Nowy Tomyśl is a town in western

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

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 ...

. It is the capital of

Nowy Tomyśl County __NOTOC__ Nowy Tomyśl 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 pas ...

. The population is 15,627 (2004).

History

The town has a long tradition of wickerwork. In the main town square stands a wicker basket woven in 2006, measuring long, 9 m wide and 7.7 m high, entered in the

Guinness Book of Records ''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listi ...

as the world's largest basket. The town also has a Museum of Basketry and Hop Growing, which is one of the branches of the

National Museum of Agriculture in Szreniawa The National Museum of Agriculture in Szreniawa (, full name: ''National Museum of Agriculture and Agricultural-Food Industry in Szreniawa'') is a museum whose main site is in the village of Szreniawa, south of Poznań in western Poland. It was f ...

. Next to the museum is a small

zoo A zoo (short for zoological garden; also called an animal park or menagerie) is a facility where animals are kept within enclosures for public exhibition and often bred for conservation purposes. The term ''zoological garden'' refers to zoology, ...

. Following the joint German-Soviet

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 ...

in September 1939, the town was occupied by Germany until 1945. In December 1939, the German gendarmerie carried out the first expulsions of Poles, including families of

intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...

, activists and owners of workshops, bakeries and restaurants, which were then 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 as part of 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. Expelled Poles were deported to a transit camp in Młyniewo, and then to the Radom District in the more-eastern part of German-occupied Poland. In January 1945, 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 various nationalities from the dissolved camp in Żabikowo to the

Sachsenhausen concentration camp Sachsenhausen () or Sachsenhausen-Oranienburg was a German Nazi concentration camp in Oranienburg, Germany, used from 1936 until April 1945, shortly before the defeat of Nazi Germany in May later that year. It mainly held political prisoners t ...

passed through the town. Since 2012, Nowy Tomyśl has been the site of one of the tallest wind turbines in the world.

Notable people

* Sławomir Busch (born 1998), Polish volleyball player *

Mateusz Kościukiewicz Mateusz Kościukiewicz (; born 1 May 1986 in Nowy Tomyśl) is a Polish film actor. Early life and career He grew up in Nowy Tomyśl, where he attended the General and Post-Secondary Schools. He studied at the Kraków State Higher Theater School ...

(born 1986), Polish actor * Paweł Najdek (born 1973), Polish weightlifter * Tomasz Tomiak (1967–2020), Polish rower

References

External links

* {{Authority control Cities and towns in Greater Poland Voivodeship Nowy Tomyśl County