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Łask (; german: Lask) is a town in central
Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...
with 16,925 inhabitants (2020). It is the capital of
Łask County __NOTOC__ Łask County ( pl, powiat łaski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government ( powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms ...
, and is situated in
Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship (also known as Lodz Province, or by its Polish language, Polish name ''Województwo łódzkie'' ) is a province-Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź ...
(since 1999), previously in Sieradz Voivodeship (1975–1998). The
Polish Air Force The Polish Air Force ( pl, Siły Powietrzne, , Air Forces) is the aerial warfare branch of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as ''Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej'' (). In 2014 it consisted of roughly 16,425 mil ...
's
32nd Air Base 3 (three) is a number, numeral and digit. It is the natural number following 2 and preceding 4, and is the smallest odd prime number and the only prime preceding a square number. It has religious or cultural significance in many societie ...
is located nearby. Vassal of Zduńska Wola.


History

Łask was founded in the 11th century, and from the 14th century it was the seat of the powerful Łaski
noble family Nobility is a social class found in many societies that have an aristocracy. It is normally ranked immediately below royalty. Nobility has often been an estate of the realm with many exclusive functions and characteristics. The characteris ...
.
Korab Korab (, ) is a mountain range in the eastern corner of Albania and the western part of North Macedonia, running along the border between both countries. It forms also the European Green Belt. In Albania, it is also called ''Vargu lindor'' (), ...
, the family's coat of arms, remains the town's coat of arms to this day. The first mention of Łask comes from 1356. A church was built in 1366, and in 1498 Polish prince and Primate of Poland
Frederick Jagiellon Frederick Jagiellon ( pl, Fryderyk Jagiellończyk; 27 April 1468 – 14 March 1503) was a Polish prince, Archbishop of Gniezno, Bishop of Kraków, and Primate of Poland. He was the sixth son and ninth child of Casimir IV Jagiellon, King of Poland ...
founded a hospital for the poor. In 1422 it was granted
town 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 ...
modeled on
Środa Śląska Środa Śląska (german: Neumarkt in Schlesien) is a town in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the seat of Środa Śląska County, and of the smaller administrative district (gmina) called Gmina Środa Śląska. Th ...
by virtue of a document issued by Polish king
Władysław II Jagiełło Jogaila (; 1 June 1434), later Władysław II Jagiełło ()He is known under a number of names: lt, Jogaila Algirdaitis; pl, Władysław II Jagiełło; be, Jahajła (Ягайла). See also: Names and titles of Władysław II Jagiełło. ...
in Mielno. The king also set up an annual fair and a weekly market. In 1504, King
Alexander Jagiellon Alexander Jagiellon ( pl, Aleksander Jagiellończyk, lt, Aleksandras Jogailaitis; 5 August 1461 – 19 August 1506) of the House of Jagiellon was the Grand Duke of Lithuania and later also King of Poland. He was the fourth son of Casimir IV Ja ...
confirmed and extended the privileges.''Słownik geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego i innych krajów słowiańskich'', Tom V, Warszawa, 1884, p. 600 (in Polish) Crafts soon developed and in 1517–1523, the town's landmark
Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...
collegiate church was erected under the patronage of the Primate of Poland
Jan Łaski Jan Łaski or Johannes à Lasco (1499 – 8 January 1560) was a Polish Calvinist reformer. Owing to his influential work in England (1548–1553) during the English Reformation, he is known to the English-speaking world by the Anglicised form ...
. It was partially rebuilt in Baroque style in the 18th century. Thanks to the efforts of Hieronymus Łaski, King
Sigismund III Vasa Sigismund III Vasa ( pl, Zygmunt III Waza, lt, Žygimantas Vaza; 20 June 1566 – 30 April 1632 Adoption of the Gregorian calendar, N.S.) was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1587 to 1632 and, as Sigismund, King of Sweden and ...
granted four new fairs in 1613. After the Łaski family, from 1660 until the Partitions of Poland the town was owned by Nadolski, Wierzbowski and Załuski families. Łask was administratively located in the Sieradz Voivodeship in the
Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown , subdivision = Province , nation = Poland , year_start = , event_end = Third Partition of Poland , year_end = , image_map = Prowincje I RP.svg , image_map_capt ...
.
Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""T ...
began to settle in the town at the close of the 16th century. From that time forward, the Jewish population of the town averaged between 50% and 65% of the total, typical of small
shtetl A shtetl or shtetel (; yi, שטעטל, translit=shtetl (singular); שטעטלעך, romanized: ''shtetlekh'' (plural)) is a Yiddish term for the small towns with predominantly Ashkenazi Jewish populations which existed in Eastern Europe before ...
s of the region. The primary industries were
leather tanning Tanning is the process of treating skins and hides of animals to produce leather. A tannery is the place where the skins are processed. Tanning hide into leather involves a process which permanently alters the protein structure of skin, making ...
,
textiles Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not th ...
, and food.History of the Jewish Community of Lask
/ref> The surnames Łaski (Laski) and Lasker derive from the name of the town, many of those with the former surname are of
Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Poles, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken *Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin screenwr ...
descent, while often those with the latter are of Jewish descent. In 1793 Łask was annexed by the
Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) constituted the German state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918. Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Rev. ed. Oxford: ...
in the
Second Partition of Poland The 1793 Second Partition of Poland was the second of three partitions (or partial annexations) that ended the existence of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth by 1795. The second partition occurred in the aftermath of the Polish–Russian ...
, in 1807 it became part of the short-lived Polish
Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( pl, Księstwo Warszawskie, french: Duché de Varsovie, german: Herzogtum Warschau), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland, was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during ...
, and in 1815 it was designated as part of
Congress Poland Congress Poland, Congress Kingdom of Poland, or Russian Poland, formally known as the Kingdom of Poland, was a polity created in 1815 by the Congress of Vienna as a semi-autonomous Polish state, a successor to Napoleon's Duchy of Warsaw. It ...
, later forcibly incorporated into
Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-eigh ...
. The Polish population took part in 19th-century Polish uprisings and patriotic manifestations. At the same time, Łask saw an influx of Jewish people fleeing persecution in Russia (see ''
Pale of Settlement The Pale of Settlement (russian: Черта́ осе́длости, '; yi, דער תּחום-המושבֿ, '; he, תְּחוּם הַמּוֹשָב, ') was a western region of the Russian Empire with varying borders that existed from 1791 to 19 ...
''). In 1903 the town was connected to the railway line and industrial plants were built. During
World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...
, the town was occupied by
Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG),, is a country in Central Europe. It is the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany lies between the Baltic and North Sea to the north and the Alps to the sou ...
, and after the war, in 1918 it was re-integrated with Poland, as Poland regained independence. In 1919, Łask became a county seat within the
Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship (also known as Lodz Province, or by its Polish language, Polish name ''Województwo łódzkie'' ) is a province-Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź ...
. By 1939, "there were 3,864 Jews out of a total population of 6,000 people living in the town."The Jewish Community of Lask
/ref>


