1.
Poland
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Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe, situated between the Baltic Sea in the north and two mountain ranges in the south. Bordered by Germany to the west, the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south, Ukraine and Belarus to the east, the total area of Poland is 312,679 square kilometres, making it the 69th largest country in the world and the 9th largest in Europe. With a population of over 38.5 million people, Poland is the 34th most populous country in the world, the 8th most populous country in Europe, Poland is a unitary state divided into 16 administrative subdivisions, and its capital and largest city is Warsaw. Other metropolises include Kraków, Wrocław, Poznań, Gdańsk and Szczecin, the establishment of a Polish state can be traced back to 966, when Mieszko I, ruler of a territory roughly coextensive with that of present-day Poland, converted to Christianity. The Kingdom of Poland was founded in 1025, and in 1569 it cemented a political association with the Grand Duchy of Lithuania by signing the Union of Lublin. This union formed the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, one of the largest and most populous countries of 16th and 17th century Europe, Poland regained its independence in 1918 at the end of World War I, reconstituting much of its historical territory as the Second Polish Republic. In September 1939, World War II started with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany, followed thereafter by invasion by the Soviet Union. More than six million Polish citizens died in the war, after the war, Polands borders were shifted westwards under the terms of the Potsdam Conference. With the backing of the Soviet Union, a communist puppet government was formed, and after a referendum in 1946. During the Revolutions of 1989 Polands Communist government was overthrown and Poland adopted a new constitution establishing itself as a democracy, informally called the Third Polish Republic. Since the early 1990s, when the transition to a primarily market-based economy began, Poland has achieved a high ranking on the Human Development Index. Poland is a country, which was categorised by the World Bank as having a high-income economy. Furthermore, it is visited by approximately 16 million tourists every year, Poland is the eighth largest economy in the European Union and was the 6th fastest growing economy on the continent between 2010 and 2015. According to the Global Peace Index for 2014, Poland is ranked 19th in the list of the safest countries in the world to live in. The origin of the name Poland derives from a West Slavic tribe of Polans that inhabited the Warta River basin of the historic Greater Poland region in the 8th century, the origin of the name Polanie itself derives from the western Slavic word pole. In some foreign languages such as Hungarian, Lithuanian, Persian and Turkish the exonym for Poland is Lechites, historians have postulated that throughout Late Antiquity, many distinct ethnic groups populated the regions of what is now Poland. The most famous archaeological find from the prehistory and protohistory of Poland is the Biskupin fortified settlement, dating from the Lusatian culture of the early Iron Age, the Slavic groups who would form Poland migrated to these areas in the second half of the 5th century AD. With the Baptism of Poland the Polish rulers accepted Christianity and the authority of the Roman Church
2.
Voivodeships of Poland
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A województwo is the highest-level administrative subdivision of Poland, corresponding to a province in many other countries. The term województwo has been in use since the 14th century, the word województwo is also rendered as voivodeship or a variant spelling. The Polish local government reforms adopted in 1998, which went into effect on 1 January 1999 and these replaced the 49 former voivodeships that had existed from 1 July 1975. Todays voivodeships are mostly named after historical and geographical regions, while prior to 1998 generally took their names from the cities on which they were centered. The new units range in area from under 10,000 km2 to over 35,000 km2, voivodeships are further divided into powiats and gminas, see Administrative divisions of Poland. Competences and powers at voivodeship level are shared between the voivode, the sejmik and the marshal. In most cases these institutions are all based in one city, but in Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Lubusz Voivodeship the voivodes offices are in a different city from those of the executive, Voivodeship capitals are listed in the table below. The voivode is appointed by the Prime Minister and is the representative of the central government. The voivodes offices collectively are known as the urząd wojewódzki, the sejmik is elected every four years, at the same time as the local authorities at powiat and gmina level. It passes bylaws, including the development strategies and budget. It also elects the marszałek and other members of the executive, the marshals offices are collectively known as the urząd marszałkowski. According to 2014 Eurostat data, the GDP per capita of Polish voivodeships varies notably, Administrative division of Poland between 1979 and 1998 included 49 voivodeships upheld after the establishment of the Third Polish Republic in 1989 for another decade. This reorganization of administrative division of Poland was mainly a result of government reform acts of 1973–1975. In place of the administrative division, a new two-level administrative division was introduced. The three smallest voivodeships – Warsaw, Kraków and Łódź – had the status of municipal voivodeship. After World War II, the new division of the country within the new national borders was based on the prewar one and included 14 voivodeships. The voivodeships in the east that had not been annexed by the Soviet Union had their borders left almost unchanged. The newly acquired territories in the west and north were organized into the new voivodeships of Szczecin, Wrocław and Olsztyn, two cities were granted voivodeship status, Warsaw and Łódź
3.
Podlaskie Voivodeship
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This is an article about a present administrative unit of Poland. For historical units, see History of Podlaskie Voivodeship, Podlaskie Voivodeship or Podlasie Province is a voivodeship in northeastern Poland. The capital of Podlasie Province is Białystok, there are two opinions regarding the origin of the regions name. People often derive it from the Slavic les or las, meaning forest, i. e. it is an area by the wood or an area of forests, which would bring Podlasie close in meaning to adjacent Polesia. This theory has been questioned, as it does not properly take into consideration the vowel shifts a > e > i in various Slavic languages, heavily wooded Podlasie is home to the primal Białowieża Forest and National Park, habitat of the European wisent bison and tarpan. A second view holds that the term comes from the expression pod Lachem, some claim it to mean under Polish rule, which does not seem historically sound, as the area belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania until 1569, and the southern part of it—until 1795. Hence pod Lachem would mean near the Poles, along the border with Poland, the historical Lithuanian name of the region, Palenkė, has exactly this meaning. It has a landscape, shaped in the north by Baltic glaciation. The highest peaks are in the north, where the landscape is dominated by a lake district. Lakeland, Zachodniosuwalskie, Wschodniosuwalskie, Ełckie) and Sandrowy lake district in the central and southern pre-glacial plains prevail, varied in topography with small basins, kurpie lie on the west edge of the outwash plains. Sand, gravel, clay, moraine, and in the valleys and basins of the silt, sand. The vast forests, some of which are the ones in Europe to have retained their original character, contain a unique wealth of flora. The vegetation of the region is diverse, which contributes to the richness of the animal world. Visitors can also see moose, wolves, lynx and bison living in the Białowieża Forest, Podlaskie has the lowest population density of the sixteen Polish voivodeships, and its largely unspoiled nature is one of its chief assets. Around 30% of the area of the voivodeship is under legal protection, the Polish part of the Białowieża Forest biosphere reserve is in Podlaskie. There are four National Parks, three Landscape Parks,88 nature reserves, and 15 protected landscape areas, the voivodeship constitutes a part of the ecologically clean area known as the Green Lungs of Poland. It is substantially different from most of the other Polish lowlands, the region is one of the coldest in Poland, with the average temperature in January being -−5 °C. The average temperature in a year is 7 °C, the number of frost days ranges from 50 to 60, with frost from 110 to 138 days and the duration of snow cover from 90 to 110 days
4.
Powiat
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A powiat is the second-level unit of local government and administration in Poland, equivalent to a county, district or prefecture in other countries. The term powiat is most often translated into English as county, a powiat is part of a larger unit, the voivodeship or province. A powiat is usually subdivided into gminas, major towns and cities, however, function as separate counties in their own right, without subdivision into gminas. They are termed city counties and have roughly the same status as county boroughs in the UK. The other type of powiats are termed land counties, as of 2008, there were 379 powiat-level entities,314 land counties, and 65 city counties. For a complete listing, see List of Polish counties. For tables of counties by voivodeship, see the articles on the individual voivodeships, the history of Polish powiats goes back to the second half of the 14th century. They remained the basic unit of organization in Poland, then in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After Poland regained independence in 1918, the powiats were again the territorial units. Powiats were abolished in 1975 in favor of a number of voivodeships. This reform also created 16 larger voivodeships, legislative power within a powiat is vested in an elected council, while local executive power is vested in the starosta, who is elected by that council. The administrative offices headed by the starosta are called the starostwo, however, in city counties these institutions do not exist separately – their powers and functions are exercised by the city council, the directly elected mayor, and the city offices. In some cases a powiat has its seat outside its own territory, for example, Poznań County has its offices in Poznań, although Poznań is itself a city county, and is therefore not part of Poznań County. Powiats have relatively limited powers, since many local and regional matters are dealt with either at gmina or voivodeship level, the Polish the name of an county, in the administrative sense, consists of the word powiat followed by a masculine-gender adjective. In most cases, this is the formed from the name of the town or city where the county has its seat. Thus the county with its seat at the town of Kutno is named powiat kutnowski, if the name of the seat comprises a noun followed by an adjective, as in Maków Mazowiecki, the adjective will generally be formed from the noun only. There are also a few counties whose names are derived from the names of two towns, from the name of a city and an adjective, or a mountain range. There is more one way to render such names into English
5.
Gmina
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The gmina is the principal unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a commune or municipality. As of 2010 there were 2,478 gminy throughout the country, the word gmina derives from the German word Gemeinde, meaning community. The gmina has been the unit of territorial division in Poland since 1974. Some rural gminy have their seat in a town which is outside the gminas division, for example, the rural Gmina Augustów is administered from the town of Augustów, but does not include the town, as Augustów is an urban type gmina in its own right. The legislative and controlling body of each gmina is the municipal council, or in a town. A gmina may create auxiliary units, which play an administrative role. In rural areas these are called sołectwa, in towns they may be dzielnice or osiedla and in an urban-rural gmina, for a complete listing of all the gminy in Poland, see List of Polish gminas. Each gmina carries out two types of tasks, its own tasks and commissioned ones, own tasks are public tasks exercised by self-government, which serve to satisfy the needs of the community. Commissioned tasks cover the remaining public tasks resulting from legitimate needs of the state, the tasks are handed over on the basis of statutory by-laws, charters and regulations, or by way of agreements between the self-government units and central-government administration. Official report from the Central Statistical Office of Poland dated January 1,2006
6.
Gmina Wizna
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Gmina Wizna is a rural gmina in Łomża County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. Its seat is the village of Wizna, which lies approximately 21 kilometres east of Łomża and 54 km west of the regional capital Białystok, the gmina covers an area of 133.05 square kilometres, and as of 2006 its total population was 4,313. The gmina contains part of the area called Łomża Landscape Park. Gmina Wizna is bordered by the gminas of Jedwabne, Łomża, Piątnica, Rutki, Trzcianne, Polish official population figures 2006 Wizna Web Page Urke Nachalnik Famous Polish gangster, turned noted author, who was born in Wizna
7.
