Pruszków

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For other places with the same name, see Pruszków (disambiguation).
Pruszków

Flag
Coat of arms
Motto: Kolej na Pruszków!
It's Pruszków's turn!
Pruszków
Coordinates: 52°10′N 20°48′E / 52.167°N 20.800°E / 52.167; 20.800
Country  Poland
Voivodeship Masovian
County Pruszków County
Gmina Pruszków (urban gmina)
Established 16th century
Town rights 1916
Government
 • Mayor Jan Starzyński
Area
 • Total 19.15 km2 (7.39 sq mi)
Population (2006)
 • Total 55,387
 • Density 2,900/km2 (7,500/sq mi)
Time zone CET (UTC+1)
 • Summer (DST) CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code 05-800, 05-802, 05-803,
05-804
Area code(s) +48 22
Car plates WPR
Website http://www.pruszkow.pl/

Pruszków [ˈpruʂkuf] ( listen) is a town in central Poland, situated in the Masovian Voivodeship since 1999. It was previously in Warszawa Voivodeship (1975–1998). Pruszków is the capital of Pruszków County, located along the western edge of the Warsaw urban area. The town's population has grown significantly, from 16,000 in the early part of the 20th century to 55,387 in the 2006 census by the Central Statistical Office of Poland.[1] According to the 2004 census, Pruszków had a population of 54,893.

History

Fountain at the Museum of Ancient Masovian Metallurgy in Pruszków

Pruszków was incorporated as a town in 1916 following World War I, although a village has existed there since the 16th century. The development of the town was aided by the construction of the Warsaw-Vienna Railway in the 19th Century and the construction of the Elektryczna Kolej Dojazdowa, Poland’s first electrified commuter train line, in 1928. A large psychiatric hospital opened in the outlying village of Tworki in 1891 and is still operating to this day.[2]

World War II

The city had a large Jewish population before the Nazi–Soviet Invasion of Poland. In 1940, the German occupation authorities established a Jewish ghetto in Pruszków, in order to confine its Jewish population for the purpose of persecution and exploitation.[3] The ghetto was liquidated on January 31, 1941, when all its 1,400[4]–3,000 inhabitants were transported in cattle trucks to Warsaw Ghetto, the largest ghetto in all of Nazi occupied Europe with over 400,000 Jews crammed into an area of 1.3 square miles (3.4 km2). From there, most victims were sent to Treblinka extermination camp.[5][6][7][8]

For more details on this topic, see Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland.

During the 1944 Warsaw Uprising, the Nazis created a large transit camp (Durchgangslager) in Pruszków on the site of the Train Repair Shops (Zakłady Naprawcze Taboru Kolejowego) to intern the evacuees expelled from the capital. Around 550,000 Warsaw residents and approximately 100,000 more from its outskirts were incarcerated in the Durchgangslager 121 (Dulag 121) set up for this purpose. The SS and Gestapo segregated the victims before transport. Approximately 650,000 Poles passed through the Pruszków camp in August, September and October 1944. Approximately 55,000 were sent to concentration camps, including 13,000 to Auschwitz. They included people from a variety of social classes and occupations (government officials, scholars, artists, physicians, merchants, and blue-collar workers), in varying physical conditions (the injured, the sick, invalids, and pregnant women), and of various ages from infants only a few weeks old to the elderly, aged 86 or more. In a few cases, these were also people of different ethnic backgrounds including Jews living on “Aryan papers.”[9]

Following the Soviet westward offensive, on March 26, 1945, the 16 members of the Polish Underground Government were invited by the Russians for talks, to a house in Pruszków on Armii Krajowej Street. They were captured by the Soviet NKVD agents, transported to USSR, imprisoned, tortured and sentenced in Moscow during the so-called Trial of the Sixteen.

After World War II, Pruszków became one of Mazovia’s largest industrial centers. Due to its proximity to Warsaw, it is now home to several factories and companies, including Herbapol, Daewoo Electronics, L'Oréal Cosmetics as well as logistic centers. It is also an important sports center, with a sports gymnasium, soccer stadium and a cycling course. As of the 2007-08 season, the local football team, Znicz Pruszków competes in the Polish First League (second division).

Żbików church

Tourism

  • The Museum of Ancient Mazovian Metallurgy
  • Nineteenth century manor with landscaped gardens.
  • BGŻ Arena (indoor velodrome)

Education

  • Physical Culture and Tourism High School (Wyższa Szkoła Kultury Fizycznej i Turystyki)

References

  1. ↑ Central Statistical Office (Poland), Ludność. Stan i struktura w przekroju terytorialnym
  2. ↑ Tworki is an administrative part of Pruszków today
  3. ↑ "The War Against The Jews." The Holocaust Chronicle, 2009. Chicago, Il. Accessed June 21, 2011.
  4. ↑ The statistical data compiled on the basis of "Glossary of 2,077 Jewish towns in Poland" by Virtual Shtetl Museum of the History of the Polish Jews  (English), as well as "Getta Żydowskie," by Gedeon,  (Polish) and "Ghetto List" by Michael Peters at www.deathcamps.org/occupation/ghettolist.htm  (English). Accessed July 12, 2011.
  5. ↑ Warsaw Ghetto, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (USHMM), Washington, D.C.
  6. ↑ Richard C. Lukas, Out of the Inferno: Poles Remember the Holocaust, University Press of Kentucky 1989 - 201 pages. Page 13; also in Richard C. Lukas, The Forgotten Holocaust: The Poles Under German Occupation, 1939-1944, University Press of Kentucky, 1986, Google Print, p.13.
  7. ↑ Gunnar S. Paulsson, "The Rescue of Jews by Non-Jews in Nazi-Occupied Poland," Journal of Holocaust Education, Vol.7, Nos.1&2, 1998, pp.19-44. Published by Frank Cass, London.
  8. ↑ Edward Victor, "Ghettos and Other Jewish Communities." Judaica Philatelic. Accessed June 20, 2011.
  9. ↑ Księga Pamięci. Transporty Polaków z Warszawy do KL Auschwitz 1940-1944 (Memorial Book: Transports of Poles from Warsaw to Auschwitz Concentration Camp 1940-1944. Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum. On the Sixtieth Anniversary of the Warsaw Uprising. Accessed July 13, 2011.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Pruszków.

Coordinates: 52°10′N 20°48′E / 52.167°N 20.800°E / 52.167; 20.800


Urban gminas
Urban-rural gmina
Rural gminas
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