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Radziłów
Village
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Podlaskie
County	Grajewo
Gmina	Radziłów
Population	1,267

Radziłów is a village (formerly a town) in Grajewo County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. It is the seat of the gmina, an administrative district called Gmina Radziłów. It lies approximately 27 kilometres (17 mi) south of Grajewo and 61 km (38 mi) north-west of the regional capital Białystok. In 2007 the village had a population of 1,267.

History

The history of Radziłów is closely connected with the history of Masovia Province from before the Partitions of Poland. The first settlers arrived in the Middle Ages and began clearing the impenetrable forest. Masovian Dukes, who owned the area, issued the rights to enter the forest and harvest it. Among the first settlers were bee-keepers, fishermen, hunters and loggers, who sold honey, wax, fish and lumber to neighboring towns, Wizna and Goniądz. The lumber was also transported via Biebrza and Ełk river waterways to Gdańsk.

The founding of the city took a long time. Radziłów was formally established by Prince Konrad III, with Kazimierz III, Bolesław V and Janusz II, who gave it the city rights on May 9, 1466. The town began to flourish in the 16th century. Located at a trading route between Wizna and Wąsosz, it became a commercial center for bakers, shoemakers, tailors, butchers, blacksmiths, wheelwrights, cooper-makers and potters. The main square in Radziłów at the time (180 m × 120 m in size) was bigger than in Warsaw (70 m × 94 m) and in Płock (140 m × 70 m) and held two weekly markets, on Monday and on Sunday (from 17th century on) as well as a fair on Wednesday added by king Władysław IV in 1641. The majority of inhabitants lived off farming.

Following the partitions of Poland and after the January Uprising, the tsarist authorities changed the administrative divisions of Congress Poland placing Radziłów in the Łomża province. In 1869 the town was stripped of its town charter and became the village; however the population was steadily increasing due to Russian repressions against Jews some of whom found refuge in the area. The Jewish merchants expanded local trade, established breweries, small craft and various services. Following the rebirth of Poland after World War I, two new public schools were established employing ten teachers, and two Jewish schools.

World War II atrocities

After the German invasion of Poland, Nazi forces entered Radziłów on September 7, 1939. The area was transferred to the Soviet Union in accordance with the German–Soviet Boundary Treaty and remained in Soviet hands until Operation Barbarossa in July 1941. Soon after the German attack on USSR a few hundred Jews were massacred in the town. They were shot dead and burned in the barn by the Gestapo Einsatzgruppe B (Zichenau-Schroettersburg) under SS-Obersturmführer Hermann Schaper. The methods used in the massacre were identical to those employed by Schaper's death squad to kill Jews in Jedwabne (a few kilometers distance) only three days later.

"The evidence collected by the West Germans, including the positive identification of Schaper by witnesses from Łomża, Tykocin, and Radziłów, suggested that it was indeed Schaper's men who carried out the killings in those locations. Investigators also suspected, based on the similarity of the methods used to destroy the Jewish communities of Radziłów, Tykocin, Rutki, Zambrów, Jedwabne, Piątnica, and Wizna, between July and September 1941 that Schaper's men were the perpetrators." — Alexander B. Rossino

During the initial German investigation at Ludwigsburg in 1964, Schaper lied to interrogators that in 1941 he had been a truck driver. However, Count van der Groeben testified that it was in fact Schaper who conducted mass executions of Jews in his district. Legal proceedings against the perpetrator were terminated on September 2, 1965. Schaper's case was reopened in 1974 and in 1976 a German court in Giesen (Hessen), pronounced Schaper guilty of executions of Poles and Jews by the kommando SS Zichenau-Schroettersburg. Schaper was sentenced to six-years imprisonment, but was soon released for medical reasons. The case against Schaper for the murder of Jews in Radziłów was remitted by the prosecutor in Hamburg in 1965. Polish Institute of National Remembrance, conducting its own investigation of the Radziłów crime requested access to the documents of the Hamburg case but according to the German side, these were most probably destroyed.

According to the findings of the Polish investigation (suspended in 2010), the crime was perpertrated by a group of citizens of Radziłów, and the number of the victims is estimated to range between 100 and 1000.

An earlier Polish monument in Radziłów reads, "In August 1941 fascists murdered 800 persons of Jewish descent, 500 of them were burned alive in a barn." The date on the monument is incorrect but historical research confirms that Jews were killed in Radziłów on July 7, how many, and under what circumstances, remains unknown. It is possible that the scenario might have been similar to that of the Jedwabne pogrom, with victims burned in a barn of a man called Mitkowski.

References

1. ^ Elżbieta Czerwonka, Alina Żmijewska, "Dziedzictwo kulturowe Radziłowa" (The Cultural Heritage of Radziłów); with literature, including J. Wiśniewski, "Dzieje osadnictwa w powiecie grajewskim do połowy XVI wieku" in Studia i materiały do dziejów powiatu grajewskiego edited by M. Gnatowski and H. Majecki, volume I and II, Warsaw 1975 Template:Pl icon
2. Template:Pl icon Thomas Urban, "Poszukiwany Hermann Schaper", Rzeczpospolita, 01.09.01 Nr 204
3. Alexander B. Rossino, historian at the Washington Holocaust museum in Washington, D.C.; Polin, Volume 16, 2003.
4. Thomas Urban, reporter of the Suddeutsche Zeitung; Polish text in Rzeczpospolita, Sept 1-2, 2001
5. Template:Pl icon IPN 2010
6. Prof. Marek Jan Chodakiewicz, "RESEARCH BEFORE CONCLUSION: THE PROBLEMS OF SHOCK THERAPY..." Collection 301, page 5; Glaukopis socio-historical Journal, 2007, ISSN: 1730-3419

• Template:Pl icon Instytut Pamięci Narodowej (Institute of National Remembrance), PRZEGLĄD MEDIÓW: piątek, 10 stycznia 2003
• Institute of National Remembrance, Information on the Interrogation of Herman Schaper
• Marian Bagiński, Ph.D., A Different View on the Łomża Region in Poland 29 April 2008
• Piotr Gontarczyk, Far From Truth 12-01-2008
• Antoni Zambrowski, Interview with prof. Tomasz Strzembosz, TO TYLKO OGNIWO ŁAŃCUCHA NIEMIECKICH ZBRODNI Rozmowa Antoniego Zambrowskiego z prof. Tomaszem Strzemboszem
• Jewish history of Radziłów, memorial site by Jose Gutstein

v t e Gmina Radziłów
Seat	Radziłów
Other villages	Barwiki Borawskie-Awissa Borawskie-Awissa-Kolonia Brodowo Brychy Czachy Czaple Czerwonki Dębówka Dusze Glinki Grąd Janowo Karwowo Kieljany Klimaszewnica Konopki Konopki-Awissa Kownatki Kramarzewo Łoje-Awissa Łoje-Gręzko Mikuty Mścichy Okrasin Ostrowik Racibory Radziłów-Kolonia Rydzewo Szlacheckie Rydzewo-Pieniążek Słucz Słucz-Kolonie Sośnia Święcienin Święcienin-Kolonia Szlasy Szyjki Wiązownica Wypychy Zakrzewo Zawisie

53°24′39″N 22°24′36″E / 53.41083°N 22.41000°E / 53.41083; 22.41000

• Villages in Grajewo County