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Radomsko

Radomsko is a city in southern Poland with 44,700 inhabitants (2021). It is situated on the Radomka river in the Łódź Voivodeship. Located in the Sieradz Land, it is the county seat of Radomsko County.

History
Radomsko dates back to the 11th century. The oldest known mention of Radomsko comes from a document of Konrad I of Masovia from 1243. It received town privileges from Duke Leszek II the Black of Sieradz in 1266. During the times of fragmentation of Piast-ruled Poland, it was part of the Seniorate Province and Duchy of Sieradz, and afterwards it was a county seat and royal town of the Kingdom of Poland, administratively located in the Sieradz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province. In 1288, Duke Leszek II the Black brought Franciscans to the town, and in 1328, King Ladislaus the Short funded the construction of the Gothic Franciscan church.

In 1382 and 1384, congresses of Polish nobility were held in Radomsko, during which Princess Jadwiga of Poland was chosen as Queen of Poland as the country's first female monarch. It was probably Radomsko where an agreement was concluded under which the future king of Poland Władysław II Jagiełło married Jadwiga, hence founding the Jagiellonian dynasty. Nowadays, Queen Jadwiga is considered the patron saint of Radomsko. The town developed under the patronage of the Jagiellonian dynasty, and was granted important trade and tax privileges by Kings Władysław II Jagiełło in 1427 and Sigismund II Augustus in 1549 and 1552.

In 1793 as a consequence of the Second Partition of Poland the town became part of the Kingdom of Prussia. In 1807 it became part of the Polish Duchy of Warsaw, then in 1815 part of Congress Poland within the Russian Empire. In 1846 the section of the Warsaw–Vienna railway that ran through the town opened, providing a railway connection to Warsaw. Inhabitants took part in the November and January uprisings against Russia. One of the first battles of the Polish January Uprising in the region took place in Radomsko on January 24, 1863. Further clashes between Polish insurgents and Russian troops took place in Radomsko on March 14 and June 24, 1863. After the fall of the January Uprising, anti-Polish repressions, including Russification policies, intensified. The Russian administration expelled Franciscan monks from the town.

During World War I, the town was occupied by Austria. On 7 November 1918, local inhabitants and members of the secret Polish Military Organisation disarmed the Austrians and liberated the town, four days before Poland officially regained independence. Polish political prisoners were then released. The Franciscans came back to their monastery in 1918.

World War II
On 1 September 1939, the first day of the German invasion of Poland that started World War II, the Germans air raided the town. Dozens of civilians were killed in the bombings. Radomsko was taken over by the Wehrmacht on 3 September 1939. The next day, the Germans carried out executions of Poles in the present-day districts of Bartodzieje, Folwarki and Stobiecko Miejskie. On 6–8 September 1939, the Einsatzgruppe II entered the town, and then carried out mass arrests of Poles, and searched Polish offices and organizations. Polish underground resistance was organized already in October 1939. There was also secret Polish schooling.

In March 1940, the Germans carried out mass arrests of 60 Poles in the town and county. In April 1940 a Nazi ghetto was set up in the Przedborze district for local Polish Jews. Over 120 Poles from Radomsko and the area were murdered by the Russians in the large Katyn massacre in April–May 1940. During the German AB-Aktion, 53 Polish teachers and school principals were arrested on 11 June 1940, and further mass arrests of Poles were carried out in August 1940 and in 1941. The victims were interrogated by the Gestapo, deported to concentration camps or murdered in the forests near Olsztyn during large massacres carried out in June, July and October 1940 or in the Kopiec district and nearby villages. In September 1942, the German Kreishauptmann (district administrator) issued a document stating that Poles in the city and county were hiding Jews who had escaped from the ghetto, and reminded of the death penalty imposed on Poles for giving shelter to Jews or supplying them with food. The ghetto was liquidated in two stages during the Holocaust. The first deportation action took place in early October 1942 with prisoners sent aboard freight trains to the Treblinka extermination camp. On 12 October, approximately 9,000 Jews were deported. A small group of Jewish slave laborers was allowed to stay. They were sent to Treblinka in January 1943. Radomsko was declared Judenfrei. In retaliation, the unit of Armia Krajowa ambushed and shot the Chief of Gestapo Willy Berger and his deputy Johann Wagner on 27 May 1943. The German pacification action took place on 3 August 1943 in Rejowice. The settlement was levelled; some AK soldiers were captured and brought to Radomsko. The Nazi prison in Radomsko, located at the historic Ratusz, was attacked by AK on the night of 7–8 August 1943; and the prisoners were rescued. The attack was led by Porucznik Stanisław "Zbigniew" Sojczyński. There are multiple known cases of local Poles, who were persecuted by the Germans for rescuing Jews.

To eliminate the "Polish bandits" in the vicinity of Radomsko, some 1,000 SS and Wehrmacht soldiers were called in by the German administration. The battle was fought on 1 June 1944 near Krzętów, against about 80 AK partisans led by Florian "Andrzej" Budniak. The German army, unfamiliar with the local forest, lost 250 men and retreated. The second battle was launched on 12 September 1944 near Ewina. It was one of the biggest battles of the Polish underground in World War II, fought for several hours. The 3rd Brigade of Armia Ludowa (PAL) with 600 partisans, stood against the German force ten times larger. The losses of the enemy were estimated at approximately 100 killed and 200 wounded. The Polish losses amounted to 12 killed partisans, 11 wounded, and several missing. The battles earned Radomsko the Nazi German nickname of 'Banditenstadt', meaning 'the City of Bandits'.

In 1944, during and following the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans carried out deportations of Varsovians from the Dulag 121 camp in Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Radomsko. Those Poles were mainly old people, ill people and women with children. In 1945, the German occupation ended and the town was restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which then stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s.

Post-war period
In April 1946, 167 partisans of the Underground Polish Army attacked a communist prison and liberated over 50 prisoners. In the following weeks, the communists increased repressions and arrested about 150 people associated with the resistance movement. In May 1946, the communists sentenced 17 participants of the action from April 1946, including 12 to death. Those sentenced to death were brutally murdered, and then their bodies were thrown into a well near the Pilica river.

The Culture Center and the Regional Museum were opened in 1967 and 1969, respectively. From 1975 to 1998, Radomsko was located in the Piotrków Voivodeship. In December 1981, the communists imprisoned eight local Solidarity members. The local people gathered and tried to stop the transport of the arrested activists, however, they were still interned by the communists in Sieradz and then Łowicz.

Transport
The Polish Railway line 1, which connects Warsaw and Katowice, the country's two largest metropolitan areas, runs through the town. Polish State Railways (PKP) provide Radomsko with connections with various cities throughout Poland, including Łódź, Częstochowa, Sosnowiec, Gliwice, Wrocław, Toruń, Bydgoszcz, Gdańsk, Gdynia, Białystok, Olsztyn and Lublin.

The town can also be reached by the Polish National road 1, the future A1 autostrada (highway), which connects the largest Polish port city of Gdańsk in the north with the Katowice urban area and the Czech Republic–Poland border at Gorzyczki in the south. The town is also located on the Polish National roads 42 and 91, and the European route E75, which connects northern Norway and Finland with Greece.

Cuisine
The officially protected traditional foods originating from Radomsko are radomszczańska zalewajka and tatarczuch of Radomsko (as designated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland). Radomszczańska zalewajka is a distinct type of zalewajka, a traditional Polish soup made of diced and boiled potatoes, sour rye (żur) made of sourdough bread, and słonina with skwarki. It differs from other types by the use of dried mushrooms and local smetana. Tatarczuch is a sweet, honey-tasting brown bread made of buckwheat flour.

Sports
RKS Radomsko football club was founded in 1979. It competes in the lower leagues, although in the past it played in the Poland's top division.

Twin towns — sister cities
Radomsko is twinned with:
 * 🇭🇺 Makó, Hungary
 * Lincoln, United Kingdom
 * 🇺🇦 Voznesensk, Ukraine
 * 🇮🇱 Kiryat Bialik, Israel

Notable people

 * Jan Benigier (born 1950) former footballer, member of the Poland national football team
 * Stefan Brzózka (born 1931) Polish chess player, International Correspondence Chess Grandmaster
 * Mariusz Czerkawski (born 1972) ice hockey player
 * Zbigniew Dłubak (1921–2005) artist, painter, photographer, art theoretician, prisoner of the Mauthausen-Gusen concentration camp during World War II
 * José Ber Gelbard (1917–1977) born in Radomsko; emigrated in 1930 with his family to Argentina; a communist; appointed as an advisor by Juan Perón; served as an Economic Minister in every government until the military coup of 1976
 * Zbigniew Gniatkowski (born 1972) diplomat, former ambassador of Poland to New Zealand
 * Janusz Łęski (born 1930) film director, screenwriter
 * Sławomir Majak (born 1969) football manager, former footballer, member of the Poland national football team
 * Anna Milczanowska (born 1958) Polish politician, parliamentarian, former mayor of Radomsko
 * Avraham Yissachar Dov Hakohen Rabinowicz of Radomsk (Chesed LeAvraham) (1843–1892), second Radomsker Rebbe
 * Shlomo Chanoch Hakohen Rabinowicz of Radomsk (1882–1942) fourth Radomsker Rebbe
 * Shlomo Hakohen Rabinowicz of Radomsk (Tiferes Shlomo) (1801–1866) first Radomsker Rebbe
 * Yechezkel Hakohen Rabinowicz of Radomsk (Kenesses Yechezkel) (1862–1910) third Radomsker Rebbe
 * Władysław Reymont (1867–1925) novelist, Nobel laureate
 * Stanisław Różewicz (1924–2008) Polish film director, screenwriter
 * Tadeusz Różewicz (1921–2014) poet, Golden Wreath laureate.
 * Jerzy Sadek (1942–2015) footballer, member of the Poland national football team
 * Jerzy Semkow (1928–2014) Polish conductor
 * Cezary Stefańczyk (born 1984) Polish footballer
 * Piotr Stępień (born 1963) Polish former Olympic wrestler, silver medalist of the 1992 Summer Olympics
 * Karol Świtalski (1902–1993) Polish Lutheran pastor, military chaplain

title: Radomsko


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Bełchatów

Bełchatów is a city in central Poland with a population of 55,583, as of December 2021. It is located in Łódź Voivodeship, 160 km southwest of Warsaw.

The Elektrownia Bełchatów, located in Bełchatów, is the largest coal fueled power plant in Europe and the fifth largest in the world. It produces 27–28 TWh of electricity per year, or 20% of the total power generation in Poland. 8,000 people work directly for the company that runs the coal mine and electricity plants.

Districts
One municipal division of Bełchatów comprises numerous housing estates, including the Budowlanych housing estate located in the central part of the town (close to the "Kultura" cinema, the Municipal Cultural Center, the Town Hall and the church). The estate is also close to the "Rakówka" river and Olszewski Park.