World War II

With 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 ...
and the outbreak of the
Second World War 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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...
in September 1939, Łask was occupied by the
Wehrmacht The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmacht''" replaced the previou ...
and annexed by
Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...
. The town was then administered as part of the county or district (''kreis'') of Łask within
Reichsgau Wartheland The ''Reichsgau Wartheland'' (initially ''Reichsgau Posen'', also: ''Warthegau'') was a Nazi German '' Reichsgau'' formed from parts of Polish territory annexed in 1939 during World War II. It comprised the region of Greater Poland and adjacent ...
, and the Jewish half of the population and the Polish
intelligentsia The intelligentsia is a status class composed of the university-educated people of a society who engage in the complex mental labours by which they critique, shape, and lead in the politics, policies, and culture of their society; as such, the i ...
were systematically targeted and annihilated under the
racial policy of Nazi Germany The racial policy of Nazi Germany was a set of policies and laws implemented in Nazi Germany under the dictatorship of Adolf Hitler, based on a specific racist doctrine asserting the superiority of the Aryan race, which claimed scientific legi ...
. Some Poles from Łask were among the victims of large massacres of Poles committed by Nazi Germany in nearby Łagiewniki (present-day district of Łódź) in December 1939 during the ''
Intelligenzaktion The ''Intelligenzaktion'' (), or the Intelligentsia mass shootings, was a series of mass murders which was committed against the Polish intelligentsia (teachers, priests, physicians, and other prominent members of Polish society) early in the ...
''. In January 1940, it was reported by the
Jewish Telegraphic Agency The Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) is an international news agency and wire service, founded in 1917, serving Jewish community newspapers and media around the world as well as non-Jewish press, with about 70 syndication clients listed on its web ...
that 100 Jewish citizens of Łask had been summarily executed en masse without trial because house-to-house searches by the Nazis revealed that they were armed and were planning to resist. The town's synagogue was then surrounded by the Nazis and "hundreds more" Jews were shot and killed as they tried to defend the building. With their deaths, the Nazis put the structure to the torch and it was consumed in fire.Jewish Telegraphic Agency, January 3, 1940: Nazis Admit Mass Executions in Poland; 100 Slain in One Town
/ref> By December 1940, 3,467 Jews from the town who had survived these
mass murder Mass murder is the act of murdering a number of people, typically simultaneously or over a relatively short period of time and in close geographic proximity. The United States Congress defines mass killings as the killings of three or more p ...
s were confined to a
ghetto A ghetto, often called ''the'' ghetto, is a part of a city in which members of a minority group live, especially as a result of political, social, legal, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished ...
. In 1941, hundreds of other Jews were brought to the area from surrounding regions. At the same time, the Germans destroyed the old Jewish cemetery in the town, and paved the sidewalks of the town with its gravestones. A year later, on August 24, 1942, a "liquidation" of the ghetto was carried out. Those who were infirm or ill were murdered outright, and all the other Jews were taken to a church outside the town. There they were examined, and 760 selected Jews were transferred to 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 ...
, some of the ill were killed on the spot, and the remainder of the 3,500 Jews were transported to the
Chełmno extermination camp Chełmno or Kulmhof was the first of Nazi Germany's extermination camps and was situated north of Łódź, near the village of Chełmno nad Nerem. Following the invasion of Poland in 1939, Germany annexed the area into the new territory of Re ...
, where they were killed. Later, the Germans hunted down the remnant Jews hiding in the town and killed them all. A wall plaque in Łask commemorates "the 3,517 Lasker Jews exterminated by the Nazis during August, 1942." Only a bout 20 Lask Jews survived the war, one hidden by a Christian farmer. Following the arrival of the
Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...
and the subsequent end of the war in 1945, Łask became part of the
People's Republic of Poland The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million nea ...
. As of 2004, "Łask has 18,948 inhabitants ..and there are no known Jewish inhabitants."


