Editing Mielec (section)

== History ==
===Early history===
[[File:PL-Mielec, bazylika św. Mateusza 2013-09-07--18-09-09-001.jpg|thumb|left|upright|[[Baroque in Poland|Baroque]] Minor Basilica of St. Matthew]]
The first mention of a place called Mielec occurs in the thirteenth century in the 1229 bull of [[Pope Gregory IX]]. In the second half of the fourteenth century, "Mielecka" was mentioned in a list of parishes. The city of Mielec, part of [[Sandomierz Voivodeship]] and [[Lesser Poland Province, Crown of the Kingdom of Poland|Lesser Poland Province]] of the Kingdom of Poland, was founded on 17 March 1457, when [[Casimir IV Jagiellon|King Casimir IV]] granted a charter to Jan Mielecki for the establishment of a city under the name of Nowy Targ. For unknown reasons Jan Mielecki did not go on to found the city; it was eventually established by his two sons, Jan and Bernardyn, by an Act of 18 December 1470. The [[Mielecki family]] owned the town of Mielec until the last of the Mieleckis died in 1771. Under their rule, there was intensive development of craft industries. In 1522, the first [[guild]] was founded. This was the [[blacksmith]]s' guild. It was followed by guilds of [[tailor]]s, cobblers, [[pottery|potters]], spinners, and weavers.

The next owners of Mielec were the [[Ossolinski]] and [[House of Morsztyn|Morsztyn]] families. In 1775, Anna Ossilińska married Jan Pieniążek, bringing as a dowry her share of part of the city. The next owner was Ignacy Suchorzewski, who married Pieniążek's daughter Paulina. Suchorzewski sold Mielec's property to Ludwik Starzeński in 1847, who then disposed of it ten years later to a Jewish family named Gross. The last owner of Mielec was the [[Oborski]] family in 1891.
[[File:