Lithuanian language
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Lithuanian is the official state language of Lithuania and is recognized as one of the official languages of the European Union. There are about 2.9 million native Lithuanian speakers in Lithuania, Lithuanian is a Baltic language, related to Latvian. It is written in a Latin alphabet, Lithuanian is often said to be the most conservative living Indo-European language, retaining many features of Proto-Indo-European now lost in other Indo-European languages. Anyone wishing to hear how Indo-Europeans spoke should come and listen to a Lithuanian peasant, among Indo-European languages, Lithuanian is extraordinarily conservative, retaining many archaic features otherwise found only in ancient languages such as Sanskrit or Ancient Greek. For this reason, it is one of the most important sources in the reconstruction of the Proto-Indo-European language despite its late attestation, the Proto-Balto-Slavic languages branched off directly from Proto-Indo-European, then branched into Proto-Baltic and Proto-Slavic. Proto-Baltic branched off into Proto-West Baltic and Proto-East Baltic, according to some glottochronological speculations, the Eastern Baltic languages split from the Western Baltic ones between AD400 and AD600. The Greek geographer Ptolemy had already written of two Baltic tribe/nations by name, the Galindai and Sudinoi in the 2nd century AD, the differentiation between Lithuanian and Latvian started after AD800, for a long period, they could be considered dialects of a single language. At a minimum, transitional dialects existed until the 14th or 15th century, also, the 13th- and 14th-century occupation of the western part of the Daugava basin by the German Sword Brethren had a significant influence on the languages independent development. The earliest surviving written Lithuanian text is a translation dating from about 1503–1525 of the Lords Prayer, the Hail Mary, printed books existed after 1547, but the level of literacy among Lithuanians was low through the 18th century, and books were not commonly available. Brought into the country by book smugglers despite the threat of prison sentences. Jonas Jablonskis made significant contributions to the formation of the standard Lithuanian language and his proposal for Standard Lithuanian was based on his native Western Aukštaitijan dialect with some features of the eastern Prussian Lithuanians dialect spoken in Lithuania Minor. These dialects had preserved archaic phonetics mostly intact due to the influence of the neighbouring Old Prussian language, Lithuanian has been the official language of Lithuania since 1918. During the Soviet era, it was used in official discourse along with Russian, Lithuanian is one of two living Baltic languages, along with Latvian. An earlier Baltic language, Old Prussian, was extinct by the 18th century, such an opinion was first represented by the likes of August Schleicher, and to a certain extent, Antoine Meillet. Endzelīns thought that the similarity between Baltic and Slavic was explicable through language contact while Schleicher, Meillet and others argued for a kinship between the two families. An attempt to reconcile the opposing stances was made by Jan Michał Rozwadowski and he proposed that the two language groups were indeed a unity after the division of Indo-European, but also suggested that after the two had divided into separate entities, they had posterior contact. The genetic kinship view is augmented by the fact that Proto-Balto-Slavic is easily reconstructible with important proofs in historic prosody, vyacheslav Ivanov and Vladimir Toporov believed in the unity of Balto-Slavic, but not in the unity of Baltic. In the 1960s, they proposed a new division, that into East-Baltic, West-Baltic, the Ivanov–Toporov theory is gaining ground among students of comparative-historic grammar of Indo-European language, and seems to be replacing the previous two stances in most PIE textbooks
8.
Biebrza
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Biebrza is a river in north-eastern Poland, a tributary of the Narew river, with a length of 155 kilometres and the basin area of 7,057 km2. Larger towns in the area, Lipsk Sztabin Goniądz Osowiec-Twierdza Radzilow Wizna The region is divided into lower, central and upper basin areas. Right tributaries, Netta, Lega, Ełk, Wissa Left tributaries, Sidra, Brzozówka Today the river is best known for the wildlife in the peatbogs. Historically, the regions of Masovia and Lithuania, the area retains much of its cultural diversity today. The basin of Biebrza river is inhabited not only by hundreds of rare and endangered sorts of birds, while most of the population of the region speaks standard Polish, some people in the upper river basin speak a local dialect of Belarusian. The people there belong to the Orthodox or Roman Catholic church, on the north bank of the upper Biebrza there are also a few villages where so called old-believers live, who speak an archaic dialect of Russian. Some of these communities preserved much of their culture in spite of a long lasting communist government policies aimed at assimilation of non-Polish cultural. Biebrza National Park Augustów Canal Rivers of Poland Natural tourism in Biebrza National Park Radzilow - Town running along the Biebrza
9.
Battle of Wizna
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The Battle of Wizna was fought between September 7 and September 10,1939, between the forces of Poland and Germany during the initial stages of Invasion of Poland. According to Polish historian Leszek Moczulski, between 350 and 720 Poles defended a line for three days against more than 40,000 Germans. Although defeat was inevitable, the Polish defence stalled the attacking forces for three days and postponed the encirclement of Independent Operational Group Narew fighting nearby, eventually the tanks broke through the Polish line and German engineers eliminated all the bunkers one by one. The last bunker surrendered around midday on September 10, one of the symbols of the battle is Captain Władysław Raginis, the commanding officer of the Polish force, who swore to hold his position as long as he was alive. When the last two bunkers under his command ran out of ammunition, he ordered his men to surrender their arms, before the war, the area of the village of Wizna was prepared as a fortified line of defence. It was to shield the Polish positions further to the south and guard the crossing of the Narew, the 9 kilometres long line of Polish defences stretched between the villages of Kołodzieje and Grądy-Woniecko, with Wizna in the centre. The line ran some 35 kilometres from the border with East Prussia, along an elevated banks of Narew, units defending the line were subordinate to the Polish Independent Operational Group Narew shielding Łomża and providing defence of the northern approach to Warsaw. Construction started in June 1939, only two months before the outbreak of World War II, the spot was chosen carefully, most of the concrete bunkers were built on hills overlooking a swampy Narew River valley. They could be reached either through direct assault through the swamps or by attack along the leading from the bridge in Wizna. Before September 1,1939, only 16 bunkers were built out of 60 planned, six bunkers were made of heavy concrete with reinforced steel cupolas weighing 8 tons each, armed with machine guns and anti-tank artillery. Two were light concrete bunkers, armed with machine guns only, the remaining eight were ad-hoc machine gun pillboxes, protected mostly by sandbags and earthworks. Four additional heavy bunkers were under construction when World War II started, in addition, the area was reinforced with trenches, anti-tank and anti-personnel obstacles, barbed wire lines and land mines. There were also plans to break the dams on the Biebrza and Narew rivers to flood the area, but the summer of 1939 was one of the driest seasons in Polish history and the water level was too low. Although not all bunkers were ready by the beginning of the war, the walls of an average bunker,1.5 metres thick and reinforced with 20-centimetre-thick steel plates, could withstand a direct hit from even the heaviest guns available to the Wehrmacht at the time. The bunkers were situated on hills which gave good visibility of all the advancing forces, the Polish defensive line was initially manned by a single battalion from the 71st Infantry Regiment, commanded by Mjr. On September 2,1939, the III/71 battalion departed for Osowiec, fober passed command over Wizna to Raginis and his men. Altogether, the Polish defensive position was manned by 720 men,20 officers and 700 NCOs, however, some sources claim that the Polish unit was even weaker and was no more than 360 men strong. Although the Polish units were almost entirely composed of conscripts mobilised in August 1939 rather than professional soldiers, after the war Guderian had trouble explaining why his Corps was stopped by such a small force
10.
Invasion of Poland
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The campaign ended on 6 October with Germany and the Soviet Union dividing and annexing the whole of Poland under the terms of the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty. German forces invaded Poland from the north, south, and west the morning after the Gleiwitz incident, as the Wehrmacht advanced, Polish forces withdrew from their forward bases of operation close to the Polish–German border to more established lines of defence to the east. After the mid-September Polish defeat in the Battle of the Bzura, Polish forces then withdrew to the southeast where they prepared for a long defence of the Romanian Bridgehead and awaited expected support and relief from France and the United Kingdom. While those two countries had pacts with Poland and had declared war on Germany on 3 September, in the end their aid to Poland was very limited. The Soviet Red Armys invasion of Eastern Poland on 17 September, in accordance with a protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Facing a second front, the Polish government concluded the defence of the Romanian Bridgehead was no longer feasible, on 6 October, following the Polish defeat at the Battle of Kock, German and Soviet forces gained full control over Poland. The success of the invasion marked the end of the Second Polish Republic, the Soviet Union incorporated its newly acquired areas into its constituent Belarusian and Ukrainian republics, and immediately started a campaign of sovietization. In the aftermath of the invasion, a collective of underground resistance formed the Polish Underground State within the territory of the former Polish state. Many of the exiles that managed to escape Poland subsequently joined the Polish Armed Forces in the West. On 30 January 1933, the Nazi Party, under its leader Adolf Hitler, as part of this long-term policy, Hitler at first pursued a policy of rapprochement with Poland, trying to improve opinion in Germany, culminating in the German–Polish Non-Aggression Pact of 1934. Earlier, Hitlers foreign policy worked to weaken ties between Poland and France, and attempted to manoeuvre Poland into the Anti-Comintern Pact, forming a front against the Soviet Union. The Poles feared that their independence would eventually be threatened altogether, the so-called Polish Corridor constituted land long disputed by Poland and Germany, and inhabited by a Polish majority. The Corridor had become a part of Poland after the Treaty of Versailles, many Germans also wanted the city of Danzig and its environs to be reincorporated into Germany. Danzig was a city with a German majority. It had been separated from Germany after Versailles and made into the nominally independent Free City of Danzig, the series of border violations, which are unbearable to a great power, prove that the Poles no longer are willing to respect the German frontier. Poland participated with Germany in the partition of Czechoslovakia that followed the Munich Agreement and it coerced Czechoslovakia to surrender the region of Český Těšín by issuing an ultimatum to that effect on 30 September 1938, which was accepted by Czechoslovakia on 1 October. This region had a Polish majority and had been disputed between Czechoslovakia and Poland in the aftermath of World War I, the Polish annexation of Slovak territory later served as the justification for the Slovak state to join the German invasion. Poland rejected this proposal, fearing that after accepting these demands, it would become subject to the will of Germany
11.
Mazovia
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Mazovia is a historical region in mid-north-eastern Poland. Borders of the Mazovian Voivodeship, which was created in 1999, do not reflect exactly its original shape, historical Mazovia existed since the Middle Ages until the partitions of Poland and consisted of three voivodeships with the capitals in Warszawa, Płock and Rawa Mazowiecka. In a narrower sense, the Mazovian Voivodeship was only the first of them, between 1816 and 1844 another Mazovian Voivodeship existed, encompassing the south of the region. In the Middle Ages the main city of the region was Płock, since 1138 Mazovia had a separate branch of the Piast dynasty and was incorporated to the Polish Crown as late as in the 15th and 16th centuries. As much as over 20% of Mazovian population was the yeomanry, inhabitants of Mazovia are Mazurzy – hence the region of Masuria, settled by them. Mazovia has a landscape without hills and without lakes and it is spread over the Mazovian Lowland, on both sides of the Vistula river and its confluence with Narew and Bug. Forests cover one-fifth of the region, with the large Kampinos Forest, Puszcza Biała, in the north Mazovia borders on the Masurian subregion of former Prussia, in the east on Podlachia, in the south on Lesser Poland and in the west on Greater Poland. The area of Mazovia is 33,500 km2 and it has population of 5 million. When the Slavs came to this region from the area of Polesie, they mingled with the descendants of Vistula Veneti. This created a Lechitic tribe, Mazovians, the historical region of Mazovia in the beginning encompassed only the territories on the right bank of Vistula near Płock and had strong connections with Greater Poland. In the period of the rule of the first monarchs of the Piast State, Płock was one of their seats, in the period 1037–1047 it was the capital of the independent, Mazovian state of Masław. Between 1079 and 1138 this city was de facto the capital of Poland, during the 9th century Mazovia was perhaps inhabited by the tribe of Mazovians, and it was incorporated into the Polish state in the second half of 10th century under the Piast ruler Mieszko I. In 1138 the duchy of Mazovia was established, and during the 12th and 13th centuries it joined temporarily various adjacent lands and endured invasions of Prussians, Yotvingians, and Ruthenians. To protect its northern section Conrad I of Masovia called in the Teutonic Knights in 1226, after the reunification of the Polish state by Władysław I in the early 14th century, Mazovia became its fief in 1351. In the second half of 15th century western Mazovia and in 1526/1529 the main part was incorporated into the Polish state, in the 15th century eastern part of the region was settled, mainly by the yeomanry. Mazovia was considered underdeveloped in comparison with Greater Poland and Lesser Poland, in the Early Modern Times Mazovia was known for exporting grain, timber, and fur. It was also distinct because there was no reformation here, Mazovia was divided into three voivodeships, each of them divided into lands, each of them divided into counties. The Polish-Lithuanian Union of Lublin established Mazovia as the region of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, with Warsaw rising to prominence as the seat of the state legislature
12.
