Editing Płock (section)

===World War II===
When [[Invasion of Poland|Germany invaded Poland]] in September 1939, the city of Płock was annexed into the Reich as part of the [[Zichenau (region)|Regierungsbezirk Zichenau]]. The Germans renamed the city ''Schröttersburg'' on 21 May 1941 after the former Prussian Baron of the Empire [[Friedrich von Schrötter|Friedrich Leopold von Schrötter]].<ref>[[:de:Landkreis Schröttersburg]]</ref>

[[File:Płock. Zniszczony most na Wiśle. (2-249).jpg|thumb|left|The bridge at Płock, destroyed by retreating Polish forces during the [[invasion of Poland]] in September 1939]]
As part of the ''[[Intelligenzaktion]]'', Germans carried out mass arrests of Poles, who were then imprisoned in the local prison, and around 200 of whom were murdered in large massacres in [[Łąck]] between October 1939 and February 1940.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]]|pages=224–225}}</ref> Among the victims were Polish teachers, activists, shopowners, notaries, local officials, pharmacists, directors and members of the [[Polish Military Organisation]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|pages=225–226}}</ref> Next mass arrests of about 2,000 Poles from Płock and the [[Płock County]] were carried out in April 1940, and in June 1940, another 200 Poles from various settlements in the region were imprisoned in the local prison.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|page=230}}</ref> Some prisoners were then deported and murdered in the [[Soldau concentration camp]], and some teachers from Płock were among Polish teachers murdered in the [[Mauthausen concentration camp]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|pages=231–232}}</ref> In 1940, Germans murdered 80 elderly and disabled people from Płock in the nearby village of [[Brwilno, Gmina Stara Biała|Brwilno]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|page=236}}</ref> The Archbishop of Płock [[Antoni Julian Nowowiejski]] and the auxiliary Bishop [[Leon Wetmański]] were imprisoned in the nearby village of [[Słupno, Płock County|Słupno]], and then in 1941 also murdered in the Soldau concentration camp, where also many other local priests were killed.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|page=233}}</ref> Nowowiejski and Wetmański are now considered two of the [[108 Martyrs of World War II|108 Blessed Polish Martyrs of World War II]] by the [[Catholic Church]]. Poles were also subjected to [[Expulsion of Poles by Nazi Germany|expulsions]], 1,300 Poles were expelled in November and December 1939, and over 4,000 also in February and March 1941.<ref>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2017|title=Wysiedlenia ludności polskiej z okupowanych ziem polskich włączonych do III Rzeszy w latach 1939-1945|language=pl|location=Warszawa|publisher=[[Institute of National Remembrance|IPN]]|pages=383, 406|isbn=978-83-8098-174-4}}</ref> Nazi Germany also subjected the inhabitants to [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|forced labour]]. Even 10 to 14-year-old children were used for forced labour in the city and its environs, whereas older ones were deported to forced labour in Germany.<ref name=sw/> The Germans also established and operated two forced labour subcamps of the local prison,<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=1591|title=Außenkommando "Große Allee" des Strafgefängnisses Schröttersburg|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=6 November 2020|language=de}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=383|title=Außenkommando des Strafgefängnisses Schröttersburg in Bauzug|website=Bundesarchiv.de|access-date=6 November 2020|language=de}}</ref> and an additional forced labour "education" camp in the city.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.bundesarchiv.de/zwangsarbeit/haftstaetten/index.php?action=2.2&tab=7&id=100001064|title=Arbeitserziehungslager Schröttersburg-Süd|website=Bundesarchiv.de|accessdate=30 May 2021|language=de}}</ref> In the winter of 1942–1943, a freight train with [[Kidnapping of children by Nazi Germany|kidnapped Polish children]] arrived to the Płock-Radziwie station, and around 300 of the children froze to death and were buried by the Germans in the forests of nearby [[Łąck]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Kołakowski|first=Andrzej|editor-last=Kostkiewicz|editor-first=Janina|year=2020|title=Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)|language=pl|location=[[Kraków]]|publisher=[[Jagiellonian University|Uniwersytet Jagielloński]], [[Biblioteka Jagiellońska]]|page=78|chapter=Zbrodnia bez kary: eksterminacja dzieci polskich w okresie okupacji niemieckiej w latach 1939-1945}}</ref> Since 1943, the local ''[[Sicherheitspolizei]]'' carried out deportations of Poles including teenage boys to the [[Stutthof concentration camp]].<ref>{{cite book|last=Drywa|first=Danuta|editor-last=Kostkiewicz|editor-first=Janina|year=2020|title=Zbrodnia bez kary... Eksterminacja i cierpienie polskich dzieci pod okupacją niemiecką (1939–1945)|language=pl|location=Kraków|publisher=Uniwersytet Jagielloński, Biblioteka Jagiellońska|page=187|chapter=Germanizacja dzieci i młodzieży polskiej na Pomorzu Gdańskim z uwzględnieniem roli obozu koncentracyjnego Stutthof}}</ref>

