Jewish Families from Wojnicz, Poland

This project seeks to collect all of the Jewish families from the town of Wojnicz, Poland, also known as Voynitch.

Gesher Galicia - Wojnicz

List of People

Wojnicz

Virtual Sztetl

Overview

Wojnicz [%CB%88v%C9%94i%CC%AF%C9%B2it%CD%A1%CA%82] is a town in Tarnów County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship. In the early times of the Polish state, it used to be one of the most important centers of the province of Lesser Poland. The Battle of Wojnicz took place here on September 23, 1655, against Sweden. The town is located on the boundary of two geographic regions of Poland - the Sandomierz Basin, and the Western Carpathians.

The largest river of the area is the Dunajec, which flows east of the town, between Wojnicz and the nearby city of Tarnów. Wojnicz does not have a rail station, but is located at the intersection of the European route E40, and local route number 975 from Dąbrowa Tarnowska to Nowy Sącz. The town has a sports club Olimpia, founded in 1947.

Origin of the name

Wojnicz is one of the oldest urban settlements of southern Lesser Poland. First Slavic settlers appeared here in the 8th or 9th century, and Wojnicz emerged as a grod, where warriors of local princes lived. According to a legend, some time in the late 10th century, warriors (Polish: wojowie) of either Mieszko I or his son Bolesław I Chrobry built here a military stronghold, called Wojnicz to honor them.

• In 1217, the town was called Woynicze.
• In 1224, its name was spelled Woyniz, and in
• 1239 -Woynicz. Polish language specialists Kazimierz Rymut and Stanisław Rospond claim that the name Wojnicz comes from the last name Wojna, which was then changed to Wojnice, Wojnic, and finally - Wojnicz.

History

Wojnicz, as a fortified military stronghold emerged some time in the 10th century, and in 1109, the Church of Saint Lawrence was built here, probably on initiative of Prince Bolesław III Wrymouth, as a votum for victory in the Battle of Nakło.

• In the 12th century, Wojnicz became the seat of a castellan, it also had a street market. In 1239, after Princess Kinga of Poland was engaged to Bolesław V the Chaste at Wojnicz, the settlement probably was granted town rights, though no documents have been preserved to confirm this.
  
• In 1278, it is for the first time mentioned as a town, with a defensive wall and in 1379, the town burned in a fire.
  
• in 1381, upon order of King Louis I of Hungary, Wojnicz became the seat of a county in Sandomierz Voivodeship. It remained one of major urban centers of Lesser Poland, and on September 13, 1394, Queen Jadwiga of Poland visited the town.
  
• In 1465, collegiate school was opened, and a Gothic style parish church was built. Twenty years later, the town again burned in a fire.
  
• During the Polish Golden Age, Wojnicz developed and prospered. In 1527, a bridge over the Dunajec was built, in 1530, first guild was opened, and in 1575 the town was recorded for having a town hall with a tower, a bell and a clock. Like other locations in Lesser Poland, Wojnicz suffered greatly during the Swedish invasion of Poland. On October 3, 1655, the Battle of Wojnicz took place here, and on March 19, 1657, the town was ransacked and burned by the troops of George II Rakoczi. During the Great Northern War, Swedes once again destroyed the town (1702), and after the devastation, Wojnicz never regained its importance.
  

In 1772, Wojnicz was annexed by the Habsburg Empire (see Partitions of Poland). The 19th century was not good for the town. The Austrians kept Wojnicz County until 1867, in 1831 and 1895 fires destroyed large parts of Wojnicz, together with the town hall. In 1856, Galician Railway of Archduke Charles Louis bypassed the town, with its route some ten kilometers to the north. Wojnicz remained part of Austria until 1918, when it returned to the newly created Second Polish Republic. In 1928, it was visited by President Ignacy Mościcki, but seven years later Wojnicz was stripped of its town privileges and reduced to the status of a village.

