Iłowo-Osada 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 ...

Działdowo County __NOTOC__ Działdowo County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, northern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed ...

, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, in northern 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 Iłowo-Osada. It lies approximately south-east of

Działdowo Działdowo (; , ) is a town in northern Poland with 20,935 inhabitants as of December 2021, the capital of Działdowo County. As part of Masuria, it is situated in the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship (since 1999), Działdowo belonged previously to Cie ...

and south of the regional capital

Olsztyn Olsztyn ( , ) is a city on the Łyna River in northern Poland. It is the capital of the Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship, and is a city with powiat rights, city with county rights. The population of the city was estimated at 169,793 residents Olsz ...

. It is located in the historic region of

Masuria Masuria ( ; ; ) is an ethnographic and geographic region in northern and northeastern Poland, known for its 2,000 lakes. Masuria occupies much of the Masurian Lake District. Administratively, it is part of the Warmian–Masurian Voivodeship (ad ...

History

Initially, the villages of Iłowo-Osada and Iłowo-Wieś formed one village, simply named Iłowo. It was divided only after 1945. In the late 19th century, the village had an almost entirely

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 ...

population of 416.

World War II

Following the

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 ...

by Nazi Germany, Iłowo became the location of one of three sub-camps of the

Soldau concentration camp The Soldau concentration camp established by Nazi Germany during World War II was a concentration camp for Polish and Jewish prisoners. It was located in Działdowo (), a town in north-eastern Poland, which after the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland ...

in nearby

. The Iłowo transit camp existed in 1941–45. Prisoners were held at a brick building (pictured) and the adjacent barracks. Up to 2,000 Polish children 5-years-old and younger were among the prisoners as well as pregnant women-inmates awaiting birth (see also ''

Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany During World War II, around 200,000 ethnic Polish children as well as an unknown number of children of other ethnicities were abducted from their homes and forcibly transported to Nazi Germany for purposes of Forced labour under German rule during ...

''). The men, including Poles and the Soviets (following

Operation Barbarossa Operation Barbarossa was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and several of its European Axis allies starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during World War II. More than 3.8 million Axis troops invaded the western Soviet Union along ...

), were kept there usually for several days only. Many children belonged to slave labourers already deported to the Third Reich. The children underwent selection for

Germanization Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, German people, people, and German culture, culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nati ...

before being sent to German families. Among those who were not selected death rate was very high. There were no medicines in the camp and no doctors. The food and water were rationed. After giving birth women prisoners were sent back to work camps. In 1940 and 1942, the German gendarmerie and police also carried out expulsions of local Poles, whose houses and workshops were then handed over to

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 ...

colonists as part of the ''

Lebensraum (, ) is a German concept of expansionism and Völkisch movement, ''Völkisch'' nationalism, the philosophy and policies of which were common to German politics from the 1890s to the 1940s. First popularized around 1901, '' lso in:' beca ...

'' policy.

Transport

There is a train station in the village.

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 Polonia Iłowo. It competes in the lower leagues.

Notable residents

* Hans Kummetz (1890-1918), German

flying ace A flying ace, fighter ace or air ace is a military aviation, military aviator credited with shooting down a certain minimum number of enemy aircraft during aerial combat; the exact number of aerial victories required to officially qualify as an ...

* Oskar Kummetz (1891–1980), German admiral *

Henryk Szordykowski Henryk Jan Szordykowski (3 June 1944 – 25 December 2022) was a Polish runner who specialized in the 800 metres and 1500 metres. He was born in Iłowo-Osada and represented the club Wawel Kraków.Villages in Działdowo County