Zduńska Wola is a city in central Poland with 40,730 inhabitants (2021).
History
Early history
thumb|left|Document of granting city rights to Zduńska Wola
The city was first mentioned and documented in 1394. Zduńska Wola was then part of an important trade route which crossed through Poland and connected Eastern and Western Europe. Administratively, it was located in the Sieradz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. Over the course of its history, the town was owned by nobles or industrialists. At the beginning of the 18th century, Zduńska Wola was purchased by the aristocratic Złotnicki family.
The development of the village is closely linked with the rapid influx of the[weavers from the region of Śląsk. In 1817, with the contribution and effort of Stefan Złotnicki, the village flourished and became populated with people Śląsk, Saxony, and Bohemia. In 1824 the town's population reached 1,400 people, including 150 professional textile laborers in 125 private workshops.
thumb|right|Early 20th-century postcard with the downtown of Zduńska Wola
In 1903 the region was connected with Kalisz and Łódź by rail. In 1902 Zenon Anstadt, a member of a wealthy family of brewers from Łódź, was responsible for the continuous development of the town's infrastructure. Shortly before the outbreak of World War I in 1914, the population of the city was 28,437 people. Under the Imperial German occupation during World War I, the town's population fell to just 12,000 in 1918.
After Poland regained independence in 1918, the city with its industries was rebuilt from the devastation of war. Alongside the former textile industry, new metallurgical enterprises, power plants, public schools, gymnasiums, city hospital and a fire station were established. In 1930 Zduńska Wola became an important transport hub, when it was connected by rail with the Polish port of Gdynia on the Baltic Sea. By 1939 Zduńska Wola was the largest city in the western part of Łódź Voivodeship (province). and then the Einsatzgruppe III entered the town to commit various crimes against the populace. The German occupiers incorporated the town directly into the newly formed Wartheland province of Nazi Germany, and changed the town's name to Freihaus to erase traces of Polish origin. and in December 1939 they carried out the first expulsions of 420 Poles. During the Intelligenzaktion, the Germans arrested 169 members of the local Polish intelligentsia already in 1939, and further 187 in 1940–1941. In total several thousand Poles were deported to forced labour, expelled or arrested. On arrival of the German troops in September 1939, local ethnic Germans and Poles looted Jewish property. The Germans shot several Jews at that time and burned the synagogue. Over the next several months, the Jewish community was robbed, brutalized, and confined to a ghetto area. In 1940 and 1941, Jews from other locations were moved into the ghetto which population increased to around 11,000, crowded together and may without means of support. In August 1942, the Jewish population were gathered together. Several hundred were sent to the Łódź ghetto. Hundreds were shot in the Zduńska Wola cemetery. More than 6,000 and perhaps as many as 9,000 were sent to the Chełmno extermination camp where they were immediately gassed.
About 60 of Zduńska Wola's Jewish population are thought to have survived the war. The German administrator who oversaw the final selection, Hans Biebow, was tried, convicted, and executed after the war for his crimes in Lodz and Zduńska Wola. In contrast, the head of the Jewish council in the town was lauded for his uprightness. Murdered by Biebow after the selection in August, he had refused to collaborate with the Germans or betray his fellow Jews.
The town was freed by the Soviets in January 1945, and then restored to Poland,
- Zarasai, Lithuania
- Pietrasanta, Italy
- Valmiera, Latvia
Notable people
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- Rafał Augustyniak (born 1993), professional footballer
- Danuta Dudzińska-Wieczorek (born 1966), opera singer
- Max Factor Sr. (1877–1938), Polish-American businessman, beautician, entrepreneur and inventor; founder of the Max Factor & Company
- Magda Femme (born 1971), pop singer and songwriter
- Riwka Herszberg, victim of Nazism
- Wojciech Cezary Jagielski (born 1963), journalist
- Maximilian Kolbe (1894–1941), Catholic priest and saint, Conventual Franciscan friar who volunteered to die in place of a stranger in the death camp of Auschwitz
- Lazar Lyusternik (1899–1981), mathematician
- Justyna Majkowska (born 1977), singer