Narew
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The Narew River, in western Belarus and north-eastern Poland, is a right tributary of the Vistula river. The Narew is one of Europes few braided rivers, the relating to the twisted channels resembling braided hair. The name of the river comes from a Proto-Indo-European root *nr primarily associated with water, the portion of the river between Zegrze Reservoir and the Vistula is sometimes called Bugonarew, Narwio-Bug, Narwo-Bug, Bugo-Narew, Narwiobug or Narwobug. At the confluence near Zegrze the Bug is longer than Narew, however, because of that the river was variously referred to as either Narew, Bug, Bugo-Narew, Bugonarew, Narwiobug or Narwobug. Until after World War II rivers were commonly classified by their length, as at the confluence near Zegrze Bug is longer than Narew, the Bugonarew was often considered part of Bug river and Narew was thought of as its tributary. However, at the same time Narews discharge is higher at their meeting point. On December 27,1962 the Prime Minister of Polands act abolished the name Bugonarew soon after the Zegrze Reservoir had been constructed, since then the river is considered to be part of Narew, while Bug is currently considered a left tributary. The name however is continued to be used, especially by the inhabitants of towns located along the banks of the stretch of river, the Narew is the fifth longest Polish river. On August 23,1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, agreeing to divide Poland along the Narew, Vistula, and San rivers. On September 6,1939, Polish military forces attempted to use the Narew as a line against German attack during the German Invasion of Poland. This was abandoned the day in favor of the Bug as German forces had already penetrated the defenses. The Battle of Wizna was fought along the banks of the river between September 7 and September 10,1939, between the forces of Poland and Germany during the stages of Invasion of Poland. On September 17,1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland, by 28 September, the Soviet Army had reached the line of the rivers Narew, Bug River, Vistula and San - completing the division of Poland as negotiated in advance. Narew National Park Narew Landscape Park Rivers of Poland Geography of Poland Natural tourism in Narew National Park
13.
Castellan
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A castellan was the governor or captain of a castellany and its castle. The word stems from the Latin Castellanus, derived from castellum castle, sometimes also known as a constable, governor of the castle district or captain, the Constable of the Tower of London is, in fact, a form of castellan. A castellan was almost always male, but could occasionally be female, as when, in 1194, after the fall of the Western Roman Empire, many tribes migrated into western Europe, causing strife and war. The answer to recurrent invasion was to create fortified areas which evolved into castles, some leaders gained control of several areas, each with a castle. The problem lay in exerting control and authority in each area when a leader could only be in one place at a time. To answer this, lords gave their trusted vassals direct control of a castle and this changed as kings grew in power and as the Holy Roman emperors replaced recalcitrant vassals with ministerials. Usually the duties of a castellan were combined with the duties of a majordomo and this made the castellan responsible for a castles domestic staff and its garrison, as well as a military administrator responsible for maintaining defenses and protecting the castles lands. This was particularly the case if there was no lord resident at the castle, one unusual responsibility in western Europe concerned jurisdiction over the resident Jewish communities near the English Channel. The Constable of the Tower of London and those castellans subordinate to the dukes of Normandy were responsible for their administration, in France, castellans who governed castles without resident nobles acquired considerable powers, and the position actually became a hereditary fiefdom. In Germany the castellan was known as a Burgmann, or sometimes Hauptmann, the burgmann may have been either a free noble or a ministerialis, but either way administered the castle as a vassal. A ministerialis, being wholly indebted to a lord, was easily controlled. Ministeriales replaced free nobles as castellans of Hohensalzburg under Conrad I of Abensberg’s tenure as Archbishop of Salzburg from 1106 to 1147, in the Medieval Kingdom of Hungary usually was called várnagy, and in the Latin charts it appeared as castellanus. The lord of the castle had similar functions than the German ones. In Hungary first the King, later the most powerful noblemen designed the castellans between their followers for the administration of their castles and the states that belonged to the fortress, at times, there was a castellan among the Officers of the Kingdom of Jerusalem, starting with Anselm. Lectures on the Statutes of the Sacred Order of St. John of Jerusalem, in the Kingdom of Poland and later the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, the castellans were in most cases lower in precedence to the voivodes. Castellans in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were of senator rank, in Portugal, a castellan was known as alcaide. Later, the role of alcaide became a title awarded by the King of Portugal to certain nobles. As the honorary holder of the office of alcaide did not often live near its castle, an honorary holder of the office became known as alcaide-mor and its delegate became known as alcaide pequeno or alcaide-menor
14.
Wizna Land
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Wizna Land, named after the town of Wizna, was an administrative unit of the Duchy of Mazovia, Kingdom of Poland and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. With its capital in Wizna, it belonged to Masovian Voivodeship, in the 16th century, Wizna Land was divided into two counties, Wizna and Wasosz. The total area of Wizna Land was 1419 km2, with 280 villages, Wizna Land was located in the extreme northeastern corner of the Duchy of Mazovia. Until the Union of Krewo, it was raided by the Lithuanians. The starosta resided in Wizna, and the province existed until the Partitions of Poland, adolf Pawiński, Polska XVI wieku pod względem geograficzno-statystycznym. Warszawa, Księgarnia Gebethnera i Wolffa,1895
15.
Prussia
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Prussia was a historic state originating out of the Duchy of Prussia and the Margraviate of Brandenburg, and centred on the region of Prussia. For centuries, the House of Hohenzollern ruled Prussia, successfully expanding its size by way of an unusually well-organised, Prussia, with its capital in Königsberg and from 1701 in Berlin, shaped the history of Germany. In 1871, German states united to create the German Empire under Prussian leadership, in November 1918, the monarchies were abolished and the nobility lost its political power during the German Revolution of 1918–19. The Kingdom of Prussia was thus abolished in favour of a republic—the Free State of Prussia, from 1933, Prussia lost its independence as a result of the Prussian coup, when the Nazi regime was successfully establishing its Gleichschaltung laws in pursuit of a unitary state. Prussia existed de jure until its liquidation by the Allied Control Council Enactment No.46 of 25 February 1947. The name Prussia derives from the Old Prussians, in the 13th century, the Teutonic Knights—an organized Catholic medieval military order of German crusaders—conquered the lands inhabited by them. In 1308, the Teutonic Knights conquered the region of Pomerelia with Gdańsk and their monastic state was mostly Germanised through immigration from central and western Germany and in the south, it was Polonised by settlers from Masovia. The Second Peace of Thorn split Prussia into the western Royal Prussia, a province of Poland, and the part, from 1525 called the Duchy of Prussia. The union of Brandenburg and the Duchy of Prussia in 1618 led to the proclamation of the Kingdom of Prussia in 1701, Prussia entered the ranks of the great powers shortly after becoming a kingdom, and exercised most influence in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the 18th century it had a say in many international affairs under the reign of Frederick the Great. During the 19th century, Chancellor Otto von Bismarck united the German principalities into a Lesser Germany which excluded the Austrian Empire. At the Congress of Vienna, which redrew the map of Europe following Napoleons defeat, Prussia acquired a section of north western Germany. The country then grew rapidly in influence economically and politically, and became the core of the North German Confederation in 1867, and then of the German Empire in 1871. The Kingdom of Prussia was now so large and so dominant in the new Germany that Junkers and other Prussian élites identified more and more as Germans and less as Prussians. In the Weimar Republic, the state of Prussia lost nearly all of its legal and political importance following the 1932 coup led by Franz von Papen. East Prussia lost all of its German population after 1945, as Poland, the main coat of arms of Prussia, as well as the flag of Prussia, depicted a black eagle on a white background. The black and white colours were already used by the Teutonic Knights. The Teutonic Order wore a white coat embroidered with a cross with gold insert
16.
Lithuania
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Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in Northern Europe. One of the three Baltic states, it is situated along the shore of the Baltic Sea, to the east of Sweden. It is bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, Poland to the south, Lithuania has an estimated population of 2.9 million people as of 2015, and its capital and largest city is Vilnius. The official language, Lithuanian, along with Latvian, is one of two living languages in the Baltic branch of the Indo-European language family. For centuries, the shores of the Baltic Sea were inhabited by various Baltic tribes. In the 1230s, the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, the King of Lithuania, and the first unified Lithuanian state, with the Lublin Union of 1569, Lithuania and Poland formed a voluntary two-state union, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Commonwealth lasted more than two centuries, until neighboring countries systematically dismantled it from 1772–95, with the Russian Empire annexing most of Lithuanias territory. As World War I neared its end, Lithuanias Act of Independence was signed on 16 February 1918, in the midst of the Second World War, Lithuania was first occupied by the Soviet Union and then by Nazi Germany. As World War II neared its end and the Germans retreated, Lithuania is a member of the European Union, the Council of Europe, a full member of the Eurozone, Schengen Agreement and NATO. It is also a member of the Nordic Investment Bank, the United Nations Human Development Index lists Lithuania as a very high human development country. Lithuania has been among the fastest growing economies in the European Union and is ranked 21st in the world in the Ease of Doing Business Index, the first people settled in the territory of Lithuania after the last glacial period in the 10th millennium BC. Over a millennium, the Indo-Europeans, who arrived in the 3rd – 2nd millennium BC, mixed with the local population, the first written mention of Lithuania is found in a medieval German manuscript, the Annals of Quedlinburg, in an entry dated 9 March 1009. Initially inhabited by fragmented Baltic tribes, in the 1230s the Lithuanian lands were united by Mindaugas, after his assassination in 1263, pagan Lithuania was a target of the Christian crusades of the Teutonic Knights and the Livonian Order. Despite the devastating century-long struggle with the Orders, the Grand Duchy of Lithuania expanded rapidly, by the end of the 14th century, Lithuania was one of the largest countries in Europe and included present-day Belarus, Ukraine, and parts of Poland and Russia. The geopolitical situation between the west and the east determined the multicultural and multi-confessional character of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, the ruling elite practised religious tolerance and Chancery Slavonic language was used as an auxiliary language to the Latin for official documents. In 1385, the Grand Duke Jogaila accepted Polands offer to become its king, Jogaila embarked on gradual Christianization of Lithuania and established a personal union between Poland and Lithuania. It implied that Lithuania, the fiercely independent land, was one of the last pagan areas of Europe to adopt Christianity, after two civil wars, Vytautas the Great became the Grand Duke of Lithuania in 1392. During his reign, Lithuania reached the peak of its expansion, centralization of the state began
17.
Catholic
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The use of terms catholicism and catholicity is closely related to the use of term Catholic Church. The earliest evidence of the use of term is the Letter to the Smyrnaeans that Ignatius of Antioch wrote in about 108 to Christians in Smyrna. In 380, Emperor Theodosius I limited use of the term Catholic Christian exclusively to those who followed the faith as Pope Damasus I of Rome. Numerous other early writers including Cyril of Jerusalem, Augustine of Hippo further developed the use of the term catholic in relation to Christianity. In Christian theology, and specially in ecclesiology, terms Catholicism, when used with small c, terms catholicism and catholicity generally designate theological doctrine of the catholicity of the Church without denominational connotations. A common belief in Catholicism is institutional continuity with the early Christian church founded by Jesus Christ, many churches or communions of churches identify singularly or collectively as the authentic church. The Bishop of Rome was also considered to have the right to convene ecumenical councils, when the Imperial capital moved to Constantinople, Romes influence was sometimes challenged. The first great rupture in the Church followed this Council and they are often called Ancient Oriental Churches. The next major break was after the Council of Chalcedon and this Council repudiated Eutychian Monophysitism which stated that the divine nature completely subsumed the human nature in Christ. This Council declared that Christ, though one person, exhibited two natures without confusion, without change, without division, without separation and thus is both fully God and fully human, the next great rift within Christianity was in the 11th century. This division between the Western Church and the Eastern Church is called the East–West Schism, several eastern churches reunited, constituting some of the Eastern Catholic Churches. Liturgical and canonical practices vary between all these particular Churches constituting the Roman and Eastern Catholic Churches, in all these cases the beliefs and practices of Catholicism would be identical with the beliefs and practices of the Church in question. However, in Roman Catholicism, the term catholic is understood as to cover those who recognize and are in standing with the Magisterium. The sense given to the word by those who use it to distinguish their position from a Calvinistic or Puritan form of Protestantism. It is then meaningful to attempt to draw up a list of common characteristic beliefs, the Roman Catholic Church includes the 23 rites who recognize the Magisterium. Belief in the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, the belief that Christ is made manifest in the elements of Holy Communion, possession of the threefold ordained ministry of Bishops, Priests and Deacons. Belief that the Church is the vessel and deposit of the fullness of the teachings of Jesus and this teaching is preserved in both written scripture and in unwritten tradition, neither being independent of the other. A belief in the necessity and efficacy of sacraments, liturgical and personal use of the Sign of the Cross The use of sacred images, candles, vestments and music, and often incense and water, in worship
18.
