Wieruszów County
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__NOTOC__ Wieruszów County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (
powiat A ''powiat'' (; ) is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture (Local administrative unit, LAU-1 ormerly Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics, NUTS-4 ...
) in
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 ...
, central
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 ...
. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the
Polish local government reforms The administrative division of Poland since 1999 has been based on three levels of subdivision. The territory of Poland is divided into ''voivodeships'' (provinces); these are further divided into ''powiats'' (counties or districts), and these i ...
passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and only town is
Wieruszów Wieruszów () is a town in south-central Poland with 8,446 inhabitants (2020). Situated in the southwestern part of Łódź Voivodeship, it is the seat of the Gmina Wieruszów and Wieruszów County. Wieruszów is located in the historical Wieluń ...
, which lies 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 ...
. The county covers an area of . As of 2006 its total population is 42,336, out of which the population of Wieruszów is 8,759 and the rural population is 33,577.


Massacres during Second World War


Wieszanów Massacre

During the German
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 ...
in 1939, German soldiers conducted a number of massacres in the area. In the village of Wieszanów on 1 September 1939, 17 women and children (as young as 2 years old) were murdered en masse after two men were murdered by German soldiers. Women and children tried to hide themselves in cellars but were discovered by soldiers. Despite pleading to be allowed to get out, they were forced to stay as Germans threw down several grenades, murdering 14 women and children on the spot and wounding 3 of them. Several local men were later kidnapped and sent to German concentration camps. At least two were executed already on their way to the camps. A day later the same Germans who committed the murder came back and burned down 20 homes along with the livestock.Szymon Datner "55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" page 172


Torzeniec Massacre

Several massacres were made by Germans in the
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 ...
of Torzeniec. On 1 September 1939 Germans arrived during the night to the town, and started to set fire to barns and houses using bottles with
gasoline Gasoline ( North American English) or petrol ( Commonwealth English) is a petrochemical product characterized as a transparent, yellowish, and flammable liquid normally used as a fuel for spark-ignited internal combustion engines. When for ...
and gun
fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a fuel in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction Product (chemistry), products. Flames, the most visible portion of the fire, are produced in the combustion re ...
with incendiary bullets. Villagers who tried to escape their burning homes were gunned down by the Germans who behaved as they were making a hunt for animals.Szymon Datner "55 dni Wehrmachtu w Polsce" page 173 Eight people were murdered in this way alongside Barbara Pietrzak who tried to save her 2-year-old child. Another eight were burned alive in the cellar as their only escape route was blocked by a burning barn. The only member of the family left outside, 70-year-old Antoni Kubera was shot dead on his backyard by the Germans just as his family was burning alive in the cellar. On the same
night Night, or nighttime, is the period of darkness when the Sun is below the horizon. Sunlight illuminates one side of the Earth, leaving the other in darkness. The opposite of nighttime is daytime. Earth's rotation causes the appearance of ...
all men from the village were gathered by the Germans, and every second one was led to a group that was executed in front of all the villagers. 18 men were murdered this way. A Polish woman(Maria Stambuła) who according to Germans refused to watch the
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
was shot severely by the Germans as well. During the massacre a 40-year-old Józef Sadowski and a
husband A husband is a man involved in a marital relationship, commonly referred to as a spouse. The specific rights, responsibilities, and societal status attributed to a husband can vary significantly across different cultures and historical perio ...
and
father A father is the male parent of a child. Besides the paternal bonds of a father to his children, the father may have a parental, legal, and social relationship with the child that carries with it certain rights and obligations. A biological fat ...
of several children pleaded to be exchanged for his 70-year-old father Stanisław Sadowski who was chosen by the Germans to be murdered. The Germans agreed and the son saved his father's life by sacrificing himself. Later during the night another massacre was made by the German soldiers. Four unidentified Polish PoWs were taken to the village and murdered. All together the cemetery in Wyszanów is the place of burial of 57 victims of German massacres.


Neighbouring counties

Wieruszów County is bordered by Sieradz County to the north-east, Wieluń County to the east, Olesno County and Kluczbork County to the south, Kępno County to the west, and Ostrzeszów County to the north-west.


Administrative division

The county is subdivided into seven
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 ...
s (two urban-rural and five rural). These are listed in the following table, in descending order of population.


References


Polish official population figures 2006

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wieruszow County Land counties of Łódź Voivodeship Massacres committed by Nazi Germany Sites of World War II massacres of Poles Sites of Nazi war crimes during the Invasion of Poland