Nisko

Nisko
Nisko
	Liberty Square
; Flag	; Coat of arms
	Nisko
	Coordinates: 50°32′N 22°8′E / 50.533°N 22.133°E
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Subcarpathian
County	Nisko County
Gmina	Gmina Nisko
	Government
• Mayor	Julian Ozimek
	Area
• Total	61.02 km2 (23.56 sq mi)
	Population (2006)
• Total	15,637
• Density	260/km2 (660/sq mi)
Time zone	CET (UTC+1)
• Summer (DST)	CEST (UTC+2)
Postal code	37-400
Car plates	RNI
Website	http://www.nisko.pl

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For other places with the same name, see Nisko (disambiguation).

Nisko [ˈɲiskɔ] is a town in Nisko County, Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland on the San River, with a population of 15,534 inhabitants, as of 2 June 2009.^[1] Together with neighbouring city of Stalowa Wola, Nisko creates a small agglomeration.

[edit] History

From 1868 to 1912 under Count Roger de Rességuier and his family, the village grew to become one of the largest estates in then Austrian Galicia. A railroad station, a hospital, a church (three in present-day Nisko), schools, factories, Austrian Army Base (currently Polish Army Base) and a palace (now used as a hospital building) were built. Most of these buildings are still in use. The village was also the capital of administration unit, Nisko County.

In 1914, when World War I began, many buildings in Nisko were destroyed by the Russian Army, which attacked Austria-Hungary. In 1918, local Poles gained control over the government in Nisko and the village became part of the new-formed Second Polish Republic. After the war, Nisko began developing very quickly but did not become a town until 1933. In 1938, the Polish government made Nisko part of the Central Industrial Area. It was a milestone in history of the town, because several projects were started in the area, such as a foundry and a power-plant in the forests on the western boundary of Nisko. The programme of industrialization was stopped when Poland was attacked by Germany and Soviet Union in 1939 (see: Polish September Campaign).^{[citation needed]}

While Poland was occupied by German forces during World War II, Nisko became part of the Nazi government's plan to annihilate the Jews. Beginning in 1939, many Jews were shipped to a reservation at Nisko, where they were left to fend for themselves. At this point in Nazi Germany, the policy of mass Jewish killings had not yet taken shape and Germany's plan still seemed to be the indirect death of European Jews through exile and deportation to inhabitable locations without sufficient supplies, rather than outright murder in extermination camps. This was known as the "Nisko Plan".^{[citation needed]}

While many Jews were shipped to Nisko and left to die without sufficient food or shelter, the Nisko Plan of creating a "reservation" was eventually abandoned. The relocation of Jews to Nisko is sometimes viewed^{[by whom?]} as a stepping-stone in German policy towards the widespread placement of Jews in ghettos throughout Europe, which the German government began to do shortly after the invasion of Poland in 1939 and, finally, the mass deaths of Jews at the hands of the Nazi government in extermination camps.^{[citation needed]}

Since 1999, Nisko has been situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodship.