Torzeniec is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

in the administrative district of

Gmina Doruchów __NOTOC__ Gmina Doruchów is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Ostrzeszów County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. Its seat is the village of Doruchów, which lies approximately east of Ostrzeszów and south-east o ...

, within

Ostrzeszów County __NOTOC__ Ostrzeszów County ( pl, powiat ostrzeszowski) 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 loca ...

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 ...

, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately south-east of

Doruchów Doruchów is a village in Ostrzeszów County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Doruchów. It lies approximately east of Ostrzeszów and south-east of the ...

, east of

Ostrzeszów Ostrzeszów (german: Schildberg, 1943-45: Schildberg im Wartheland) is a town in central Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship. It is the capital of Ostrzeszów County. The population in 2006 was 14,536 inhabitants. The town is situated around ...

, and south-east of the regional capital

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 ...

History

During the German

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 ...

at the start of

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, while fighting at night, German troops mistakenly fired on each other and then blamed the local Polish inhabitants. In "retaliation," German soldiers set fire to the village, shot at fleeing residents, and then organized a nighttime manhunt. Additionally, they executed 18 captured Polish men the next morning (see ''

Nazi crimes against the Polish nation Crimes against the Polish nation committed by Nazi Germany and Axis collaborationist forces during the invasion of Poland, along with auxiliary battalions during the subsequent occupation of Poland in World War II, consisted of the murder ...

'').

References

Villages in Ostrzeszów County Nazi war crimes in Poland {{Ostrzeszów-geo-stub