Morzewo 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 Kaczory __NOTOC__ Gmina Kaczory is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Piła County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. Its seat is the village of Kaczory, which lies approximately south-east of Piła and north of the regional ca ...

, within

Piła County __NOTOC__ Piła 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 passed in ...

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 south of Kaczory, south-east of

Piła Piła (; ) is a city in northwestern Poland and the capital of Piła County, situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. Its population was 71,846, making it the city in the voivodeship after Poznań and Kalisz and the largest city in the north ...

, and north 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

Morzewo 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 Nakło County in the

Kalisz Voivodeship Kalisz Voivodeship may also refer to: *Kalisz Voivodeship (1314–1793) * Kalisz Voivodeship (1816–1837) *Kalisz Voivodeship (1975–1998) The Kalisz Voivodeship was a voivodeship (province) of the Polish People's Republic from 1975 to 1989, an ...

in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. According to the

1921 census The United Kingdom Census 1921 was a census of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that was carried out on 19 June 1921. It was postponed for two months from April due to industrial unrest and no census was taken in Ireland due to the ...

, the village had a population of 962, 99.2%

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 ...

. During the

German occupation of Poland 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 ...

(

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 November 7, 1939, the German police carried out a massacre of 41 Poles in the village as part of the ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders committed against the Polish people, Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) during the ...

''. Among the victims were teachers, school principals, priests, policemen, local officials including mayor of the nearby town of

Chodzież Chodzież () is a town in northwestern Poland with 17,976 inhabitants as of December 2021, seat of the Chodzież County in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. Geography Chodzież is located in the northern part of Greater Poland (western Poland), i ...

, merchants, craftsmen, farmers and former insurgents of the Greater Poland uprising from various nearby towns and villages. In 1943, the Germans burned the bodies of the victims in attempt to cover up the crime. In November 1940, several Polish families were expelled from Morzewo to the

General Government The General Government (, ; ; ), formally the General Governorate for the Occupied Polish Region (), was a German zone of occupation established after the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, Slovak Republic (1939–1945), Slovakia and the Soviet ...

, and some were deported to

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 ...

to Germany, while their farms were 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 in accordance to 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. The main sights of Morzewo are the historic church of the Transfiguration and the memorial at the site of the 1939 massacre.

References

{{Massacres of Poles Villages in Piła County Intelligenzaktion massacre locations