Łambinowice
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Łambinowice is a
village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...
in
Nysa County __NOTOC__ Nysa County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Opole Voivodeship, south-western Poland, on the Czech border. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reform ...
,
Opole Voivodeship Opole Voivodeship ( , , ), is the smallest and least populated voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province's name derives from that of the region's capital and largest city, Opole. It is part of Silesia. A relatively lar ...
, in southern Poland. It is the seat of the
gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...
(administrative district) called Gmina Łambinowice. It lies approximately north-east of Nysa and south-west of the regional capital
Opole Opole (; ; ; ) is a city located in southern Poland on the Oder River and the historical capital of Upper Silesia. With a population of approximately 127,387 as of the 2021 census, it is the capital of Opole Voivodeship (province) and the seat of ...
.


History

First mentioned under the name of Lambinowicz in 1273, when it was part of fragmented
Piast The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I (–992). The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of King Casimir III the Great. Branches of ...
-ruled Poland, the settlement shared the fate of
Upper Silesia Upper Silesia ( ; ; ; ; Silesian German: ; ) is the southeastern part of the historical and geographical region of Silesia, located today mostly in Poland, with small parts in the Czech Republic. The area is predominantly known for its heav ...
and the land of Opole throughout the ages. Much damaged by the wars of the 17th century, most notably the
Thirty Years' War The Thirty Years' War, fought primarily in Central Europe between 1618 and 1648, was one of the most destructive conflicts in History of Europe, European history. An estimated 4.5 to 8 million soldiers and civilians died from battle, famine ...
, it lost much of its meaning as a centre of commerce and was reduced to but a small village. In the 18th century, it was annexed by
Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...
, and from 1871 to 1945 it also formed part of Germany. In 1864, a large military training ground was established around the village. During the
Franco-Prussian War The Franco-Prussian War or Franco-German War, often referred to in France as the War of 1870, was a conflict between the Second French Empire and the North German Confederation led by the Kingdom of Prussia. Lasting from 19 July 1870 to 28 Janua ...
, a
prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
camp for French soldiers was located on the grounds of the training camp. In it more than 3,000 men were incarcerated, 53 of them perished and are buried at the local cemetery. The camp was reactivated during
World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
, when the Germans set up one of the largest POW camps, housing roughly 90,000 internees, mostly from the United Kingdom, Russia, Italy and Serbia. Due to poor housing conditions roughly 7,000 men died in captivity. Closed down following the
Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...
, the camp was reopened on 26 August 1939, shortly before the German
invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...
and start of
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. The infamous
Stalag VIII-B Stalag VIII-B was most recently a German Army (Wehrmacht), German Army administered prisoner-of-war camp#Military District VIII (Breslau), POW camp during World War II, later renumbered Stalag-344, located near the village of Lamsdorf (now Łambin ...
camp housed roughly 100,000 Polish prisoners. In 1940, some of the Poles were transferred to other places of detention and the Germans brought French, British and Cypriot POWs to the camp, and in 1941, thousands of Soviet prisoners were amassed in tragic conditions in a separate camp named
Stalag VIII-F Stalag VIII-F was a German prisoner-of-war camp for Soviet Red Army and Polish Home Army (, abbreviated AK) prisoners during World War II. It was located at the northern end of a Germany Army training area at Lamsdorf, Silesia, (now Łambinowice, ...
. Altogether, throughout World War II more than 300,000 Allied prisoners passed through the camp, between 40,000 and 100,000 of them died. Among them were Poles, Belgians, Frenchmen, Britons, Yugoslavs, Greeks, Soviets, Americans, Romanians,
Italians Italians (, ) are a European peoples, European ethnic group native to the Italian geographical region. Italians share a common Italian culture, culture, History of Italy, history, Cultural heritage, ancestry and Italian language, language. ...
, Australians, Canadians, New Zealanders, Dutchmen and South Africans. Most of those who perished are buried in mass graves in the nearby village of Klucznik and at the local cemetery. In October 1944, soldiers and officers were brought here from the Warsaw Rising, including over 1,000 women. Later, most of them were transferred to other camps. In January 1945, the Germans divided the POWs into groups of 200 to 300 and marched them westwards. After the Soviet takeover of the area, on 17 March 1945 the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...
took the camp over and continued to operate it, this time the institution housed German prisoners of war. A transit camp, run by the Ministry of Internal Security and commanded by Czesław Gęborski (later put on trial for crimes against humanity for his actions in the camp), was also created nearby, serving as an internment, labor and resettlement camp for German
Silesia Silesia (see names #Etymology, below) is a historical region of Central Europe that lies mostly within Poland, with small parts in the Czech Silesia, Czech Republic and Germany. Its area is approximately , and the population is estimated at 8, ...
ns, as a "verification" point for
Silesians Silesians (; Silesian German: ''Schläsinger'' ''or'' ''Schläsier''; ; ; ) is both an ethnic as well as a geographical term for the inhabitants of Silesia, a historical region in Central Europe divided by the current national boundaries o ...
, as well as a camp for former veterans of the Anders'
Polish II Corps The 2nd Polish Corps (), 1943–1947, was a major tactical and operational unit of the Polish Armed Forces in the West during World War II. It was commanded by Lieutenant General Władysław Anders and fought with distinction in the Italian Ca ...
, whom the new communist authorities of Poland saw as ''dangerous''. Out of 8,000Gerhart Hoffmeister, Kurt Frank Reinhardt, Frederic C. Tubach, ''Germany: From the Nazi Era to German unification'', 2nd edition, Continuum International Publishing Group, 1992, pg. 57, internees, it is estimated that between 1,000 and 1,500 German civilians died in the camp,Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty Newsline, 02-09-17
"POLAND OPENS CEMETERY OF VICTIMS OF RESETTLEMENT TO GERMANY"
retrieved 8 July 2009.
mostly by
typhus Typhus, also known as typhus fever, is a group of infectious diseases that include epidemic typhus, scrub typhus, and murine typhus. Common symptoms include fever, headache, and a rash. Typically these begin one to two weeks after exposu ...
and maltreatment. More than 1,130 names are listed in the cemetery. The camp was the most infamous one in Silesia, known for rape and mistreatment.


Memorial

The memory of the inmates of the camps is preserved by a large monument devoted to all the victims of the camp, as well as the Central Prisoner of War Museum, the only such institution in Poland and one of very few in the world.


References


External links


Official webpage

Prisoner of war museum

Lamsdorf Remembered

Jewish Community in Łambinowice
on Virtual Shtetl {{Authority control Villages in Nysa County