On September 6, 1939, first Wehrmacht units entered Wojnicz, and the village was not freed until January 18, 1945. During the Holocaust, most of Wojnicz’s Jewish community perished. After the war, Wojnicz remained in Kraków Voivodeship and Tarnów Voivodeship (1975 - 1999), recovering its town rights on January 1, 2007.

No longer existing

• Town Hall - from the end of the fifteenth century., Burned down in 1831, not rebuilt.
• Brewery - operating on the outskirts of Zamosc destroyed during the hostilities of World War I
• Synagogue - built in the late nineteenth century. In a place where it is now home Grodzki (at the intersection of ul. Long and Warsaw, burned down during World War II

Distinguished Wojnicz

1. Martin of Wojnicz - in the years 1448-1449 dean of the Academy of Krakow .
2. Michael of Wojnicz - a professor of astronomy at the University of Krakow and acolyte at the collegiate Wojnicki.
3. Michael of riffles Parisian - a professor of the Krakow Academy and its rector in the years 1513-1514. The author of many works of philosophical and theological. In the years 1497-1520 provost of the collegiate church in Wojnicz.
4. Andrzej Kostka , coat Dabrowa, physician to King Sigismund the Old, a canon of Plock, provost of the collegiate church in Wojnicz in 1520. After the fire of the Cathedral (May 4, 1530 years) Canons Płock decided the money raised by the deceased provost Andrzej Kostka spent on rebuilding the burned church
5. Stanislaw Janaszowic - wojnickiego son of a shoemaker, a professor of the Academy of Krakow , pastor at Zalasowa . He died in Wojnicz in 1676.
6. Wojciech Kluszewski - Castellan Wojnicki 1779., Wielkorządca Krakow.
7. Teofil żebrawski (1800-1887) - cartographer , builder, historian. Professor , removed from the University of Krakow for political reasons. Co-editor of the works of Jan Dlugosz .
8. Wladyslaw Jordan (1819-1891) - the colonel of the Polish Army , participant in the struggle for independence Polish , Adjutant General Jozef # Bem Army Transylvanian. He rests in the cemetery in Wojnicz.
9. Dr. Victor Łowczowski (1865-1939) - a doctor, worked in Wojnicz since 1895 until his death. Founder of Sokol in Wojnicz.
10. Stefan Sacha (1888-1943) - politician, journalist and Member of Parliament, President of the Board of the underground National Party
11. Gustav Łowczowski (1897-1984) - Brigadier General of the Polish Army , legionnaire, in the Battle of Łowczówek . Participant of World War I Polish-Bolshevik war , the French campaign (1940) and the Italian campaign (1944-1945). Commander III Carpathian Rifle Brigade that liberated Bologna . He died in London , where his ashes were brought to the Polish and complex at the Cemetery of the Legionaries in Łowczówku
12. O. Mirochna Antoni (1908-1989) - Franciscan . The order entered at age 20, he went along with St. Maximilian Kolbe to Japan , where he was ordained a priest and received religious names Mieczyslaw Maria. In 1940 he was superior of the monastery founded by St. Maximilian Kolbe in Nagasaki . He founded a new religious congregation, the Franciscan SS MI, which commissioned the care of the disabled. A. Mirochna was awarded high honors Japanese, among others, Order of the Treasury. He died in Kognai near Nagasaki.
13. Ks. Jan Królikiewicz (1927-1991) - social activist, founder of the wheel PTTK and the Regional Chamber in Wojnicz, author of many publications on Wojnicz.
14. Jerzy Chumiński - (1934-2001) - a teacher of mathematics , social worker. Founder and chief editor of the Bulletin of Wojnickich, founder and president of the Society of Friends of the Earth Wojnicki.
15. Prof. dr. Joseph Szymanski (1931-2011) - historian, rector of the University of Maria Curie-Sklodowska University in Lublin in 1982-1984. Specialist in the auxiliary sciences of history and expert on the history of the society of early Middle Ages . Colleague and Honorary Member of the Society of Friends of the Earth Wojnicki . Initiator of the series Historical Library that contains the source for the history of Wojnicz (over 30 publications).