Warta

• Name — Warta • Subdivision Type — Country • Subdivision Type1 — Voivodeship • Subdivision Name1 — Łódź • Subdivision Type2 — County • Subdivision Name2 — Sieradz • Subdivision Type3 — Gmina • Subdivision Name3 — Warta • Leader Title — Mayor • Leader Name — Krystian Krogulecki • Established Title — Town rights • Established Date — 1255 • Area Total Km2 — 10.84 • Population As Of — 31 December 2020 • Population Total — 3208 • Population Density Km2 — auto • Timezone — CET • Utc Offset — +1 • Timezone Dst — CEST • Utc Offset Dst — +2 • Postal Code Type — Postal code • Postal Code — 98-290 • Registration Plate — ESI • Blank Name Sec1 — National roads • Blank1 Name Sec2 — Voivodeship road • Website — http: www.gimwarta.pl

• Illustration — Church of the Assumption of Virgin Mary, built in the 15th century, rebuilt in the years 1696-1708 Warta was granted town rights in 1255 by Duke Casimir I of Kuyavia of the Piast dynasty. It was a royal town of the Polish Crown, administratively located in the Sieradz County in the Sieradz Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province. In the 17th century, there was a sizeable Scottish community in Warta. One of two main routes connecting Warsaw and Dresden ran through the town in the 18th century and Kings Augustus II the Strong and Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route. At various times, the 2nd Polish National Cavalry Brigade and 4th Polish Vanguard Regiment were stationed in Warta. In the interwar period, it was administratively located in the Łódź Voivodeship of Poland. In the 1921 census, 56.8% of the population declared Polish nationality and 43.0% declared Jewish nationality. When the Germans invaded Poland at the start of World War II in September 1939, they immediately brutalized the population. Some Poles from Warta were murdered by the Wehrmacht already on September 7, 1939 in the nearby village of Wylazłów. During the German occupation, Jews were kidnapped for forced labor, robbed of their possessions, and in early 1940, forced into a ghetto, leaving behind their furniture and other possessions for locals and Germans to take. In April 1940, the Germans murdered 499 patients of the local psychiatric hospital as part of Aktion T4. The next 82 patients were murdered by in June 1941. In both cases, patients were gassed in a gas van. In spring 1942, several Jews, including the rabbi, were hanged, allegedly for sending bread to Jews who had been sent to forced labor camps. In August 1942, all Jews were rounded up and held in a church for three days with nothing to eat. Some died from hunger and thirst, others were shot there. Afterwards, around 1,000 were sent to the Chełmno extermination camp where they were immediately gassed. Another few hundred were sent to the Łódź Ghetto. The number of pre-war Warta Jewish survivors is unclear; at least 50 and perhaps close to 200. More than 40 registered there after the war, but two by the names of Moshe Szajniak and Meir Rozewald were killed by Eugeniusz "Groźny" Kokolski and his group of militant anti-communists (now regarded among Poland's "Cursed Soldiers") who raided the town after the war ended, and the others left the town.

Warta lies on national road 83. National road 83 connects Warta to Turek to the north and to Sieradz to the south. Vovoideship road 710 passes through the town. The nearest railway station is in Sieradz.

• Illustration — Statue of Stanisław Skarżyński in his hometown, Warta • Illustration — Park in Warta • Illustration — Town hall