Other municipal divisions of Bełchatów include Dobrzelów District, Grocholice, and the following housing estates:

History
Grocholice was a private church town, whereas Bełchatów, Dobrzelów and Zdzieszulice were private villages of Polish nobility, administratively located in the Piotrków County in the Sieradz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland.

Cuisine
The officially protected traditional food of Bełchatów (as designated by the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development of Poland) is wyborowa krówka bełchatowska, a local type of krówka (traditional Polish candy).

Sports

 * Skra Bełchatów – men's volleyball team playing in PlusLiga (Polish top division), 9–time Polish Champions, 7–time Polish Cup winners.
 * GKS Bełchatów – men's football team playing in the lower divisions, which has also played in Ekstraklasa (top division) in the past.

Twin towns - sister cities
Bełchatów is twinned with:

 * 🇫🇷 Aubergenville, France
 * 🇵🇱 Myślenice in Poland
 * 🇭🇺 Csongrád in Hungary
 * Alcobaça in Portugal
 * 🇱🇹 Tauragė in Lithuania

Former twin towns

 * 🇷🇺 Sovetsk, Russia

In February 2022, Bełchatów suspended its partnership with the Russian city of Sovetsk as a reaction to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Notable people

 * Harry Haft (1925–2007), survivor of the Auschwitz concentration camp and a professional boxer in the United States during 1948–1949

license: Creative Commons - Attribution Share-Alike - https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

title: Bełchatów


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Tomaszów Mazowiecki

Tomaszów Mazowiecki (, טאָמעשעוו or Tomashuv) is a city in central Poland with 60,529 inhabitants (2021). It is the fourth most populous city in the Łódź Voivodeship and the second with free public transport. It is the seat of Tomaszów County. In Tomaszów Mazowiecki there is the first (and the only) all-year speed skating track in Poland - Ice Arena Tomaszów Mazowiecki, which has hosted the World Championships. In autumn, the city hosts the international Love Polish Jazz festival, organized by the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage.

Location
Tomaszów is situated in the Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999); previously, it was part of Piotrków Voivodeship (1975–1998). Tomaszów occupies an area of 41.3 km2 as of 2002. The town is situated on the banks of three rivers, the Pilica, Wolbórka, and Czarna Bielina, and is near the Sulejow Reservoir and the edge of the Puszcza Spalska wilderness area.

History
Tomaszów Mazowiecki was founded in 1788 by Count Tomasz Adam Ostrowski when iron ore was discovered there. Ostrowski invited the first miners and metallurgists from the Old-Polish Industrial Region. The settlement fell into the Prussian Partition in 1793 during the Second Partition of Poland. In 1807 it was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw, and since 1815 it was located in the Russian Partition. The metal industry was expanded around 1820. Tomaszów received city rights in 1830 during the Polish November Uprising against the Russian Empire. The first weavers came to Tomaszów from Zgorzelec. The first Lutheran church was established in 1823. In 1825, Antoni Ostrowski transferred from the village of Tobiasze to Tomaszów a Catholic parish with the church of St. Wenceslas – Duke of Bohemia, which was located at Wieczność St., in the area of the first Catholic cemetery (nowadays Słowackiego St). In 1831 Qahal was founded. During the January Uprising, on July 12 and September 1, 1863, clashes between Polish insurgents and Russian soldiers took place. From 1867, it was administratively located in the Piotrków Governorate.

During World War I, Tomaszów was occupied by Germany, which policies led to poverty and hunger among the population. During the war, local Poles organized secret resistance in the town, including the Polish Military Organisation. After the war, on November 11, 1918, Poland regained independence, and the Poles disarmed German troops, who afterwards left the town. In mid-November 1918, the town's first Polish military unit was organized. Within interwar Poland, the Polish Army was stationed in the town, and it administratively belonged to the Łódź Voivodeship. By 1931 the Jewish population of the city grew to 11,310 inhabitants, or about 30% of the general population of Tomaszów.

World War II
On September 1, 1939, the first day of the German-Soviet invasion of Poland that started World War II, the Germans air raided the town twice, killing seven people. Further air raids were carried out in the following days, forcing many inhabitants to flee. The Germans bombed houses, factories and fire engines. On September 6, the Battle of Tomaszów Mazowiecki was fought between Poland and Germany. On September 7, the Germans entered the town and the Einsatzgruppe III arrived to commit various atrocities against the populace. The Germans then looted the town, burned houses, and committed some murders of its inhabitants. On September 26, the Germans founded a local branch of the Arbeitsamt, which sent local Poles to forced labour. The Great Synagogue was burned to the ground as first on 16 October 1939; the remaining two synagogues were destroyed on 7–14 November.

Before the Polish Independence Day (November 11), in 1939, the German police carried out mass arrests of about 300 Poles, including priests, teachers, doctors, judges, workers and activists. Most were released after November 11, but some, including the pre-war mayor, were imprisoned in Piotrków Trybunalski. Further mass arrests of Poles were carried out in January, June and August 1940. On 12–13 June, the Germans arrested 280 people, while on 12–13 August they arrested many women. The victims were then interrogated by the Gestapo, and most were afterwards deported to the Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück and Buchenwald concentration camps, while some were murdered on the spot. A ghetto for the imprisonment of 16,500 Polish Jews was created in December 1940 and closed off from the outside in December 1941. Hunger was rampant, followed by the typhus epidemic. In December 1942, 15,000 Jews were deported aboard Holocaust trains to the Treblinka extermination camp. Some 200 Jews from Tomaszów are known to have survived World War II. The Germans carried out further executions of Poles, among which was priest Wojciech Dionizy Bryndza-Nacki, and also established and operated a Nazi prison, and a Baudienst forced labour camp for young Poles in the town. In 1944, even 12-year-old Polish children were used as slave labourers to build fortifications in the area in preparation for the advancing Eastern Front. In 1944, during and following the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans deported thousands of Varsovians from the Dulag 121 camp in Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Tomaszów Mazowiecki. Those Poles were mainly old people, ill people and women with children. 30,000 Poles expelled from Warsaw stayed in the town and nearby settlements, as of 1 November 1944.

Geography
According to 2006 data, Tomaszów has an area of 41.3 km2; about 45 percent of the land is put to agricultural use, 13% is forested, and the city itself covers about 4.03% of the area.

In the valley of the Pilica river in the south-eastern part of the town, there is a unique natural karst spring of water containing calcium salts, that is an object of protection in Niebieskie Źródła Nature Reserve in Sulejów Landscape Park. The origin of the name of the reserve Niebieskie Źródła, which means Blue Springs, comes from the fact that red waves are absorbed by water and only blue and green are reflected from the bottom of the spring, giving that atypical colour. The reserve is situated near the end of Saint Anthony Street (in Polish: ulica świętego Antoniego) that begins in the centre of Tomaszów Mazowiecki, in proximity to the central Kościuszko Square.

Climate
Tomaszów Mazowiecki has a humid continental climate (Cfb in the Köppen climate classification).

Economy
Since the mid-19th century to the 1990s, a large center of the textile industry. The second, after Łódź, center of clothing wool production in the Congress Poland and nineteenth-century Russia. In the 20th century – thanks to Tomaszów's Artificial Silk Factory – one of the largest European centers for the production of fibers and plastics. Nowadays, Tomaszów Mazowiecki incorporates the Łódź Special Economic Zone, which is one of the 14 special economic zones in Poland. The city is home to a variety of industries: ceramics, construction, chemicals, plastics producers, electrical machinery manufacturers, upholstery, food, logistics and service.

Materials Industry
The major minerals companies in the area are Ceramika Paradyż a manufacturer of ceramic tiles and Sacmi which specialises in ceramic tile production machines. The Wagran factory (built on the area of the former Artificial Silk Company of Tomaszów), is a producer of granite sinks

Construction Sector
Within the construction sector Balex Metal produces high quality steel construction components. Ezbud-Budownictwo focuses on the construction of residential and service premises, sales and management of constructed properties and also produces ready-mixed concrete and other building materials. The company has been engaged in the construction of several housing estates in Tomaszów and Łódź from 1989 onwards and since 2019 has been the main sponsor of Tomaszów's largest football club  - "Lechia 1923".

Chemical Industry
Major chemical companies in Tomaszów include Sicher Bautechnik which is a producer of construction chemicals, EcoHydroCarbon which specializes in polymer waste processing and Toma a plastics processing company that also operates a private clinic at its plant for employees to use.

Equipment Manufacturers
The region has several specialist equipment manufacturers that include Markom, a producer of welding and transport equipment, and Glass Product, which manufactures automatic fertilization and raw material transport systems.

Carpets and upholstery industry
The Japanese car manufacturer Toyota has a base in Tomaszów, specializing in the production of upholstery for its range of premium vehicles. Weltom, a producer or carpets and rugs, also has a base in the city. The company was founded by Eleonora and Jan Roland. Their son, Edward Roland, began the business in 1848 from a small workshop consisting of a spinning mill and a weaving mill operated by three people. The workshop was located on Kaliska Street (today Piłsudskiego). In 1905, the company had expanded to employ a hundred and thirty weavers. The company quickly made a name for itself and became known throughout the Russian Empire. After World War II, the company was nationalized and renamed the "Weltom". In the 1990s, the plant underwent a transformation into a joint-stock company. Today, in addition to carpets, the company produces upholstery and coconut wipers. The entire western district of the city (Rolandówka) has been named after the company's founders.

Food Industry
Within Tomaszów's food and beverage sector PepsiCo produces the famous Cheetos crisps, Chipita produces croissants and Roldrob (Drosed) produces poultry products for customers such as KFC. Additionally, Las Vegas is a producer of energy drinks where the group also own the "Bulwary" shopping center in the city.

Logistics and Services Sector
Other companies in the region specializing in logistics and services are FM Logistic, serving Carrefour and Makro Cash and Carry, and Syntom, a recycling company.

Sport
The town's most notable sport clubs are Lechia Tomaszów Mazowiecki with football and volleyball sections and Pilica Tomaszów Mazowiecki with speed skating and bowling sections.

The sports venue Ice Arena Tomaszów Mazowiecki hosts main international speed skating competitions; including ISU Speed Skating World Cups. It is also an ice hockey venue.

Education
There are seven high schools in Tomaszów Mazowiecki as well as branches of notable universities including:
 * Branch of University of Łódź
 * Branch of Pułaski University of Technology and Humanities in Radom (pl)
 * Branch of Wyższa Szkoła Biznesu i Przedsiębiorczości in Ostrowiec (pl)

Points of interest
In the city there is first in Poland year-round ice skating rink that serves for speed skating, figure skating, ice hockey, short track and roller skating. It is located near Pilica River.

