Maków Mazowiecki () is a town in Poland, in the Masovian Voivodship. It is the

powiat A ''powiat'' (; ) is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture (Local administrative unit, LAU-1 ormerly Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, NUTS-4 ...

capital of

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

(or Powiat of Maków). Its population is 10,850.

History

The town obtained its town charter in 1421. It was a Polish royal town, administratively located in the

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 ...

in the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown. A battle was fought nearby on August 19, 1920, during the Polish-Soviet War. Before 1939 about 7,000 people lived in Maków, including 4,000

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 ...

and 3,000 Jews. 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 ...

, the '' Einsatzgruppe V'' entered the town on September 10–11, 1939, commit atrocities against the population. The ''Einsatzgruppe V'' immediately carried out searches of Polish offices and organizations.Wardzyńska, p. 112 Medicines from pharmacies and local supplies of grain, sugar and rice were confiscated for the German Army. Under German occupation the name was Germanized to ''Mackeim''. In Maków, the Germans operated a concentration camp for ill and disabled people from the region.Wardzyńska, p. 236 In February 1940, the Germans murdered 560 people from the camp in a forest near Wyszogród, while 50 people from the local hospital were murdered in the nearby village of Grzanka. The Jewish community was murdered by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

. Some killings were done in the town; thousands of Maków Mazowiecki Jews were murdered at the Auschwi tz concentration camp. The Germans also operated a forced labour camp in the town from 1941 to 1944. While
secret protocol
had been struck prior to

between

and the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

that laid plans to split up Poland between them, Germany later abrogated this agreement and struck deeply into Russian territory. The Germans occupied Maków Mazowiecki from September 1939 to April 1945. In January 1945, heavy fighting and artillery barrages destroyed 90% of the town's buildings.

Demographics

Notable people

* David Azrieli - Canadian businessman and philanthropist * Kamil Majkowski - Polish football player * Hyman G. Rickover - admiral in the

US Navy The United States Navy (USN) is the naval warfare, maritime military branch, service branch of the United States Department of Defense. It is the world's most powerful navy with the largest Displacement (ship), displacement, at 4.5 millio ...

, born in Maków in 1900. His leadership in the nuclear propulsion and power generation was instrumental in developing a culture where safety was paramount. * Leib Langfus - Rabbi from Makow, later murdered in Auschwitz-Birkenau. His diary of his deportation and time in Auschwitz-Birkenau are considered one of the most valuable Holocaust era eyewitness testimonies. *Mordechai Ciechanower (1924-2025) - Holocaust survivor (Auschwitz, Stutthof, and other camps), public speaker and author. He dedicated the latter part of his life to Holocaust education through writing, accompanying Israeli high school students and soldiers to Holocaust sites in Poland, and giving testimony through public speaking. His autobiography, "A Star Gleams in the Distance,” was published in Hebrew, English, German and Polish. In 2014, he was the subject of a film titled, “Der Dachdecker von Birkenau (“The Roofer of Birkenau”). Ciechanower also helped the Polish underground while in Auschwitz. After his liberation, he disguised himself as a member of the British Army’s Jewish Brigade and made his way to Palestine where he fought in Israel’s War of Independence.

References

External links

Official town webpageLocation via Encarta Maps

"Mapping the Holocaust" -- pictures Soviet and German officers dividing Poland

Jewish Community in Maków Mazowiecki
on Virtual Shtetl {{Authority control Cities and towns in Masovian Voivodeship Maków County Holocaust locations in Poland