Ostrzeszów

History

The settlement of Ostrzeszów predates the advent of Christianity in Poland in 966. In antiquity, the Amber Road ran through the area. The town's coat of arms was probably granted by Casimir's successor Louis the Hungarian. and county seat In 1879, Bank Ludowy, a local Polish-owned bank, was founded. The bank was the main place for secret meetings of the Polish resistance movement until the liberation of Ostrzeszów in 1919. It financially supported all social and patriotic actions of local Polish associations to resist Germanisation policies, including secret Polish education. Polish insurgents liberated the town on January 1, 1919, and a local insurgent unit marched out of the town on January 7 to fight in other areas. During the subsequent German occupation it was annexed directly to Nazi Germany, and was administered within the newly formed province of Reichsgau Wartheland. Germany operated a Dulag transit camp in various buildings throughout the town from September 1939. Some 22,000 Polish prisoners of war and 12,000 Polish civilians passed through the camp. Also Franciscans from Niepokalanów were held there, including Maximilian Kolbe, who was later killed in the Auschwitz concentration camp and is now considered a saint of the Catholic Church. Conditions in the overcrowded camp were poor, food was scarce and medical aid was practically nonexistent, In retaliation, the Germans carried out the first expulsions of Poles already in September and December 1939, and murdered a number of Polish hostages from Ostrzeszów during the large massacres of Poles in Winiary. In 1943 the camp was converted to Oflag XXI-C for 1,130 Norwegian officers, but also for Dutch, Italian, Serbian and Soviet POWs. In the meantime, the Germans closed Polish schools and continued the…

Most-observed species

• Common Rough Woodlouse

  Porcellio scaber Latreille, 1804 · Malacostraca
  33
• Isopod

  Trachelipus rathkii (Brandt, 1833) · Malacostraca
  26
• Common Crane

  Grus grus (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  26
• Common Buzzard

  Buteo buteo (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  24
• Mallard

  Anas platyrhynchos Linnaeus, 1758 · Aves
  24
• Beech

  Fagus sylvatica L. · Magnoliopsida
  22
• White-tailed Eagle

  Haliaeetus albicilla (Linnaeus, 1758) · Aves
  18
• Greater Celandine

  Chelidonium majus L. · Magnoliopsida
  18

Most recent

• M 4.5 — 2014-11-30
  8 km SSW of Szczerców, Poland
• M 2.8 — 2008-07-14
  4 km SE of Szczerców, Poland
• M 2.5 — 2007-10-22
  4 km ESE of Opatów, Poland
• M 2.8 — 2007-05-06
  4 km NW of ?erków, Poland
• M 2.6 — 2007-05-05
  2 km NE of Krzepice, Poland
• M 2.8 — 2007-02-17
  6 km WNW of W?sosz, Poland