Biskupia Górka (, sometimes ''Bischofshügel'') is a neighbourhood and hill in

Gdańsk Gdańsk is a city on the Baltic Sea, Baltic coast of northern Poland, and the capital of the Pomeranian Voivodeship. With a population of 486,492, Data for territorial unit 2261000. it is Poland's sixth-largest city and principal seaport. Gdań ...

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 ...

, located in the Śródmieście district. Historically, Biskupia Górka had important strategic meaning, since it is a hill close to the main city.

History

As part of the

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland (; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a monarchy in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval period from 1025 until 1385. Background The West Slavs, West Slavic tribe of Polans (western), Polans who lived in what i ...

it was a possession of the

Roman Catholic Diocese of Włocławek Roman or Romans most often refers to: *Rome, the capital city of Italy *Ancient Rome, Roman civilization from 8th century BC to 5th century AD *Roman people, the people of Roman civilization *Epistle to the Romans, shortened to Romans, a letter w ...

, administratively located in the Gdańsk County in the

Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship ( ; ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk. The voivodeship was established on January 1, 1999, out of the former voivodeships of Gdańsk Voivo ...

. Fortifications were built on the hill in the 17th century. After the

Partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...

, Polish insurgents of the

November Uprising The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution, was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...

were imprisoned by the Prussians in the fortifications. Following 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 ...

, which started

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 ...

in 1939, the Germans established a subcamp of the

Stalag XX-A Stalag XX-A was a German World War II German prisoner-of-war camps in World War II, prisoner-of-war camp located in Toruń in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), German-occupied Poland. It was not a single camp and contained as many as 20,000 men ...

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

, in which Polish POWs were held. It was later converted into a subcamp of the Stalag XX-B camp, and its prisoners were mostly the French. Some 1,200 POWs were held there as of December 31, 1940. On July 4, 1946, eleven guards and kapos of the

Stutthof concentration camp Stutthof was a Nazi concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in a secluded, marshy, and wooded area near the village of Stutthof (now Sztutowo) 34 km (21 mi) east of the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) in the territory of the German-an ...

were publicly hanged for what was described as " sadistic abuse of prisoners." Among those hanged were five women: Gerda Steinhoff,

Wanda Klaff Wanda Klaff (6 March 1922 – 4 July 1946) was a Nazi concentration camp overseer. Klaff was born in Danzig to German parents as Wanda Kalacinski. After the war, she was executed for crimes against humanity. Early life Wanda Kalacinski was ...

, Jenny-Wanda Barkmann, Ewa Paradies and Elisabeth Becker, all of whom had been convicted during the first Stutthof trial, at Gdańsk between April 25 and May 31, 1946. The former Mennonite church is located in Biskupia Górka.

References

About the execution (in German)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Biskupia Gorka Districts of Gdańsk Execution sites

History

See also

References