During the occupation of Poland in World War II, several strategic bunkers were built by Nazi Germany near Tomaszów Mazowiecki. The construction of the two large air-raid shelters was started in early 1940. The so-called Konewka Bunkers (now a tourist attraction) were a complex of various concrete structures hidden in the woods, including an enormous 380 m long bunker capable of protecting an entire trainset from the possible air raid. The shelters in Konewka and in Jeleń, built of reinforced concrete, served as unloading stations for military cargo.

Sulejowski Reservoir

The Sulejow Lake is a large reservoir built from 1969–1973 in order to help meet the demand for fresh drinking water in the city of Łódź and the city of Tomaszów Mazowiecki. The reservoir is situated on the territory of three gminas: Tomaszów, Piotrków and Wolbórz. It is a popular place for water sports, including windsurfing, canoeing and sailing.

Grottoes in Nagórzyce (district of Tomaszów)
In the south of the town there is an eighteenth-century quartz sand mine - The Nagórzyckie Grottoes (Polish: Groty Nagórzyckie). Today, an underground tourist route. At the entrance there is a pavilion with ticket desk, food vending machines and public toilets. They can be reached from the town center by a city bus or by an illuminated bicycle path.

Transport
Public transportation by buses was established in 1929. Since 2018, public transport in the city is free of charge.

Directly by train from Tomaszów it is possible to travel to: Kraków, Łodź, Poznań, Gdynia, Szczecin.

Several national and regional routes cross each other in the city:
 * direction Suwałki – Warszawa – Tomaszów Mazowiecki – Wrocław – Kudowa-Zdrój
 * direction Kozienice – Dęblin – Kock
 * direction Łódź – Tomaszów Mazowiecki – Januszewice near Opoczno

Twin towns — Sister cities
Tomaszów Mazowiecki is twinned with:
 * 🇷🇸 Mionica, Serbia
 * 🇮🇹 Prato, Italy
 * 🇺🇦 Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
 * 🇪🇸 Linares, Spain
 * 🇹🇷 Polonezköy, Turkey

Polish Armed Forces
The 25th Air Cavalry Brigade is deployed in Tomaszów Mazowiecki. Headquarters there are in the town and main barracks. Garnison Polish Armed Forces in Tomaszów Mazowiecki has existed since 1918. At the north-eastern border of the town, by Expressway S8 there is the Brigade airport (Tomaszów Mazowiecki Airport).

Notable people

 * Karolina Bosiek (born 2000), Polish speed skater
 * Maria Ciach (1933–2008), Polish javelin thrower
 * Tadeusz Chmielewski (1927–2016), Polish film director, screenwriter and film producer
 * Moshe Dluznowsky (1903–1977), Polish-born Jewish-American journalist, publicist, writer
 * Mirosława Jastrzębska (1921–1982), curator of the Regional Museum in Tomaszów Mazowiecki
 * Heidi Knake-Werner (born 1943), German politician (Die Linke)
 * Izabela Kuna (born 1970), Polish actress
 * Oskar Lange (1904–1965), Polish economist
 * Bogusław Mec (born 1947), Polish singer
 * Bolesław Mołojec (1909–1942), Polish communist activist, prominent commander in The International Brigades during War in Spain
 * Wanda Panfil-González (born 1959), Polish long-distance runner
 * Jaromir Radke (born 1969), Polish speed skater
 * Michael Sela (1924–2022), Israeli immunologist; President of the Weizmann Institute of Science

title: Tomaszów Mazowiecki


text:
Piotrków Trybunalski

Piotrków Trybunalski (also known by alternative names), often simplified to Piotrków, is a city in central Poland with 71,252 inhabitants (2021). It is the capital of Piotrków County and the second-largest city in the Łódź Voivodeship.

Founded in the late Middle Ages, Piotrków was once a royal city and holds an important place in Polish history; the first parliament sitting was held here in the 15th century. It then became the seat of a Crown Tribunal, the highest court of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The city also hosted one of Poland's oldest Jewish communities, which was entirely destroyed by the Holocaust. The old town in Piotrków features many historical and architectural monuments, including tenements, churches, synagogues and the medieval Royal Castle.

Etymology and other names
According to tradition, but not confirmed by historical sources, Piotrków was founded by Piotr Włostowic, a powerful 12th century magnate from Silesia. The name of the city comes from the Polish version of the name Peter (Piotr), in a diminutive form (Piotrek, or "Pete"). Trybunalski indicates that tribunal sessions (including the Crown Tribunal) were held in the town. The town has been known in Yiddish as פּעטריקעװ or Petrikev, in German as Petrikau, and in Russian as Петроков or Petrokov.

Location, demographics and statistics
Piotrków Trybunalski is situated in the middle-west part (Piotrków Plains) of the Łódź Uplands. The population of the city is approximately 80,000 and its area is nearly 68 km². The landscape of the Piotrków region and its geological structure was formed during the glaciation of 180,000–128,000 years ago. There are hardly any forests on the Piotrków Plains.

Two rivers cross the region, the Wolbórka and the Luciąża, which with their tributaries flow into the Pilica River and belong to the catchment area of the Vistula River. The watershed of Poland's two main rivers, the Vistula and the Oder (Odra), runs along the meridional line three km west of Piotrków. Two small rivers, the Strawa and the Strawka flow through the city, and it is between their valleys that the first settlement of Piotrków was founded in the early Middle Ages. Recently two more rivers have been included within the boundary of the city area—the Wierzejka, which in the western part of the city forms a reservoir, and the Śrutowy Dołek to the south of Piotrków.

The city is 200 m above sea level. The average temperature during the year is about 8 C, the coldest month is January (ranging from -20 to 2.5 C), the warmest is July (with 18 C on average). Yearly rainfall is from 550 to 600 mm. The sandy soil of the region is not fertile.

Middle Ages
In the early Middle Ages the Piotrków region was part of the province of Łęczyca of Poland ruled by the Piast dynasty. In c1264 it became part of a separate principality. The foundation of the city and its development were connected with its geographical position and the advantageous arrangement of the roads linking the provinces of Poland in Piast times. At first, a market town and a place of the princes' tribunals (in the 13th and 15th centuries), Piotrków became an administrative center (the capital of the district since 1418), and in later centuries it also became an important political center in Poland. The first record of Piotrków is in a document issued in 1217 by Polish monarch Leszek I the White, where there is a mention of the duke's tribunal held "in Petrecoue". Mediaeval Piotrków was a trading place on the trade routes from Pomerania to Russia and Hungary, and later from Masovia to Silesia.

During the 13th century, apart from the tribunals, Polish provincial princes made Piotrków the seat of some assemblies of the Sieradz knights, which according to historical sources were held in 1233, in 1241, and in 1291. It might have been during the 1291 assembly that the Prince of Sieradz, Władysław I the Elbow-high, granted Piotrków civic rights, because in documents from the beginning of the 14th century he mentions "civitate nostra Petricouiensi".

The first certificate of foundation and the other documents were burnt in a great fire which destroyed the city around 1400. The privileges and rights were re-granted by King Władysław II Jagiełło in 1404. The city walls were built during the reign of King Casimir III the Great, and after the great fire, they were rebuilt at the beginning of the 15th century. During the reign of Casimir III, many expelled German Jews from the Holy Roman Empire migrated to the town, which grew to have one of the largest Jewish settlements in the kingdom.

Between 1354 and 1567 the city held general assemblies of Polish knights, and general or elective meetings of the Polish Sejm (during the latter Polish kings of the Jagiellon dynasty were elected there). In Piotrków, two Grand Masters of the Teutonic Order pledged allegiance to Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon in 1469 and 1470. It was in the city of Piotrków that the Polish Parliament was given its final structure with the division into an Upper House and Lower Chamber in 1493. King John I Albert published his "Piotrków privilege" on 26 May 1493, which expanded the privileges of the szlachta at the expense of the bourgeoisie and the peasantry.

Modern period
Piotrków became part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1569. When the seat of the Parliament was moved to Warsaw, the town became the seat of the highest court of Poland, the Crown Tribunal, and trials were held there from 1578 to 1793; the highest Lithuanian court was held in Grodno. Piotrków's Jewish population was expelled in 1578 and only allowed back a century later. The town became a post station in 1684. Around 1705, German settlers (often Swabians) arrived in the town's vicinity and founded villages; they largely retained their customs and language until 1945.

While the importance of Piotrków in the political life of the country had contributed to its development in the 16th century, the city declined in the 17th and 18th centuries, due to fires, epidemics, wars against Sweden, and finally the Partitions of Poland. One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the city in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route.

The first official inventory of important buildings in Poland, A General View of the Nature of Ancient Monuments in the Kingdom of Poland, led by Kazimierz Stronczyński from 1844 to 1855, describes the Great Synagogue of Piotrków as one of Poland's architecturally notable buildings.

In 1793, the Kingdom of Prussia annexed the town in the Second Partition of Poland and administered it as part of the Province of South Prussia. During the Napoleonic Wars, Piotrków became part of the Duchy of Warsaw (1807–15) and was a district seat in the Kalisz Department. After the defeat of Napoleon in 1815, Piotrków became part of Congress Poland, a puppet state of the Russian Empire.

When the Warsaw-Vienna railway was built in 1846, there was a slight increase in the economic and industrial development of Piotrków.

In January 1863, the Polish January Uprising broke out. Among local Polish insurgents were many young people and Poles conscripted into the Russian army, who were stationed in the city. The Russians established a prison for captured insurgents in Piotrków. Thousands of Poles passed through the prison, were subjected to flagellation and tortures, and then either deported to the Warsaw Citadel or to Siberia, or executed in Piotrków. Two insurgents, wanting to escape from torture, committed suicide by jumping out of the prison windows. As punishment for supporting the uprising, the Russians closed down the Bernardine monastery in 1864, and the last Bernardine monks were expelled in 1867.

In 1867 the Russian authorities formed the Piotrków Governorate, which included Łódź, Częstochowa, and the coal fields of Dąbrowa Górnicza and Sosnowiec. According to the Russian census of 1897, out of the total population of 30,800, Jews constituted 9,500 (around 31% percent). The province had the best developed industry of all of Congress Poland until 1914. Many Poles demonstrated and went on strike during the 1905 Russian Revolution.

During World War I, Piotrków was occupied by Austria-Hungary. From 1915 to 1916, it was a center for Polish patriotic activity. The city was a seat of the Military Department of the National Committee, and a headquarters for the Polish Legions, which were voluntary troops organized by Józef Piłsudski, Władysław Sikorski and others to fight against Russia. Piotrków became part of restored independent Poland in 1918, following the defeat of the Central Powers in the war.

