Opoczno County
__NOTOC__
Opoczno County ( pl, powiat opoczyński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, south-east Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government re ...
,
Łódź Voivodeship
Łódź Voivodeship (also known as Lodz Province, or by its Polish name ''Województwo łódzkie'' ) is a province- voivodeship in central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź Voivodeship (1975–1999) and the Sier ...
,
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 3,778 inhabitants as of December 2021. From 1975 to 1998 the town was a part of Radom Voivodeship. Located on the Drzewiczka river (a tributary to the Pilica), in the northwestern corner of the historic province of
Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name Małopolska ( la, Polonia Minor), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a ...
, Drzewica is home to ''Gerlach'', a renowned cutlery manufacturer, founded in 1760 in Warsaw (since 1886 in Drzewica). In the first half of the 16th century, the Archbishop of
Gniezno
Gniezno (; german: Gnesen; la, Gnesna) is a city in central-western Poland, about east of Poznań. Its population in 2021 was 66,769, making it the sixth-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. One of the Piast dynasty's chief cities, ...
and
Primate of Poland
This is a list of archbishops of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, who are simultaneously primates of Poland since 1418.
Konrad I of Masovia
Konrad I of Masovia (ca. 1187/88 – 31 August 1247), from the Polish Piast dynasty, was the sixth Duke of Masovia and Kuyavia from 1194 until his death as well as High Duke of Poland from 1229 to 1232 and again from 1241 to 1243.
Life
Konrad wa ...
granted the area to the Drzewicki ( Ciołek coat of arms) family. The family owned Drzewica for 500 years, and its properties stretched from the Pilica to the
Holy Cross Mountains
Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...
. In 1429 in
Nieszawa
Nieszawa (Polish pronunciation: ; german: Nessau) is a town and a commune in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. As of June 30, 2014, the town has a population of 1,985 people. It is located in the historic region of ...
, Drzewica was incorporated as a town on German town law, by King Jogaila. Drzewica, which belonged to ''Opoczno County'' of Lesser Poland’s
Sandomierz Voivodeship
Sandomierz Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo Sandomierskie, la, Palatinatus Sandomirensis) was a unit of administration and local government in Poland from the 14th century to the partitions of Poland in 1772–1795. It was part of the Lesser Polan ...
, prospered in the early 16th century, when its owner Maciej Drzewicki (1467 – 1535) was a personal secretary of King
John I Albert
John I Albert ( pl, Jan I Olbracht; 27 December 1459 – 17 June 1501) was King of Poland from 1492 until his death in 1501 and Duke of Głogów (Glogau) from 1491 to 1498. He was the fourth Polish sovereign from the Jagiellonian dynasty, the s ...
. Drzewicki renovated the ancient castle, turning it from a Gothic stronghold into a Renaissance residence. During
the Deluge
The Genesis flood narrative (chapters 6–9 of the Book of Genesis) is the Hebrew version of the universal flood myth. It tells of God's decision to return the universe to its pre- creation state of watery chaos and remake it through the microc ...
, Drzewica was destroyed by the Swedish army.
In the 18th century Drzewica became one of early centers of Polish industry, when one of the first Polish blast furnaces was built here by Filip Szaniawski. Soon afterwards, northern Lesser Poland became industrialized (see
Old-Polish Industrial Region {{unreferenced, date=March 2017
Staropolski Okręg Przemysłowy (Old Polish Industrial Region) is an industrial region in northern part of Lesser Poland. It is the oldest and in terms of area covered, largest of Polish industrial regions. Most of th ...
Russian Empire
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. ...
(1815), together with Congress Poland. The town was an important center of the January Uprising. In 1869, Tsarist authorities reduced it to the status of a village.
On September 8, 1939, a nearby forest was the place of a bloody skirmish between
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 ...
and the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the '' Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previo ...
. The German occupation began that month. The Jewish population of the town was around 750. The Germans brought Jews from several neighboring villages to Drzewica so that the population increased to more than 2000. Without livelihoods and not allowed to bring personal possessions, these newcomers lived in poverty. In the autumn of 1941, Jews were forced to live in 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 the severe overcrowding (eight to ten people on average shared each room) there led to epidemics of both typhus and typhoid. Police would enter the ghetto periodically to randomly murder people. In July 1942, some Jews were taken to a labor camp while the others remained in the ghetto. In October, the Germans surrounded the ghetto and lit fires around to prevent escape. The Jews were rounded up and marched to Opoczno where, a few days later, they were sent to the
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 cam ...
killing camp where they were immediately murdered by gas. The few Jews who were left behind to sort Jewish possessions were themselves rounded up a few months later and sent to the Ujazd ghetto and from there to Treblinka. Only about five to seven Drzewica Jews are known to have 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; ...