Parish
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A parish is a church territorial unit constituting a division within a diocese. A parish is under the care and clerical jurisdiction of a parish priest, who might be assisted by one or more curates. Historically, a parish often covered the same area as a manor. By extension the term refers not only to the territorial unit. In England this church property was technically in ownership of the parish priest ex-officio, the eighth Archbishop of Canterbury Theodore of Tarsus appended the parish structure to the Anglo-Saxon township unit, where it existed, and where minsters catered to the surrounding district. In the wider picture of ecclesiastical polity, a parish comprises a division of a diocese or see, parishes within a diocese may be grouped into a deanery or vicariate forane, overseen by a dean or vicar forane, or in some cases by an archpriest. Some churches of the Anglican Communion have deaneries as units of an archdeaconry, in the Roman Catholic Church, each parish normally has its own parish priest, who has responsibility and canonical authority over the parish. These are called assistant priests, parochial vicars, curates, or, in the United States, associate pastors, each diocese is divided into parishes, each with their own central church called the parish church, where religious services take place. An example is that of personal parishes established in accordance with the 7 July 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum for those attached to the form of the Roman Rite. Most Catholic parishes are part of Latin Rite dioceses, which cover the whole territory of a country. There can also be overlapping parishes of eparchies of Eastern Catholic Churches, the Church of England geographical structure uses the local parish church as its basic unit. The parish system survived the Reformation with the Anglican Churchs secession from Rome remaining largely untouched, Church of England parishes nowadays all lie within one of 44 dioceses divided between the provinces of Canterbury,30 and York,14. A chapelry was a subdivision of a parish in England. It had a status to a township but was so named as it had a chapel which acted as a subsidiary place of worship to the main parish church. In England civil parishes and their parish councils evolved in the 19th century as ecclesiastical parishes began to be relieved of what became considered to be civic responsibilities. Thus their boundaries began to diverge, the word parish acquired a secular usage. Since 1895, a council elected by public vote or a parish meeting administers a civil parish and is formally recognised as the level of local government below a district council. The parish is also the level of church administration in the Church of Scotland
19.
Anna Jagiellon
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Anna Jagiellon was Queen of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania in her own right from 1575 to 1586. She was a daughter of Polish King Sigismund I the Old, despite multiple proposals, she remained unmarried until the age of 52. She was elected, along with her then-fiancé Stephen Báthory, as co-ruler in the 1576 royal election of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and their marriage was a formal arrangement and distant. Báthory was preoccupied with the Livonian War, while Anna spent her time in Warsaw on local administrative matters, after Báthorys death in December 1586, she had an opportunity to claim the throne for herself, but did not even attempt it. Instead, she promoted her nephew Sigismund III Vasa, establishing House of Vasa on the Polish–Lithuanian throne for the eighty years. Anna Jagiellon was born on 18 October 1523 to the Polish king and queen, Sigismund I the Old and she spent most of her childhood in Kraków. Twice, from June 1533 to November 1536 and from April 1540 to June 1542, Anna and that meant that the three sisters grew closer, but grew more distant from their elder brother Sigismund II Augustus. Her early life was rather mundane and she embroidered and sewed, played chess and dice, was involved in works of charity and fulfilled her obligations as a princess. She also received an education – she was fluent in Italian and knew Latin –, the issue of marriage of the three Jagiellon sisters was neglected by both their father and their mother. Sigismund II Augustus did not attend to the issue of his sisters marriages, in 1550, Bona attempted to negotiate marriage with Charles Victor or Philip, sons of Henry V, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg, or Ernest of Bavaria. Finally in January 1556, Queen Bona managed to arrange a marriage for Sophia Jagiellon, a month later, Bona Sforza departed to her native Italy leaving her two unmarried daughters alone in Warsaw. After about a year, Sigismund II Augustus brought his sisters to Vilnius where they became close to his third wife Catherine of Austria, even though Anna was already in her mid-thirties, Sigismund investigated marriage proposals. John agreed, but asked for Annas younger sister Catherine and it was against custom for a younger sister to marry first, therefore their wedding was postponed. However, at the last minute, only John arrived to the wedding in Vilnius, the court demanded that John married Anna, but John insisted on Catherine. Sigismund II Augustus, who needed Swedish troops and money in the Livonian War, though it must have been humiliating for Anna, she agreed and Catherine married John on 4 October 1562. Anna moved to the Royal Castle in Warsaw as Vilnius was not safe due to the Livonian War, there she lived alone with a court of about 70 people, she spent her time praying, embroidering or sewing, and corresponding with her sisters. Her brother visited her annually when he attended sessions of the sejm in Warsaw. Even though Anna was already in her forties, marriage continued to come in
20.
Bona Sforza
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Bona Sforza was a member of the powerful House of Sforza, which ruled the Duchy of Milan since 1447. In 1518, she became the wife of Sigismund I the Old. Their marriage lasted 30 years until Sigismunds death in 1548, ambitious and energetic, Bona became heavily involved in the political life of Poland–Lithuania. To increase state revenue, she implemented various economic and agricultural reforms and her reforms made her the richest landowner in the Grand Duchy. In foreign policy, she opposed the Habsburgs and sought to secure her eldest daughter Isabella Jagiellon in the Kingdom of Hungary, Bona was the third of the four children of Gian Galeazzo Sforza and his wife Isabella of Naples. Gian Galeazzo was the heir to the Duchy of Milan. The couple was sent to live at the Castello Visconteo in Pavia, rumors spread that he was poisoned by Ludovico. The family moved to the Sforza Castle in Milan, where they lived under the eye of Ludovico. He was afraid that Milan residents would rebel and install Francesco Sforza, to minimize the risk, Ludovico separated the boy from his family and granted Bari and Rossano to Isabella. The plans were interrupted by the Italian War of 1499–1504, King Louis XII of France deposed Ludovico and took Francesco with him to Paris. Isabella had nothing left in Milan and departed for her native Naples in February 1500, the war reached the Kingdom of Naples and Isabellas uncle Frederick of Naples was deposed. Together with other relatives, she hid at the Aragonese Castle on Ischia. In April 1502, Isabella and her surviving daughter Bona settled at the Castello Normanno-Svevo in Bari more permanently. There Bona started her extensive education and her teachers included Italian humanists Crisostomo Colonna and Antonio de Ferraris who taught her Latin, classical literature, mathematics, history, law, natural science, theology, even geography. Bona could also play musical instruments. When the House of Sforza was restored to the Duchy of Milan in 1512, Isabella hoped to wed Bona, the initial and most likely plan to marry Maximilian Sforza failed when he was deposed after the French victory in the Battle of Marignano in 1515. Pope Leo X proposed his nephew Lorenzo de Medici as he hoped, using Bonas inheritance claims to the Milan, however, the French hold on Milan was too strong and the plan failed. Polish King Sigismund I the Old was widowed in October 1515, Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, did not want Sigismund to marry another Habsburg opponent like his late wife Barbara Zápolya
21.
Cheder
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A Cheder is a traditional elementary school teaching the basics of Judaism and the Hebrew language. Cheders were widely found in Europe before the end of the 18th century, lessons took place in the house of the teacher, known as a Melamed, whose wages were paid by the Jewish community or a group of parents. Normally, only boys would attend classes—girls were educated by their mothers in their homes, where money was scarce and the community could not afford to maintain many teachers, boys of all ages would be taught in a single group. Although traditionally boys start learning the Hebrew alphabet the day they turned three, boys typically entered cheder school around the age of 5, after learning to read Hebrew, they would immediately begin studying the Torah, starting with Leviticus and the five books of Moses. They would usually start learning Mishna at around 7 years of age, reading out loud to each other and rote learning were the main techniques used to teach these complicated studies. At the age of 13 or 14, the end of an education at the cheder would be marked by his bar mitzvah. Those who wanted to go on to become a rabbi or sofer had to continue their studies at the yeshivot, famous European yeshivot were located at Worms, Fürth and Prague, which was considered to be among the best. Towards the end of the 18th century, the system became a target of critique by members of Jewish orthodoxy as well as by members of the more liberal haskala. Orthodox critics argued that teachers were not sufficiently qualified, at that time, cheder teachers were paid so badly that many would have to supplement their incomes with menial tasks. It was fairly commonplace for a Melamed to be a butcher, singer or even a gravedigger and it was also argued that some cheder teachers would let pupils advance to the next level of learning too early because advanced pupils had to pay more money for their lessons. They proposed additional lessons in the language and a more secular vocational education. These ideas were put into practice at the end of the 18th century by German Jews who founded Reform schools or Freischulen, in more secular and assimilated Jewish communities, cheders are sometimes attended outside normal school hours much like the Christian Sunday school. There, Jewish children attending non-Jewish schools can pick up some knowledge of the Jewish religion. In Israel, where there is no legal core-curriculum, the distinction between school and Cheder is rarely made, as most haredi schools teach only a rudimentary level of secular knowledge
22.
Tarbut
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The Tarbut movement was a network of secular, Hebrew-language schools in parts of the former Jewish Pale of Settlement, specifically in Poland, Romania and Lithuania. Its existence was primarily between World War I and Two, although some schools affiliated with the movement continue to operate today, Tarbut was a Zionist network of Hebrew-language educational institutions founded in 1922, when the first Tarbut conference was held in Warsaw. Tarbut schools had 25,829 students in 1921,37,000 in 1934–1935 and these included about 25% of all students enrolled in Jewish schools in Poland, and 9% of Polands entire Jewish student population. The curriculum was secular, including science, humanities, and Hebrew studies, by the time the war brought the European Tarbut schools to an end, they had long been suffering from chronic underfunding. European Jews who appealed to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee for aid included poet Chaim Nachman Bialik and Zionist leaders Nahum Sokolow and Vladimir Jabotinsky. Nonetheless, some Tarbut schools continued to operate during the war years, notably one in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, the school operated until the end of the war under the headmastership of Nachum Szochet. The graduating students took high school matriculation exams under the auspices of the Polish government-in-exile, Tarbut responded to the shift in Hebrew literature publishing to Palestine taking place around the time of its founding by fostering increased local Hebrew-language childrens publishing. Olamis material included current events in Palestine alongside information about Jewish life in Poland, the Tarbut network no longer exists today, and so no school can today affiliate with it. Adina Bar-El, The Tarbut Network in Poland and its Childrens Periodicals, YIVO Institute, Zionism and Zionist Parties
23.
