Kościelec 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 ...

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

Greater Poland Voivodeship Greater Poland Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in west-central Poland. The province is named after the region called Greater Poland (''Wielkopolska'' ). The modern province includes most of this historic re ...

, in central 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 Kościelec __NOTOC__ Gmina Kościelec is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Koło County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. Its seat is the village of Kościelec, which lies approximately south-west of Koło and east of the regio ...

. It lies approximately south-west of

Koło Koło () is a town on the Warta River in central Poland with 23,101 inhabitants (2006). It is situated in the Greater Poland Voivodship and it is the capital of Koło County. History Koło is one of the oldest towns in Poland. It was granted ...

and east of the regional capital

Poznań Poznań ( ) is a city on the Warta, River Warta in west Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business center and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint John's ...

History

As part of the region of

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...

, i.e. the cradle of the Polish state, the area formed part of Poland since its establishment in the 10th century. Kościelec was a royal village of the Kingdom of Poland, administratively located in the Konin County in the Kalisz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province. In 1827, it had a population of 285. During 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 ...

, on September 14, 1939, German troops carried out a massacre of a group of hiding

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

(see ''

Nazi crimes against the Polish nation War crime, Crimes against the Polish nation committed by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, Axis collaborationist forces during the invasion of Poland, along with Schutzmannschaft#Police battalions, auxiliary battalions during the subsequent occu ...

'').

References

Populated riverside places in Poland Villages in Koło County Sites of World War II massacres of Poles Sites of Nazi war crimes during the Invasion of Poland {{Koło-geo-stub