In the interwar period, Piotrków was the capital of Piotrków County in the Łódź Voivodeship, and lost its previous importance. In 1922, the old monastery was restored to the Bernardines. In 1938 the town had 51,000 inhabitants, including 25,000 Jews and 1,500 Germans. The town had a large Jewish settlement and until the Holocaust a thriving Hebrew printing and publishing industry.

World War II
During the invasion of Poland at the beginning of World War II, Piotrków was the setting for fierce fighting between the Polish 19th Infantry Division and the 16th Panzer Corps of the German Wehrmacht on 5 September 1939. On the next day, German troops committed a massacre of Polish prisoners of war, including 19 officers, in the present-day neighbourhood of Moryca (see also German atrocities committed against Polish prisoners of war). The Einsatzgruppe II then entered the city to commit various crimes against the population. The town was occupied by Nazi Germany for the following six years.

In autumn of 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of dozens of Poles, including teachers, local activists, judges, parliamentarians, editors and bank employees, however some were later released. 47 Poles arrested in Tomaszów Mazowiecki, including Tomaszów's mayor, were also imprisoned in Piotrków. Further mass arrests of hundreds of Poles were carried out in January, March, June and August 1940. Among Poles arrested in March were 12 teachers and students of secret Polish schools. On 29 June 1940 the Germans carried out a massacre of 42 Poles from the prison in the Wolborski Forest in the northern part of the city. Among the victims were 14 students aged 17–18, eight reserve officers, and people of various professions, including pharmacists, an architect, railwayman, teacher, farmer and local secretary. 121 Poles from the local prison were deported to the Auschwitz, Gross-Rosen and Dachau concentration camps in June 1940. Many Poles, who were born or lived in the city, were murdered by the Russians in the large Katyń massacre in April–May 1940.

As early as October 1939 Piotrków became the site of the first Jewish ghetto of World War II set up in occupied Poland. Approximately 25,000 people from Piotrków and the nearby towns and villages were imprisoned there. During the Holocaust 22,000 were sent to the Treblinka extermination camp, while 3,000 were imprisoned in other Nazi concentration camps. A personal account of the Holocaust, In the Mouth of the Wolf details the escape of the author Rose Zar (née Rose Guterman) from the Piotrków Ghetto and hiding in plain sight, by working for the Wehrmacht and the SS. The secret Polish Council to Aid Jews "Żegota", established by the Polish resistance movement, operated in the city.

From the first months of the war, Piotrków was a center for underground resistance. From the spring of 1940, it was the seat of the district headquarters of the Armia Krajowa, or Home Army. In the summer of 1944, the 25th Infantry Regiment of the Home Army was formed in the district; it was the largest military unit of the Łódź Voivodeship, and fought against the Germans until November 1944. In the city and district, there were also other partisan groups: the Military Troops (connected with the Polish Socialist Party), People's Guard and People's Army (Polish Workers' Party), Peasants' Battalions (Polish People's Party), the National Military Organization and the National Armed Forces (National Party). In 1944, during the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans deported over 15,000 Varsovians from the Dulag 121 camp in Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Piotrków. Those Poles were mainly old people, ill people and women with children. After the fall of the uprising, the headquarters of the Polish Red Cross was temporarily located in the local Royal Castle from October 1944 to January 1945.

On 18 January 1945 the Soviet Red Army entered the city, dislodging the German troops. The city was restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. Anti-communist partisans continued to fight in the vicinity in the following years.

Recent times
From 1949 to 1970, Piotrków was transformed into an industrial center.

Piotrków remained a district capital in the Łódź Voivodeship, until 1975. Then, following the changes in the administrative division of the country, the city became the capital of the new Piotrków Voivodeship, thus regaining the status of an important administrative, educational and cultural center of Poland. In 1999, the Piotrków Voivodeship was dissolved and Piotrków became the capital of Piotrków County within the Łódź Voivodeship.

Economy
Piotrków, thanks to its location, is known as the second largest "logistic center" after Warsaw. There is a high concentration of warehouses and distribution centers around the city. The biggest distribution centers are: In Piotrków are also located: and many small and medium textile processing factories.
 * Prologis Park Piotrkow I and Prologis Park Piotrkow II owned by ProLogis
 * IKEA Distribution Center owned by IKEA
 * Logistic City – Piotrków Distribution Center owned by local concern Emerson
 * Poland Central
 * Emerson Polska – self-copying computer paper
 * Häring – facility producing fuel injection equipment (for Mercedes-Benz, Bosch, Volkswagen)
 * Metzeler Automotive Profile Systems – car profiles
 * Kiper brewery
 * FMG Pioma S.A. – mining machinery, conveyor belts
 * Sigmatex Sp. z o.o. – knitted fabrics

Transport
Piotrków lies almost in the center of Poland. It has a train station on the PKP rail line 1 from Warsaw to Częstochowa. Direct trains go among others to Kraków, Zakopane, Katowice, Bielsko-Biała, Wrocław, Łódź, Poznań, Szczecin, Świnoujście, Gdynia, Olsztyn and Białystok.

Roads
A highway, an expressway and three national roads cross Piotrków:
 * Gdańsk – Gorzyczki, part of European route E75
 * Kudowa-Zdrój – Budzisko, part of European route E67
 * Łęknica – Dorohusk, eventually to be upgraded to the S12 expressway
 * Wieluń – Zosin
 * Gdańsk – Podwarpie

Airports
There is a small airfield for light passenger aircraft in Piotrków. The nearest airport is Łódź Władysław Reymont Airport in Łódź. Two large international airports are Warsaw Frédéric Chopin Airport about 133 km from Piotrków and Katowice International Airport about 137 km from Piotrków.

Educational institutions

 * Wyższa Szkoła Handlowa in Piotrków Trybunalski
 * Wyższa Szkoła Kupiecka in Łódź, branch in Piotrków
 * Jan Kochanowski University in Kielce, branch in Piotrków
 * Bolesław I the Brave High School in Piotrków Trybunalski

Piotrków Trybunalski/Skierniewice constituency
Members of Parliament (Sejm) elected by the Piotrków/Skierniewice constituency

 * Antoni Macierewicz, Law and Justice
 * Dariusz Seliga, Law and Justice
 * Marcin Witko, Law and Justice
 * Robert Telus, Law and Justice
 * Elżbieta Radziszewska, Civic Platform
 * Dorota Rutkowska, Civic Platform
 * Marek Domaracki, TR
 * Jacek Nibliecky, NPD
 * Krystyna Ozga, PSL
 * Artur Ostrowski, SLD

Sports

 * Piotrcovia Piotrków Trybunalski – women's and men's handball team playing in the Polish Ekstraklasa Women's Handball League and the Polish Ekstraklasa Men's Handball League
 * Concordia Piotrków Trybunalski – men's football team playing in the lower leagues.

Notable people

 * Ernestine Rose (1810–1892), feminist writer and human rights activist
 * Chaim Elozor Wax (1822–1887), famous rabbi
 * Michael Heilprin (1823–1888), Polish-American Jewish biblical scholar, critic, and writer
 * Władysław Biegański (1857–1917), medical doctor, philosopher, and social activist
 * Michał Rawita-Witanowski (1858–1943), Polish historian and pharmacist, founder of the local museum
 * Thaddeus Wronski (1887–1965), Polish-American opera singer and conductor, founder and director of the Detroit Civic Light Opera
 * Grigory Levenfish (1889–1961), chess player
 * Stefan Rowecki (1895–1944), general and journalist
 * Irena Sendler (1910–2008), humanitarian and nurse of the Polish resistance movement in World War II, head of the children's section of the Żegota, who rescued 2,500 Jewish children during the Holocaust, lived in Piotrków in the 1920s
 * Adam Muszka (1914–2005), Polish-French painter and sculptor
 * Moshe Bromberg (1920–1982), Polish-Jewish painter
 * Alice Miller (1923–2010), Polish-Swiss psychologist
 * Sabina Zimering (1923–2021), Polish-American ophthalmologist and memoirist
 * John Michael Małek (1928–2022), Polish-American, born in Piotrków Trybunalski
 * Naphtali Lau-Lavie (1926–2014), Israeli journalist, author, and diplomat
 * Ben Helfgott (born 1929), Polish-born British Jewish Olympic weightlifter
 * Yisrael Meir Lau (born 1937), Chief Rabbi of Tel Aviv, chairman of Yad Vashem, Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel
 * Mariusz Trynkiewicz (born 1962), serial killer
 * Adam Szymczyk (born 1970), art critic and curator
 * Maciej Ganczar (born 1976), literary scholar specializing in German literature, literary translator
 * Wojciech Szala (born 1976), footballer
 * Wioletta Frankiewicz (born 1977), runner
 * Michał Bąkiewicz (born 1981), volleyball player and coach
 * Michał Jonczyk (born 1992), footballer
 * Kamil Majchrzak (born 1996) professional tennis player

Twin towns – sister cities
Piotrków Trybunalski is twinned with:

Piotrków Trybunalski is also partnered with:
 * 🇮🇹 – Udine, Italy
 * – Schiedam, Netherlands

title: Piotrków Trybunalski


text:
John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon

John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon, (4 June 1751 – 13 January 1838) was a British barrister and politician. He served as Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain between 1801 and 1806 and again between 1807 and 1827.

Background
Eldon was born in Newcastle upon Tyne. His grandfather, William Scott of Sandgate, a street adjacent to the Newcastle quayside, was clerk to a fitter, a sort of water-carrier and broker of coals. His father, whose name also was William, began life as an apprentice to a fitter, in which service he obtained the freedom of Newcastle, becoming a member of the guild of Hostmen (coal-fitters); later in life he became a principal in the business, and attained a respectable position as a merchant in Newcastle, accumulating property worth nearly £20,000.

Education
Eldon was educated at Newcastle upon Tyne Royal Grammar School. He was not remarkable at school for application to his studies, though his wonderful memory enabled him to make good progress in them; he frequently played truant and was whipped for it, robbed orchards, and indulged in other questionable schoolboy pranks; nor did he always come out of his scrapes with honour and a character for truthfulness. When he had finished his education at the grammar school, his father thought of apprenticing him to his own business, to which an elder brother Henry had already devoted himself; and it was only through the influence of his elder brother William (afterwards Lord Stowell), who had already obtained a fellowship at University College, Oxford, that it was ultimately resolved that he should continue with his studies. Accordingly, in 1766, John Scott entered University College with the view of taking holy orders and obtaining a college living. In the year following he obtained a fellowship, graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in 1770, and in 1771 won the prize for the English essay, the only university prize open in his time for general competition.

Elopement with Bessie Surtees
His wife, Elizabeth, known as "Bessie", was the eldest daughter of Aubone Surtees, a Newcastle banker. The Surtees family objected to the match, and attempted to prevent it; but a strong attachment had sprung up between them.

