Winiary is a district of

Kalisz Kalisz () is a city in central Poland, and the second-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship, with 97,905 residents (December 2021). It is the capital city of the Kalisz Region. Situated on the Prosna river in the southeastern part of Gr ...

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 ...

, located in the eastern part of the city. The Winiary food company is based in the district.

History

The oldest known mention of Winiary dates back to 1294. Within the Kingdom of Poland, it was administratively located in the Kalisz County in the

Kalisz Voivodeship Kalisz Voivodeship may also refer to: *Kalisz Voivodeship (1314–1793) * Kalisz Voivodeship (1816–1837) *Kalisz Voivodeship (1975–1998) The Kalisz Voivodeship was a voivodeship (province) of the Polish People's Republic from 1975 to 1989, an ...

in the Greater Poland Province. An ancient pagan cemetery was discovered in Winiary in 1890. According to the 1921 census, the village with the adjacent manor farm had a population of 606, entirely

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

by nationality, 99.3%

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and 0.7%

Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

by confession. During 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 ...

), in 1939–1940, Winiary was the site of German massacres of several hundreds of Poles (see ''

Nazi crimes against the Polish nation War crime, Crimes against the Polish nation committed by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, Axis collaborationist forces during the invasion of Poland, along with Schutzmannschaft#Police battalions, auxiliary battalions during the subsequent occu ...

''). Among the victims were defenders of Kalisz, people from Winiary, Kalisz,

Ostrów Wielkopolski Ostrów Wielkopolski () (often abbreviated ''Ostrów Wlkp.'', formerly called simply ''Ostrów'', , Latin: ''Ostrovia'') is a city in west-central Poland with 70,982 inhabitants (2021), situated in the Greater Poland Voivodeship; the seat of Ostr ...

Ostrzeszów Ostrzeszów () () is a town in south-central Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the capital of Ostrzeszów County. Ostrzeszów is located in the historical Wieluń Land. The population in 2023 was 14,095 inhabitants. The town is situated ...

and other nearby settlements arrested during the genocidal ''

Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders committed against the Polish people, Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) during the ...

'' campaign, former insurgents of the Greater Poland uprising, merchants, entrepreneurs, teachers, school principals, doctors, railwaymen, lawyers, farmers and mayors of Ostrów Wielkopolski and

Odolanów Odolanów is a town in the Greater Poland Voivodeship of Poland, about south-west from Ostrów Wielkopolski, with over 5000 inhabitants. History The first written document that mentions Odolanów dates back to 1301, when it was part of the fr ...

. In 1940, the occupiers also carried out expulsions of Poles, whose houses and farms were then handed over to

German 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 ...

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. In 1940, Polish spy and resistance member Alfred Nowacki, officially classified as a German, settled in Winiary, and soon founded a food processing company. The factory became a focal point of the Kalisz unit of the

Home Army The Home Army (, ; abbreviated AK) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) established in the ...

, and Nowacki fictitiously employed his Polish underground associates there. In March 1944 he was arrested by the

Gestapo The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of F ...

, then subjected to brutal investigation in

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 ...

, and eventually sentenced to death and executed in nearby

Skarszew Skarszew is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Żelazków, within Kalisz County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately north-east of Kalisz and south-east of the regional capital Poznań ...

in 1945.

Transport

The Kalisz Winiary railway station is located in the district.

References

{{Massacres of Poles Kalisz Neighbourhoods in Poland Sites of World War II massacres of Poles Intelligenzaktion massacre locations Populated riverside places in Poland