The Zambrów massacre was a war crime that took place on the night of 13–14 September 1939. It was one of the major war crimes of the Wehrmacht during the invasion of Poland. During that night, the makeshift prisoner-of-war camp in Zambrów was disturbed by a number of panicked horses, and more than 200 Polish soldiers, trying to move out of their way, were gunned down by German sentries.
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Gmina Zambrów is a rural gmina in Zambrów County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. Its seat is the town of Zambrów, although the town is not part of the territory of the gmina. Its largest village is Wola Zambrowska.
The gmina covers an area of 298.98 square kilometres, and as of 2006 its total population is 8,725.
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Zambrów County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and only town is Zambrów, which lies 64 kilometres west of the regional capital Białystok.
The county covers an area of 733.11 square kilometres. As of 2019 its total population is 43,663, out of which the population of Zambrów is 22,098 and the rural population is 21,565.
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Zambrów [ˈzambruf] is a town in northeastern Poland with 21,166 inhabitants. It is the capital of Zambrów County in the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is situated on the on the Jabłonka River.
Founded in the Middle Ages, Zambrów is a former royal town of Poland, which prospered as a center of trade and brewing. Before World War II, it was the location of a Polish military school, and until the mid-20th century, it was a garrison town of the Polish Army. It was a place of Nazi German-perpetrated atrocities against prisoners-of-war and civilians during the German occupation of Poland in World War II with over 1,500 victims. It is located on the Route of the Heroes of the Battle of Warsaw 1920, the main highway connecting Białystok with Warsaw, Łódź and Wrocław.
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Nagórki-Jabłoń [naˈɡurki ˈjabwɔɲ] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Zambrów, within Zambrów County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland.
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Wola Zambrzycka [ˈvɔla zamˈbʐɨt͡ska] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Zambrów, within Zambrów County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland.
Some witnesses later said the horses had been purposely released into the camp by the German sentries, who used the incident as a pretext to massacre the prisoners.