{{Historical populations|1950|33128|1960|42798|1970|71900|1978|96709|1988|122660|2002|128361|2011|124553|2021|114594|footnote=source <ref>{{cite web | url=https://www.polskawliczbach.pl/Plock | title=Płock (Mazowieckie) » mapy, nieruchomości, GUS, noclegi, szkoły, regon, atrakcje, kody pocztowe, wypadki drogowe, bezrobocie, wynagrodzenie, zarobki, tabele, edukacja, demografia }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Demographic and occupational structure and housing conditions of the urban population in 1978-1988|url=https://statlibr.stat.gov.pl/exlibris/aleph/a22_1/apache_media/RQ1U9XAX48KJJDQ54QSAFQKQ6AK6GS.pdf}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=Statistics Poland - National Censuses|url=https://bdl.stat.gov.pl/bdl/dane/podgrup/temat/}}</ref>}}

At the same time, the Nazis were also brutalizing the Jewish population of Płock. They conscripted them for forced labor and established a [[Jewish ghettos in German-occupied Poland|Jewish ghetto]] in Płock in 1940. In that ghetto, up to ten people shared each room. Medical supplies were inadequate and diseases spread. Germans murdered many Jews in Płock but most were deported to other areas and then on to be murdered in [[Treblinka]]. By the war's end, only 300 Jewish residents were known to have survived, of more than 10,000 in the region (for more information see ''Jewish history'' below). Some Poles in Płock tried to assist their Jewish neighbors by smuggling food to them and sneaking food to them when they were rounded up and had to stand in the street for an entire day on a bitterly cold day waiting to be deported.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Megargee |first1=Geoffrey |title=Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos |date=2012 |publisher=University of Indiana Press |location=Bloomington, Indiana |isbn=978-0-253-35599-7 |page=Volume II 22–24}}</ref>

Germans closed Polish institutions, schools<ref name=sw/> and the Polish press, and [[World War II looting of Poland|looted]] or destroyed numerous Polish cultural monuments, collections and archives, including the rich collection of the Płock Scientific Society.<ref name=mw1>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2017|title=Wysiedlenia ludności polskiej z okupowanych ziem polskich włączonych do III Rzeszy w latach 1939-1945|page=381}}</ref><ref name=mw2>{{cite book|last=Wardzyńska|first=Maria|year=2009|title=Był rok 1939. Operacja niemieckiej policji bezpieczeństwa w Polsce. Intelligenzaktion|page=224}}</ref> The collections of local museums, the cathedral's ancient treasury, church archives and the diocesan library were stolen and taken to museums in [[Kaliningrad|Königsberg]], [[Wrocław]] and [[Berlin]].<ref name=mw2/> The local [[seminary]] was converted by the Germans into barracks of the ''[[Schutzstaffel|SS]]''.<ref name=mw1/>

Despite such circumstances, the city remained the center of the [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish underground resistance movement]].<ref name=pwn/> [[Education in Poland during World War II|Secret Polish schooling]] was organized.<ref name=sw>{{cite journal|last=Wyczałkowski|first=Seweryn|year=1983|title=Kilka danych o nauczaniu w czasie okupacji hitlerowskiej w Płocku 1939–1945|journal=Notatki Płockie|publisher=Towarzystwo Naukowe Płockie|language=pl|volume=28|issue=3 (116)|pages=35–36|url=https://bibliotekanauki.pl/articles/970994|issn=0029-389X}}</ref> In September 1942, the Germans publicly [[Hanging|hanged]] 13 Polish resistance members in the Old Town.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://portalplock.pl/pl/11_wiadomosci/7827_widzialam-egzekucje-jako-dziecko-foto-.html|title=Widziałam egzekucję jako dziecko [FOTO]|website=PortalPłock|access-date=1 July 2020|language=pl}}</ref> On 19 January 1945, the [[Gestapo]] carried out a massacre of 79 Poles, who were either shot or [[Death by burning|burned]] alive.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Świecik|first=Józef|year=1983|title=Tragiczne ostatnie dni okupacji niemieckiej w Płocku|journal=Notatki Płockie|publisher=Towarzystwo Naukowe Płockie|language=pl|volume=28|issue=3 (116)|page=30|url=https://bibliotekanauki.pl/articles/970970|issn=0029-389X}}</ref> The city was restored to Poland, although with a [[Soviet Union|Soviet]]-installed communist regime, which remained in power until the [[Fall of Communism]] in the 1980s.