Łomazy is a village in

Biała Podlaska County Biała (the feminine form of Polish ''biały'' 'white') may refer to: Cities and towns in Poland Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland) * Biała, Gmina Trzcianka * Biała, Gmina Wieleń * Biała, Kalisz County * Biała, Konin County Łó ...

, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' , from German ''Gemeinde'' meaning ''commune'') is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,477 gminas throughout the country, encompassing over 4 ...

(administrative district) called

Gmina Łomazy Gmina Łomazy is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Biała Podlaska County, Lublin Voivodeship, in eastern Poland. Its seat is the village of Łomazy, which lies approximately south of Biała Podlaska and north-east of the regional ca ...

. It lies approximately south of Biała Podlaska and north-east of the regional capital

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of ...

. The village has a population of 1,700.

History

Łomazy was first mentioned in a document written in 1447. It was conveniently located on the trade route from

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula, Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland un ...

Wilno Vilnius ( , ; see also #Etymology and other names, other names) is the capital and List of cities in Lithuania#Cities, largest city of Lithuania, with a population of 592,389 (according to the state register) or 625,107 (according to the munic ...

. The settlement received

city rights Town privileges or borough rights were important features of European towns during most of the second millennium. The city law customary in Central Europe probably dates back to Italian models, which in turn were oriented towards the traditio ...

in 1568 from the Polish king

Zygmunt August Sigismund II Augustus ( pl, Zygmunt II August, lt, Žygimantas Augustas; 1 August 1520 – 7 July 1572) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, the son of Sigismund I the Old, whom Sigismund II succeeded in 1548. He was the first ruler ...

. After the foreign

partitions of Poland The Partitions of Poland were three partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place toward the end of the 18th century and ended the existence of the state, resulting in the elimination of sovereign Poland and Lithuania for 12 ...

in 1795 Łomazy was incorporated into the Austrian Partition first, than to the Russian Partition after the period of Polish insurrections against the foreign powers. The Russian

tsar Tsar ( or ), also spelled ''czar'', ''tzar'', or ''csar'', is a title used by East and South Slavic monarchs. The term is derived from the Latin word ''caesar'', which was intended to mean "emperor" in the European medieval sense of the ter ...

stripped Łomazy of its city rights in 1870 in retaliation for the successful Polish attack on the local Russian garrison during the

January Uprising The January Uprising ( pl, powstanie styczniowe; lt, 1863 metų sukilimas; ua, Січневе повстання; russian: Польское восстание; ) was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at ...

of 1863.

20th century

Following the First World War Łomazy became part of the Lublin Voivodeship (1919–39) in the reborn sovereign

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 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of the First World ...

. The economic situation was very difficult resulting to sizable migration. Poverty and hunger contributed to the growing tensions between Christians and Jews split in half evenly by population numbers, which in turn led to a disturbance in May 1934 requiring police intervention. Jews settled in Łomazy already in mid-16th century. During the

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week af ...

by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union at the onset of World War II, Łomazy was taken over by the Red Army and passed on to the Germans in the Nazi-Soviet boundary treaty. A Jewish exploitation ghetto was created in Łomazy in early 1940. Two years later, the village was the site of a mass murder of all ghettoized Jews by the paramilitary Reserve Police Battalion 101 of the Nazi German ''

Ordnungspolizei The ''Ordnungspolizei'' (), abbreviated ''Orpo'', meaning "Order Police", were the uniformed police force in Nazi Germany from 1936 to 1945. The Orpo organisation was absorbed into the Nazi monopoly on power after regional police jurisdiction ...

'' (Order Police) aided by the specially trained Ukrainian ''Hilfswillige'' known as Trawnikis. The killings took place on August 17 or 19, 1942 in the nearby Hały forest, but also in the homes during roundups. According to different sources some 1,000–2,000 Jews (1,700 according to German documents) were massacred in Łomazy in one day of killings which lasted until the late evening. After the war a memorial was erected at the site commemorating the perished Jewish citizens of the town.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lomazy Villages in Biała Podlaska County Brest Litovsk Voivodeship category:Siedlce Governorate Kholm Governorate Lublin Voivodeship (1919–1939) Holocaust locations in Poland