Błaszki () is a town in

Sieradz County __NOTOC__ Sieradz County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its ...

Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province is named after its capital and largest city, Łódź, pronounced . Łódź Voivodeship is bordered by six other voivodeships: Masovian Voivodeship ...

, in central

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 ...

, with 1,992 inhabitants as of December 2021.

History

Błaszki was founded in the 14th century. In 1926, town limits were greatly expanded by including the settlements of Janówka and Lubanów and a part of Borysławice as new neighbourhoods.

Jewish community

The first historical mention of Jewish residents dates back to 1717. In the 1860s, Jewish residents accounted for 60% of the total population. Until the 1920s, an estimated 400 Jewish families and 215 Christian families resided in Blaszki. The Jewish community was frequently targeted by anti-Semitic attacks. Additionally, they were the victims of organized anti-Jewish boycotts which arranged to open a Christian shop next door or directly across from every Jewish shop. 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 ...

brought an end to this community. In September 1939, immediately after the

German German(s) may refer to: * Germany, the country of the Germans and German things **Germania (Roman era) * Germans, citizens of Germany, people of German ancestry, or native speakers of the German language ** For citizenship in Germany, see also Ge ...

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 ...

, the

Nazis Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During H ...

arrested ten of the most important members of the community and executed them On December 20, 1939, the Błaszki Jews were transported to

Łosice Łosice (; ''Loshitz'', ''Lositze'') is a town in eastern Poland, seat of the Łosice County and Gmina Łosice (commune) in the Masovian Voivodeship. History Łosice was first mentioned in 1264, as a medieval settlement from around the 11th– ...

Sarnaki Sarnaki is a village in Łosice County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Sarnaki. It lies approximately north-east of Łosice and east of Warsaw Warsaw, offic ...

and Sokołowo. In 1932 a local Zionist activist and writer , published ''Fun alṭn ḳloysṭer'' (''From The Old Monastery'', in

Yiddish Yiddish, historically Judeo-German, is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated in 9th-century Central Europe, and provided the nascent Ashkenazi community with a vernacular based on High German fused with ...

), a book of tales and legends about Błaszki and the then Kalisz County.

Notable people

* Isaac Meir Kanal (Rabbi of Blaszki 1907-1922) * Chaim Pinchas Lubinsky *

Phillip Blashki Phillip Blashki (21 February 1837 – 21 October 1916) was a Polish immigrant to Australia who rose to be a successful businessman, magistrate, Justice of the peace, JP, holder of many positions of public responsibility and associated with numero ...

References

External links

Official website

Błaszki
in the 1880

Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland The Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland and other Slavic Countries () is a monumental Polish gazetteer, published 1880–1902 in Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns ...

Błaszki
in the 1900 Geographical Dictionary of the Kingdom of Poland
Jewish community of Błaszki
on

Virtual Shtetl The Virtual Shtetl () is a bilingual Polish-English portal of the Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw, devoted to the Jewish history of Poland. History The Virtual Shtetl website was officially launched on June 16, 2009 by founder A ...

Online text of ''Von Dem Alten Kloster''
Cities and towns in Łódź Voivodeship Sieradz County {{Sieradz-geo-stub