As part of the region of
Greater Poland, i.e. the cradle of the Polish state, the area formed part of Poland since its establishment in the 10th century. Nekla was a private village of
Polish nobility, and later a
private town, administratively located in the Pyzdry County in the
Kalisz Voivodeship in the
Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. A route connecting
Warsaw with
Poznań and
Dresden ran through the town in the 18th century and King
Augustus III of Poland often traveled that route. During the German
invasion and
occupation of Poland (
World War II), the local
Polish people were subjected to various
atrocities. Already on September 12, 1939, the
Einsatzgruppe VI committed a massacre of several Poles. Several prominent Poles from Nekla were among the victims of a massacre of Poles committed by the Germans in nearby
Kostrzyn on October 20, 1939 as part of the genocidal
Intelligenzaktion campaign. The
Polish resistance movement was present in Nekla. In 1944, the
Gestapo arrested the commander of the local unit of the
Home Army, who was then imprisoned in
Żabikowo and the
Mauthausen concentration camp, yet he survived and returned to Nekla in 1947, where he became a school principal. ==Transport==