Kock

Kock is a town in eastern Poland, about 45 kilometres (28 miles) north of Lublin and 120 kilometres (75 miles) south-east of Warsaw. It lies in Lublin Voivodeship, in Lubartów County. It is the capital of the administrative district Gmina Kock. Historically Kock belongs to the Polish province of Lesser Poland and is located in its northeastern corner. As of 2004, its population numbered 3,509.

For the Swedish sportsman, see Putte Kock.
Kock
Jabłonowski Palace
Coat of arms
Kock
Coordinates: 51°39′N 22°27′E
Country Poland
VoivodeshipLublin
CountyLubartów
GminaKock
Established10th century
Town rights1417
Government
 • MayorTomasz Futera
Area
 • Total16.78 km2 (6.48 sq mi)
Population
 (2006)
 • Total3,478
 • Density210/km2 (540/sq mi)
Time zoneUTC+1 (CET)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+2 (CEST)
Postal code
21-150
Area code(s)+48 81
Car platesLLB
Websitehttp://kock.pl/

Name and location

Kock is located a few kilometers north of the Wieprz river, approximately 150 meters above sea level, near the Łuków Lowland (Równina Łukowska). In 1952–1954 it was the seat of Gmina Białobrzegi. The town first appears in chronicles in 1258 as Cocsk. In the 15th century, it was called Kocsko or Koczsko, and in 1787, its name was spelled Kocko. Current form has been in use since the 19th century, and the word Kock either comes from the last name or a nickname Kot (a person named so founded the town), or from a plant called kocanka (Helichrysum arenarium), which grows abundantly in the area.

History

Kock has been recognized as an established community since the 12th century. It received its city charter in 1417, by King Władysław II Jagiełło, who granted the charter upon request of Jakub, the Bishop of Płock. In 1518 the town belonged to Mikolaj Firlej, Crown Hetman and the Voivode of Sandomierz. The Firlej family owned Kock until the second half of the 18th century, and at that time the town became an important center of the Protestant Reformation in Lesser Poland. Around the year 1750 Kock passed into the hands of Princess Anna Jabłonowska of the Sapieha family, who invested a lot of money and energy into the town, ordering the construction of a town hall, a palace and a church. Furthermore, she established the market square (or rynek). The residents of the town participated in the January Uprising, for which the Russians deprived Kock of its town rights (1870, recovered in 1915). Several important battles took place at Kock in the 19th and early 20th centuries:

After World War I, Kock belonged to Lublin Voivodeship. In 1927 large parts of it burned in a fire.The town, located away from rail connections, stagnated.


During World War II, the Jewish half of the Kock population, about 2200 of the town's 4600 population, was murdered or died of disease and starvation in the ghetto set up by the Germans in Kock. Kock was one of centers of the Home Army, whose units (27th Volhynian Home Army Infantry Division) freed the town on July 22, 1944. Afterwards, the Soviets disbanded Polish soldiers, and in the resulting civil war, Kock was captured by anti-Communist resistance (May 1, 1945).

Points of interest
  • Parish Church (1779–82),
  • The House of Jozef Morgensztern (see Menachem Mendel of Kotzk),
  • Jewish cemetery (18th century),
  • Military cemetery with the grave of General Franciszek Kleeberg,
  • Classicistic Palace of Princess Anna Jablonowska (1770).

Jews of Kock

In the 17th century, a Jewish community was established in the town. In Yiddish, the community is known as Kotzk or Kotsk. In the 19th century, it became an important centre of Hasidism as the longtime home of Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Kotzk, the Kotzker rebbe who established the Kotsk dynasty. During World War II, Jews were brualized by the German occupiers. They along with deportees from other villages, were confined to a ghetto. Though the pre-war Kock Jewish community was only about 2200, by late 1939, the ghetto contained 8000 Jews. Sometimes several dozen people resided in a single room. The overcrowding and lack of adequate sanitation led to a typhus epidemic. In turn, local Christian villagers would not allow Jews to leave the ghetto, so lack of food caused some children to starve.

Conditions improved somewhat in 1940 as Jews were resettled in a different neighborhood. Nonetheless, there were epidemics of typhus and tuberculosis from what was still overcrowding and lack of adequate sanitation. By 1941, many Jews were conscripted for forced labor. In 1942, Kock's Jews were deported. In August, some were sent to Parszew and then on to Treblinka where they were immediately murdered. In September, able men were sent to labor camps, and in October, hundreds were sent to Lukow's ghetto where a few weeks later they too were sent to Treblinka to be murdered. During these months, there were several mass killings of Jews in Kock. Only about 30 of Kock's Jews are thought to have survived the The Holocaust during the war. Several were saved by Polish Christian villagers. One survivor was murdered in Kock after liberation. The Jewish community was not reestablished after the war. The brief discussion of the experience of the Jewish population of Kock is described in the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos.[1]

  • Kock in 18th century
  • Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary
  • Street in the town center

References
  1. Megargee, Geoffrey (2012). Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. Volume II 647–649. ISBN 978-0-253-35599-7.
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