Kuźnica Żelichowska () 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 ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Krzyż Wielkopolski __NOTOC__ Gmina Krzyż Wielkopolski is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Czarnków-Trzcianka County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. Its seat is the town of Krzyż Wielkopolski, which lies approximately west of ...

, within Czarnków-Trzcianka County,

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 west-central Poland. It lies approximately north-east of

Krzyż Wielkopolski Krzyż Wielkopolski () is a town in Poland, with 6,176 inhabitants (2019) in the Czarnków-Trzcianka County, Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is an important railroad junction, with two major lines crossing there - the Berlin-Bydgoszcz and the Pozn ...

, west of

Czarnków Czarnków is a town in Poland in Czarnków-Trzcianka County in Greater Poland Voivodeship. As of December 2021, the town has 10,279 inhabitants. The town lies on the Noteć river. Because there are many hills around the town, the area is called ...

, and north-west 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

Kuźnica Żelichowska was a private village of

Polish nobility The ''szlachta'' (; ; ) were the nobility, noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. Depending on the definition, they were either a warrior "caste" or a social ...

, administratively located in the Poznań County in the

Poznań Voivodeship Poznań Voivodeship was the name of several former administrative regions (''województwo'', rendered as ''voivodeship'' and usually translated as "province") in Poland, centered on the city of Poznań, although the exact boundaries changed over t ...

in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. It was annexed by

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

First Partition of Poland The First Partition of Poland took place in 1772 as the first of three partitions that eventually ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The growth of power in the Russian Empire threatened the Kingdom of Prussia an ...

in 1772, and from 1871 it was also part of Germany, within which the

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 was subjected to Germanisation policies. During the final stages of

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 January 28, 1945, the retreating Germans committed a massacre of six Italian generals ( Giuseppe Andreoli, Emanuele Balbo Bertone, Ugo Ferrero,

Carlo Spatocco Carlo Spatocco (31 May 1883 – 28 January 1945) was an Italian general during World War II. Biography Spatocco was born in Chieti on 31 May 1883, the son of Francesco Spatocco, and after enlisting in the Royal Italian Army he participated i ...

, Alberto Trionfi, Alessandro Vaccaneo) during a German-perpetrated

death march A death march is a forced march of prisoners of war, other captives, or deportees in which individuals are left to die along the way. It is distinct from simple prisoner transport via foot march. Article 19 of the Geneva Convention requires tha ...

of prisoners of war. After the German withdrawal, the massacred Italians were buried by local Poles.Muraca, p. 24 The village returned to Poland.

References

{{Authority control Villages in Czarnków-Trzcianka County Populated riverside places in Poland Sites of Nazi war crimes in Poland