Коńskie: Тарихы мен трагедиясы

Końskie is a town in south central Poland with 20,328 inhabitants (2008), situated in the Świętokrzyskie Voivodeship. Historically, Końskie belongs to the province of Lesser Poland, and since its foundation, until 1795 (see Partitions of Poland), it was part of Lesser Poland's Sandomierz Voivodeship.

The oldest settlement which is now Końskie dates back to the 11th century. The burial ground from this period was discovered in the north part of the town in 1925. Końskie was mentioned in historical sources in 1124 for the first time, with Prandota of Prandocin (the progenitor of Odrowąż family) recorded as the owner of the settlement. For the next few centuries the settlement was owned by the Odrowąż family. Iwo Odrowąż, the bishop of Kraków, founded a parish and built a church dedicated to St. Nicholas in 1220–1224. The church was torn down in the 15th century and a new Gothic one was built in its place in the years 1492–1520. Some elements of the older Romanesque church were saved in the new one (e. g. the Romanesque tympanum, pictured). Końskie received city rights from King Augustus III of Poland on December 30, 1748. It was a private town, administratively located in the Żarnów County in the Sandomierz Voivodeship in the Lesser Poland Province. The Polish 14th Cuirassier Regiment was formed in Końskie by Stanisław Małachowski in 1809.

During the joint German Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in 1939, the town was invaded and then occupied by Germany, and the Einsatzgruppe I entered to commit various crimes against the population. Końskie was briefly visited by Adolf Hitler on September 10, 1939, while on the way to Kielce after landing on an airfield nearby. His car cavalcade visited the headquarters of General Walther von Reichenau at the local mansion. Hitler was followed by director Leni Riefenstahl who came a day later, ordered to film the Nazi German victory over Poland. On September 11, 1939, the Germans carried out mass arrests of around 5,000 men over the age of 18 in the town and its vicinity after finding the bodies of several German policemen and soldiers (including general Wilhelm Fritz von Roettig, first German general to be killed in the conflict) reportedly mutilated by the Poles. The next day two dozen local Jews were summoned to dig graves for the German dead, and shortly afterwards, most of the Jews were shot by the Germans (Masakra w Końskich). Reportedly, this event mas witnessed by Riefenstahl who fainted when witnessing the random killing of on September 12, 1939. Polish inhabitants of Końskie were also among Poles massacred by the Germans in the nearby village of Stadnicka Wola in April 1940. In 1941–1943, the Germans operated a prisoner of war camp for Soviet and Norwegian POWs in the town. About 26,000 POWs passed through the camp, 23,000 of whom either were murdered or died of starvation or epidemics. The Nazi Germans retaliated by executing civilians including Jews. In 1944, during and following the Warsaw Uprising, the Germans deported thousands of Varsovians from the Dulag 121 camp in Pruszków, where they were initially imprisoned, to Końskie. Those Poles were mainly old people, ill people and women with children. After the Nazi German invasion of Poland, a ghetto was established in 1940 and closed off in the spring of 1941. The Jews of Końskie and Polish prisoners from Końskie and surrounding towns were forced to dig up the graves, which were used in the construction of pig farms, the Modliszewicach spire, and walls in Końskie and nearby villages. The cemetery was also used as a place of execution for both Jews and Poles. The Germans imprisoned several Poles in the local prison, and then deported them to concentration camps for rescuing Jews. Koinsk appears under the name Bociany as the setting for Chava Rosenfarb's Yiddish language novel of the same name. Bociany was published in English in the author's own translation by Syracuse University Press in 2000. The translation won the John Glassco Award for Literary Translation in 2000. The Koinsk Organization of Israel ("Ha'Ayarah She'Li: Sefer Ha'Zikaron Le'Yehudei Konskiyah, Hebrew, 2001) commemorates the tragic death of the Jews of Konskie every year at The Diaspora Museum close to the 25th of the Jewish month of Cheshvan.

In 1975–1998, the town was administratively located in the Kielce Voivodeship. Most of the town labour force was employed in the local foundry (Koneckie Zakłady Odlewnicze) in the late 1980s and early 1990s. Since 1997 the town has developed into a major trade centre for small business.

The local football team is pl. It competes in the lower leagues.