During the joint German-Sovietinvasion of Poland, which startedWorld War II, on 3 and 5 September 1939, Zgierz was raided by Germany, and captured on September 6.[2] Already in September 1939, the Germans committed firstatrocities against Poles and carried out executions of Polish civilian defenders.[4] Inhabitants of Zgierz were also amongPoles murdered in nearbyŁagiewniki on September 12 and inRetki on September 16.[5] As part theIntelligenzaktion, Germans carried out large massacres of Poles from the region in the nearby forests of Łagiewniki andLućmierz, killing hundreds and thousands of people respectively.[6] Germans also carried outexpulsions of Poles and deported over 8,000 people toforced labour to Germany.[2] Some were also killed inNazi concentration camps, including the interwar director of the local State School of Economics, Jakub Stefan Cezak, and local Protestant parish priest, Aleksander Falzman.[2] Schools were closed, factories werelooted, Polish monuments were destroyed.[2] Despite this, thePolish underground resistance movement was active in Zgierz.[2]
Commemoration of the 72nd anniversary of the German massacre of 100 Poles in Zgierz
Before the war, Zgierz had a thrivingJewish community of around 4,000, which formed 16,6% of the town's populace as of 1931.[2] When the Germansoccupied the town, they began persecuting the Jews, with the assistance of local ethnicGermans. The synagogue was burned and Jews were kidnapped from the streets for forced labor. Many tried to flee the town, though some of these returned. In December, 1939, the Germans deported 2500 of the Jews toGłowno in theGeneral Gouvernment, German-occupied central Poland. Left behind were fewer than 100 Jews, mostly craftsmen thought to be useful to the Germans. In 1942, these Jews were deported to theŁódź Ghetto. This history is unusual in that no mass killings in Zgierz were reported. Of course, the Jews deported to Łódz and Głowno were caught up in the fate of those communities, and most were later deported to theTreblinka extermination camp. As many as 350 Jewish residents of Zgierz survived the war, but did not return to the town.[7]
On 20 March 1942, the Germans carried out a public execution of 100 Poles in the town, who were then buried inLućmierz-Las.[8] A memorial was erected at the site of the massacre after the war.[8] Around 50 Poles from Zgierz took part in theWarsaw Uprising in 1944.[2] In total over 7,600 inhabitants of Zgierz died under German occupation, which ended in January 1945.[2]
Town limits were expanded in 1954, 1959, and 1988.[2]
^Atlas historyczny Polski. Województwo sieradzkie i województwo łęczyckie w drugiej połowie XVI wieku. Część I. Mapy, plany (in Polish). Warszawa: Instytut HistoriiPolskiej Akademii Nauk. 1998. p. 3.
^Wardzyńska, Maria (2009).Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion (in Polish). Warszawa:IPN. p. 292.
^Megargee, Geoffrey (2012).Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. Volume II 127–8.ISBN978-0-253-35599-7.
The list includes the 107 urban municipalities governed by acity mayor (prezydent miasta) instead of a town mayor (burmistrz) ·Cities with powiat rights are initalics · Voivodeship cities are inbold