On 18 November 1772, Scott, with the aid of a ladder and an old friend, carried off the lady from her father's house in the Sandhill, across the border to Blackshields, in Scotland, where they were married. The father of the bridegroom objected not to his son's choice, but to the time he chose to marry; it was a blight on his son's prospects, depriving him of his fellowship and his chance of church preferment. But while the bride's family refused to associate with the couple, Scott, like a prudent man and an affectionate father, set himself to make the best of a bad matter, and received them kindly, settling on his son £2000.

John returned with his wife to Oxford, and continued to hold his fellowship for what is called the year of grace given after marriage, and added to his income by acting as a private tutor. After a time, Mr Surtees was reconciled with his daughter, and made a liberal settlement of £3000.

John Scott's year of grace closed without any college living falling vacant; and with his fellowship he gave up the church and turned to the study of law. He became a student at the Middle Temple in January 1773. In 1776, he was called to the bar, intending at first to establish himself as an advocate in his native town, a scheme which his early success led him to abandon, and he soon settled to the practice of his profession in London, and on the northern circuit. In the autumn of 1776, his father died, leaving him a legacy of £1000 over and above the £2000 previously settled on him.

At the English bar
In his second year at the bar his prospects began to brighten. His brother William, who by this time was the Camden professor of ancient history at Oxford, and enjoyed an extensive acquaintance with men of eminence in London, was in a position materially to advance his interests. Among his friends was the notorious Andrew Bowes of Gibside, to the patronage of whose house the rise of the Scott family was largely owing. Bowes having contested Newcastle and lost it, presented an election petition against the return of his opponent. Young Scott was retained as junior counsel in the case, and though he lost the petition he did not fail to improve the opportunity which it afforded for displaying his talents. This engagement, at the start of his second year at the bar, and the dropping in of occasional fees, must have raised his hopes; and he now abandoned the scheme of becoming a provincial barrister. A year or two of dull drudgery and few fees followed, and he began to be much depressed. But in 1780, his prospects suddenly improved by his appearance in the case of Ackroyd v Smithson, which became a leading case settling a rule of law; and the young Scott, having lost his point in the inferior court, insisted on arguing it, on appeal, against the opinion of his clients, and carried it before Lord Thurlow, whose favorable consideration he won by his able argument.

The same year Bowes again retained him in an election petition; and in the year following Scott greatly increased his reputation by his appearance as leading counsel in the Clitheroe election petition. From this time his success was certain. In 1782, he obtained a silk gown, and was so far cured of his early modesty that he declined accepting the king's counselship if precedence over him were given to his junior, Thomas Erskine, though the latter was the son of a peer and a most accomplished orator. He was now on the high way to fortune. His health, which had hitherto been but indifferent, strengthened with the demands made upon it; his talents, his power of endurance, and his ambition all expanded together. He enjoyed a considerable practice in the northern part of his circuit, before parliamentary committees and at the chancery bar. By 1787, his practice at the equity bar had so far increased that he was obliged to give up the eastern half of his circuit (which embraced six counties) and attend it only at Lancaster.

Member of Parliament
In 1782, he entered Parliament for Lord Weymouth's close borough of Weobley in Herefordshire, which Lord Thurlow obtained for him without solicitation. In Parliament he gave a general and independent support to Pitt. His first parliamentary speeches were directed against Fox's India Bill. They were unsuccessful. In one he aimed at being brilliant; and becoming merely laboured and pedantic, he was covered with ridicule by Sheridan, from whom he received a lesson which he did not fail to turn to account. In 1788, he was appointed Solicitor General, and was knighted, and at the close of this year he attracted attention by his speeches in support of Pitt's resolutions on the state of the king (George III, who then labored under a mental malady) and the delegation of his authority. It is said that he drafted the Regency Bill, which was introduced in 1789. In 1793, Sir John Scott was promoted to the office of Attorney-General, in which it fell to him to conduct the memorable prosecutions for high treason against British sympathizers with French republicanism, among others, against the celebrated Horne Tooke. These prosecutions, in most cases, were no doubt instigated by Sir John Scott, and were the most important proceedings in which he was ever professionally engaged. He has left on record, in his Anecdote Book, a defence of his conduct in regard to them.

In 1793 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society

Lord High Chancellor
In 1799, the office of chief justice of the Court of Common Pleas falling vacant, Sir John Scott's claim to it was not overlooked; and after seventeen years' service in the Lower House, he entered the House of Lords as Baron Eldon. In February 1801, the ministry of Pitt was succeeded by that of Addington, and the chief justice now ascended the woolsack. The chancellorship was given to him professedly on account of his notorious anti-Catholic zeal. From the Treaty of Amiens (1802) until 1804, Lord Eldon appears to have interfered little in politics.

In the latter year we find him conducting the negotiations which resulted in the dismissal of Addington and the recall of Pitt to office as prime minister. Lord Eldon was continued in office as chancellor under Pitt; but the new administration was of short duration, for on 23 January 1806 Pitt died, worn out with the anxieties of office, and his ministry was succeeded by a coalition, under Lord Grenville. The death of Fox, who became foreign secretary and leader of the House of Commons, soon, however, broke up the Grenville administration; and in the spring of 1807 Lord Eldon once more, under the Duke of Portland's administration, returned to the woolsack, which, from that time, he continued to occupy for about twenty years, swaying the cabinet.

During this time Lord Eldon was revered for his work in consolidating equity into a working body of legal principles. In Gee v Pritchard he wrote,

"'Nothing would inflict on me greater pain in quitting this place, than the recollection that I had done anything to justify the reproach that the equity of this court varies like the Chancellor's foot.'"

It was not until April 1827, when the premiership, vacant through the paralysis of Lord Liverpool, fell to Canning, the chief advocate of Roman Catholic emancipation, that Lord Eldon, in the seventy-sixth year of his age, finally resigned the chancellorship in protest, being deeply opposed to the new prime minister's more liberal principles. When, after the two short administrations of Canning and Goderich, it fell to the Duke of Wellington to construct a cabinet, Lord Eldon expected to be included, if not as chancellor, at least in some important office, but he was chagrined at being overlooked at Robert Peel's insistence, in a decisive break with the High Tory past. Notwithstanding his frequent protests that he did not covet power, but longed for retirement, we find him again, so late as 1835, within three years of his death, in hopes of office under Peel. He spoke in parliament for the last time in July 1834.

In 1821, Lord Eldon had been created Viscount Encombe and Earl of Eldon by George IV, whom he managed to conciliate, partly, no doubt, by espousing his cause against his wife, whose advocate he had formerly been, and partly through his reputation for zeal against the Roman Catholics. In the same year his brother William, who from 1798 had filled the office of judge of the High Court of Admiralty, was raised to the peerage under the title of Lord Stowell.

Personal life
Lord Eldon's wife, the former Elizabeth Surtees, whom he called Bessie, died before him, on 28 June 1831. They had had two sons and two daughters that survived childhood:

 * John (8 March 1774 - 24 December 1805) married Henrietta Elizabeth Ridley, daughter of Sir Matthew White Ridley, 2nd Baronet. He had one son, John, later heir to the title.
 * William Henry John (d. 1832) unmarried.
 * Lady Elizabeth Repton John (1783 - 16 April 1862) married George Stanley Repton, son of Humphry Repton.
 * Frances Jane (d. 6 August 1838) married Rev. Edward Bankes (son of Henry Bankes) on 6 April 1820. They had two sons, John Scott and Rev. Eldon Surtees. Their grandson was Sir John Eldon Bankes

Lord Eldon himself survived almost all his immediate relations. His brother William died in 1836. He himself died in London on 13 January 1838. Eldon left an estate of £2,300,000 – at a time when even estates of a million pounds were exceedingly rare. John Wade, compiler of The Black Book, or Corruption Unmasked detailed in precise figures how Eldon's "almost incredible wealth" was due to state "emoluments of which he and his family monopolize to an inordinate degree."

Eldon's title subsequently passed to his eldest grandson, John.

There is a blue plaque on his house in Bedford Square, London.

Lord Eldon and his wife are buried in the churchyard in Kingston, Dorset.

War, peace and sorrow
Eldon was a loyal and tenacious supporter of the war against Napoleon; but when the prospect of a new war arose in 1823, he expressed rather different concerns: "Men delude themselves by supposing that war consists only in a proclamation, a battle, a victory and a triumph. Of the soldiers' widows and the soldiers' orphans, after the fathers and husbands have fallen in the field of battle, the survivors think not".

Shelley, however, in his Masque of Anarchy, challenged Eldon's sincerity: "Next came Fraud and he had on, Like Eldon, an ermined gown - His big tears, for he wept well - Turned to millstones as they fell".

Political and legal views
Eldon notoriously accused the political reformer Thomas Hardy of attempting to establish "representative government, the direct opposite of the government which is established here".

He himself was, however, criticised with equal force for not reforming the notoriously slow Court of Chancery, hence a cartoon of 1817 depicting him as leading a flight of lawyer-locusts descending on the law courts.

During Eldon's lifetime, journalist (George) Wingrave Cook observed: "Posterity will probably pass a severe judgement upon the memory of this statesman...there is no other instance of a man who was possessed of nearly absolute influence in the councils of the nation for a quarter of a century, and of whom it can be said that he never originated one measure that the next generation judged beneficial to his country, and never allowed one such measure to be discussed without his strenuous and generally fatal opposition."

John Wade equally noted: "there is no absurdity in law, no intolerance in church government; no arbitrary state measure, of which he is not the surly, furious, and bigoted advocate."

Party allegiance
Although labelled a Tory by the opposition and by subsequent historians, Eldon placed himself long-term in the Whig tradition, defending "a doctrine essentially similar to that which ministerial Whigs had held since the days of Burnet, Wake, Gibson and Potter". As an Ultra-Tory, protesting against Catholic Emancipation, he sat with the Whigs during the 1830 parliamentary session and in 1825, following the defeat of the Tory Sir Francis Burdett's Emancipation Bill in the House of Lords by a majority of 48, drank "the 48, the year 1688, and the glorious and immortal memory of William III". In 1831, while returning to Purbeck in an open carriage from the declaration at the Dorset county election in the company of George Bankes, he was stoned at Wareham by a mob of a hundred men. Although there were no injuries, it was stated that he might have died had not an umbrella deflected one of the stones from his head.

Nevertheless, in his unstinting opposition to the Great Reform Act as well as his belief in an unchanging Britain anchored in the values of 1688, he epitomised the reactionary values of what Palmerston called "the stupid old Tory party".

