The town of Drzewica dates back to the 13th century, when prince
Konrad I of Masovia granted the area to the Drzewicki (
Ciołek coat of arms) family. The family owned Drzewica for 500 years, and its properties stretched from the Pilica to the
Holy Cross Mountains. In 1429 in
Nieszawa, Drzewica was incorporated as a town on
German town law, by King
Jogaila. Drzewica, which belonged to
Opoczno County of Lesser Poland’s
Sandomierz Voivodeship, prospered in the early 16th century, when its owner Maciej Drzewicki (1467 – 1535) was a personal secretary of King
John I Albert. Drzewicki renovated the ancient castle, turning it from a Gothic stronghold into a Renaissance residence. During
the Deluge, Drzewica was destroyed by the Swedish army. In the 18th century Drzewica became one of early centers of Polish industry, when one of the first Polish
blast furnaces was built here by Filip Szaniawski. Soon afterwards, northern Lesser Poland became industrialized (see
Old-Polish Industrial Region). After the
Partitions of Poland, Drzewica was annexed by the
Russian Empire (1815), together with
Congress Poland. The town was an important center of the
January Uprising. In 1869, Tsarist authorities reduced it to the status of a village. On September 8, 1939, a nearby forest was the place of a bloody skirmish between
Polish Army and the
Wehrmacht. The German occupation began that month. The Jewish population of Drzewica was about 750 at the time. The occupying authorities brought Jews from nearby villages into the town, increasing the population to over 2,000. Deprived of livelihoods and forbidden to bring personal belongings, the newly arrived residents were forced to live in severe poverty. In the autumn of 1941, Jews were forced to live in a
ghetto and the severe overcrowding (eight to ten people on average shared each room) there led to epidemics of both typhus and typhoid. Police would enter the ghetto periodically to randomly murder people. In July 1942, some Jews were taken to a labor camp while the others remained in the ghetto. In October, the Germans surrounded the ghetto and lit fires around to prevent escape. The Jews were rounded up and marched to Opoczno where, a few days later, they were sent to the
Treblinka killing camp where they were immediately murdered by gas. The few Jews who were left behind to sort Jewish possessions were themselves rounded up a few months later and sent to the Ujazd ghetto and from there to Treblinka. Only about five to seven Drzewica Jews are known to have survived the
Holocaust. In 1987 Drzewica regained its town status. Drzewica 1913.jpg|Drzewica before 1913 Manor house in Drzewica 1911.jpg|Manor house before 1911 ==Transport==