The Holocaust in Poland
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The genocide officially sanctioned and executed by the Third Reich during World War II, collectively known as the Holocaust, took the lives of more than three million Polish Jews. German companies bid for the contracts to build the crematoria in concentration camps run by Nazi Germany in the General Government as well as in parts of occupied Poland and beyond. Throughout the German occupation, at risk to themselves and their families. Grouped by nationality, Polish rescuers represent the biggest number of people who saved Jews during the Holocaust, already recognized by the State of Israel, the Polish Righteous Among the Nations include 6,706 gentiles, more than any other nation. Following the 1939 invasion of Poland in accordance with the protocol of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Nazi Germany. Large areas of western Poland were annexed by Germany, within months, the Polish Jews in the Soviet-occupied zone, who refused to swear an oath of allegiance, were deported to Siberia along with the Catholics. Their number is estimated at about 200,000 men, women and children, both occupying powers were equally hostile to the existence of sovereign Polish state, and endorsed the policy of ethnic cleansing. However, the Soviet rule was short-lived because the terms of the Nazi–Soviet Pact signed earlier in Moscow were broken, from 1941 to 1943 all of Poland was under the control of Nazi Germany. The semi-colonial territory of the General Government, set up in central and south-eastern Poland, prior to World War II, there were 3,500,000 Jews in Poland, living predominantly in the cities, about 10% of the general population. Database of the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews provides information on 1926 Jewish communities across the country, following the conquest of Poland, the first German anti-Jewish measures involved the policy of expulsion of Jews from the territories annexed by the Third Reich. Annexed directly to the new Warthegau district, the city of Łódź absorbed the influx of some 40,000 Polish Jews forced out from the surrounding areas, a total of 204,000 Jews passed through the ghetto in Łódź. Initially, they were to be expelled to the Generalgouvernement, however, the ultimate destination of the massive removal of Jews was left open until the Final Solution was set in motion two years later. Persecution of Polish Jews by the German occupation authority began immediately after the invasion, during this period, the Germans ordered Jewish communities to appoint Jewish Councils to administer the ghettos and to be responsible in the strictest sense for carrying out orders. Most ghettos were set up in cities and towns where Jewish life was well organized, for logistical reasons, the Jewish communities in settlements without railway connections in occupied Poland were dissolved. In a massive deportation action involving the use of freight trains, the food aid was completely dependent on the SS. Jews were legally banned from baking bread, they were sealed off from the public in an unsustainable manner. By the end of 1941, most ghettoised Jews had no savings left to pay the SS for further bulk food deliveries, the Warsaw ghetto contained more Jews than all of France, the Łódź Ghetto more Jews than all of the Netherlands. More Jews lived in the city of Kraków than in all of Italy, all of southeast Europe – Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, and Greece – had fewer Jews than the original four districts of the General Government
24.
Jews
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The Jews, also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating from the Israelites, or Hebrews, of the Ancient Near East. Jews originated as a national and religious group in the Middle East during the second millennium BCE, the Merneptah Stele appears to confirm the existence of a people of Israel, associated with the god El, somewhere in Canaan as far back as the 13th century BCE. The Israelites, as an outgrowth of the Canaanite population, consolidated their hold with the emergence of the Kingdom of Israel, some consider that these Canaanite sedentary Israelites melded with incoming nomadic groups known as Hebrews. The worldwide Jewish population reached a peak of 16.7 million prior to World War II, but approximately 6 million Jews were systematically murdered during the Holocaust. Since then the population has risen again, and as of 2015 was estimated at 14.3 million by the Berman Jewish DataBank. According to the report, about 43% of all Jews reside in Israel and these numbers include all those who self-identified as Jews in a socio-demographic study or were identified as such by a respondent in the same household. The exact world Jewish population, however, is difficult to measure, Israel is the only country where Jews form a majority of the population. The modern State of Israel was established as a Jewish state and defines itself as such in its Declaration of Independence and its Law of Return grants the right of citizenship to any Jew who requests it. The English word Jew continues Middle English Gyw, Iewe, according to the Hebrew Bible, the name of both the tribe and kingdom derive from Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. The Hebrew word for Jew, יְהוּדִי ISO 259-3 Yhudi, is pronounced, with the stress on the syllable, in Israeli Hebrew. The Ladino name is ג׳ודיו, Djudio, ג׳ודיוס, Djudios, Yiddish, ייִד Yid, ייִדן, Yidn. The etymological equivalent is in use in languages, e. g. but derivations of the word Hebrew are also in use to describe a Jew, e. g. in Italian. The German word Jude is pronounced, the corresponding adjective jüdisch is the origin of the word Yiddish, in such contexts Jewish is the only acceptable possibility. Some people, however, have become so wary of this construction that they have extended the stigma to any use of Jew as a noun, a factual reconstruction for the origin of the Jews is a difficult and complex endeavor. It requires examining at least 3,000 years of ancient human history using documents in vast quantities, as archaeological discovery relies upon researchers and scholars from diverse disciplines, the goal is to interpret all of the factual data, focusing on the most consistent theory. In this case, it is complicated by long standing politics and religious, Jacob and his family migrated to Ancient Egypt after being invited to live with Jacobs son Joseph by the Pharaoh himself. The patriarchs descendants were later enslaved until the Exodus led by Moses, traditionally dated to the 13th century BCE, Modern archaeology has largely discarded the historicity of the Patriarchs and of the Exodus story, with it being reframed as constituting the Israelites inspiring national myth narrative. The growth of Yahweh-centric belief, along with a number of practices, gradually gave rise to a distinct Israelite ethnic group
25.
Zionism
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Zionism is the national movement of the Jewish people that supports the re-establishment of a Jewish homeland in the territory defined as the historic Land of Israel. Zionism emerged in the late 19th century in Central and Eastern Europe as a revival movement, in reaction to anti-Semitic. Soon after this, most leaders of the movement associated the main goal with creating the state in Palestine. Since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, Zionism continues primarily to advocate on behalf of Israel and to threats to its continued existence. A variety of Zionism, called cultural Zionism, founded and represented most prominently by Ahad Haam, unlike Herzl, the founder of political Zionism, Ahad Haam strived for Israel to be a Jewish state and not merely a state of Jews. Advocates of Zionism view it as a liberation movement for the repatriation of a persecuted people residing as minorities in a variety of nations to their ancestral homeland. The term Zionism is derived from the word Zion, referring to Jerusalem and these groups were collectively called the Lovers of Zion and were seen to encounter a growing Jewish movement toward assimilation. The first use of the term is attributed to the Austrian Nathan Birnbaum, founder of a nationalist Jewish students movement Kadimah, the common denominator among all Zionists is the claim to Eretz Israel as the national homeland of the Jews and as the legitimate focus for Jewish national self-determination. It is based on ties and religious traditions linking the Jewish people to the Land of Israel. Zionism does not have an ideology, but has evolved in a dialogue among a plethora of ideologies, General Zionism, Religious Zionism, Labor Zionism, Revisionist Zionism, Green Zionism. The political movement was established by the Austro-Hungarian journalist Theodor Herzl in 1897 following the publication of his book Der Judenstaat. At that time, the movement sought to encourage Jewish migration to Ottoman Palestine, although initially one of several Jewish political movements offering alternative responses to assimilation and antisemitism, Zionism expanded rapidly. In its early stages, supporters considered setting up a Jewish state in the territory of Palestine. After World War II and the destruction of Jewish life in Central and Eastern Europe where these alternative movements were rooted, the alliance with Britain was strained as the latter realized the implications of the Jewish movement for Arabs in Palestine but the Zionists persisted. The movement was successful in establishing Israel on May 14,1948. The proportion of the worlds Jews living in Israel has steadily grown since the movement emerged, by the early 21st century, more than 40% of the worlds Jews live in Israel, more than in any other country. These two outcomes represent the success of Zionism, and are unmatched by any other Jewish political movement in the past 2,000 years. In some academic studies, Zionism has been analyzed both within the context of diaspora politics and as an example of modern national liberation movements
26.
Hashomer Hatzair
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Hashomer Hatzair along with HaNoar HaOved VeHaLomed of Israel are members of the International Falcon Movement – Socialist Education International. Hashomer Hatzair is the oldest Zionist youth movement still in existence, initially Marxist-Zionist, the movement was influenced by the ideas of Ber Borochov and Gustav Wyneken as well as Baden-Powell and the German Wandervogel movement. Hashomer Hatzair believed that the liberation of Jewish youth could be accomplished by aliyah to Palestine, after the war the movement spread to Jewish communities throughout the world as a scouting movement. Psychoanalysis was also an influence, partly through Siegfried Bernfeld, so was the philosopher Martin Buber, otto Fenichel also supported Hashomer Hatzairs efforts to integrate Marxism with psychoanalysis. Members of the movement settled in Mandatory Palestine as early as in 1919, in 1927, the four kibbutzim founded by Hashomer Hatzair banded together to form the Kibbutz Artzi federation. The movement also formed a party which shared the name Hashomer Hartzair. That is why, when a group of Zionist leaders met in New York in May 1942 in the Biltmore Hotel. The Socialist League was the only Zionist political party within the Yishuv to accept Arab members as equals, support Arab rights, by 1939, Hashomer Hatzair had 70,000 members worldwide. The movements membership base was in Eastern Europe, with the advent of World War II and the Holocaust, members of Hashomer Hatzair focused their attention on resistance against the Nazis. Mordechaj Anielewicz, the leader of Hashomer Hatzairs Warsaw branch, became head of the Jewish Fighting Organization, other members of the movement were involved in Jewish resistance and rescue in Hungary, Lithuania and Slovakia. The leaders of Hashomer Hatzair in Romania were arrested and executed for anti-fascist activities, the head of Hashomer Hatzair in Łódź, Abraham Gancwajch, on the other hand, formed the Jewish Nazi collaboration network Group 13 in December 1940, active in the Warsaw Ghetto. He was also the leader of the infamous Gestapo-sponsored Jewish organisation Żagiew, after the war, the movement was involved in organizing illegal immigration of Jewish refugees to Palestine. Members were also involved in the Haganah military movement as well as in the leadership of the Palmach, today, Hashomer Hatzair continues as a youth movement based in Israel, and operates internationally. In Europe, North and Latin America, as well as in Australia, Hashomer Hatzair organizes activities, activities are still relatively ideological, but over time have been adapted to the needs of modern communities, vastly different from the context in which Hashomer Hatzair was created. Austria, Italy, Switzerland, Netherlands, Hungary, Bulgaria, Belarus, Ukraine, Australia, noam Chomsky sympathized with and worked with the group, although he was never a member. The movements even share an office in New York, today the movement operates in Tzavta Centro Comunitario, in the neighborhood of Almagro, City of Buenos Aires. It is one of 9 Zionist Youth Movements in the city and it has around 120 members, running regular Saturday activities and secular Kabalat Shabat service, besides two machanot per year. The movement in Australia is located in Melbourne and was established in 1953 as an away from Habonim Dror
27.
HeHalutz
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HeHalutz or Hechalutz was a Jewish youth movement that trained young people for settling in the Land of Israel. It became an organization of the pioneering Zionist youth movements. HeHalutz was founded by Eliezer Joffe in America in 1905, during World War I, HeHalutz branches opened across Europe, America and Canada. Leaders of the organization included Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, and David Ben-Gurion in America, Ben-Gurion was living in Jerusalem at the start of the First World War, where he and Ben Zvi recruited forty Jews into a Jewish militia to assist the Ottoman army. Despite this, he was deported to Egypt in March 1915, from there he made his way to the United States, where he remained for three years. On his arrival, he and Ben Zvi went on a tour of 35 cities in an attempt to raise a Hechalutz pioneer army of 10,000 men to fight on Turkeys side. At its peak, between 1930 and 1935, HeHalutz operated in 25 countries throughout Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, during the war and German occupation, Jews in some ghettos in Europe established Hechalutz units, as in Lithuanias Šiauliai Ghetto. Jewish Virtual Library This article incorporates text from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, and has been released under the GFDL
28.
