Zwierzyniec () is a town on the

Wieprz The Wieprz (, ; ) is a river in central-eastern Poland, and a tributary of the Vistula. It is the country's ninth longest river, with a total length of 349 km and a catchment area of 10,497 km2, all within Poland. Its course near the to ...

river in the

Zamość County __NOTOC__ Zamość County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lublin Voivodeship, eastern Poland. It was established on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its ...

Lublin Voivodeship Lublin Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland, located in the southeastern part of the country, with its capital being the city of Lublin. The region is named after its largest city and regional capital, Lu ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

. It has 3,324 inhabitants (2004). Zwierzyniec is the northernmost town of the

Roztocze National Park __NOTOC__ Roztocze National Park () is a national park in Lublin Voivodeship of southeastern Poland. It protects the most valuable natural areas of the middle part of the Roztocze range. Its current size is , of which forests occupy 81.02 km ...

. The park comprises some of the last remaining sections of the primordial forest of

Central Europe Central Europe is a geographical region of Europe between Eastern Europe, Eastern, Southern Europe, Southern, Western Europe, Western and Northern Europe, Northern Europe. Central Europe is known for its cultural diversity; however, countries in ...

, especially spectacular stand of ancient beech trees (Bukowa Gora). It also is a rail junction, located along the Rejowiec Fabryczny - Hrebenne - Munina connection, with a branch line going westwards, to

Stalowa Wola Stalowa Wola () is the largest city and capital of Stalowa Wola County with a population of 58,545 inhabitants, as at 31 December 2021. It is located in southeastern Poland in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship. The city lies in historic Lesser Poland ...

, via

Biłgoraj Biłgoraj (, ''Bilgoray'', ) is a town in south-eastern Poland with 25,838 inhabitants as of December 2021. Since 1999 it has been situated in Lublin Voivodeship; it was previously located in Zamość Voivodeship (1975–1998). It is located sou ...

History

The Zwierzyniec settlement was established in the 16th century by the

Zamoyski The House of Zamoyski (plural: Zamoyscy) is an important Poland, Polish noble (''szlachta'') family Magnates of Poland and Lithuania, belonging to the category of Polish magnates. They used the Jelita coat of arms. The surname "Zamoyski" litera ...

family. One of the features here is an artificial lake with a number of small islands - one of them contains monuments of the hounds belonging to the Polish Queen Marysieńka Sobieska ('' primo voto'' Zamoyska). On another island, the Zamoyskis built a baroque chapel, which became later the main church of the local Catholic parish. It is now known as the St John Nepomucene's parish church - renovated and expanded in the early 1960s by father Dutkowski. The access to the chapel island is now via a bridge.

World War II

During the

occupation of Poland Occupation commonly refers to: *Occupation (human activity), or job, one's role in society, often a regular activity performed for payment *Occupation (protest), political demonstration by holding public or symbolic spaces *Military occupation, th ...

in World War Two, Nazi Germans set up a transit camp in Zwierzyniec for the province-wide Action Zamość. The camp processed 20,000-24,000 Poles, with many victims sent to death camps at

Auschwitz Auschwitz, or Oświęcim, 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 consisted of Auschw ...

and

Majdanek Majdanek (or Lublin) was a Nazi concentration and extermination camp built and operated by the SS on the outskirts of the city of Lublin during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. It had three gas chambers, two wooden gallows, ...

. Race selections based on forcible abduction of children were conducted at Zwierzyniec. The term "

Children of Zamojszczyzna A child () is a human being between the stages of birth and puberty, or between the developmental period of infancy and puberty. The term may also refer to an unborn human being. In English-speaking countries, the legal definition of ''child ...

" originates from this programme. The town also had a Jewish population of between 1,000 and 1,500 Jews. The first transport of Jews during the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

, numbering approximately 52 Jews from Zwierzyniec, Rudka and other surrounding villages, was sent to the Bełżec extermination camp in September 1942. A mass extermination of the Jewish population from Zwierzyniec started on October 21, 1942. Some of the Jews were shot dead on the spot; the remaining residents were sent to the railway station at

Szczebrzeszyn Szczebrzeszyn (; ; ) is a city in southeastern Poland in Lublin Voivodeship, in Zamość County, about west of Zamość. From 1975–1999, it was part of the Zamość Voivodeship administrative district. The town serves as the seat to the Gmina ...

, from where, together with the Szczebrzeszyn Jews, were sent to the Bełżec extermination camp. On 2 February 1944, the Germans carried out a public execution of 20 Poles in Zwierzyniec, in retaliation for the death of a 19-year-old Volksdeutsch who denounced several local young people to the occupiers. The youngest victim of the massacre was 15 years old.

Gallery

File:Zwierzyniec browar02.jpg, The Zwierzyniec Brewery building in Zwierzyniec Zwierzyniec1.jpg, The House of the Plenipotentiary (now the head office of

Management) File:PL Stawy Echo.jpg, Echo lake File:Zwierzyniec technical school facade 2023.jpg, Zamoyski Ordinance, location of Nazi German resettlement office for mass deportations

References

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Lublin Voivodeship Populated riverside places in Poland Zamość County Sites of Nazi war crimes in Poland Sites of World War II massacres of Poles

History

World War II

Gallery

See also

References