Lipno (Polish pronunciation: ; ) is a town in

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 ...

, in

Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship * Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) in Poland. * Kuyavian-Pomeranian is one of 13 Polish constituency of the European Parliament. * Kuyavian-Pomeranian Regional Assembly is the regional legislature of t ...

, about southeast of

Toruń Toruń is a city on the Vistula River in north-central Poland and a World Heritage Sites of Poland, UNESCO World Heritage Site. Its population was 196,935 as of December 2021. Previously, it was the capital of the Toruń Voivodeship (1975–199 ...

. It is the administrative seat of

Lipno County __NOTOC__ Lipno County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-central Poland. It was formed on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed i ...

and of Gmina Lipno. Its population is 14,791 (2010). The town is the birthplace of actress

Pola Negri Pola Negri (; born Barbara Apolonia Chałupiec ; 3 January 1897 – 1 August 1987) was a Polish stage and film actress and singer. She achieved worldwide fame during the silent and golden eras of Hollywood and European film for her tragedienn ...

, economist

Leszek Balcerowicz Leszek Henryk Balcerowicz (pronounced ; born 19 January 1947) is a Polish economist, statesman, and Professor at Warsaw School of Economics. He served as Chairman of the National Bank of Poland (2001–2007) and twice as Deputy Prime Minister of ...

and politician Ya'akov Meridor.

History

Lipno dates back to the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the 5th to the late 15th centuries, similarly to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire and ...

, when it was part of the

Piast The House of Piast was the first historical ruling dynasty of Poland. The first documented Polish monarch was Duke Mieszko I (–992). The Piasts' royal rule in Poland ended in 1370 with the death of King Casimir III the Great. Branches of ...

-ruled

Kingdom of Poland The Kingdom of Poland (; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a monarchy in Central Europe during the Middle Ages, medieval period from 1025 until 1385. Background The West Slavs, West Slavic tribe of Polans (western), Polans who lived in what i ...

. In 1349 it was granted

town rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the tradition ...

. Administratively Lipno was located in the

Dobrzyń Land Dobrzyń Land () is a historical region in central-northern Poland. It lies northeast of the Vistula River, south of the Drwęca, and west of the Skrwa. The territory approximately corresponds with the present-day powiats of Lipno, Rypin, and ...

in the

Inowrocław Voivodeship Inowrocław Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland from the 14th century to the First Partition of Poland in 1772. Together with the neighbouring Brześć Kujawski Voivodeship it was part of the Kuyavia ...

in the

Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown Greater Poland Province () was an administrative division of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland from 1569 until 1795. The name of the province comes from the historic land of Greater Poland. The Greater Poland Province consisted initially of twel ...

. Despite not being the capital of the Dobrzyń Land, Lipno became the region's most important centre and the seat of the

sejmik A sejmik (, diminutive of ''sejm'', occasionally translated as a ''dietine''; ) was one of various local parliaments in the history of Poland and history of Lithuania. The first sejmiks were regional assemblies in the Kingdom of Poland (before ...

of the

. The town 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

Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of partitions of Poland, three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition (politics), partition occurred i ...

in 1793, in 1807 it became part of the short-lived Polish

Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw (; ; ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a First French Empire, French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars. It initially comprised the ethnical ...

and in 1815 it became part of so-called

Congress Poland Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...

in the

Russian Partition The Russian Partition (), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Poland. The Russian ac ...

. Many inhabitants took part in the unsuccessful

November November is the eleventh and penultimate month of the year in the Julian and Gregorian calendars. Its length is 30 days. November was the ninth month of the calendar of Romulus . November retained its name (from the Latin ''novem'' meaning " ...

and

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

s against

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

, after which Lipno was subject to severe persecutions. Nevertheless, local

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 ...

founded various organisations. Lipno became part of independent Poland again, when the country proclaimed independence on 11 November 1918, afterwards the town's cultural life was revived. Poland

During the

Polish–Soviet War The Polish–Soviet War (14 February 1919 – 18 March 1921) was fought primarily between the Second Polish Republic and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, following World War I and the Russian Revolution. After the collapse ...

, the town was briefly occupied by the Soviets from 13–14 August 1920. The Soviets then plundered private homes and shops, as well as the municipal office, and terrorized the population. Prominent local activist and organizer of the Polish defense, Jerzy Starzyński, was subjected to gruesome tortures and murdered. Nearly half of the occupying security forces were local communist

Jews Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...