Partitions of Poland
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The First Partition of Poland was decided on August 5,1772. Two decades later, Russian and Prussian troops entered the Commonwealth again, Austria did not participate in the Second Partition. The Third Partition of Poland took place on October 24,1795, with this partition, the Commonwealth ceased to exist. In Polish, there are two words for the two meanings. In Polish historiography, the term Fourth Partition of Poland has also been used, the term Fourth Partition in a temporal sense can also mean the diaspora communities that played important political role in re-establishing the Polish sovereign state after 1918. A single member of parliaments belief that a measure was injurious to his own constituency, even after the act had been approved and it became increasingly difficult to undertake action. The liberum veto also provided openings for foreign diplomats to get their ways and this applies particularly to the last Commonwealth King Stanisław August Poniatowski, who for some time had been a lover of Russian Empress Catherine the Great. Their alliance later became known in Poland as the Alliance of the Three Black Eagles, the Commonwealth could never be liquidated unless its long-time ally, Austria, allowed it, so Catherine had to use diplomacy to win Austria to her side. Frederick II retaliated by ordering enough Polish currency counterfeited to severely affect the Polish economy and this new constitution undid the reforms made in 1764 under Stanisław II. The liberum veto and all the old abuses of the last one, the irregular and poorly commanded Polish forces had little chance in the face of the regular Russian army and suffered a major defeat. In 1769 Austria annexed a small territory of Spisz and in 1770 – Nowy Sącz and these territories had been a bone of contention between Poland and Hungary, which was a part of the Austrian crown lands. In February 1772, the agreement of partition was signed in Vienna, early in August, Russian, Prussian and Austrian troops simultaneously invaded the Commonwealth and occupied the provinces agreed upon among themselves. The partition treaty was ratified by its signatories on September 22,1772, to Austria fell Zator and Auschwitz, part of Lesser Poland embracing parts of the counties of Kraków and Sandomir and the whole of Galicia, less the city of Kraków. Catherine of Russia was also very satisfied, by this diplomatic document Russia came into possession of that section of Livonia that had remained in Commonwealth control, and of Belarus embracing the counties of Vitebsk, Polotsk and Mstislavl. By this partition, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth lost about 30% of its territory and half of its population, by seizing northwestern Poland, Prussia instantly gained control over 80% of the Commonwealths total foreign trade. Through levying enormous customs duties, Prussia accelerated the collapse of the Commonwealth, after having occupied their respective territories, the three partitioning powers demanded that King Stanisław and the Sejm approve their action. By 1790 the First Polish Republic had been weakened to such a degree that it was forced into an unnatural and terminal alliance with its enemy, the Polish–Prussian Pact of 1790 was signed. The conditions of the Pact contributed to the succeeding and final two partitions of Poland–Lithuania, the May Constitution of 1791 enfranchised the bourgeoisie, established the separation of the three branches of government, and eliminated the abuses of the Repnin Sejm
29.
Israel
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Israel, officially the State of Israel, is a country in the Middle East, on the southeastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea and the northern shore of the Red Sea. The country contains geographically diverse features within its small area. Israels economy and technology center is Tel Aviv, while its seat of government and proclaimed capital is Jerusalem, in 1947, the United Nations adopted a Partition Plan for Mandatory Palestine recommending the creation of independent Arab and Jewish states and an internationalized Jerusalem. The plan was accepted by the Jewish Agency for Palestine, next year, the Jewish Agency declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz Israel, to be known as the State of Israel. Israel has since fought several wars with neighboring Arab states, in the course of which it has occupied territories including the West Bank, Golan Heights and it extended its laws to the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem, but not the West Bank. Israels occupation of the Palestinian territories is the worlds longest military occupation in modern times, efforts to resolve the Israeli–Palestinian conflict have not resulted in peace. However, peace treaties between Israel and both Egypt and Jordan have successfully been signed, the population of Israel, as defined by the Israel Central Bureau of Statistics, was estimated in 2017 to be 8,671,100 people. It is the worlds only Jewish-majority state, with 74. 8% being designated as Jewish, the countrys second largest group of citizens are Arabs, at 20. 8%. The great majority of Israeli Arabs are Sunni Muslims, including significant numbers of semi-settled Negev Bedouins, other minorities include Arameans, Armenians, Assyrians, Black Hebrew Israelites, Circassians, Maronites and Samaritans. Israel also hosts a significant population of foreign workers and asylum seekers from Africa and Asia, including illegal migrants from Sudan, Eritrea. In its Basic Laws, Israel defines itself as a Jewish, Israel is a representative democracy with a parliamentary system, proportional representation and universal suffrage. The prime minister is head of government and the Knesset is the legislature, Israel is a developed country and an OECD member, with the 35th-largest economy in the world by nominal gross domestic product as of 2016. The country benefits from a skilled workforce and is among the most educated countries in the world with one of the highest percentage of its citizens holding a tertiary education degree. The country has the highest standard of living in the Middle East and the third highest in Asia, in the early weeks of independence, the government chose the term Israeli to denote a citizen of Israel, with the formal announcement made by Minister of Foreign Affairs Moshe Sharett. The names Land of Israel and Children of Israel have historically used to refer to the biblical Kingdom of Israel. The name Israel in these phrases refers to the patriarch Jacob who, jacobs twelve sons became the ancestors of the Israelites, also known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel or Children of Israel. The earliest known artifact to mention the word Israel as a collective is the Merneptah Stele of ancient Egypt. The area is known as the Holy Land, being holy for all Abrahamic religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam
30.
World War II
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World War II, also known as the Second World War, was a global war that lasted from 1939 to 1945, although related conflicts began earlier. It involved the vast majority of the worlds countries—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing alliances, the Allies and the Axis. It was the most widespread war in history, and directly involved more than 100 million people from over 30 countries. Marked by mass deaths of civilians, including the Holocaust and the bombing of industrial and population centres. These made World War II the deadliest conflict in human history, from late 1939 to early 1941, in a series of campaigns and treaties, Germany conquered or controlled much of continental Europe, and formed the Axis alliance with Italy and Japan. Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of August 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union partitioned and annexed territories of their European neighbours, Poland, Finland, Romania and the Baltic states. In December 1941, Japan attacked the United States and European colonies in the Pacific Ocean, and quickly conquered much of the Western Pacific. The Axis advance halted in 1942 when Japan lost the critical Battle of Midway, near Hawaii, in 1944, the Western Allies invaded German-occupied France, while the Soviet Union regained all of its territorial losses and invaded Germany and its allies. During 1944 and 1945 the Japanese suffered major reverses in mainland Asia in South Central China and Burma, while the Allies crippled the Japanese Navy, thus ended the war in Asia, cementing the total victory of the Allies. World War II altered the political alignment and social structure of the world, the United Nations was established to foster international co-operation and prevent future conflicts. The victorious great powers—the United States, the Soviet Union, China, the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union and the United States emerged as rival superpowers, setting the stage for the Cold War, which lasted for the next 46 years. Meanwhile, the influence of European great powers waned, while the decolonisation of Asia, most countries whose industries had been damaged moved towards economic recovery. Political integration, especially in Europe, emerged as an effort to end pre-war enmities, the start of the war in Europe is generally held to be 1 September 1939, beginning with the German invasion of Poland, Britain and France declared war on Germany two days later. The dates for the beginning of war in the Pacific include the start of the Second Sino-Japanese War on 7 July 1937, or even the Japanese invasion of Manchuria on 19 September 1931. Others follow the British historian A. J. P. Taylor, who held that the Sino-Japanese War and war in Europe and its colonies occurred simultaneously and this article uses the conventional dating. Other starting dates sometimes used for World War II include the Italian invasion of Abyssinia on 3 October 1935. The British historian Antony Beevor views the beginning of World War II as the Battles of Khalkhin Gol fought between Japan and the forces of Mongolia and the Soviet Union from May to September 1939, the exact date of the wars end is also not universally agreed upon. It was generally accepted at the time that the war ended with the armistice of 14 August 1945, rather than the formal surrender of Japan
31.
Polish Thermopylae
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The Polish Thermopylae is a name used to refer to several battles in Polish history. The Polish Thermopylae is a reference to the Battle of Thermopylae, Battle of Hodow – a battle between the Polish and Tartar armies. The hussars contributed to the victory of the Polish army despite being vastly outnumbered, the comparison soon became popular in Europe, leading to a wave of popular support for the Polish cause. Barbier was not the poet to compare the Poles to Spartans. 318 of the 330 soldiers were killed, and some were taken prisoner, captain Bolesław Zajączkowski, the battalions commander, committed suicide together with several of his soldiers, and was later nicknamed the ‘Polish Leonidas’. The bodies of five identified officers were buried at the Cemetery of the Defenders of Lwów, the remaining ones were buried in a kurgan on the battlefield. The kurgan bears a plaque which reads, “To the Lwów Eaglets. Battle of Wizna – a battle fought during the September Campaign, only a few Polish soldiers were taken into captivity, the rest were killed fighting to the end, the commanding officer kept his oath to die rather than surrender. When his soldiers ran out of ammunition, Raginis ordered his men to surrender while he remained at the command post
32.
Heinz Guderian
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Heinz Wilhelm Guderian was a German general during World War II, noted for his success as a leader of Panzer units in Poland and France and for partial success in the Soviet Union. Guderian had pioneered motorized tactics in the army, while keeping himself well informed about tank development in other armies. In particular, he promoted the use of communication between tank-crews, and devised shock-tactics that proved highly effective. In 1940, he led the Panzers that broke the French defences at Sedan, France, in 1941, his attack on Moscow was delayed by orders from Hitler with whom he disagreed sharply. After the German defeat at the Battle of Moscow he was transferred to the reserve and this marked the end of his ascendancy. He was then appointed Chief of the General Staff of the Army, from 1945-48, Guderian was held in U. S. custody, but released without charge. He then advised on the re-establishment of military forces in West Germany, Guderian was born in Kulm, West Prussia, the son of Clara and Friedrich Guderian. He entered the Army in 1907, on 1 October 1913 he married Margarete Goerne, with whom he had two sons, Heinz Günther and Kurt. At the outset of World War I Guderian served as a Signals Officer in the 5th Cavalry Division, on 28 February 1918 Guderian was appointed to the General Staff Corps. Like many Germans, he disagreed with Germany signing the armistice in 1918, early in 1919, Guderian was selected as one of the four thousand officers to continue on in military service for the reduced size German army, the Reichswehr. He was assigned to serve on the staff of the command of the Eastern Frontier Guard Service. In June 1919, Guderian joined the Iron Brigade as its second General Staff officer, the commanders of the regular German army had intended that this move would allow the army to reassert its control over the Iron Division, however, their hopes were disappointed. Rather than restrain the Freikorps, Guderians anti-communism caused him to empathize with the Iron Divisions efforts to defend Prussia against the Soviet threat, Guderian was assigned as a company commander for the 10th Jäger-Battalion. Later he joined the Truppenamt, which was a form of the Armys General Staff which had been officially forbidden by the Treaty of Versailles. In 1927 Guderian was promoted to major and transferred to the command of Army transport and this placed Guderian at the center of German development of armoured forces. Guderian, who was fluent in both English and French, studied the works of British maneuver warfare theorists J. F. C, in 1931, he was promoted to Oberstleutnant and became chief of staff to the Inspectorate of Motorized Troops under Oswald Lutz. In 1933 he was promoted to Oberst or Colonel, Guderian wrote many papers on mechanized warfare during this period. Some of these trial maneuveres were conducted in Soviet Russia, in October 1935 he was made commander of the newly created 2nd Panzer Division
33.
