Staszów

Location

Staszów is located in southeastern corner of Świętokrzyskie Mountains, in historic Sandomierz Land, which in 1314 turned into Lesser Poland’s Sandomierz Voivodeship. The town remained within borders of this voivodeship for hundreds of years, until 1795 (see Partitions of Poland). Between 1796–1809 it belonged to Austrian Empire, and then to Duchy of Warsaw, which after the Congress of Vienna became Congress Poland, a Russian protectorate. In 1844 Staszów County, which had been created in 1809, was disbanded, and its territory merged with Sandomierz County.

In the Second Polish Republic Staszów belonged to Sandomierz County of Kielce Voivodeship, and during World War II, it was part of Radom District of the General Government. After the war, Kielce Voivodeship was re-created, and in 1954, Staszów County returned. Between 1975 and 1998, the town belonged to Tarnobrzeg Voivodeship. Staszów is surrounded by forests, which make 36% of the county. The town is located between the colder climate of the Świętokrzyskie Mountains, and the milder temperatures of the Sandomierz Valley. Winters are cold, summers hot, and autumns warm and long. Average January temperature is −3 °C (27 °F), July 17–18,3 °C (37 °F), while average annual temperature is 7 to 8 °C (45 to 46 °F).

History

First mention of the town comes from 1241, when, during Mongol invasion of Europe, the village of Staszów was burned, together with its wooden parish church. In 1345, new stone church of St. Bartholomew was built, and in the 1440s, the village of Staszów was mentioned in Jan Długosz’s Liber Beneficiorum Dioecesis Cracoviensis. In the early 16th century, Staszów had a market square with a town hall, surrounded by tenement houses. In 1580 it emerged as one of centers of Protestant Reformation in Lesser Poland, with Polish Brethren active here. The town belonged to several noble families, including the Opaliński and the Tęczyński.

In 1709, a few years after an outbreak of black death, Staszów was captured and destroyed by the Swedes (see: Great Northern War). On May 2, 1718, Staszów’s-then owner, Elżbieta Sieniawska, allowed Jews to settle here, and build a synagogue. In 1731, Staszów belonged to the Czartoryski family, and soon afterwards, August Czartoryski completed the construction of a new town hall with a clock tower. In 1795 Staszów was annexed by Austria to the province of West Galicia, then, during Napoleonic Wars, was part of Duchy of Warsaw, later Russian-controlled Congress Poland. In 1815 for the first time ever Staszów became a seat of the county. Its inhabitants participated in both November Uprising and January Uprising, so Russian government decided that a Russian Imperial Army garrison of 800 was stationed there. By 1900, Staszów emerged as a local trade center, with a brewery, several mills, and other enterprises.

During World War I, Staszów was the area of heavy fighting between the Russians and the Austro-Hungarians. The town changed hands several times, and in November 1918 it was free. Soon afterwards, it became part of Sandomierz County of Kielce Voivodeship, and by 1930, its population was 10,000, half of which was Jewish. Staszów was an important center of anti-German resistance, where the Jędrusie and the Home Army units were active. The Germans retreated in January 1945, after the hostilities and aerial bombardment of the town, 80% of it was destroyed.

Points of interest

Staszów managed to keep its medieval shape, with a market square, a town hall in the middle, and perpendicular streets. The town was frequently destroyed and burned, its most notable historic building is St. Bartholomew church, built in 1342 - 1343, in the spot where a wooden church had stood, burned by the Tatars in 1241. The church was renovated several times, and its present shape differs from the original. There are 18th and 19th century tenement houses in the market square, and the town hall was built in 1783, with major changes from 1861.

Demography

According to the 2011 Poland census, there were 15,108 people residing in Staszów town, of whom 48.3% were male and 51.7% were female. In the town, the population was spread out with 19% under the age of 18, 38.2% from 18 to 44, 26.8% from 45 to 64, and 16.1% who were 65 years of age or older.

Districts

City consists of 10 districts:

The Holocaust in Staszów

Staszów (pronounced Stash-ouv) is one of the many sites in occupied Poland where Jews were exterminated en masse by Germans. The Sefer Staszów (The Staszów Book) (Sefer Stashev) contains eyewitness accounts of life in the ghetto, the mass extermination on Black Sunday (Nov 8, 1942), and the subsequent horrors.

According to Sefer Staszów, the night before Black Sunday, Obersturmfuehrer Schild ordered the Jewish policemen to instruct all the Jews in town to be present by 8 o'clock in the morning at the marketplace. Anybody who did not obey this order would be shot. By 8 o'clock in the morning about 5,000 Jews, young and old, children and grown-ups, had assembled at the market place in order to begin their march to death. At 10 in the morning, Schild gave the order: “March! And so the people started the march and as soon as they filed into Krakowska Street, the murderers shot into the mass of people, strewing the whole road with innocent victims. Blood ran from the Krakowska street down to the river. The march of the Staszów Jews took them through Szczucin and Stopnica to Belzec extermination camp. More than 1,000 Jews reached Stopnica. In Niziny village, 9 km (6 mi) from Staszów, a mass grave was dug for 740 victims.

Those who had not come at 8 AM to the marketplace were bestially murdered in their homes. All those killed in Staszów itself on the day of slaughter were buried in a single mass grave at the Jewish Cemetery. Many more Jews, who were retained for hard labor or who had hidden in bunkers, were subsequently killed or shipped to a concentration camp.

Jewish Cemetery

Over 175 years old, the Jewish Cemetery was not maintained, and at one point was even replaced without a trace by a playground. The newer Jewish cemetery, 1 km (0.6 mi) from the center of Staszow, was an empty lot. The gravestones had been carted away by the Nazis for use as paving stones on muddy roads and sold to a construction company by municipal authorities after the war when no Jews returned to claim them. An individual living in New York City paid to have the grounds spruced up, to have a 3 m (10-foot) Holocaust memorial constructed, to have some 155 Jewish gravestones he discovered in Staszow homes brought back to the cemetery, and to have a marker set up at a Holocaust-era mass grave.