page_title: Kutno
section_title: World War II
hierarchical_section_title: Kutno / History / World War II
caption_attribution_description: For documentary purposes the German Federal Archive often retained the original image captions, which may be erroneous, biased, obsolete or politically extreme. Polen, Kutno, Juden im Ghetto Generelgouvernement: Die Bewohner des Ghettos in Kutno. PK-Jäger-Scherl Bilderdienst 655-41 Sep. 1940 [Polen, Kutno.- Jüdische Männer im Getto]
context_page_description: Kutno is a town located in central Poland with 44,718 inhabitants and an area of 33.6 km². Situated in the Łódź Voivodeship, previously part of Płock Voivodeship, it is the capital of Kutno County.
  Kutno was historically the center of a large Jewish community. In 1900, 10,356 Jews lived there. It was the birthplace of a famed Polish writer Sholem Ash.
  During the invasion of Poland in 1939, Polish armies under General Tadeusz Kutrzeba conducted an offensive in and around Kutno, a battle that was later named the Battle of the Bzura.
  Based on its central location and the intersection of multiple rail lines, Kutno is one of the most important railroad junctions in Poland. Two main lines cross there. Another connection also starts in Kutno, which connects the town to Płock.
context_section_description: The Battle of The Bzura river took place from 9 to 12 September 1939. On 9 September the Poznań army operational group, led by General Edmund Knoll-Kownacki, attacked the German 8th army led by General Johannes Blaskowitz. On 11 September Poland's Pomorze Army reinforced the Polish troops in battle. At first, the Polish assault was successful but the Germans reinforced their troops on 12 September and started to counterattack. General Tadeusz Kutrzeba ordered Knoll to retreat beyond the Bzura river. Kutno remained outside the battle area. Despite the ultimate defeat of Polish army, the Battle of the Bzura river made the Germans change their strategy and regroup and also delayed the capitulation of Warsaw.
  On 16 September 1939, the German Wehrmacht moved into Kutno, bombarding trains, the railway station, and houses throughout the district. At the junction of what is now Kochanowski Street and Maja Street, a German saboteur laid down on the street as a target for the bombers which were bombing the railway station.
  The area administratively became part of the Third Reich's Reichsgau Wartheland, within the district/county (kreis) of Kutno. In December 1939 resettlement began in accordance with Nazi racial and ethnic policies, which aimed to make the town population purely German. People were forced to leave their houses early in the morning with only an hour's notice and could take only 50 kg (110 lb) of baggage and a small amount of money. Displacement was very often carried out with violence. People were transported by trucks or wagons and then in sealed trains. The trip was up to eight days long, in terrible conditions. On 14 April 1940, most of the teachers from Kutno district were arrested. Few survived having had left their houses earlier or having been arrested.
  Subsequently, the Germans founded the ghetto in Kutno on 15 June 1940. The entire area of a former sugar factory ("Hortensja" or "Konstancja" according to various sources) was surrounded by barbed wire. On the first day, the Poles were forbidden to leave their houses while Jews were forced to take all their belongings and proceed to the factory. German soldiers and SS members beat Jews standing in the street. Eight thousand people were transferred to the area of the factory, within five living quarters. On the first day, crowded and without any first-aid stations, a few people died. The only food they had was a small amount of potatoes and bread. Prices of extra food were very high. For instance, one kilogram of potatoes cost 40 fen in the ghetto and it would have cost 5 fen in the rest of the town. However, the true nightmare started during winter when there was not enough firewood so that Jews had to warm themselves with burned furniture or scaffolding.
  In the following year, 1941, due to overcrowding of resettled people and transport difficulties in 7th Przemyślowa St., another concentration camp was founded. Due to terrible conditions in the camp, about 10 persons per day died of dysentery.
  On 9 June 1941, at present-day Wolności Square, three Poles, Kalikst Perkowski, Wilhelm Czernecki and Piotr Sanda, were publicly executed. They were sentenced to death for smuggling food to Warsaw. Their deaths were intended to be a lesson and the presence of locals at the execution was compulsory; even the family of the executed was there.
  On 19 March 1942, the ghetto was closed. All Jews, in alphabetical order, were transported to Koło and then to Chełmno extermination camp. Six thousand Jewish inhabitants of Kutno were killed there while elder people who had been ghetto administrators were killed in Kutno town. Additionally, a forced labor camp operated in the area from January 1942 until January 1945. On 19 January 1945, the Red Army arrived in Kutno, ending the German occupation.
caption: Kutno inhabitants in Kutno
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