Prisoner of war
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A prisoner of war is a person, whether combatant or non-combatant, who is held in custody by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the prisoner of war dates to 1660. The first Roman gladiators were prisoners of war and were named according to their ethnic roots such as Samnite, Thracian, typically, little distinction was made between enemy combatants and enemy civilians, although women and children were more likely to be spared. Sometimes, the purpose of a battle, if not a war, was to capture women, a known as raptio. Typically women had no rights, and were legally as chattel. For this he was eventually canonized, during Childerics siege and blockade of Paris in 464, the nun Geneviève pleaded with the Frankish king for the welfare of prisoners of war and met with a favourable response. Later, Clovis I liberated captives after Genevieve urged him to do so, many French prisoners of war were killed during the Battle of Agincourt in 1415. In the later Middle Ages, a number of religious wars aimed to not only defeat, in Christian Europe, the extermination of heretics was considered desirable. Examples include the 13th century Albigensian Crusade and the Northern Crusades, likewise, the inhabitants of conquered cities were frequently massacred during the Crusades against the Muslims in the 11th and 12th centuries. Noblemen could hope to be ransomed, their families would have to send to their captors large sums of wealth commensurate with the status of the captive. In feudal Japan there was no custom of ransoming prisoners of war, in Termez, on the Oxus, all the people, both men and women, were driven out onto the plain, and divided in accordance with their usual custom, then they were all slain. The Aztecs were constantly at war with neighbouring tribes and groups, for the re-consecration of Great Pyramid of Tenochtitlan in 1487, between 10,000 and 80,400 persons were sacrificed. During the early Muslim conquests, Muslims routinely captured large number of prisoners, aside from those who converted, most were ransomed or enslaved. Christians who were captured during the Crusades, were either killed or sold into slavery if they could not pay a ransom. The freeing of prisoners was highly recommended as a charitable act, there also evolved the right of parole, French for discourse, in which a captured officer surrendered his sword and gave his word as a gentleman in exchange for privileges. If he swore not to escape, he could gain better accommodations, if he swore to cease hostilities against the nation who held him captive, he could be repatriated or exchanged but could not serve against his former captors in a military capacity. Early historical narratives of captured colonial Europeans, including perspectives of literate women captured by the peoples of North America. The writings of Mary Rowlandson, captured in the fighting of King Philips War, are an example
34.
Wehrmacht
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The Wehrmacht was the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1946. It consisted of the Heer, the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe, after the Nazi seizure of power in 1933, one of Adolf Hitler’s most overt and audacious moves was to establish the Wehrmacht, a modern armed forces fully capable of offensive use. In December 1941, Hitler designated himself as commander-in-chief of the Wehrmacht, the Wehrmacht formed the heart of Germany’s politico-military power. In the early part of World War II, Hitlers generals employed the Wehrmacht through innovative combined arms tactics to devastating effect in what was called a Blitzkrieg, the Wehrmachts new military structure, unique combat techniques, newly developed weapons, and unprecedented speed and brutality crushed their opponents. Closely cooperating with the SS, the German armed forces committed war crimes and atrocities. By the time the war ended in Europe in May 1945, only a few of the Wehrmacht’s upper leadership were tried for war crimes, despite evidence suggesting that more were involved in illegal actions. The German term Wehrmacht generically describes any nations armed forces, for example, the Frankfurt Constitution of 1848 designated all German military forces as the German Wehrmacht, consisting of the Seemacht and the Landmacht. In 1919, the term Wehrmacht also appears in Article 47 of the Weimar Constitution, establishing that, from 1919, Germanys national defense force was known as the Reichswehr, a name that was dropped in favor of Wehrmacht on 21 May 1935. In January 1919, after World War I ended with the signing of the armistice of 11 November 1918, in March 1919, the national assembly passed a law founding a 420, 000-strong preliminary army, the Vorläufige Reichswehr. The terms of the Treaty of Versailles were announced in May, the army was limited to one hundred thousand men with an additional fifteen thousand in the navy. The fleet was to consist of at most six battleships, six cruisers, submarines, tanks and heavy artillery were forbidden and the air-force was dissolved. A new post-war military, the Reichswehr, was established on 23 March 1921, General conscription was abolished under another mandate of the Versailles treaty. The Reichswehr was limited to 115,000 men, and thus the armed forces, under the leadership of Hans von Seeckt, though Seeckt retired in 1926, the army that went to war in 1939 was largely his creation. Germany was forbidden to have an air-force by the Versailles treaty, nonetheless and these officers saw the role of an air-force as winning air-superiority, tactical and strategic bombing and providing ground support. That the Luftwaffe did not develop a strategic bombing force in the 1930s was not due to a lack of interest, but because of economic limitations. The leadership of the Navy led by Grand Admiral Erich Raeder, officers who believed in submarine warfare led by Admiral Karl Dönitz were in a minority before 1939. By 1922, Germany had begun covertly circumventing the conditions of the Versailles Treaty, a secret collaboration with the Soviet Union began after the treaty of Rapallo. Major-General Otto Hasse traveled to Moscow in 1923 to further negotiate the terms, Germany helped the Soviet Union with industrialization and Soviet officers were to be trained in Germany
35.
Operation Barbarossa
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Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Nazi Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II, which was launched on Sunday 22 June 1941. In the two leading up to the invasion, the two countries signed political and economic pacts for strategic purposes. Nevertheless, the German High Command began planning an invasion of the Soviet Union in July 1940, over the course of the operation, about four million Axis personnel invaded the western Soviet Union along a 2, 900-kilometer front, the largest invasion force in the history of warfare. In addition to troops, the Wehrmacht employed some 600,000 motor vehicles, the offensive marked an escalation of the war, both geographically and in the formation of the Allied coalition. Despite their successes, the German offensive stalled in the Battle of Moscow and was pushed back by the Soviet winter counteroffensive. The Red Army repelled the Wehrmachts strongest blows and forced the unprepared Germans into a war of attrition, the Wehrmacht would never again mount a simultaneous offensive along the entire strategic Soviet–Axis front. The failure of the operation drove Hitler to demand further operations of limited scope inside the Soviet Union, such as Case Blue. The failure of Operation Barbarossa proved a point in the fortunes of the Third Reich. Most importantly, the operation opened up the Eastern Front, in more forces were committed than in any other theater of war in world history. The German armies captured 5,000,000 Soviet prisoners of war who were not granted protections stipulated in the Geneva Conventions, a majority of them never returned alive. The Nazis deliberately starved 3.1 million of the prisoners to death as part of a Hunger Plan that aimed to reduce the population of Eastern Europe, over a million Soviet Jews were murdered by Einsatzgruppen death squads and gassing as part of the Holocaust. On 10 February 1939, Hitler told his commanders that the next war would be purely a war of Weltanschauungen. Totally a peoples war, a racial war, on 23 November, once World War II had already started, Hitler declared that racial war has broken out and this war shall determine who shall govern Europe, and with it, the world. The racial policy of Nazi Germany viewed the Soviet Union as populated by non-Aryan Untermenschen, Hitler claimed in Mein Kampf that Germanys destiny was to turn to the East as it did six hundred years ago. Accordingly, it was stated Nazi policy to kill, deport, or enslave the majority of Russian and other Slavic populations and repopulate the land with Germanic peoples, under the Generalplan Ost. Likening the Soviets to the forces of Genghis Khan, Hitler told Croatian military leader Slavko Kvaternik that the Mongolian race threatened Europe. Following the invasion, Wehrmacht officers told their soldiers to target people who were described as Jewish Bolshevik subhumans, the Mongol hordes, the Asiatic flood, German army commanders cast the Jews as the major cause behind the partisan struggle. The main guideline policy for German troops was Where theres a partisan, theres a Jew, many German troops viewed the war in Nazi terms and regarded their Soviet enemies as sub-human
36.
Auschwitz concentration camp
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Auschwitz concentration camp was a network of German Nazi concentration camps and extermination camps built and operated by the Third Reich in Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany during World War II. It consisted of Auschwitz I, Auschwitz II–Birkenau, Auschwitz III–Monowitz, Auschwitz I was first constructed to hold Polish political prisoners, who began to arrive in May 1940. The first extermination of prisoners took place in September 1941, from early 1942 until late 1944, transport trains delivered Jews to the camps gas chambers from all over German-occupied Europe, where they were killed with the pesticide Zyklon B. An estimated 1.3 million people were sent to the camp, around 90 percent of those killed were Jewish, approximately 1 in 6 Jews killed in the Holocaust died at the camp. Many of those not killed in the gas chambers died of starvation, forced labor, infectious diseases, individual executions, and medical experiments. In the course of the war, the camp was staffed by 7,000 members of the German Schutzstaffel, some, including camp commandant Rudolf Höss, were executed. The Allied Powers refused to believe reports of the atrocities at the camp. As Soviet troops approached Auschwitz in January 1945, most of its population was sent west on a death march, the prisoners remaining at the camp were liberated on 27 January 1945, a day now commemorated as International Holocaust Remembrance Day. In the following decades, survivors, such as Primo Levi, Viktor Frankl, and Elie Wiesel, wrote memoirs of their experiences in Auschwitz, and the camp became a dominant symbol of the Holocaust. In 1947, Poland founded the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum on the site of Auschwitz I and II, immediately after the Nazi seizure of power in Germany, acts of violence perpetrated against Jews became ubiquitous. The Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service, passed on 7 April 1933 excluded most Jews from the legal profession, similar legislation soon deprived Jewish members of other professions of the right to practise. Harassment and economic pressure were used by the regime to encourage Jews to leave the country voluntarily and their businesses were denied access to markets, forbidden to advertise in newspapers, and deprived of government contracts. German Jews were subjected to violent attacks and boycotts, in September 1935 the Nuremberg Laws were enacted. The Reich Citizenship Law stated that only those of Germanic or related blood were defined as citizens, thus Jews and other minority groups were stripped of their German citizenship. The laws were expanded on 26 November 1935 to include Romani people and this supplementary decree defined Gypsies as enemies of the race-based state, the same category as Jews. By the start of World War II in 1939, around 250,000 of Germanys 437,000 Jews had emigrated to the United States, Palestine, the United Kingdom, Nazi Germany invaded Poland in September 1939. German dictator Adolf Hitler ordered that the Polish leadership and intelligentsia be destroyed, approximately 65,000 civilians, who were viewed as being inferior to the Aryan master race, were killed by the end of 1939. In addition to leaders of Polish society, the Nazis killed Jews, prostitutes, Romani, sS-Obergruppenführer Reinhard Heydrich, then head of the Gestapo, ordered on 21 September that Polish Jews should be rounded up and concentrated into cities with good rail links
37.
Jedwabne pogrom
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The Jedwabne pogrom was an atrocity committed on July 10,1941, during the German occupation of Poland in World War II. Described as a massacre or a pogrom by postwar historians, it resulted in the death of at least 340 Polish Jews of all ages, a group of 23 Polish males was involved, after being summoned in Jedwabne by a German paramilitary group known as the Ordnungspolizei. Ignatiew, who headed an investigation in 2000–2003 ordered by the Polish government, in 1949 the Communist Peoples Republic of Poland launched a treason and murder trial which was later condemned as a miscarriage of justice because suspects had been tortured during interrogation. The involvement of German paramilitary forces of the SS and Gestapo remains the subject of debate, according to some later commentators, many people were shocked by the findings, which contrast with the rescue of Jews by Poles during the Holocaust. The Jewish community in Jedwabne was established in the 18th century, according to the Polish census of 1921, the town had a Jewish community consisting of 757 people, or 61.9 percent of its total population, following Polands return to independence. It was a shtetl, a small town with a very significant Jewish community. The start of World War II in Europe began with the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on September 1,1939, later in the same month, on September 17, the Soviet Red Army invaded the eastern regions of Poland under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The area of Jedwabne was originally occupied by the Germans, who crushed the resistance offered by local Polish cadets, Jedwabne was then transferred to the Soviets in accordance with the German–Soviet Boundary Treaty of September 28,1939. As soon as the Soviets entered Jedwabne, the local Polish government was dismantled. At first, many Polish Jews were relieved to learn that the Soviets, rather than the Nazis, were to occupy their town, some people from other ethnic groups in Kresy, particularly Belarusians, also openly welcomed the Soviets. Administrative jobs were offered to Jews who declared Soviet allegiance, some Jews joined a Soviet militia overseeing deportations of ethnic Poles organized by the NKVD. At least one witness testimony says that during round-ups, armed Jewish militiamen were seen to be guarding those being prepared for deportation to Siberia, a total of 22,353 Poles were deported from the vicinity. Red Army troops requisitioned food and other goods, undercutting nearly everyones material needs, the Soviet secret police accompanying the Red Army routinely arrested and deported Polish citizens, both gentile and Jewish, and spread terror throughout the region. Waves of arrests, expulsions and prison executions continued until June 20–21,1941, following Germanys invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22,1941, German forces quickly overran the parts of Poland that had been occupied by the Soviets since 1939. The small town of Wizna near Jedwabne saw several dozen Jewish men shot by the invading Germans under Hauptsturmführer Hermann Schaper, the Nazis distributed propaganda in the area, revealing crimes committed by the Soviets in Eastern Poland and saying that Jews might have supported them. In parallel, the SS organized special Einsatzgruppen to murder Jews in these areas, the guidelines for such massacres were formulated by Reinhard Heydrich, who ordered his officers to induce anti-Jewish incidents in the territories newly occupied by the German forces. Local communities were encouraged to commit anti-Jewish pogroms and robberies with total impunity and they then rounded up the local Jews as well as those seeking refuge from nearby towns and villages such as Wizna and Kolno. The Jews were taken to the square in the centre of Jedwabne, a group of Jewish men were forced by the Germans to demolish a statue of Lenin that had been put up earlier by the Soviets, and then carry it out of town while singing Soviet songs
38.
