Zbąszynek (; ) is a town in western

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 ...

, in

Lubusz Voivodeship Lubusz Voivodeship ( ) is a voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) in western Poland with a population of 972,140. Its regional capitals are Gorzów Wielkopolski and Zielona Góra. The region is characterized by a landscape of forests, lake ...

, in

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

. As of 2019, it has 5,020 inhabitants. It is located within the historic region of

Greater Poland Greater Poland, often known by its Polish name Wielkopolska (; ), is a Polish Polish historical regions, historical region of west-central Poland. Its chief and largest city is Poznań followed by Kalisz, the oldest city in Poland. The bound ...

History

The territory became a part of the emerging Polish state under its first historic ruler

Mieszko I Mieszko I (; – 25 May 992) was Duchy of Poland (966–1025), Duke of Poland from 960 until his death in 992 and the founder of the first unified History of Poland, Polish state, the Civitas Schinesghe. A member of the Piast dynasty, he was t ...

in the 10th century. It formed part of the Kościan County in the

Poznań Voivodeship Poznań Voivodeship was the name of several former administrative regions (''województwo'', rendered as ''voivodeship'' and usually translated as "province") in Poland, centered on the city of Poznań, although the exact boundaries changed over t ...

in the Greater Poland Province until 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 ...

in 1793, when it was annexed by

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. After the successful Greater Poland uprising of 1806, it was regained by the Poles and included within the short-lived

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 ...

. Following the duchy's dissolution, it was re-annexed by Prussia, and from 1871 it was also part of Germany. The town was founded in the early 1920s when, as a result of the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles was a peace treaty signed on 28 June 1919. As the most important treaty of World War I, it ended the state of war between Germany and most of the Allies of World War I, Allied Powers. It was signed in the Palace ...

, the railroad hub in nearby

Zbąszyń Zbąszyń is a town in western Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship, in Nowy Tomyśl County. It is the administrative seat of Gmina Zbąszyń. Geography The town is situated on the Obra (river), Obra river in the Greater Poland historic region, ...

(''Bentschen'') became again part of the

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 7 October 1918 and 6 October 1939. The state was established in the final stage of World War I ...

. In 1922, the government of

Weimar Germany The Weimar Republic, officially known as the German Reich, was the German Reich, German state from 1918 to 1933, during which it was a constitutional republic for the first time in history; hence it is also referred to, and unofficially proclai ...

decided to build a new border station, a new rail hub (which replaced Zbaszyn) as well as a settlement for railroad workers. Within a few years in 1923–30, a large station was constructed, together with a modern suburban type settlement, based on a project by architect Friedrich Veil. The town, named ''Neu Bentschen'', was inhabited by ethnic German railroad workers. There were two churches, a printing shop, a house of culture (''Deutsches Haus''), a school, a mail office and a bank. The settlement belonged to the Meseritz county. It was from German Neu-Bentschen (now Zbąszynek) that thousands of Polish Jews expelled from Germany in October, 1938, were forced into Polish

, among them the parents of

Herschel Grynszpan Herschel Feibel Grynszpan (Yiddish: הערשל פײַבל גרינשפּאן; German language, German: ''Hermann Grünspan''; 28 March 1921 – last rumoured to be alive in 1945, declared dead in 1960) was a History of Jews in Poland, Polish-Jew ...

World War II

Following the

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 World War II, the Germans opened a

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 ...

camp in Zbąszynek, in which various categories of prisoners were kept including POWs from

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

, and, after 1941, from the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

, as well as Jews from 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 ...

. Hundreds died of diseases and exhaustion. Those who survived, worked on the rail infrastructure, which was necessary for transports to the Eastern front. In January 1945 some German inhabitants of ''Neu Bentschen'' fled the advancing

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and the town was captured without fighting. As a result of the

territorial changes of Poland immediately after World War II At the end of World War II, Poland underwent major changes to the location of its international border. In 1945, after the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Oder–Neisse line became its western border, resulting in gaining the Recovered Territories ...

following the Potsdam Conference, it was transferred to Poland. The remaining populace was expelled to Germany in accordance with the

Potsdam Agreement The Potsdam Agreement () was the agreement among three of the Allies of World War II: the United Kingdom, the United States, and the Soviet Union after the war ended in Europe that was signed on 1 August 1945 and published the following day. A ...

. Neu Bentschen was briefly called ''Nowy Zbąszyń'', some time in the late 1940s, the name was changed to Zbąszynek.

Twin towns – sister cities

See twin towns of Gmina Zbąszynek.

Gallery

Zbąszynek, Rynek 1 (Urząd Miejski).jpg, Municipal office 20282 Zbaszynek kosciol parafialny pw mnmp 2.JPG, Saint Mary church of the Maternity 20280 Zbaszynek kosciol apostolow sw piotra i pawla.JPG, Saints Peter and Paul church

References

External links