Błonie is a town in

Warsaw West County __NOTOC__ The Warsaw West County () is a county in Masovian Voivodeship, located in the east-central Poland, with its seat of government located in Ożarów Mazowiecki. Other towns located in the county are: Łomianki, and Błonie. It was esta ...

Masovian Voivodeship Masovian Voivodeship or Mazowieckie Province (, ) and any variation thereof, is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) in east-central Poland, containing Poland's capital Warsaw. Masovian Voivodeship has an area of and had a 2019 po ...

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 ...

History

The settlement dates back to the 8th century. It was first mentioned in the 11th century, and already in the 12th century constituted a sizeable settlement with the first church founded in 1257 by Duke

Konrad II of Masovia Konrad II of Czersk (pl: ''Konrad II czerski''; c. 1250 – 24 June/21 October 1294 assumed that both dates are equally likely), was a Polish prince member of the House of Piast, Duke of Masovia during 1264-1275 jointly with his brother, after 127 ...

. The church built in the Early Gothic style exists to this day, although rebuilt several times. The town rights were granted to Błonie by Duke Władysław of

Kraków , officially the Royal Capital City of Kraków, is the List of cities and towns in Poland, second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city has a population of 804,237 ...

on 2 May 1338.

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 ...

Błonie
The History of Błonie.
Oficjalny serwis internetowy Miasta i Gminy Błonie. Błonie was a royal town of Poland and a county seat in the

in the Greater Poland Province. In the 16th century Błonie was a prosperous town, especially known for shoemaking and brewing. Five annual

fair A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of go ...

s were held in the town. The town was granted new royal privileges in 1580 and 1688. One of two main routes connecting

Warsaw Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...

and

Dresden Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...

ran through the town in the 18th century and Kings

Augustus II the Strong Augustus II the Strong (12 May 1670 – 1 February 1733), was Elector of Saxony from 1694 as well as King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1697 to 1706 and from 1709 until his death in 1733. He belonged to the Albertine branch of the H ...

and

Augustus III of Poland Augustus III (; – "the Saxon"; ; 17 October 1696 5 October 1763) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1733 until 1763, as well as List of rulers of Saxony, Elector of Saxony i ...

often traveled that route. In 1794, during the

Kościuszko Uprising The Kościuszko Uprising, also known as the Polish Uprising of 1794, Second Polish War, Polish Campaign of 1794, and the Polish Revolution of 1794, was an uprising against the Russian and Prussian influence on the Polish–Lithuanian Common ...

, Poles led by

Stanisław Mokronowski Stanisław Mokronowski (1761-1821) was a prominent member of the Polish landed gentry of Bogoria coat of arms. A general of the Polish Army and a royal Chamberlain Mokronowski took part in both the Polish–Russian War of 1792 (War in the Def ...

won the Battle of Błonie against

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, ...

. In the 1921 census, 91.3% of the population declared

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

nationality and 8.6% declared Jewish nationality.

World War II

During the Nazi 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 ...

at the onset of World War II, the unit of ''

Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler The 1st SS Panzer Division Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler or SS Division Leibstandarte, abbreviated as LSSAH (), began as Adolf Hitler's personal bodyguard unit, responsible for guarding the Führer's person, offices, and residences. Initially th ...

'' murdered 50 civilians (mostly Jews) on the outskirts of Błonie in a single mass execution, on '' (pl)'' of 18 September 1939. In 1939, the Germans established a transit camp for Polish

prisoners 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 ...

in the town, and later also a

forced labour Forced labour, or unfree labour, is any work relation, especially in modern or early modern history, in which people are employed against their will with the threat of destitution, detention, or violence, including death or other forms of ...

camp. The Polish resistance movement was active in the town's vicinity. German authorities established a Jewish ghetto in Błonie in December 1940,The statistical data compiled on the basis o
"Glossary of 2,077 Jewish towns in Poland"
by ''

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 ...

Museum of the History of the Polish Jews POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews () is a museum on the site of the former Warsaw Ghetto. The Hebrew word ''Polin'' in the museum's English name means either "Poland" or "rest here" and relates to a legend about the arrival of the firs ...