Decided cases
• Ackroyd v Smithson

• Evans v Bicknell (1801) 6 Ves Jun 173

• Ex parte James (1803) 8 Ves 337

• 17 Ves 320

• Higginbotham v Holme 19 Ves 88

• Lucena v Craufurd (1806) 2 Bos & PNR 269

• Carlen v Drury (1812) 1 Ves & B 154

• Gee v Pritchard (1818) 2 Swans 402

• Gordon v Gordon (1821) 3 Swan 400

• William Lawrence's suit for copyright (1822)

Vessels named for Lord Eldon
Several ships were named in his honour, e.g., Earl of Eldon and  Lord Eldon, and the East Indiaman  Lord Eldon.

title: John Scott, 1st Earl of Eldon


text:
Bradford West Gwillimbury

Bradford West Gwillimbury is a town in south-central Ontario, in Simcoe County in the Toronto Census Metropolitan Area on the Holland River. West Gwillimbury takes its name from the family of Elizabeth Simcoe, née Gwillim.

The former Town of Bradford was amalgamated with portions of the former Townships of West Gwillimbury and Tecumseth to become the Town of Bradford West Gwillimbury on January 1, 1991.

Communities
Holland Marsh, a region of #9 humus soil, is located partly in Bradford West Gwillimbury. The town, along with the Township of King is the governing body responsible for the maintenance of the drainage system of this source of Canada's produce supply. In 2007 a Holland Marsh Drainage System Joint Municipal Board was created in response to a crisis of maintenance of the Holland Marsh Drainage System.

The Holland River flows through the middle of the southernmost Holland Marsh polder and eventually flows out to Lake Simcoe. Geographically, the area is north of the Oak Ridges Moraine.

Bradford West Gwillimbury consists of the town of Bradford and the former Township of West Gwillimbury, and includes the communities of Bond Head, Coulson's Hill, Deerhurst, Dunkerron, Green Valley, Newton Robinson and Pinkerton.

Government
The current mayor of Bradford West Gwillimbury is James Leduc, who previously served as the town's Deputy Mayor under Rob Keffer who retired from public service in the lead-up to the 2022 Municipal Election. Raj Sandhu took Leduc's post as Deputy Mayor after serving as the Councilor for Ward 1. The first mayor was Bill de Peuter, who was mayor of Bradford from 1986 to 1990.

The municipality has a mayor, a deputy mayor, and seven councillors. The administration is led by a town manager and has the following departments: clerks, building, planning, human resources, recreation, finance, engineering, facilities and parks, fire and IT. Council shared space with a courthouse at 57 Holland Street East.

Bradford West Gwillimbury and the neighbouring town of Innisfil share the South Simcoe Police Service. The town also incorporates the YNOT Bradford West Gwillimbury Youth Council, an assembly of teens, into its town discussions. The non-governmental group works to create social opportunities, including recreation facilities; enhance environmentalism; and create a political voice for the town's youth.

Federally, the town is part of the riding of York—Simcoe, represented by Scot Davidson of the Conservative Party, who elected in a by-election on February 25, 2019. Provincially, it is part of the riding of York—Simcoe, represented by Tory MPP Caroline Mulroney.

Bradford West Gwillimbury is part of the Toronto CMA but is not part of the Greater Toronto Area.

Fire & Emergency Services
Fire & Emergency Services has vastly evolved from the traditional functions of fire suppression and fire prevention. In addition to structural fire calls, the Fire Suppression division responds to calls such as residential and commercial fire alarms, motor vehicle collisions, vehicle fires, specialized rescues such as technical rope, confined space, and ice-water rescues, tiered medicals (ambulance assists) hazardous material responses (HAZMAT), mutual aid requests, as well as assistance during times of natural and/or man made disasters.

Bradford West Gwillimbury Fire & Emergency Services Headquarters is located at 75 Melbourne Drive, and currently has a fleet of 6 frontline apparatus, a fire prevention van, 2 Fire Chief vehicles, and a specialized response trailer.

Even though Bradford West Gwillimbury is part of Simcoe County, the station number and apparatus numbers are based on the York Region Fire Services numbering system, thus, Bradford is District 10, Station #1 (Station 10-1).

Transportation
The town is served by Highway 400 and Highway 9 at the southern border. It is also served by a number of Simcoe county roads, including 88 (Holland Street West), 4 (Bridge Street, Holland Street East, and Barrie Street), 27, 41 (Simcoe Road), and 8 (Canal Road).

The town is also located on a bus and commuter train route, served by GO Transit. Bradford GO Station is located in the community of Bradford and is on the Barrie line. The station had been the northern terminus of the line until its extension opened in December 2007.

Bradford West Gwillimbury operates a local transit service, BWG Transit, which operates two routes primarily around Bradford. The routes provide a local transit connection to the town's railway station, and the bus system operates six days a week.

Notable people
Also see Notable people from Bradford, Ontario
 * William Mulock, lawyer, businessman, educator, farmer, politician, judge, and philanthropist, credited with the formation of the modern University of Toronto, born on January 19, 1843, at Bond Head
 * William Osler, noted physician, born on July 12, 1849, at Bond Head, Canada West (now Ontario)
 * Bob Pulford, NHL Hall of Fame

Demographics
In the 2021 Census of Population conducted by Statistics Canada, Bradford West Gwillimbury had a population of $42,880$ living in $13,415$ of its $13,907$ total private dwellings, a change of NaN% from its 2016 population of $35,325$. With a land area of 200.68 km2, it had a population density of in 2021.

title: Bradford West Gwillimbury


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Jarosław

Jarosław (Ярослав, ; יאַרעסלאָוו; Jaroslau) is a town in southeastern Poland, situated on the San River. The town had 35,475 inhabitants in 2023. It is the capital of Jarosław County in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship.

History
Jarosław is located in the territory of the old Polish tribe of the Lendians, which became part of the emerging Polish state under Mieszko I. According to tradition, the town was established in 1031 by Yaroslav the Wise, after the area was annexed from Poland by the Kievan Rus', although the first confirmed mention of the town comes from 1152. The region was eventually regained by Poland, and the settlement was granted Magdeburg town rights by Polish Duke Władysław Opolczyk in 1375.

The city quickly developed as an important trade centre and port on the San River, reaching the period of its greatest prosperity in the 16th and 17th centuries. It had trade routes linking Silesia with Ruthenia, Gdańsk, and Hungary. Merchants from such distant countries as Spain, England, Finland, Armenia and Persia arrived for the annual three-week-long fair on the feast of the Assumption. In 1574 a Jesuit college was established in Jarosław.

Jarosław was a private town of Polish nobility, including the Tarnowski, Jarosławski, Odrowąż, Kostka, Sieniawski, Zamoyski, Wiśniowiecki, Koniecpolski, Sobieski, Sanguszko and Czartoryski families. The Jarosławski family of Leliwa coat of arms hailed from the town.

In the 1590s Tatars from the Ottoman Empire pillaged the surrounding countryside. (See Moldavian Magnate Wars, The Magnate Wars (1593–1617), Causes.) They were unable to overcome the city's fortifications, but their raids started to diminish the city's economic strength and importance. Outbreaks of bubonic plague in the 1620s, and the invasion known as the Swedish Deluge in 1655–60 further undermined the city's prominence. In March 1656, led by Polish national hero Stefan Czarniecki, the Poles defeated the invading Swedes under King Charles X Gustav in the Battle of Jarosław. In the Great Northern War of 1700-21, the region was repeatedly pillaged by Russian, Saxon, and Swedish armies, causing the city to decline further.

After the fall of the Rákóczi's War of Independence against Austria in 1711, Hungarian leader Francis II Rákóczi and his court, including essayist Kelemen Mikes, found refuge in Jarosław. In 1711, Rákóczi and some Hungarians left for Gdańsk, while some stayed, and later on, several Hungarians were buried in the local Corpus Christi Collegiate Church, before their exhumation and burial in Hungary in 1907.

In the mid-eighteenth century, Roman Catholics constituted 53.7% of the population, members of the Greek Catholic Church 23.9%, and Jews 22.3%.

Jarosław was annexed by Austria in the First Partition of Poland in 1772. It was part of newly formed Galicia (Austrian Partition) until Poland regained independence in 1918 following World War I. In the interbellum the city was administratively located in the Polish Lwów Voivodeship.

During the German invasion of Poland in September 1939, which started World War II, this was the site of the Battle of Jarosław. Germany defeated the Poles and captured the town. Shortly afterwards the German Einsatzgruppe I entered the town to commit various atrocities against the population. Under German occupation, the town was part of the Kraków District of the General Government. The Polish resistance movement was active in the town, and from May 1940, the underground Polish newspaper Odwet was distributed in Jarosław.

In 1944, the town was captured by the Red Army of the Soviet Union and restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which remained in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s. Some local Polish resistance officers were arrested by the Soviets and imprisoned in a Soviet camp in Trzebuska. The communists expelled most of Jarosław's Ukrainian population, at first to Soviet territories and later to territories regained from Germany.

It was administratively located in the Rzeszów Voivodeship (1945–1974) and Przemyśl Voivodeship (1975–1998).

Jewish Jarosław
The first Jews reportedly arrived in Jarosław in 1464. The first rabbi of Jarosław was Rabbi Nathan Neta Ashkenazi, in 1590. A year later, the new Council of Four Lands (Vaad Arba Aratzot) began convening in Jarosław, rotating the meetings with the city of Lwów (Lviv). Until 1608 with a small Jewish community, religious facilities were not allowed. Still, Rabbi Solomon Efraim of Lontschitz (the author of "Kli Yakar"), a prominent and well known rabbi, lived here. By 1670 there was a large "government" synagogue created, although protested by the Christian community of the city. During attacks on the city by Tatars and Swedes, Jewish merchandise and sometimes homes were set on fire. In 1765, there were 1,884 Jews in the city and towns around it. A Jewish school was established sometime later. The famous rabbi Levi Isaac of Berdyczów (Berdychiv) studied in Jarosław circa 1760 and was called "the genius of Yeruslav". A fire in 1805 burnt down the old synagogue and a new one was established more according to tradition to replace it. The new synagogue was completed in 1811. A census taken in 1901 notes that Jews were 25% of the population: 5701 Jewish families.

In a story about Jacob Kranc told by Rabbi Jacob Orenstein around 1850, about the appointment of the Jarosław rabbi, Rabbi Orenstein had refused the appointment of Rabbi of Jarosław because it would be against his old uncle's appointment. The city council had already written his appointment and wished to express their sorrow for its cancellation. The Dubner Magid had just entered the city on a snowy winter day, and was taken directly to Orenstein's house, together with the city council, who happened to pass by him. But the walk up the steps was enough to create a moving speech, remembered years later, and accounted for in the book.

In 1921 the last rabbi was appointed, Rabbi Shmaiya HaLevi Steinberg. He wrote a book about the Jews of his town, and in the 1930s sent two copies to the National Hebrew Library in Jerusalem. These copies are the only surviving copies of the book after the Holocaust.

In September 1939, Jarosław was captured by Germans. Most of the Jews crossed the San river to the Soviet-occupied part of Poland and hid in the Carpathian mountains, including the elder rabbi and his family. Those that stayed were shot and killed by the German soldiers.