Institute of National Remembrance
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It was created by legislation enacted by the Parliament. The Institute specialises in the legal and historical examination of the 20th century history of Poland in particular, IPN investigates both Nazi and Communist crimes committed in Poland between 1939 and the Revolutions of 1989, documents its findings and disseminates the results of its investigations to the public. The Institute was established by the Polish Parliament on 18 December 1998 and it began its activities on 1 July 2000. According to a new law went into effect on 15 March 2007. However, key articles of law were judged unconstitutional by Polands constitutional court on 11 May 2007. The IPN is a member of the Platform of European Memory. IPN investigates crimes committed on Polish soil against Polish citizens as well as people of other citizenships wronged in the country and it is the IPN duty to prosecute crimes against peace and humanity, as much as war crimes. IPN collects, organises and archives all documents about the Polish communist security apparatus active from 22 July 1944 to 31 December 1989, IPN was created by special legislation on 18 December 1998. IPN is governed by the chairman and this chairman is chosen by a supermajority of the Polish Parliament with the approval of the Senate of Poland on a request by a Collegium of IPN. The chairman has a 5-year term of office, the first chairman of the IPN was Leon Kieres, elected by the Sejm for five years on 8 June 2000. The second chairman was Janusz Kurtyka, elected on 9 December 2005 with a term that started 29 December 2005 until his death in the Smolensk airplane crash on 10 April 2010. Franciszek Gryciuk was acting chairman from 2010 to 2011, when the current chairman, on 29 April 2010, acting president Bronislaw Komorowski signed into law a parliamentary act that reformed the Institute of National Remembrance. Among the most widely reported cases investigated by the IPN thus far is the Jedwabne Pogrom, a pogrom of Polish Jews committed directly by Poles, since December 2000 IPN has organized over 30 academic conferences,22 exhibitions in various museums and educational competitions involving thousands of students. IPN Bulletin is of an informative and popular-scientific character and contains articles pertaining to the history of Poland in the years 1939–1990 as well as describes the current IPN activities, Remembrance and Justice appears every half a year and is a scientific historical magazine. IPN also publishes books which are edited as collections of documents, reports and memories. The Public Education Office co-operates on a permanent basis with the Ministry of National Education and Sport, IPN gives opinions of curricula and textbooks on history that are used in Polish schools and is involved in teacher training activities. The IPN also co-organizes postgraduate diploma studies on history at the Jagiellonian University, on 18 December 2006 Polish law regulating IPN was changed and came into effect on 15 March 2007. This change gave IPN new lustration powers, the list gained much attention in Polish media and politics, and during that time IPN security procedures and handling of the matter came under criticism
39.
Einsatzkommando
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After the war several Einsatzkommando officers were tried, in the Einsatzgruppen trial, convicted of war crimes and hanged. As a military term, the German Einsatzkommando is roughly equivalent to the English task force and is still in use for German paramilitary organizations, such as SEK and Einsatzkommando Cobra. Einsatzgruppen were paramilitary groups formed in 1938 under the direction of Reinhard Heydrich – Chief of the SD. They were operated by the Schutzstaffel, the first Einsatzgruppen of World War II were formed in the course of the 1939 invasion of Poland. Then following a Hitler-Himmler directive, the Einsatzgruppen were re-formed in anticipation of the 1941 invasion of the Soviet Union, hitler ordered the SD and the Security Police to suppress the threat of native resistance behind the Wehrmachts fighting front. Their principal task, according to SS General Erich von dem Bach, at the Nuremberg Trials, was the annihilation of the Jews, Gypsies and they were a key component in the implementation of the Final Solution of the Jewish question in the conquered territories. These killing units should be viewed in conjunction with the Holocaust, the military commanders knew the task of the Einsatzgruppen. The Einsatzgruppen depended upon their army commander for billet, food. Relations between the army and the SiPo and the SD were close. Einsatzgruppen commanders reported that the understanding by Wehrmacht commanders of Einsatzgruppen tasks made their operations considerably easier, Einsatzgruppen officers were drawn from the SD, the Waffen-SS, the Criminal Police, and the Gestapo. The enlisted men were from the Waffen-SS, the police, the Gestapo. When occasion demanded, German Army commanders bolstered the strength of the Einsatzgruppen with their own regular-army troops, the first eight Einsatzgruppen of World War II were formed in 1939 for the invasion of Poland. Long before the attack on Poland, the Nazis prepared a detailed list identifying more than 61,000 Polish targets by name, the list was printed as a 192-page-book called Sonderfahndungsbuch Polen, and composed only of names and birthdates. By the end of 1939 already, they killed around 50,000 Poles and Jews in the annexed territories. The SS operational groups were assigned Roman numerals for the first time on September 4,1939, before that, their names were derived from the names of their places of origin in the German language. B. V, deployed in Upper Silesia and Cieszyn Silesia Einsatzkommando 16 or EK–16 Danzig, deployed in Pomerania after the withdrawal of EG-IV and EG-V. The Commando was involved in the massacres in Piaśnica known as Pommern Katyń between the fall of 1939 and spring of 1940 conducted in Piasnica Wielka, the civilian shooters belonged to Volksdeutscher Selbstschutz aiding EK–16. During that period approximately 12,000 to 16,000 Poles, Jews, Czechs, not to be confused with Einsatzkommando 16 of Einsatzgruppe E deployed in Croatia Einsatzgruppe A, attached to the Army Group North, was formed in Gumbinnen in East Prussia on 23 June 1941
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Hermann Schaper
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SS-Hauptsturmführer Hermann Schaper, was an SS functionary of Nazi Germany and the German member of the NSDAP during the Second World War. He was a Holocaust perpetrator responsible for atrocities committed by the Einsatzgruppen in German occupied Poland, Schaper joined the SS and was promoted to the rank of SS-Untersturmführer on 20 April 1935. He achieved the rank of SS-Obersturmführer on 20 April 1937, before the 1939 invasion of Poland, Schaper worked at the SD principal offices in the Third Reich. Schaper operated in the Płock district administered by Count von der Groeben and his superior was a Gestapo chief based in Ciechanów. Schapers death squad was deployed in the newly formed Bezirk Bialystok district soon after the German invasion of the Soviet Union. Himmler himself visited Białystok on 30 June 1941 and pronounced that more forces were needed in the area, on 3 July additional formation of Schutzpolizei arrived in the city from the General Government, led by SS-Hauptsturmführer Wolfgang Birkner, veteran of Einsatzgruppe IV from the Polish Campaign. The entire Einsatzgruppe employed the same, systematic method of mass killing across many Polish villages and towns in the vicinity of Białystok. Schapers murderous rampage south-east of East Prussia is fairly well documented, at the beginning of the 1960s, the war crimes committed by Schaper were investigated by the German Judicial Centre for Prosecuting Nazi Crimes in Ludwigsburg. Schaper was charged in 1964 with personally directing the Einsatzkommando responsible for the killing of Jews in the city. The methods used by Schapers death squad in these massacres were identical to those employed in Jedwabne only three days later, Schaper denied the charges, and the Germans found the evidence insufficient to prosecute him at that time. He lied to interrogators that in 1941 he had been a truck driver, legal proceedings against him were terminated on 2 September 1965 despite his positive identification by the courts. During the subsequent investigation, Count von der Groeben confirmed that it was indeed Hermann Schaper who conducted mass executions of Jews in his district, Schapers case was reopened in 1974. In 1976, a German court in Giessen pronounced Schaper guilty of executions of Poles, Schaper was sentenced to six years imprisonment, but was soon released for medical reasons. He died of old age in his nineties, according to statement received by the Polish IPN from German prosecution, the documentation of his trial is no longer available and was most likely destroyed after the case was terminated
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Bezirk Bialystok
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Bezirk Bialystok, was the new administrative unit of Nazi Germany that existed during the World War II occupation of Poland. It was located to the south-east of East Prussia, in the present-day northeastern Poland as well as in sections of adjacent present-day Belarus. The territory lay to the east of the Molotov-Ribbentrop line and was occupied by the Soviet Union. In the aftermath of the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941, as the Bezirk Bialystok, the area was under German rule from 1941 to 1944/1945, without ever formally being incorporated into the German Reich. The district was established because of its military importance as a bridgehead on the far bank of the Memel. The first decree for the implementation of Civil Administration in these newly occupied territories was issued on 17 July 1941. The establishment of Bezirk Bialystok followed on 1 August 1941, it was excluded from the operational zones of the German Army in the Soviet Union. From then until 1944, Gestapo and SS engaged in executions in the area, for example in the Nowosiółki forests near Choroszcz, other places of execution and atrocity existed like in the Osuszek forest near the village of Piliki. At the same time, some areas to the east of the 1939–1941 German-Soviet border were incorporated into the East Prussian district of Scharfenwiese. With this the city of Scharfenwiese henceforth held more hinterland to the east, the center of administration for Bezirk Bialystok was the Polish city of Białystok. The East Prussian Higher President and Gauleiter Erich Koch from Königsberg was appointed Civilian Commissioner for the area, heinrich Himmler visited the newly formed Bezirk Bialystok district on 30 June 1941 and pronounced that more forces were needed in the area, due to potential risks of partisan warfare. The chase after the Red Armys rapid retreat left behind a security vacuum, on July 3 additional formation of Schutzpolizei arrived in Białystok, summoned from the General Government. It was led by SS-Hauptsturmführer Wolfgang Birkner, veteran of Einsatzgruppe IV from the Polish Campaign of 1939, the first stage of the Nazi persecutions mainly involved applying collective punishment to various villages where any form of real-or-imagined threat had been identified. Terror operations were enacted to prevent assistance to independence movements but mostly to round-up, targeted buildings were being destroyed, possessions robbed, communities mass murdered or sent to labor camps or prisons. Gruppenführer Nebe reported to Berlin on 14 November 1941 that, up until then 45,000 persons had been eliminated, the situation of the local population did improve after the Raid on Mittenheide. The Germans introduced the policy of finding and forcing anyone who could be of the German ancestry, even based on the pure German looks in some cases, the Germans were harkening back to the times of the New East Prussia. On 1 November 1941 the city of Grodno including its surroundings, were transferred from the Reichskommissariat Ostland to Bezirk Bialystok, there existed Białystok Region of the Home Army, which prepared an uprising, later known as Operation Tempest. The organization run intelligence and propaganda networks, the partizans collected a V2-rocket, parts of which were transported to London
Poland
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