Błonie is a town in Warsaw West County, Masovian Voivodeship, Poland.
History The settlement dates back to the 8th century. It was first mentioned in the 11th century, and already in the 12th century constituted a sizeable settlement with the first church founded in 1257 by Duke Konrad II of Masovia. The church built in the Early Gothic style exists to this day, although rebuilt several times. The town rights were granted to Błonie by Duke Władysław of Kraków on 2 May 1338.Gmina Błonie, The History of Błonie. Oficjalny serwis internetowy Miasta i Gminy Błonie. Błonie was a royal town of Poland and a county seat in the Masovian Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province. In the 16th century Błonie was a prosperous town, especially known for shoemaking and brewing. Five annual fairs were held in the town. The town was granted new royal privileges in 1580 and 1688. One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the town in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route. In 1794, during the Kościuszko Uprising, Poles led by Stanisław Mokronowski won the Battle of Błonie against Prussia.
In the 1921 census, 91.3% of the population declared Polish nationality and 8.6% declared Jewish nationality.
World War II
During the Nazi German invasion of Poland at the onset of World War II, the unit of Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler murdered 50 civilians (mostly Jews) on the outskirts of Błonie in a single mass execution, on (pl) of 18 September 1939. In 1939, the Germans established a transit camp for Polish prisoners of war in the town, and later also a forced labour camp. The Polish resistance movement was active in the town's vicinity.
German authorities established a Jewish ghetto in Błonie in December 1940,The statistical data compiled on the basis of "Glossary of 2,077 Jewish towns in Poland" by Virtual Shtetl Museum of the History of the Polish Jews , as well as "Getta Żydowskie," by Gedeon, and "Ghetto List" by Michael Peters at www.deathcamps.org/occupation/ghettolist.htm . Accessed July 12, 2011. in order to confine the Jewish population of the town for the purpose of persecution, terror, and exploitation."The War Against The Jews." The Holocaust Chronicle, 2009. Chicago, Il. Accessed June 21, 2011. The ghetto was liquidated in February 1941, when all its remaining 2,100 Jewish inhabitants were transported aboard the Holocaust train to the Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in all of German-occupied Europe, with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of (meaning that every person had less than an area 9 feet by 10 feet in which to sleep, eat and walk around the ghetto), or 7.2 persons per room.Warsaw Ghetto, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Washington, D.C. By the time Poland was liberated from German occupation, not a single Jewish ghetto remained.Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust, University Press of Kentucky 1989 - 201 pages. Page 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944, University Press of Kentucky, 1986, Google Print, p.13.Gunnar S. Paulsson, "The Rescue of Jews by Non-Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland," Journal of Holocaust Education, Vol.7, Nos.1&2, 1998, pp.19-44. Published by Frank Cass, London.Edward Victor, "Ghettos and Other Jewish Communities." Judaica Philatelic. Accessed June 20, 2011.
Transport Błonie railway station, opened in 1902 on the Warsaw–Kalisz Railway, is served by Masovian Railways, who run services between Kutno and Warszawa Wschodnia.
Sports The local football club is . It competes in the lower leagues.
Twin towns and sister cities
Błonie is twinned with: Coreno Ausonio, Italy
References
External links
Official website Jewish Community of Błonie on Virtual Shtetl