Sports
Jarosław is a town with a long sports history. In 1889, a branch of the "Sokół" Polish Gymnastic Society was founded in Jarosław. Nowadays, the town's most notable sports club are:
 * JKS 1909 Jarosław, one of the region's oldest football teams, which competes in the lower leagues
 * Znicz Jarosław, men's basketball team, which competed in the Polish Basketball League (country's top division) in the past, most recently in the 2009–10 season
 * JKS Jarosław, women's handball team, which competes in the Polish Women's Superliga (country's top division)
 * San Jarosław, women's volleyball team, which competes in the I liga (second division)

Twin towns - sister cities
Jarosław is twinned with:

title: Jarosław


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Przemyśl

Przemyśl is a city in southeastern Poland with 58,721 inhabitants, as of December 2021. In 1999, it became part of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship; it was previously the capital of Przemyśl Voivodeship.

Przemyśl owes its long and rich history to the advantages of its geographic location. The city lies in an area connecting mountains and lowlands known as the Przemyśl Gate (Brama Przemyska), with open lines of transport, and fertile soil. It also lies on the navigable San River. Important trade routes that connect Central Europe from Przemyśl ensure the city's importance. The Old Town of Przemyśl is listed as a Historic Monument of Poland.

Names
Different names in various languages have identified the city throughout its history. Selected languages include: ; Premissel, Prömsel, Premslen; Premislia; Перемишль (Peremyshlj) and Пшемисль (Pshemyslj); and פּשעמישל (Pshemishl).

Origins

Przemyśl is the second-oldest city (after Kraków) in southeastern Poland, dating back to the 8th century. It was the site of a fortified gord belonging to the Ledzianie (Lendians), a West Slavic tribe. In the 9th century, the fortified settlement and the surrounding region became part of Great Moravia. Most likely, the city's name dates back to the Moravian period. Also, archeological remains testify to the presence of a Christian monastic settlement as early as the 9th century.

Upon the invasion of the Hungarian tribes into the heart of the Great Moravian Empire around 899, the local Lendians declared allegiance to the Hungarians. The region then became a site of contention between Poland, Kievan Rus and Hungary beginning in at least the 9th century, with Przemyśl along with other Cherven Grods, falling under the control of the Polans (Polanie), who would in the 10th century under the rule of Mieszko I establish the Polish state. When Mieszko I annexed the tribal area of Lendians in 970–980, Przemyśl became an important local centre on the eastern frontier of Piast's realm.

The city was mentioned by Nestor the Chronicler, when in 981 it was captured by Vladimir I of Kiev. In 1018, Przemyśl returned to Poland, and in 1031 it was retaken by the Rus'. Around the year 1069, Przemyśl again returned to Poland, after Bolesław II the Generous retook the town and temporarily made it his residence. In 1085, the town became the capital of a semi-independence Principality of Peremyshl under the lordship of Kievan Rus'.

The palatium complex including a Latin rotunda was built during the rule of the Polish king Bolesław I the Brave in the 11th century. Sometime before 1218, an Orthodox eparchy was founded in the city. Przemyśl later became part of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia, from 1246 under Mongol suzerainty.

Kingdom of Poland and the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth

In 1340, Przemyśl was retaken by the king Casimir III of Poland and again became part of the Kingdom of Poland as result of the Galicia–Volhynia Wars. Around this time, the first Latin Catholic diocese was founded in the city, and Przemyśl was granted a city charter based on Magdeburg rights, confirmed in 1389 by the king Władysław II Jagiełło. The city prospered as an important trade centre during the 16th century. Like nearby Lwów, the city's population consisted of a great number of nationalities, including Poles, Jews, Germans, Czechs, Armenians and Ruthenians. The long period of prosperity enabled the construction of public buildings such as the Renaissance town hall and the Old Synagogue of 1559. Also, a Jesuit college was founded in the city in 1617.

The prosperity came to an end in the middle of the 17th century, caused by the invading Swedish army during the Deluge, and a general decline of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth. The city decline lasted for over a hundred years, and only at the end of the 18th century did it recover its former levels of population. In 1754, the Latin Catholic bishop founded Przemyśl's first public library, which was only the second public library in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, with Warsaw's Załuski Library founded 7 years earlier. Przemyśl's importance at that time was such that when Austria annexed eastern Galicia in 1772 the Austrians considered making Przemyśl their provincial capital, before deciding on Lwów. In the mid-18th century, Jews constituted 55.6% (1,692) of the population, Latin Catholic Poles 39.5% (1,202), and Greek Catholic Ruthenians 4.8% (147).

Part of Austrian Poland
In 1772, as a consequence of the First Partition of Poland, Przemyśl became part of the Austrian Empire, in what the Austrians called the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria. According to the Austrian census of 1830, the city was home to 7,538 people of whom 3,732 were Latin Catholic, 2,298 Jews and 1,508 were members of the Greek Catholic Church, a significantly larger number of Ruthenians than in most Galician cities. In 1804, a Ruthenian library was established in Przemyśl. By 1822, its collection had over 33,000 books and its importance for Ruthenians was comparable to that held by the Ossolineum library in Lwów for Poles. Przemyśl also became the centre of the revival of Byzantine choral music in the Greek Catholic Church. Until eclipsed by Lviv in the 1830s, Przemyśl was the most important city in the Ruthenian cultural awakening in the nineteenth century. As the majority of Przemyśl's inhabitants were Poles, the city also became a centre for the development of Polish culture and science, and Polish independence organisations also operated in Przemyśl. The greatest heyday of Polishness in Przemyśl dates back to 1860-1918, due to the granting of autonomy to Galicia.

In 1861, the Galician Railway of Archduke Charles Louis built a connecting line from Przemyśl to Kraków, and east to Lwów. In the middle of the 19th century, due to the growing conflict between Austria and Russia over the Balkans, Austria grew more mindful of Przemyśl's strategic location near the border with the Russian Empire. During the Crimean War, when tensions mounted between Russia and Austria, a series of massive fortresses, 15 km in circumference, were built around the city by the Austrian military.

In 1909, the Polish "Museum of the Przemyśl Land" was established in Przemyśl. It was an extremely important facility for the Polish population.

The census of 1910, showed that the city had 54,078 residents. Latin Catholics were the most numerous 25,306 (46.8%), followed by Jews 16,062 (29.7%) and Greek Catholics 12,018 (22.2%). 87% of the city's inhabitants spoke Polish. All Poles spoke Polish, and most Jews were bilingual and communicated in Yiddish and Polish, but owing to the inability to declare Yiddish, almost all Jews declared the Polish language.

World War I (Przemyśl Fortress)
With technological progress in artillery during the second half of the 19th century, the old fortifications rapidly became obsolete. The longer range of rifled artillery necessitated the redesign of fortresses so that they would be larger and able to resist the newly available guns. To achieve this, between the years 1888 and 1914 Przemyśl was turned into a first-class fortress, the third-largest in Europe out of about 200 that were built in this period. Around the city, in a circle of circumference 45 km, 44 forts of various sizes were built. The older fortifications were modernised to provide the fortress with an internal defence ring. The fortress was designed to accommodate 85,000 soldiers and 956 cannons of all sorts, although eventually 120,000 soldiers were garrisoned there.

In August 1914, at the beginning of the First World War, Russian forces defeated Austro-Hungarian forces in the opening engagements and advanced rapidly into Galicia. The Przemyśl fortress fulfilled its mission very effectively, helping to stop a 300,000-strong Russian army advancing upon the Carpathian Passes and Kraków, the Lesser Poland regional capital. The first siege was lifted by a temporary Austro-Hungarian advance. However, the Russian army resumed its advance and initiated a second siege of the fortress of Przemyśl in October 1914. This time relief attempts were unsuccessful. Due to lack of food and exhaustion of its defenders, the fortress surrendered on 22 March 1915. The Russians captured 126,000 prisoners and 700 big guns. Before the surrender, the complete destruction of all fortifications was carried out. The Russians did not linger in Przemyśl. A renewed offensive by the Central Powers recaptured the destroyed fortress on 3 June 1915. During the fighting around Przemyśl, both sides lost up to 115,000 killed, wounded, and missing.

Second Polish Republic
Population of Przemyśl, 1931 Source: 1931 Polish census

At the end of World War I, Przemyśl became disputed between renascent Poland and the West Ukrainian People's Republic. On 1 November 1918, a local provisional government was formed with representatives of Polish, Jewish, and Ruthenian inhabitants of the area. However, on 3 November, a Ukrainian military unit overthrew the government, arrested its leader and captured the eastern part of the city. The Ukrainian army was checked by a small Polish self-defence unit formed of World War I veterans. Also, numerous young Polish volunteers from Przemyśl's high schools, later to be known as Przemyśl Orlęta, The Eaglets of Przemyśl (in a similar manner to more famous Lwów Eaglets), joined the host. The battlefront divided the city along the river San, with the western borough of Zasanie held in Polish hands and the Old Town controlled by the Ukrainians. Neither Poles nor Ukrainians could effectively cross the San river, so both opposing parties decided to wait for a relief force from the outside. That race was won by the Polish reinforcements and the volunteer expeditionary unit formed in Kraków arrived in Przemyśl on 10 November 1918. When the subsequent Polish ultimatum to the Ukrainians remained unanswered, on 11–12 November the Polish forces crossed the San and forced out the outnumbered Ukrainians from the city in what became known as the 1918 Battle of Przemyśl.

After the end of the Polish–Ukrainian War and the Polish–Bolshevik War that followed, the city became a part of the Second Polish Republic. Although the capital of the voivodship was in Lwów (see: Lwów Voivodeship), Przemyśl recovered its nodal position as a seat of local church administration, as well as the garrison of the 10th Military District of the Polish Army — a staff unit charged with organizing the defence of roughly 10% of the territory of pre-war Poland. As of 1931, Przemyśl had a population of 62,272 and was the biggest city in southeatern Poland between Kraków and Lwów.

World War II
On 11–14 September 1939, during the invasion of Poland, which started World War II, the German and Polish armies fought the Battle of Przemyśl in and around the city. Afterwards the battle German Einsatzgruppe I entered the city to commit various atrocities against the population, and the Einsatzgruppe zbV entered to take over the Polish industry. The battle was followed by three days of massacres carried out by the German soldiers, police and Einsatzgruppe I against hundreds of Jews who lived in the city. In total, over 500 Jews were murdered in and around the city and the vast majority of the city's Jewish population was deported across the San River into the portion of Poland that was occupied by the Soviet Union.

