Opoczno County
__NOTOC__
Opoczno County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, south-east Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. I ...
,
Łódź Voivodeship
Łódź Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province is named after its capital and largest city, Łódź, pronounced .
Łódź Voivodeship is bordered by six other voivodeships: Masovian Voivodeship ...
,
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 ...
, with 3,778 inhabitants as of December 2021. From 1975 to 1998 the town was a part of Radom Voivodeship. Located on the Drzewiczka river (a tributary to the Pilica), in the northwestern corner of the historic province of
Lesser Poland
Lesser Poland, often known by its Polish name ''Małopolska'' (; ), is a historical region situated in southern and south-eastern Poland. Its capital and largest city is Kraków. Throughout centuries, Lesser Poland developed a separate cult ...
, Drzewica is home to ''Gerlach'', a renowned cutlery manufacturer, founded in 1760 in Warsaw (since 1886 in Drzewica). In the first half of the 16th century, the Archbishop of
Gniezno
Gniezno (; ; ) is a city in central-western Poland, about east of Poznań. Its population in 2021 was 66,769, making it the sixth-largest city in the Greater Poland Voivodeship. The city is the administrative seat of Gniezno County (''powiat'') ...
and
Primate of Poland
This is a list of archbishops of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, who are simultaneously primates of Poland since 1418.
Konrad I of Masovia
Konrad I of Masovia (ca. 1187/88 – 31 August 1247), from the Polish Piast dynasty, was the sixth Duke of Masovia and Kuyavia from 1194 until his death as well as High Duke of Poland from 1229 to 1232 and again from 1241 to 1243.
Life
Konrad w ...
granted the area to the Drzewicki ( Ciołek coat of arms) family. The family owned Drzewica for 500 years, and its properties stretched from the Pilica to the Holy Cross Mountains. In 1429 in
Nieszawa
Nieszawa (Polish pronunciation: ) is a town and a commune in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. As of June 30, 2014, the town has a population of 1,985 people. It is located in the historic region of Kuyavia.
History
...
, Drzewica was incorporated as a town on
German town law
The German town law () or German municipal concerns (''Deutsches Städtewesen'') was a set of early town privileges based on the Magdeburg rights developed by Otto I. The Magdeburg law became the inspiration for regional town charters not only i ...
, by King Jogaila. Drzewica, which belonged to ''Opoczno County'' of Lesser Poland’s
Sandomierz Voivodeship
Sandomierz Voivodeship (, ) was a unit of administration and local government in Poland from the 14th century to the partitions of Poland in 1772–1795. It was part of the Lesser Poland region and the Lesser Poland Province. Originally Sandomier ...
, prospered in the early 16th century, when its owner Maciej Drzewicki (1467 – 1535) was a personal secretary of King
John I Albert
John I Albert (; 27 December 1459 – 17 June 1501) was King of Poland
Poland was ruled at various times either by dukes and princes (10th to 14th centuries) or by kings (11th to 18th centuries). During the latter period, a tradition of Roy ...
. Drzewicki renovated the ancient castle, turning it from a Gothic stronghold into a Renaissance residence. During the Deluge, Drzewica was destroyed by the Swedish army.
In the 18th century Drzewica became one of early centers of Polish industry, when one of the first Polish
blast furnace
A blast furnace is a type of metallurgical furnace used for smelting to produce industrial metals, generally pig iron, but also others such as lead or copper. ''Blast'' refers to the combustion air being supplied above atmospheric pressure.
In a ...
s was built here by Filip Szaniawski. Soon afterwards, northern Lesser Poland became industrialized (see Old-Polish Industrial Region). After the
Partitions of Poland
The Partitions of Poland were three partition (politics), partitions of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that took place between 1772 and 1795, toward the end of the 18th century. They ended the existence of the state, resulting in the eli ...
, Drzewica was annexed by the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...
(1815), together with
Congress Poland
Congress Poland or Congress Kingdom of 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 was established w ...
. The town was an important center of the
January Uprising
The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...
. In 1869, Tsarist authorities reduced it to the status of a village.
On September 8, 1939, a nearby forest was the place of a bloody skirmish between
Polish Army
The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...
and the
Wehrmacht
The ''Wehrmacht'' (, ) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the German Army (1935–1945), ''Heer'' (army), the ''Kriegsmarine'' (navy) and the ''Luftwaffe'' (air force). The designation "''Wehrmac ...
. The German occupation began that month. The Jewish population of the town was around 750. The Germans brought Jews from several neighboring villages to Drzewica so that the population increased to more than 2000. Without livelihoods and not allowed to bring personal possessions, these newcomers lived in poverty. In the autumn of 1941, Jews were forced to live in a
ghetto
A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...
and the severe overcrowding (eight to ten people on average shared each room) there led to epidemics of both typhus and typhoid. Police would enter the ghetto periodically to randomly murder people. In July 1942, some Jews were taken to a labor camp while the others remained in the ghetto. In October, the Germans surrounded the ghetto and lit fires around to prevent escape. The Jews were rounded up and marched to Opoczno where, a few days later, they were sent to the
Treblinka
Treblinka () was the second-deadliest extermination camp to be built and operated by Nazi Germany in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), occupied Poland during World War II. It was in a forest north-east of Warsaw, south of the Treblinka, ...
killing camp where they were immediately murdered by gas. The few Jews who were left behind to sort Jewish possessions were themselves rounded up a few months later and sent to the Ujazd ghetto and from there to Treblinka. Only about five to seven Drzewica Jews are known to have survived the
Holocaust
The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...
.
In 1987 Drzewica regained its town status.
Drzewica 1913.jpg, Drzewica before 1913
Manor house in Drzewica 1911.jpg, Manor house before 1911