Końskie

Memorial to local Polish partisans

During the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in 1939, the town was invaded and then occupied by Germany, and the Einsatzgruppe I entered to commit various crimes against the population.[3] Końskie was briefly visited by Adolf Hitler on September 10, 1939, while on the way to Kielce after landing on an airfield nearby. His car cavalcade visited the headquarters of General Walther von Reichenau at the local mansion. Hitler was followed by director Leni Riefenstahl who came a day later, ordered to film the Nazi German victory over Poland.[4]

On September 11, 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of around 5,000 men over the age of 18 in the town and its vicinity after finding the bodies of several German policemen and soldiers (including general Wilhelm Fritz von Roettig, first German general to be killed in the conflict) reportedly mutilated by the Poles. The next day two dozen local Jews were summoned to dig graves for the German dead, and shortly afterwards, most of the Jews were shot by the Germans (Końskie massacre). Reportedly, this event mas witnessed by Riefenstahl who fainted when witnessing the random killing of on September 12, 1939.[4][5][6][7][8][9]

Polish inhabitants of Końskie were also among Poles massacred by the Germans in the nearby village of Stadnicka Wola in April 1940.[10] In 1941–1943, the Germans operated a prisoner-of-war camp for Soviet and Norwegian POWs in the town.[11] About 26,000 POWs passed through the camp, 23,000 of whom either were murdered or died of starvation or epidemics.[11] The Polish resistance movement organized escapes for the camp inmates.[11]

Końskie was the centre of Polish underground resistance during World War II, with battles fought by the Armia Krajowa under Major Henryk Dobrzański ("Hubal") in the nearby forests which the German army feared to enter. The town was taken over by the partisans for a few hours on the night of September 1, 1943, with a number of Gestapo agents assassinated.[12] The Nazi Germans retaliated by executing civilians including Jews.[13]

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 Końskie.[14] Those Poles were mainly old people, ill people and women with children.[14] 24,000 Poles expelled from Warsaw stayed in the town, as of 1 November 1944.[14]

The first mention of the Jewish community in Końskie dates to the 16th century. The pre World War II Jewish population of Końskie (known as Koinsk during the Russian occupation or Kinsk in Yiddish – קינצק / קינסק) comprised 60.6% of the total population of the town or about 6,500 persons as of September 1939. The town's Jewish cemetery was founded in the 17th century, and expanded to span two hectares with the last burial in 1943.[15]

Local Jews digging graves for German soldiers killed in the Battle of Końskie

After the Nazi German invasion of Poland, a ghetto was established in 1940 and closed off in the spring of 1941. The Jews of Końskie and Polish prisoners from Końskie and surrounding towns were forced to dig up the graves, which were used in the construction of pig farms, the Modliszewicach spire, and walls in Końskie and nearby villages. The cemetery was also used as a place of execution for both Jews and Poles.[15]

The complete eradication of the Jewish population of Końskie took place on November 3–9, 1942, when all men, women, and children were loaded into cattle cars to Treblinka II and gassed. Approximately 600 Jews were murdered by the Nazis on the way to the camp. In the subsequent January 1943 "Aktion" in the Konskie Ghetto, the remaining Jews were ferreted out from attics and other hiding places and murdered.[16] The Germans imprisoned several Poles in the local prison, and then deported them to concentration camps for rescuing Jews.[17]

Koinsk appears under the name Bociany as the setting for Chava Rosenfarb's Yiddish language novel of the same name. Bociany was published in English in the author's own translation by Syracuse University Press in 2000. The translation won the John Glassco Award for Literary Translation in 2000.

The Koinsk Organization of Israel ("Ha'Ayarah She'Li: Sefer Ha'Zikaron Le'Yehudei Konskiyah, Hebrew, 2001) commemorates the tragic death of the Jews of Konskie every year at The Diaspora Museum close to the 25th of the Jewish month of Cheshvan.[18]

In 1975–1998, the town was administratively located in the Kielce Voivodeship. Most of the town labour force was employed in the local foundry (Koneckie Zakłady Odlewnicze) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since 1997 the town has developed into a major trade centre for small business.

Końskie is twinned with:

• Šaľa, Slovakia
• Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Ukraine