Olszowa, Greater Poland Voivodeship

Olszowa
Village
St. Hedwig Church
Olszowa
Coordinates: 51°17′45″N 18°2′36″E / 51.29583°N 18.04333°E / 51.29583; 18.04333
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Greater Poland
County	Kępno
Gmina	Kępno
Population	1,000

Olszowa [ɔlˈʂɔva] (German: Olschowa) (population 1,000) is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Kępno, within Kępno County, Greater Poland Voivodeship (Polish: województwo wielkopolskie), in west-central Poland. It lies approximately 5 kilometres east of Kępno and 145 km south-east of the regional capital Poznań. The village is on national road number 8, which is a part of the European route E67.

The first reference to the village’s name comes from 1266. When it was mentioned in the 1305 Liber fundationis episcopatus Vratislaviensis, the village was paying a tithe to the bishop of Wrocław. In 1360 it was among the 23 villages given for life to Stefan Gromassy, a canon (priest) from Poznań, provided that he would help them financially. In the 17th century the owners were Jan Szyszkowski, district magistrate of Kalisz, and Mikołaj Szyszkowski, chamberlain of Wieluń. After the Second Partition of Poland, Olszowa became part of the Kingdom of Prussia and fell under the district of Kempen im Possen.

During the 19th and the first half of the 20th century Olszowa was divided into three Gutsbezirke (Polish: obszary dworskie, English: country manor areas). In the Interbellum period, Olszowa I was owned by Witold Daszkiewicz, Olszowa II Podgórze (English: roughly translates as at the bottom of/near a hill) by Jan Paetzold, and Olszowa III Podmiejska (English: Suburban) belonged to Franciszek Wunschik.

After World War I, it became part of the Second Polish Republic due to the success of the Greater Poland Uprising. Following the invasion of Poland and the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Olszowa was occupied by the Wehrmacht and annexed by Nazi Germany. The village was then renamed Erlenbrunn until 1943, and then Erlenhöh until 1945. It was administered within Reichgau Wartherland until the end of the war in 1945. The Red Army liberated the village on January 21 after a brief resistance from the Nazi Army.