, recruited mainly from the poor.Krajewski, p. 115 Wealthy Jews and Orthodox Jews did not support the Soviets, and several wealthy Jews were robbed and murdered by the Soviets. Lipno was liberated by Poles on 20 August 1920. A monument to local Polish soldiers fallen in the war was erected in 1930. In 1924, Zygmunt Uzarowicz, a former Polish independence activist in the Russian Partition of Poland, became the mayor of the town, and held office until 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 ...

in 1939. During the

, 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 ...

, the town was raided by the Germans on 2 September 1939 and captured on 8 September. During the

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 ...

were subject to mass arrests, expulsions and executions. A prison for Poles was established in the town. In October 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of Polish teachers and landowners from Lipno and surrounding villages, deceitfully gathering them to Lipno for alleged conferences on town matters. 71 teachers and several dozen landowners were arrested, imprisoned in

concentration In chemistry, concentration is the abundance of a constituent divided by the total volume of a mixture. Several types of mathematical description can be distinguished: '' mass concentration'', '' molar concentration'', '' number concentration'', ...

and

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 ...

camps, and mostly later murdered. Also 20 priests were arrested and imprisoned in the

Stutthof concentration camp Stutthof was a Nazi concentration camp established by Nazi Germany in a secluded, marshy, and wooded area near the village of Stutthof (now Sztutowo) 34 km (21 mi) east of the city of Danzig (Gdańsk) in the territory of the German-an ...

, where 13 of whom died. Around 200 Poles and Jews from Lipno and surrounding villages were murdered in the forest near Karnkowo.Wardzyńska, p. 175 Next mass arrests of Poles were carried out in April 1940. 10 Poles were murdered in a public execution at the

market square A market square (also known as a market place) is an urban square meant for trading, in which a market is held. It is an important feature of many towns and cities around the world. A market square is an open area where market stalls are tradit ...

on 3 November 1940. The pre-war mayor Zygmunt Uzarowicz was arrested and imprisoned in

Grudziądz Grudziądz (, ) is a city in northern Poland, with 92,552 inhabitants (2021). Located on the Vistula River, it lies within the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship and is the fourth-largest city in its province. Grudziądz is one of the oldest citie ...

in 1940, and then deported to the

Dachau Dachau (, ; , ; ) was one of the first concentration camps built by Nazi Germany and the longest-running one, opening on 22 March 1933. The camp was initially intended to intern Hitler's political opponents, which consisted of communists, s ...

and

Buchenwald Buchenwald (; 'beech forest') was a German Nazi concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany, in July 1937. It was one of the first and the largest of the concentration camps within the Altreich (Old Reich) territori ...

concentration camps, where he was beaten to death by the Germans in 1942. In addition, about 3,300 Poles were expelled from the

, and Jews were deported to

Nazi ghettos Beginning with the invasion of Poland during World War II, the Nazi Germany, Nazi regime set up ghettos across German-occupied Europe, German-occupied Eastern Europe in order to segregate and confine Jews, and sometimes Romani people, into small ...

, however Poles managed to create an

underground resistance movement A resistance movement is an organized group of people that tries to resist or try to overthrow a government or an occupying power, causing disruption and unrest in civil order and stability. Such a movement may seek to achieve its goals through ei ...

. In 1939, the Germans destroyed the Polish monument from 1930.Krajewski, p. 122 It was rebuilt in 1992.

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 ...

team is , which competes in the lower leagues.

Notable residents

* Ya'akov Meridor (born Yaakov Viniarsky; 1913–1995), Israeli politician, Minister, Irgun commander, and businessman

Gallery

Kościół par.p.w. Najświętszej Marii Panny w Lipnie N. Chylińska.JPG, Church of the Assumption Poczta z oficyną w Lipnie N. Chylińska.JPG, Post office Lipno - miejsce straceń.jpg, Memorial at the site of a public execution of 10 Poles by the Germans in 1940 Poland. Lipno 031.JPG, World War II memorial Zygmunt Uzarowicz plaque in Lipno.jpg, Memorial plaque to pre-war mayor Zygmunt Uzarowicz Poland. Lipno 026.JPG, District court

References

External links

Official town websiteFestival"Pola and others"
{{Authority control Cities and towns in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Lipno County