, as well a
"Getta Żydowskie," by ''Gedeon''
and "Ghetto List" by Michael Peters at www.deathcamps.org/occupation/ghettolist.htm . Accessed July 12, 2011. in order to confine the

Jewish population the world's core Jewish population (those identifying as Jews above all else) was estimated at 15.8 million, which is approximately 0.2% of the 8 billion worldwide population. Israel hosts the largest core Jewish population in the world with ...

of the town for the purpose of persecution, terror, and exploitation."The War Against The Jews."
''The Holocaust Chronicle,'' 2009. Chicago, Il. Accessed June 21, 2011. The ghetto was liquidated in February 1941, when all its remaining 2,100 Jewish inhabitants were transported aboard the

Holocaust train Holocaust trains were railway transports run by the ''Deutsche Reichsbahn'' and other European railways under the control of Nazi Germany and its allies, for the purpose of forcible deportation of the Jews, as well as other victims of the Holo ...

to the

Warsaw Ghetto The Warsaw Ghetto (, officially , ; ) was the largest of the Nazi ghettos during World War II and the Holocaust. It was established in November 1940 by the Nazi Germany, German authorities within the new General Government territory of Occupat ...

, the largest ghetto in all of German-occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of (meaning that every person had less than an area 9 feet by 10 feet in which to sleep, eat and walk around the ghetto), or 7.2 persons per room.Warsaw Ghetto

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM) is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust, dedicated to the documentation, study, and interpretation of the Holocaust. Opened in 1993, the museum explores the Holocaust through p ...

(USHMM),

Washington, D.C. Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly known as Washington or D.C., is the capital city and federal district of the United States. The city is on the Potomac River, across from Virginia, and shares land borders with ...

By the time Poland was liberated from

German occupation German-occupied Europe, or Nazi-occupied Europe, refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly militarily occupied and civil-occupied, including puppet states, by the (armed forces) and the government of Nazi Germany at ...

, not a single Jewish ghetto remained.

Richard C. Lukas Richard Conrad Lukas (born August 29, 1937) is an American historian and author of books and articles on Military history, military, Diplomatic history, diplomatic, History of Poland, Polish, and History of the Poles in the United States, Polis ...

, ''Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust'', University Press of Kentucky 1989 - 201 pages. Page 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, ''The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944'', University Press of Kentucky, 1986
Google Print, p.13
Gunnar S. Paulsson, "The Rescue of Jews by Non-Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland," ''Journal of Holocaust Education'', Vol.7, Nos.1&2, 1998, pp.19-44. Published by Frank Cass, London.Edward Victor
"Ghettos and Other Jewish Communities."
''Judaica Philatelic''. Accessed June 20, 2011.

Transport

Błonie railway station, opened in 1902 on the

Warsaw–Kalisz Railway The Warsaw–Kalisz Railway (), also called Kalisz Railway is a railway in Poland connecting Warsaw and Kalisz. It was built between 1900 - 1902 by the ''Society of the Warsaw–Vienna railway'' in the Russian-controlled Congress Poland. The line ...

, is served by

Koleje Mazowieckie Masovian Railways, in Polish Koleje Mazowieckie, is a regional rail operator in the Masovian Voivodeship of Poland. History The company was founded in 2004 as a joint venture of the Masovian Voivodeship, with 51% shares, and the then governmen ...

, who run services between

Kutno Kutno is a city in central Poland with 42,704 inhabitants (2021) and an area of . It is the capital of Kutno County in the Łódź Voivodeship. Founded in the medieval period, Kutno was a local center of crafts and trade, owing its growth to i ...

and

Warszawa Wschodnia Warszawa Wschodnia, in English Warsaw East, is one of the most important railway stations in Warsaw, Poland. Its more official name is ''Warszawa Wschodnia Osobowa'' (translated as ''Warsaw East Passenger''). It is located on the eastern side of t ...

Sports

The local

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club is . It competes in the lower leagues.

International relations

Twin towns - sister cities

Błonie is twinned with: * Coreno Ausonio, Italy

References

External links

Official website

Jewish Community of Błonie
on

{{Authority control Cities and towns in Masovian Voivodeship Warsaw West County Holocaust locations in Poland Sites of Nazi war crimes during the Invasion of Poland Populated places established in the 8th century