Opoki is a village in the administrative district of

Gmina Aleksandrów Kujawski __NOTOC__ Gmina Aleksandrów Kujawski is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Aleksandrów County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. Its seat is the town of Aleksandrów Kujawski, although the town is not part of the t ...

, within

Aleksandrów County __NOTOC__ Aleksandrów County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government refor ...

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 ...

, in north-central Poland. It lies approximately south-west of

Aleksandrów Kujawski Aleksandrów Kujawski (until 1879: ''Trojanów'', 1879–1919: ''Aleksandrów Pograniczny'') is a town in north-central Poland, in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is the seat of Aleksandrów County, as well as of Gmina Aleksandrów Kujawski ( ...

and south 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 located in the region of

Kuyavia Kuyavia (; ), also referred to as Cuyavia, is a historical region in north-central Poland, situated on the left bank of Vistula, as well as east from Noteć River and Lake Gopło. It is divided into three traditional parts: north-western (with th ...

History

In 1292,

Władysław I Łokietek Władysław I Łokietek, in English known as the "Elbow-high" or Ladislaus the Short (c. 1260/12 March 1333), was King of Poland from 1320 to 1333, and duke of several of the provinces and principalities in the preceding years. He was a member of ...

allowed Bishop

Tomasz Tomka Tomasz Tomka was thirteenth century Bishop of Płock, Poland. He was Bishop from 1271 till 1294. He may have been of Prussian descent, although medieval Chronicler, Jan Długosz claims Polish origines. He had at least a school level education, and ...

to build a castle in Opoki. In 1454, Opoki was the place of gathering of the Polish Army at the beginning of the Thirteen Years' War and King

Casimir IV Jagiellon Casimir IV (Casimir Andrew Jagiellon; ; Lithuanian: ; 30 November 1427 – 7 June 1492) was Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1440 and King of Poland from 1447 until his death in 1492. He was one of the most active Polish-Lithuanian rulers; under ...

stayed there for over two weeks. In the late 19th century, the village had a population of 318, predominantly

Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the List of Christian denominations by number of members, largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics Catholic Church by country, worldwid ...

by confession. During

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 ...

, Opoki was occupied by Germany. The Germans renamed it to ''Groß Ottingen'' in attempt to erase traces of Polish origin. In 1939–1940, they carried out expulsions of Poles, whose farms were then handed over to

Germans Germans (, ) are the natives or inhabitants of Germany, or sometimes more broadly any people who are of German descent or native speakers of the German language. The Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, constitution of Germany, imple ...

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 either deported 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 ...

in the more eastern part of German-occupied Poland or enslaved as

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 ...

of German colonists in the area.

References

Villages in Aleksandrów County {{Aleksandrów-geo-stub