kness ...
'', and set fire to part of the town. The Germans deported a group of able-bodied male Jews (and Christians) to forced labor camps in East Prussia. After some three weeks, the Germans
passed control of Stawiski to Soviet forces.
Soviet rule lasted until the Germans returned to the town in June 1941 during
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 ...
. Local Poles welcomed the arriving Germans with flowers, and German army scouts who arrived on 27 June noted the Poles' hatred for the Jews. Local Poles, mostly recently released from Soviet prisons, asked German permission to take revenge on the Jews and killed some 70 of them. In early July 1941 the Germans instigated a pogrom in which Polish mobs armed with iron bars murdered some 300 Jews.
Some Poles were motivated by revenge against earlier Soviet supporters.
A German ''
Einsatzkommando'' was present in the town during 4–5 July 1941.
[.] A similar, better known, atrocity took place on 10 July 1941 in nearby
Jedwabne
Jedwabne (; yi, יעדוואבנע, ''Yedvabna'') is a town in northeast Poland, in Łomża County of Podlaskie Voivodeship, with 1,942 inhabitants (2002). It is notable for the Jedwabne pogrom of 10 July 1941, during the World War II German oc ...
.
Beginning on 17 August 1941, the Germans executed most of Stawiski's Jewish community. Some 900 able-bodied Jews were killed in a ditch near
Mątwica, where Jewish women and children from Kolno and Jews from
Mały Płock
Mały Płock is a village in Kolno County
__NOTOC__
Kolno County ( pl, powiat kolneński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999 ...
were also executed. Some 700 persons, mostly infants, the elderly, and the handicapped, were killed in Płaszczatka (or Stawiski) Forest.
Some 60
[ to 105][ Jews remained, mainly skilled workers and their families, who were confined to 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 ...
. Some Jews from Stawiski who survived in hiding sought refuge in the Łomża Ghetto, others remained hidden until permitted by the Germans to work as farm laborers. On 2 November 1942 the ghetto was closed and its occupants were transferred to a transit camp in Bogusze, and from there were sent to the Auschwitz and Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
s.[
Some 50 Stawiski Jews managed to evade deportation, but most of them were found and executed in subsequent searches. Some of the hiding Jews were denounced by Poles, and at least 11 of them were murdered by local Poles in nearby ]Mały Płock
Mały Płock is a village in Kolno County
__NOTOC__
Kolno County ( pl, powiat kolneński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999 ...
'' gmina''.
Only a few of the 2,000 pre-war Jewish inhabitants of Stawiski survived the Holocaust
The Holocaust, also known as the Shoah, was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe; ...
.[
Some of the Stawiski Jews murdered during the war are buried in a mass grave at the .
]
Sport
A local soccer team, GKS Stawiski, was founded in 2008 and as of 2018 plays in the regional A-class league.GKS Stawiski club
Economy
The main branch of local economy is agriculture, based on individual arable farms producing crops for local processing as well as raising farm animals for the market. Apart from farming, trade and service industries cover the needs of the inhabitants. The overall number of people employed in the gmina's economy is 3,545. The breakdown of main employment sectors is as follows. Farming and forestry: 2,304. Industry: 177. Trade and services: 727. Education, health services: 288. Administration and policing: 35.
The town's revenue in 2003 (including its surroundings) amounted 4.299 mln zloty. Net income was 900,000 zloty. However, expenses of the commune exceeded its profits in that period, and amounted to 4.679 mln zloty. Gross revenue and net profits fluctuate depending on expenditures in the public sector, such as environmental protection, water management, dump disposal, sewers, etc.
Notable residents
Stawiski is the hometown of the famous chess player Akiba Rubinstein
Akiba Kiwelowicz Rubinstein (1 December 1880 – 14 March 1961) was a Polish chess player. He is considered to have been one of the greatest players never to have become World Chess Champion. Rubinstein was granted the title International Grandma ...
. In the main square, there is a monument to Stanisław Steczkowski ''Zagończyk'', who, together with his four brothers, fought in the underground Polish Home Army
The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) est ...
in 1942–1945.
Notes
References
{{Authority control
Cities and towns in Podlaskie Voivodeship
Kolno County
Łomża Governorate
Białystok Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Warsaw Voivodeship (1919–1939)
Belastok Region
Holocaust locations in Poland