Trzcianne ( lt, Tžcianai) 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 ...

Mońki County __NOTOC__ Mońki County ( pl, powiat moniecki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, northeastern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government re ...

Podlaskie Voivodeship Podlaskie Voivodeship or Podlasie Province ( pl, Województwo podlaskie, ) is a voivodeship (province) in northeastern Poland. The name of the province and its territory correspond to the historic region of Podlachia. The capital and largest cit ...

, in north-eastern 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 Trzcianne __NOTOC__ Gmina Trzcianne is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Mońki County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. Its seat is the village of Trzcianne, which lies approximately south-west of Mońki and north-west of the regio ...

. It lies approximately south-west of

Mońki Mońki is a town in northeastern Poland and, as of 1999, is situated in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. From 1975 to 1998 it was part of the Białystok Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is the capital of Mońki County. History In the 16th century, M ...

and north-west of the regional capital

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...

. It is close to

Biebrza National Park '' , iucn_category = II , photo = Poland Biebrza Burzyn.jpg , photo_caption = Biebrza River at Burzyn, Poland Park logo with Ruff , location = Podlaskie Voivodeship, Poland , nearest_city = Osowiec-Twierdza , map = Poland , relief = 1 , ma ...

. The village has a population of 610.

History

First records of Trzcianne come from the 13th century. The name probably comes from reeds ( pl, trzcina) surrounding the river that flowed through the village. According to the records of

Aleksander Jagiellon Alexander Jagiellon ( pl, Aleksander Jagiellończyk, lt, Aleksandras Jogailaitis; 5 August 1461 – 19 August 1506) of the House of Jagiellon was the Grand Duke of Lithuania and later also King of Poland. He was the fourth son of Casimir IV Jagie ...

Grand Duke of Lithuania The monarchy of Lithuania concerned the monarchical head of state of Lithuania, which was established as an absolute and hereditary monarchy. Throughout Lithuania's history there were three ducal dynasties that managed to stay in power—House ...

, the first

Catholic The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

church in Trzcianne was built before 1496. It survived for ca. 100 years. The current, fourth church in Trzcianne was built in 1846 and

consecrated Consecration is the solemn dedication to a special purpose or service. The word ''consecration'' literally means "association with the sacred". Persons, places, or things can be consecrated, and the term is used in various ways by different grou ...

in 1860. The vast majority of Trzcianne's population in the 20th century were Jewish.The first Jews arrived in Tzcianne in the 18th century. It was a

shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...

, in the 1909 census, 98% of Trzcianne's population was Jewish. There is still an old Jewish cemetery in the village, but it is not tended by anyone. According to the 1921 census, the village was inhabited by 1.434 people, among whom 33 were Roman Catholic, 1.401 Mosaic. At the same time, 33 inhabitants declared Polish nationality, 1.401 Jewish. There were 177 residential buildings in the village. When the Germans occupied the area in June 1941, they set fire to the whole village. Then, they gathered together more than 1000 local Jews in the neighboring village of Zubole. The Jews were kept in the gravel pit and then in a barn for almost a week before the series mass executions took place. 400 to 700 Jews were murdered. The rest of the Jews were released. In autumn of 1941, 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 ...

was created in Trzcianne. It lasted until November 2, 1942, when the Jews from the ghetto were sent to the Bogusze transit camp. A few weeks later, with Jews from surrounding town and villages, they were sent to

Treblinka 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 ...

and

Auschwitz Auschwitz concentration camp ( (); also or ) was a complex of over 40 concentration and extermination camps operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland (in a portion annexed into Germany in 1939) during World War II and the Holocaust. It con ...

death camps. Right before the Second World War, there were about 2500 Jews living in the village, only 25 Trzcianne Jews 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; a ...

. Both during and after

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 ...

, many inhabitants of Trzcianne were deported to

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country located mainly in Central Asia and partly in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the north and west, China to the east, Kyrgyzstan to the southeast, Uzbeki ...

by the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in th ...

Tourist attractions

*Church dating to 1846 *Jewish cemetery

References

External links

Trzcianne Gmina official siteTrzcianne Parish

{{Coord, 53, 20, N, 22, 41, E, region:PL_type:city, display=title Villages in Mońki County Belostoksky Uyezd Białystok Voivodeship (1919–1939) Belastok Region Shtetls Holocaust locations in Poland