Osjaków is a

city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

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

Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province is named after its capital and largest city, Łódź, pronounced . Łódź Voivodeship is bordered by six other voivodeships: Masovian Voivodeship ...

, in central Poland. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

(administrative district) called

Gmina Osjaków __NOTOC__ Gmina Osjaków is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Wieluń County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. Its seat is the village of Osjaków, which lies approximately north-east of Wieluń and south-west of the regional capi ...

. It lies approximately north-east of

Wieluń Wieluń () is a town in south-central Poland with 21,624 inhabitants (2021). The town is the seat of the Gmina Wieluń and Wieluń County, and is located within the Łódź Voivodeship. Wieluń is a capital of the historical Wieluń Land. W ...

and south-west of the regional capital

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

History

Origin of the name

There are several theories for the origin of the name ''Osjaków''. One of the most well-known is that a prince, travelling through the area, supposedly decided to set up camp at the site of the modern-day town. He was stopped when a swarm of

wasp A wasp is any insect of the narrow-waisted suborder Apocrita of the order Hymenoptera which is neither a bee nor an ant; this excludes the broad-waisted sawflies (Symphyta), which look somewhat like wasps, but are in a separate suborder ...

s attacked him and his servants, and the prince began shouting the Polish word for 'wasps', "Osy!" Supposedly with time, this was altered to ''Osy-jakow'' and ''Osjakow''. The most likely origin for the name of the town comes from the

Burgrave Burgrave, also rendered as burggrave (from , ), was since the medieval period in Europe (mainly Germany) the official title for the ruler of a castle, especially a royal or episcopal castle, and its territory called a ''Burgraviate'' or ''Burgr ...

, Jan Ostrowski, who was the owner of Osjaków.

Early history (Middle Ages)

The first mentions of Osjaków come from the 15th century, although there is indirect evidence that it had been a town before this time, at least as far back as 1299. The town's ideal location on the

Warta The river Warta ( , ; ; ) rises in central Poland and meanders greatly through the Polish Plain in a north-westerly direction to flow into the Oder at Kostrzyn nad Odrą on Poland's border with Germany. About long, it the second-longest riv ...

river meant it was able to develop rapidly. By 1499, it had three working

water mill A watermill or water mill is a mill that uses hydropower. It is a structure that uses a water wheel or water turbine to drive a mechanical process such as milling (grinding), rolling, or hammering. Such processes are needed in the production ...

s. It was a

private town Private towns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were privately owned towns within the lands owned by magnates, bishops, knights and princes, among others. Amongst the most well-known former private magnate towns are Białystok, Zamość, R ...

, administratively located in the Wieluń County in the

Sieradz Voivodeship Sieradz Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by Łódź Voivodeship. A Voivodeship is an area administered by a voivode (Governor), and the Sieradz Voivodesh ...

in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. The name of the town fluctuated with its grammar during this period, with variants ''Osschyacow'', ''de Ostrow'', and ''Ossyakow''.

18th and 19th centuries

Osjaków was an average Polish provincial town until the town was ravaged by a fire in 1750, which destroyed much of its wooden infrastructure. As a result, it lost its town rights in 1793. Until today Osjaków retains much of its urban layout, with a central square. During 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 ...

, Osjaków was assimilated under the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (, ) was a German state that existed from 1701 to 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1946. It played a signif ...

. During the conflicts between France and Prussia from 1807 to 1815, Osjaków briefly returned into Polish hands under the

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 ...

. By 1813 however, it was once again occupied by the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. Throughout this period, the village remained near the border between the Prussian and Russian Empires.

20th century

In 1909, the old wooden church of St Hedwig of Silesia was demolished to make place for the current church of

Casimir Casimir is a Latin version of the Polish male name Kazimierz (). The original Polish feminine form is Kazimiera, in Latin and other languages rendered as Casimira. It has two possible meanings: "preacher of peace" or alternatively "destroyer of p ...

the King. The church is now Osjaków's most recognizable monument.

World War 2

Osjaków is located next to Wieluń, which in September 1939 was the first town attacked 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 ...

. In the following days, Osjaków was on the front lines of war and witnessed a mass influx of refugees from Wieluń and other towns, who were fleeing to the east of the

river, despite not suffering much damage to infrastructure. By October 8, 1939, Osjaków was assimilated into the

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

. Its name was

Germanised Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people, and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In l ...

into ''Ostenwerder''. By 1941, the school and church were closed, with the local priests having been sent to the

Dachau concentration camp 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 ...

. The Prebystery was turned into the

Gendarmerie A gendarmerie () is a paramilitary or military force with law enforcement duties among the civilian population. The term ''gendarme'' () is derived from the medieval French expression ', which translates to " men-at-arms" (). In France and so ...

base. In late 1944, much of Osjaków's population was rushed to help

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

Volkssturm The (, ) was a ''levée en masse'' national militia established by Nazi Germany during the last months of World War II. It was set up by the Nazi Party on the orders of Adolf Hitler and established on 25 September 1944. It was staffed by conscri ...

. Towards the end of war, on the Eastern Front, regions around Osjaków were the sites of battles, as the Warta river was an important strategic target. It then came under Soviet control, much like the rest of Poland, following the end of the war.

Jewish history

Jews started settling into Osjaków in the early 18th century. Because the population was mostly working as merchants and traders, Jews mostly lived around the town square, and built the synagogue nearby. The synagogue itself was built in the late 19th century. By 1897, 759 Jews lived in Osjaków, this was 49% of the village's total population. During World War II, the Nazi occupation forced the Jews into the Osjaków

Ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

. In 1939, over 60% of Osjaków's population were Jews. In August 1942, the ghetto was liquidated. Most of the Jews were transported to the

Łódź Ghetto The Łódź Ghetto or Litzmannstadt Ghetto (after the Nazi German name for Łódź) was a Nazi ghetto established by the German authorities for Polish Jews and Roma following the Invasion of Poland. It was the second-largest ghetto in all of ...

. Osjaków's Jewish cemetery was completely destroyed and forgotten after the war. However, the building of the old synagogue which was ravaged from inside still stands. It still retains a

Torah ark A Torah ark (also known as the ''hekhal'', , or ''aron qodesh'', ) is an ornamental chamber in the synagogue that houses the Torah scrolls. History The ark is also known as the ''ark of law'', or in Hebrew the ''Aron Kodesh'' () or ''aron ha-Kod ...

on the entrance to the building.

References

External links

Osjakow.info - website and forum of Osjakow

{{Authority control Populated places on the Warta Villages in Wieluń County