Zbąszyń

Infobox Settlement
name = Zbąszyń


image_shield = POL Zbąszyń COA.svg
pushpin_

subdivision_type = Country
subdivision_name = POL
subdivision_type1 = Voivodeship
subdivision_name1 = Greater Poland
subdivision_type2 = County
subdivision_name2 = Nowy Tomyśl
subdivision_type3 = Gmina
subdivision_name3 = Zbąszyń
area_total_km2 = 5.57
population_as_of = 2006
population_total = 7300
population_density_km2 = auto
latd = 52 | latm = 15 | lats = 11 | latNS = N | longd = 15 | longm = 55 | longs = 4 | longEW = E
elevation_m =
postal_code_type = Postal code
postal_code = 64-360
website = http://www.zbaszyn.pl

Zbąszyń [IPA-pl|'|z|b|ą|sz|y|ń] ( _de. Bentschen) is a town in Poland, in Greater Poland Voivodeship, in Nowy Tomyśl County. It has 7,319 inhabitants (2004).

History

The town was first mentioned in historical sources from 1231, and it received its city charter before 1311. As a result of the Second Partition of Poland in 1793 it became part of the Kingdom of Prussia and was administered within South Prussia. After the Napoleonic Wars, the town was within the Grand Duchy of Posen and later the Province of Posen. It became part of the German Empire in 1871. In 1918 it became part of the Second Polish Republic.

During the interwar era (1918-1939) it was a town on the border with Germany. In October 1938 Nazi Germany decided to expel those German Jews who did not hold German citizenship or had it taken away, and who originally hailed from Poland. This was in reaction to a Polish decree which was to take away the Polish citizenship of Jews living outside the country, including those in Germany. A few days before that decree was to come into force, 17,000 German Jews that were or could be considered to be citizens of Poland were rounded up and unceremoniously dumped on the Polish border at Zbąszyń and other border towns. Michael Burleigh, Wolfgang Wippermann, "The Racial State: Germany 1933-1945", Relevant page available via Google Book Search: [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0521398029&id=DGJy5Ptzqp0C&pg=PA89&lpg=PA89&dq=zbaszyn&sig=QDeIMoD33rhvIpOSvrnwK31tmuE] ] The Polish government in turn refused to admit those of them who did not hold valid Polish passports. As a result, thousands of Jews were stuck on the border in makeshift facilities for several days or weeks in appalling conditions. Joseph Marcus "Social and Political History of the Jews in Poland, 1919-1939" [http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN9027932395&id=82ncGA4GuN4C&pg=PA380&lpg=PA380&dq=zbaszyn&sig=n_vvnQi1kie51Sp6VMyW4Oeih28] ] The situation generated widespread outrage among the Jewish community in Poland, which conducted extensive efforts to help the internees in any way possible and was the occasion of the assassination of the German Embassy official in Paris Ernst vom Rath by Herschel Grynszpan. Eventually the Polish government finally allowed them, in stages, to enter the country. ]

Notable residents

*Marcin Czechowic (1532-1613), theologian
*Stefan Garczyński (1690-1756), nobleman and writer
*Otto Schmirgal (1900-1944), politician
*Hans Petersson (1902-1984), mathematician

References