Owińska 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 Czerwonak, within Poznań County,

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 north of Czerwonak 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 ...

. Owińska lies close to the Warta river, on the main road and railway line from Poznań to Wągrowiec. In the village are a former Cistercian convent (now a school for the blind), a Renaissance church, and a palace built in late classical style (1804–1806).

World War II

During 1943 - 1945 it was named Treskau by Nazi Germany. Owińska was the location of a mental hospital where approximately 1,000 patients were murdered by Nazi Germany 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 ...

. They were shot in the back of the neck in the nearby forest. The victims were buried in 28 mass graves. In the second stage of the same "aktion" conducted after October 26, 1939, the remaining patients were taken to a bunker in Fort VII and gassed with carbon monoxide released from steel bottles. A year later, additional 200 patients from

were brought in and gassed at the same location. From August 1943 to January 1945 the Germans operated a subcamp of the Gross-Rosen concentration camp in the village, whose prisoners were mostly

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

Russians Russians ( ) are an East Slavs, East Slavic ethnic group native to Eastern Europe. Their mother tongue is Russian language, Russian, the most spoken Slavic languages, Slavic language. The majority of Russians adhere to Eastern Orthodox Church ...

Cultural heritage

The village has several registered sites of cultural heritage: Owińska Palace, mental hospital complex, Cistercian nuns monastery complex, St. Nicholas Church, and a brewery.woj. wielkopolskie - pow. chodzieski
National Institute of Cultural Heritage

References

External links

* * {{Authority control Villages in Poznań County