Recent times

A detachment of the
US Air Force The United States Air Force (USAF) is the Aerial warfare, air military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part ...
has been permanently stationed at
Łask Air Base 32nd Air Base ( pl, 32. Baza Lotnicza) is a Polish Air Force base, located in Łask, about 30 km south-west of Łódź. It is one of the two bases where Poland's F-16 Fighting Falcon, F-16 fighters are stationed, the other being 31st Air ...
since November, 2012.USAF activates AvDet in Poland
/ref>


Notable residents

*
Jan Łaski Jan Łaski or Johannes à Lasco (1499 – 8 January 1560) was a Polish Calvinist reformer. Owing to his influential work in England (1548–1553) during the English Reformation, he is known to the English-speaking world by the Anglicised form ...
(1456–1531), Primate of Poland * Hieronymus Łaski (1496–1542), Polish diplomat *
Jan Łaski Jan Łaski or Johannes à Lasco (1499 – 8 January 1560) was a Polish Calvinist reformer. Owing to his influential work in England (1548–1553) during the English Reformation, he is known to the English-speaking world by the Anglicised form ...
(1499–1560), Protestant reformer *
Olbracht Łaski Olbracht Łaski (died 23 November 1604) was a Polish nobleman, an alchemist and courtier during the reign of Stephen Batory. Łaski was suspected of plotting to seize the Polish throne in 1575, following the brief reign of Henry Valois. This e ...
(d. 1604), Polish alchemist * Mieczysław Wolfke (1883–1947), Polish physicist * Magda Femme (b. 1971), Polish pop singer *
Ilona Felicjańska Ilona Katarzyna Montana (born 30 May 1970) is a Polish model, Miss Polonia 1993, Businesswoman. Founder and President of the Foundation " Niezapominajka". In 1993 was the second Miss Polonia, took part in the competition Miss International 1994 ...
(b. 1973), Miss Polonia 1993 *
Aaron Karfunkel Aaron Karfunkel (also known as Aaron ben Judah; in Hebrew, Aharon ben Yehudah ha-Kohen; in Yiddish, Aaron Löb (died 1816) was a Bohemian rabbi of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. After having successively filled the rabbinates of Gawartsch ...
, 18th century rabbi * Dr Luke (b. 1973), Pop music composer/producer


Twin towns

Łask is
twinned Twinning (making a twin of) may refer to: * In biology and agriculture, producing two offspring (i.e., twins) at a time, or having a tendency to do so; * Twin towns and sister cities, towns and cities involved in town twinning * Twinning inst ...
with: * Dannenberg, Germany *
Lahoysk Lahoysk ( be, Лаго́йск, Lahojsk, ; russian: link=no, Лого́йск, pl, Łohojsk) is a city in the Minsk Region of Belarus and the administrative center of Lahoysk District. History First chronicled in 1078, Lahoysk was the centr ...
, Belarus


See also

*
History of the Jews in Poland The history of the Jews in Poland dates back at least 1,000 years. For centuries, Poland was home to the largest and most significant Ashkenazi Jewish community in the world. Poland was a principal center of Jewish culture, because of the l ...
* List of shtetls in Poland * List of villages and towns depopulated of Jews during the Holocaust


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lask Cities and towns in Łódź Voivodeship Łask County Piotrków Governorate Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939) 11th-century establishments in Poland Populated places established in the 11th century