The border between the two invaders ran through the middle of the city along the San River until June 1941. German-occupied left-bank Przemyśl was part of the Kraków District of the General Government. Members of the Einsatzgruppe I co-formed the local German police unit. On 10 November 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of Poles in left-bank Przemyśl and the county, as part of the Intelligenzaktion. Arrested Poles were detained in the local German police prison, and then deported to a prison in Kraków, from where they were eventually deported to the Auschwitz concentration camp. The Soviet-occupied right-bank part of the city was incorporated to the Ukrainian SSR in the atmosphere of NKVD terror as thousands of Jews were ordered to be deported. It became part of the newly established Drohobych Oblast. In 1940, the city became an administrative centre of Peremyshl Uyezd with the Peremyshl Fortified District established along the Nazi-Soviet frontier before the German attack against the USSR in 1941.

The town's population increased due to a large influx of Jewish refugees from the General Government who sought to cross the border to Romania. It is estimated that by mid-1941 the Jewish population of the city had grown to roughly 16,500. In the Operation Barbarossa of 1941, the eastern Soviet-occupied part of the city was also occupied by Germany. On 20 June 1942, the first group of 1,000 Jews was transported from the Przemyśl area to the Janowska concentration camp, and on 15 July 1942 a Nazi ghetto was established for all Jewish inhabitants of Przemyśl and its vicinity – some 22,000 people altogether. Local Jews were given 24 hours to enter the ghetto. Jewish communal buildings, including the Tempel Synagogue and the Old Synagogue were destroyed; the New Synagogue, Zasanie Synagogue, and all commercial and residential real estate belonging to Jews were expropriated.

The ghetto in Przemyśl was sealed off from the outside on 14 July 1942. By that time, there may have been as many as 24,000 Jews in the ghetto. On 27 July the Gestapo notified Judenrat about the forced resettlement program and posted notices that an "Aktion" (roundup for deportation to camps) was to be implemented involving almost all occupants. Exceptions were made for some essential, and Gestapo workers, who would have their papers stamped accordingly. On the same day, Major Max Liedtke, military commander of Przemyśl, ordered his troops to seize the bridge across the San river that connected the divided city, and halt the evacuation. The Gestapo were forced to give him permission to retain the workers performing service for the Wehrmacht (up to 100 Jews with families). For the actions undertaken by Liedtke and his adjutant Albert Battel in Przemyśl, Yad Vashem later named them "Righteous Among the Nations". The process of extermination of the Jews resumed thereafter. Until September 1943 almost all Jews were sent to the Auschwitz or Belzec extermination camps. The local branches of the Polish underground and the Żegota managed to save 415 Jews. According to a postwar investigation in German archives, 568 Poles were executed by the Germans for sheltering Jews in the area of Przemyśl, including Michał Kruk, hanged along with several others on 6 September 1943 in a public execution. Among the many Polish rescuers there, were the Banasiewicz, Kurpiel, Kuszek, Lewandowski, and Podgórski families.

The Red Army retook the town from German forces on 27 July 1944. On 16 August 1945, a border agreement between the government of the Soviet Union and the Polish Provisional Government of National Unity, installed by the Soviets, was signed in Moscow. According to the so-called Curzon Line, the postwar eastern border of Poland was established several kilometres to the east of Przemyśl.

Post-war communism to present
In the postwar period, the border ran only 15 kilometres to the east of the city, cutting it off from much of its economic hinterland. Due to the killing of Jews in the Nazi Holocaust and the postwar expulsion of Ukrainians (in the Operation Vistula or akcja Wisła), the city's population fell to 36,000, almost entirely Polish. However, the city welcomed thousands of Polish migrants from Kresy (Eastern Borderlands) who were expelled by the Soviets — their numbers restored the population of the city to its prewar level. On 11 July 2022, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy conferred the honorary title of "Rescuer City" upon Przemyśl for the role the city played in helping Ukrainian refugees fleeing the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Climate
The climate is warm-summer humid continental (Köppen: Dfb). Despite its location in southeastern Poland, its winters may be colder than at higher latitudes, especially in the north-west of the country due to continentality.

Transport
The main Przemyśl railway station is called Przemyśl Główny, and is located in the city center. About 40 trains depart every day, including trains to many cities in Poland, as well as in Germany, Austria, the Czech Republic and Ukraine.

The main road connection to the rest of Poland is provided by the A4 motorway that passes about 15 km north of the city center.

The closest international airport is Rzeszów–Jasionka, about 90 km away by road.

Main sights
Due to the long and rich history of the city, there are many sights in and around Przemyśl, of special interest to tourists, including the Old Town, which is listed as a Historic Monument of Poland, with the Rynek, the main market square.

Among the historic buildings and museums, opened to visitors, are:
 * Old Town Market Square
 * The Great Przemyśl Cathedral
 * Muzeum Diecezjalne (the diocesan museum)
 * Przemyśl Castle, built by Casimir III the Great in the 14th century
 * Carmelite Church, 17th century late-Renaissance church
 * Cathedral of St. John the Baptist, Przemyśl, former 17th-century Jesuit church, now a Ukrainian Greek Catholic cathedral
 * Reformed Franciscan church and monastery, founded in 1627
 * Franciscan Church, from mid-18th-century in a baroque style
 * Lubomirski Palace, an eclectic style palace of the Lubomirski family constructed in 1885
 * Przemyśl Główny train station built in 1895
 * Zasanie Synagogue
 * New Synagogue (Przemyśl), built in 1918
 * Salesians Church, built 1912-23 in Gothic Revival style
 * Muzeum Narodowe (the National Museum), contains a collection of icons, second only to the one in Sanok in size
 * Muzeum Dzwonów i Fajek (the Museum of Bells and Pipes)
 * Kopiec Tatarski, a mound to the south of the city where a 16th-century Tatar khan was supposedly buried. The Tatarska Góra TV tower is built on the mound.
 * Przemyśl Fortress
 * World War I cemeteries (Cmentarz Wojskowy)
 * Civil Defense Shelter – Schron Kierowania Obroną Cywilną
 * Railway bridge designed by Gustave Eiffel

Education

 * Wyższa Szkoła Administracji i Zarządzania
 * Wydział zamiejscowy w Rzeszowie
 * Wyższa Szkoła Gospodarcza
 * Wyższa Szkoła Informatyki i Zarządzania
 * Nauczycielskie Kolegium Języków Obcych
 * Nauczycielskie Kolegium Języka Polskiego

Sport

 * Czuwaj Przemyśl – football club
 * AZS Czuwaj Przemyśl – handball club
 * Polonia Przemyśl – football club

Krosno/Przemyśl constituency (2023 elections)
Members of Sejm elected from Krosno/Przemyśl constituency

Law and Justice

 * Marek Kuchciński
 * Anna Schmidt
 * Piotr Uruski (SP)
 * Piotr Babinetz
 * Teresa Pamuła
 * Tadeusz Chrzan
 * Maria Kurowska (SP)

Civic Coalition

 * Joanna Frydrych (PO)
 * Marek Rząsa (PO)

Third Way

 * Bartosz Romowicz (PL2050)

Confederation

 * Andrzej Zapałowski

Twin towns
Przemyśl is twinned with:

 * 🇮🇹 Chivasso, Italy
 * 🇭🇺 Eger, Hungary
 * 🇺🇦 Kamianets-Podilskyi, Ukraine
 * 🇺🇦 Lviv, Ukraine
 * 🇩🇪 Paderborn, Germany
 * South Kesteven, United Kingdom
 * 🇺🇦 Truskavets, Ukraine

Notable people

 * Jerzy Bartmiński (1939–2022), Polish linguist and ethnologist, lecturer at the UMCS
 * Avraham Ben-Yitzhak (1883–1950), Israeli poet
 * Ben Bernanke (born 1953), American economist
 * Svetozar Boroević (1856–1920), Austro-Hungarian Army Marshal
 * Jan Borukowski, Bishop of Przemyśl (1524–1584)
 * Helene Deutsch, née Rosenbach (1884–1982), Polish-American psychoanalyst
 * Karl Duldig (1902–1986), Austrian-Australian sculptor
 * Andrzej Maksymilian Fredro (c. 1620–1679), Sejm Marshal
 * Mark Gertler (1891–1939), British painter
 * Leonid Gobyato (1875–1915), Russian military designer
 * Stefan Grabiński (1887–1936), Polish writer
 * Giulietta Guicciardi (1782–1856), Austrian countess
 * Joshua Höschel ben Joseph (1578–1648), Polish rabbi
 * Wojciech Inglot (1955–2013), Polish entrepreneur, founder of Inglot Cosmetics Company
 * Hermann Kusmanek von Burgneustädten (1860–1934), Colonel-General of the Austrian Imperial Army
 * Czesław Marek (1891–1985) Polish composer, pianist, and piano teacher
 * Lidia Morawska (born 1952), physicist
 * Yaroslav Osmomysl (c. 1135–1187), Prince of Halych
 * Rena Pfiffer-Lax (1893–1943), opera singer
 * Jerzy Podbrożny (born 1966), Polish footballer
 * Stefania Podgórska (1925–2018), Polish holocaust resister, Righteous Among the Nations
 * Jan Nepomucen Potocki (1867–1943), Polish nobleman
 * Teodor Andrzej Potocki (1664–1738), Polish nobleman, Primate of Poland
 * Hieronim Florian Radziwiłł (1715–1760), Polish–Lithuanian nobleman
 * Jaroslav Rudnyckyj (1910–1995), Ukrainian-Canadian linguist
 * Pawel Sek (born 1977), Polish music producer and composer
 * Ryszard Siwiec (1909–1968), Polish accountant and former Home Army resistance member
 * Renia Spiegel (1924–1942), Polish-born Jewish diarist
 * Zeev Sternhell (1935–2020), Polish-born Israeli historian, political scientist and commentator
 * Andrzej Trzebicki (1607–1679), Polish nobleman, bishop of Kraków
 * Anatole Vakhnianyn (1841–1908), Ukrainian political and cultural figure, composer, teacher and journalist
 * Jan Wężyk (1575–1638), Polish nobleman, Primate of Poland
 * Andrzej Tomasz Zapałowski (born 1966), Polish politician and a former Member of the European Parliament (MEP)
 * Władysław Dominik Zasławski (c. 1616–1656), Polish nobleman of Ruthenian origin
 * Velvel Zbarjer (1824–1884), Galician Jewish Brody singer
 * Samuel Zborowski (?–1584), Polish military commander
 * Zyndram of Maszkowice (c. 1355–c. 1414), Polish knight

title: Przemyśl


text:
Przemyśl (disambiguation)

Przemyśl is a city in southeastern Poland.

Przemyśl or Przemysł may also refer to:

 * Przemyśl Voivodeship, a Polish province from 1975 to 1998
 * Przemyśl, Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland)
 * Siege of Przemyśl, an important battle of the First World War
 * Przemysł (name), a Polish given name

title: Przemyśl (disambiguation)