Bzura River
The Bzura is a river in central Poland. A tributary of the Vistula river (in Wyszogród), the Bzura is 173 kilometres long and has a basin area of 7,764 km2.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 ...
, with 19,128 inhabitants (2020). It has been situated in the
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 ...
(Lodz Province) since 1919.
History
The city's history dates back to the fifteenth century. In 1415 a small village with inaccessible forests and swamps, belonging to the Szczawiński family was mentioned in one of the Polish chronicles. In 1807, the future owner of Ozorków, Ignacy Starzyński, hoping to expand his textile business, brought 19 drapers from Saxony to the village. In 1815, their number has risen to 117, while the city of
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 ...
had 331.
A year later, in 1816, the village was granted city rights and became the capital of the Ozorków county. In 1817 the Schlösser family, who came from
Aachen
Aachen is the List of cities in North Rhine-Westphalia by population, 13th-largest city in North Rhine-Westphalia and the List of cities in Germany by population, 27th-largest city of Germany, with around 261,000 inhabitants.
Aachen is locat ...
, settled in the city and founded the first modern cotton mill. Ozorków was the first settlement that experienced the modern development of cotton and wool industry near the
Bzura River
The Bzura is a river in central Poland. A tributary of the Vistula river (in Wyszogród), the Bzura is 173 kilometres long and has a basin area of 7,764 km2.Zgierz and
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 ...
, creating the largest Polish center of the textile industry. Because of the rapidly growing industry started running out of space, already in 1820 business families purchased farmlands from nearby villages. In 1828 the town population rose to 5,669 people. Ozorków was inhabited by a sizeable population of
Jewish
Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of History of ancient Israel and Judah, ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, rel ...
and German citizens, therefore a synagogue and an Evangelical Church was built in the upcoming years, which also turned the town into a multicultural settlement. In the thirties, Karl Schlösser built a factory in the centre of the town, which also greatly influenced the population. After the fall of the
November Uprising
The November Uprising (1830–31) (), also known as the Polish–Russian War 1830–31 or the Cadet Revolution,
was an armed rebellion in Russian Partition, the heartland of Partitions of Poland, partitioned Poland against the Russian Empire. ...
, the city underwent a stagnation caused by the loss of orders for the army of
Congress Poland
Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It was established w ...
, repressive tariff barriers, the growing role of Zgierz and
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 ...
, as well as the displacement of the market for cotton and wool fabrics. In 1864, during the
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...
, the local leader of the Polish insurgents Wawrzyniec Jeziorski was hanged by the Russians at the Market Square. In 1866, under the control of Polish Count Feliks Łubieński, Ozorków became a protected city of 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 ...
, which resulted in greater investment opportunities.
The
First World War
World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...
caused a further economic decline of the city. It was not until the period of independent statehood that it became more attractive for foreign and domestic investors. Already in the early twenties, Ozorków received a railway connection with Łódź and
Kutno
Kutno is a city in central Poland with 42,704 inhabitants (2021) and an area of . It is the capital of Kutno County in the Łódź Voivodeship.
Founded in the medieval period, Kutno was a local center of crafts and trade, owing its growth to i ...
, and with the electrification of the city carried in 1928, a tramway was built between Ozorków, Zgierz and Łódź (between 1922 and 1928 the line was operated by a steam tram). During the interwar period (1918–1939) two public primary schools as well as a recreational centre were built in the city.
The time of 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 ...
), beginning in September 1939, was a tragic period in the history of the town. Already on September 12, 1939, the Germans murdered some inhabitants of Ozorków in a massacre of 13 Poles in nearby Łagiewniki (present-day district of Łódź). The town was incorporated directly 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 ...
and between 1943 and 1945 it was called ''Brunnstadt''. The extermination policy of the occupier (the murder of 6,000 Jews and the persecution of the Polish population) resulted in a drastic population decrease. In 1940, the Germans expelled hundreds of Poles from the town, and also established a transit camp at the local movie theater for Poles expelled from the area. Young people were then deported from the camp 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 ...
in Germany, and children and older people were 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 ...
(German-occupied central Poland), while their homes, shops and workshops were handed over to German 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. Jews were forced into a
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 ...
, and some were afterwards murdered in the town. Hundreds were sent to the
Chełmno extermination camp
Chełmno, or Kulmhof, was the first of Nazi Germany's extermination camps and was situated north of Łódź, near the village of Chełmno nad Nerem. Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany, Germany annexed ...
where they were gassed immediately. Others were forcibly taken to work camps or the Lodz ghetto where they were later killed. Only a few survived. The historical synagogue located on Wyszyński Street was completely destroyed by German troops. There is some evidence that a few Poles brought food to Jewish neighbours in the ghetto.
After 1945, there was an expansion and modernization of the cotton and wool industry applied by the new Soviet-installed communist government, which stayed in power until the
Fall of Communism
The revolutions of 1989, also known as the Fall of Communism, were a revolutionary wave of liberal democracy movements that resulted in the collapse of most Marxist–Leninist governments in the Eastern Bloc and other parts of the world. Th ...
in the 1980s. In the 1950s the development of housing and urban infrastructure resulted in rapid population increase.
Today Ozorków is rapidly increasing in the role of services and slowly loses its former industrial character.
Notable residents
*
Samuel Reshevsky
Samuel Herman Reshevsky (born Szmul Rzeszewski; November 26, 1911 – April 4, 1992) was a Polish chess prodigy and later a leading American chess grandmaster. He was a contender for the World Chess Championship from the mid 1930s to the late 1 ...