Skoki (german: Schokken) is a town in

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 ...

Greater Poland Voivodeship Greater Poland Voivodeship ( pl, Województwo wielkopolskie; ), also known as Wielkopolska Voivodeship, Wielkopolska Province, or Greater Poland Province, is a voivodeship, or province A province is almost always an administrative division ...

Wągrowiec County __NOTOC__ Wągrowiec County ( pl, powiat wągrowiecki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Greater Poland Voivodeship, west-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local ...

, with 3,779 inhabitants (December 2004). It is located about 40 km north of

Poznań Poznań () is a city on the River Warta in west-central Poland, within the Greater Poland region. The city is an important cultural and business centre, and one of Poland's most populous regions with many regional customs such as Saint Joh ...

. It is the seat of the administrative district ( gmina) called

Gmina Skoki __NOTOC__ Gmina Skoki is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Wągrowiec County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. Its seat is the town of Skoki, which lies approximately south of Wągrowiec and north-east of the ...

History

Established in 1367, it has always been a town with handicraft, in particular cloth weaving up to the 19th century. It was a

private town A private town is a town owned by a private person or a family. History of Private Towns in Poland In the history of Poland, private towns (''miasta prywatne'') were towns within the lands owned by magnates, bishops, knights, princes, etc. ...

Polish nobility The ''szlachta'' (Polish: endonym, Lithuanian: šlėkta) were the noble estate of the realm in the Kingdom of Poland, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth who, as a class, had the dominating position in ...

, administratively located in the Gniezno County in the Kalisz 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 ...

. The town's coat of arms comes from the

Lubicz coat of arms Lubicz (''Luba, Lubow, Łuba'') is a Polish nobility coat of arms. History Year of creation around 1190, known from the seal from 1348. The river called Drwęca bore the name Lubicz in the earlier times. Above that river in 1190 there was a bat ...

of local Polish nobility. During the joint German-Soviet

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 ...

, which began

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 World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

in September 1939, the town was invaded and then occupied by Germany until 1945. It was annexed directly into

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 ...

and made part of the newly formed province of

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 ...

. At this time, the Germans established a

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military priso ...

for officers (''

Oflag An Oflag (from german: Offizierslager) was a type of prisoner of war camp for officers which the German Army established in World War I in accordance with the requirements of the 1899 Hague Convention, and in World War II in accordance with the ...

''), named Oflag XXI-A, later renamed Oflag XXI-C. Among its prisoners were

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 ...

and

Norwegian Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

officers.

Sights

In the town there is a palace which is now part of the University of Fine Arts in Poznań, and a church which lies on the Wooden Churches Trail around Puszcza Zielonka.

Sports

The local football club is Wełna Skoki. It competes in the lower leagues.

References

Cities and towns in Greater Poland Voivodeship Wągrowiec County {{GreaterPoland-geo-stub