Otwock

Home to a unique architectural style called Świdermajer. It is the capital of Otwock County. The town covers an area of 47 km2. Forested areas make up 23% of the territory, and there are several nature reserves.

• Name — Otwock • Subdivision Type — Country • Subdivision Type1 — Voivodeship • Subdivision Name1 — Masovian Voivodeship • Subdivision Type2 — County • Subdivision Name2 — Otwock • Subdivision Type3 — Gmina • Subdivision Name3 — Otwock (urban gmina) • Leader Party — PiS • Leader Title — City mayor • Leader Name — Jarosław Margielski • Established Title — Established • Established Date — 1877 • Established Title3 — City rights • Established Date3 — 9 November 1916 • Area Total Km2 — 47.33 • Population As Of — 2019 • Population Total — 44635 • Population Density Km2 — auto • Time Zone — CET • Utc Offset — +1 • Time Zone Dst — CEST • Utc Offset Dst — +2 • Elevation M — 100 • Postal Code Type — Postal code • Postal Code — 05-400 to 05-402 • Area Code — +48 022 • Custom Label Sec1 — Car plates • Custom Data Sec1 — WOT • Custom Label Sec2 — Highways • Custom Label1 Sec2 — Voivodeship roads • Website — http: www.otwock.pl

• Illustration — "The Commandant" Józef Piłsudski with his legionaries in Otwock in 1915 Even though the first mention of a village called Otwosko comes from the early 15th century, Otwock did not fully develop until the second half of the 19th century, when in 1877 the Vistula River Railroad was opened, which ran from Mława via Warsaw, to Lublin and Chełm. Otwock, which is located along the line, became a popular suburb, with numerous spas and several notable guests, including Józef Piłsudski and Władysław Reymont, who wrote his Nobel Prize-winning novel Chłopi there. The Zofiówka Sanatorium was opened in Otwock in 1908. In 1916, Otwock was incorporated as a town and became the seat of a powiat. During the Battle of Warsaw (1920), Otwock, along with nearby Karczew, constituted the edge of the right wing of the first line of Polish defense and was manned by the Polish 15th Infantry Division, whereas the second line of Polish defense began in the present-day neighborhood of Świdry Wielkie; however, there was no Polish-Russian fighting in Otwock. In 1936 the Warsaw - Otwock railway connection was the first rail line to be electrified in Poland.

• Illustration — Layover yard in Otwock, 19 August 1942. In the distance, Jews sit on the ground overnight, while awaiting transport to Treblinka extermination camp. Clandestine photo Following the German–Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the town was occupied by Germany. In December 1939, the German authorities established a Jewish ghetto in Otwock. A murderous Action T4 euthanasia program was carried out by the Nazis in the local Zofiówka Sanatorium for the psychiatric patients in order to confine its Jewish population for the purpose of persecution and exploitation. The Ghetto was liquidated between August and 19 September 1942, when 75% of its Jewish population of 12,000–15,000 numbering at around 8,000 were assembled by the Nazis at a layover yard in Otwock (pictured) and transported in cattle trucks to extermination camps in Treblinka and Auschwitz. Jews who remained were summarily shot at Reymonta Street soon after. • Illustration — Memorial to Jews of Otwock who were murdered in the Holocaust Otwock is the hometown of Irena Sendler (1910 – 2008), the Polish humanitarian who saved thousands of Jewish children during the Holocaust; as well as Krystyna Dańko, both awarded the titles of Righteous among the Nations by Yad Vashem. Writer Calel Perechodnik, a Jewish Ghetto Policeman from Otwock also hailed from this town. His memoir, Am I A Murderer? Testament Of A Jewish Ghetto Policeman, follows his personal experience as a ghetto policeman during the liquidation of the town, in which he chronicles the measures taken by both the Germans and the Jewish ghetto police in order to round up the Jewish populace for expulsion and extermination at Treblinka. Following the liberation, a children's home for Holocaust survivors was established in Otwock.

According to the memoir of Calel Perechodnik, a member of the Otwock ghetto police, many joined the force in early 1941 specifically to avoid being sent to forced labor camps, though they remained haunted by their role in eventual liquidation of their own families.

In 1952, the town's limits were expanded by including Świder, Świdry Wielkie, Teklin and Zamlądz as new neighbourhoods. Following the Korean War, in 1953–1959, Poland admitted 200 North Korean orphans in Świder. From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in the Warsaw Voivodeship.

In Otwock there are many buildings in the Świdermajer style, unique to the town and its surroundings. There are also memorials to Józef Piłsudski and to local Jews, who were murdered by Nazi Germany in the Holocaust. The Mszar Pogorzelski, Świder and Wyspy Świderskie nature reserves are located in Otwock.

In 1958, Ewa, the first Polish nuclear reactor was activated in Swierk district of Otwock. A second research reactor, Maria, was erected in 1974.

Otwock is home to the sports club Start Otwock (founded in 1924). The club is renowned for its weight-lifters such as Szymon Kołecki and Marcin Dołęga.The club's own prodigy is football forward Janusz Żmijewski, who in the 1960s played for Legia Warszawa and the national team of Poland. • Illustration — Town hall

Otwock is twinned with: • Lennestadt, Germany • Saint-Amand-Montrond, France • Ōarai, Ibaraki, Japan • Shumsk, Ukraine