Goniądz (; lt, Goniondas, german: Gonionds, yi, גאניאנדז, Goniondzh) is a town in Poland, located at the
Biebrza
Biebrza ( lt, Bebras, '' be, Bobra'', ''german: Bober'') is a river in northeastern Poland, a tributary of the Narew river (near Wizna), with a length of and a basin area of 7,092 km2 (7,067 in Poland).Mońki county ('' Powiat of Mońki'') in Podlaskie Voivodeship in northeastern
Poland
Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...
. 80% of the town was destroyed in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. After its postwar reconstruction, it has become a local agriculture hub, as well as a tourist destination.
History
The town was founded some time in the 14th century in dense forests covering the area back then. The first mention dates back to August 14, 1358, when a chronicler noted Goniądz as a seat of a
powiat
A ''powiat'' (pronounced ; Polish plural: ''powiaty'') is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture ( LAU-1, formerly NUTS-4) in other countries. The term "''powiat ...
within the land of
Wizna
Wizna is a village in Łomża County of Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland, situated on the Narew River. Wizna is known for the battle of Wizna which took place in its vicinity during the 1939 Invasion of Poland at the start of Worl ...
. On December 2, 1382, the dukes of Mazovia ( Siemowit IV and his brother and co-regent Janusz I) awarded the Wizna castle, together with the surrounding land, to the
Teutonic Order
The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...
. The land was bought back from the Teutons in 1402, but at the same time the order sold it to the Duke of Lithuania. Because of that, the town was disputed by both the
Kingdom of Poland
The Kingdom of Poland ( pl, Królestwo Polskie; Latin: ''Regnum Poloniae'') was a state in Central Europe. It may refer to:
Historical political entities
* Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom existing from 1025 to 1031
* Kingdom of Poland, a kingdom exi ...
,
Duchy of Mazovia
Duchy of Masovia was a District duchy, district principality and a fiefdom of the Kingdom of Poland (1025–1385), Kingdom of Poland, existing during the Middle Ages. The state was centered in Mazovia in the northeastern Kingdom of Poland, and d ...
and the
Grand Duchy of Lithuania
The Grand Duchy of Lithuania was a European state that existed from the 13th century to 1795, when the territory was partitioned among the Russian Empire, the Kingdom of Prussia, and the Habsburg Empire of Austria. The state was founded by Lit ...
, with the latter state briefly gaining the upper hand.
Eventually the series of Polish-Lithuanian Unions resulted with the town being somewhat of a borderland: owned by noble houses from both sides of the border, with laws of both states applied. In 1430 the duke of Lithuania
Vytautas
Vytautas (c. 135027 October 1430), also known as Vytautas the Great ( Lithuanian: ', be, Вітаўт, ''Vitaŭt'', pl, Witold Kiejstutowicz, ''Witold Aleksander'' or ''Witold Wielki'' Ruthenian: ''Vitovt'', Latin: ''Alexander Vitoldus'', O ...
founded a church there. Other owners of the town also expanded the small castle, the most notable of them being Prince
Michał Gliński
Michael Lvovich Glinsky ( lt, Mykolas Glinskis, russian: Михаил Львович Глинский, pl, Michał Gliński; 1460s – 24 September 1534) was a noble from the Grand Duchy of Lithuania of distant Tatar extraction, who was also a t ...
Sigismund II Augustus
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 ...
, the future king of Poland. In 1547 Goniądz was granted with a
city charter
A city charter or town charter (generically, municipal charter) is a legal document ('' charter'') establishing a municipality such as a city or town. The concept developed in Europe during the Middle Ages.
Traditionally the granting of a charte ...
that was modeled on
Chełm
Chełm (; uk, Холм, Kholm; german: Cholm; yi, כעלם, Khelm) is a city in southeastern Poland with 60,231 inhabitants as of December 2021. It is located to the south-east of Lublin, north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska, some ...
law. Four years later, King Sigismund Augustus decided that only Polish law be applied for the land surrounding Goniądz and finally in 1569 the town was annexed by Poland and remained within its borders until today.
In 1572 Goniądz became part of the starostship of
Knyszyn
Knyszyn ( be, Кнышин, yi, קנישין, translit=Knishin, lt, Knišinas) is a town in north-eastern Poland, northwest of Białystok. It is situated in the Podlaskie Voivodeship (since 1999), and was formerly in the Białystok Voivodeshi ...
; the following year the
Sejm
The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland.
The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...
, or the Polish parliament, confirmed the city charter. The town continued to grow rapidly and in 1579 was granted with the right to trade with salt, one of the most expensive minerals back then. On May 28, 1621 a huge fire destroyed the town, but it was quickly rebuilt and by 1667 became a seat of local administration. By 1765 the town had 243 houses and roughly 1500 inhabitants, mostly Poles, but also Jews and Tatars. In 1775 a new church was erected by bishop of PrzemyślAntoni Betański.
World War II
The Germans occupied the town for 10 Days in September 1939 and burnt the synagogue prior to handing the town over to Soviet forces. The town was reoccupied by the Germans on 26 June 1941 and after consulting with the local priest they appointed a collaborationist town council led by Jan Balonowski.The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945
''Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945'' is a seven-part encyclopedia series that explores the history of the concentration camps, ghettos, forced-labor camps, and other sites of detention, persecution, or state-sponsored murder r ...
, Geoffrey P. Megargee, Martin C. Dean, and Mel Hecker, Volume II, part A, page 885-886. On 29 June 1941 Polish policemen tortured some 30 Jews, identified as communists. On 2 July 1941 after a few Jews were found hiding in surrounding villages, the town council ordered that "All Jews present in nearby villages are ordered to return to town. Any farmers caught harboring a Jew will be shot alongside the Jew". On 4 July, an SS unit arrived in the town, assembled the Jews and humiliated them, and prior to leaving gave the Polish authorities a free hand in regards to alleged communists. Some prisoners were released in exchange for payment, but others were tortured or beaten to death. Survivor estimates vary between 20 and 180 dead alleged communists (mainly Jews, some Poles). On 6 July 1941, five Jewish youths were killed by German soldiers after they were caught by the Polish police outside of town. On 20–21 July 1941, Polish policeman, probably overseen by a small SS unit, instigated a pogrom in which 20 Jews were killed. Following the pogrom, and threatened with further violence, Jewish women conscripted for labor at the German military command at Osowiec, appealed for help from the local German colonel. The colonel dispatched a German military police unit which arrested and then executed six of the perpetrators for stealing Jewish property.
There were a number of attempts by Polish and subsequently German authorities to set up a closed ghetto, however after being bribed this was not carried out. 14 Jews were executed by the SS in August 1941 after being rounded up by Polish police as suspected communists. Jews were used for forced labor in a number of Wehrmacht enterprises. On 2 November 1942 the SS drove out most of the Jewish inhabitants to a transit camp in the village of Bogusze. From there they were sent to
Treblinka extermination camp
Treblinka () was an extermination camp, built and operated by Nazi Germany in occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the village of Treblinka in what is now the Masovian Voivodeship. The camp ...
and Auschwitz concentration camp and most of them were murdered on arrival, 10 Goniądz Jews survived in the extermination camps. Another 10 survived hiding near Goniadz. In May 1944 the Germans arrested and shot dead 3 Jews and the Polish couple that was sheltering them. In 1949 some 10 Polish collaborators were tried together for the murder of 25 Jews on 7 July 1941; one received a life sentence and another a six-year term. In 1950 an additional Polish collaborator received a six-year sentence for a different incident.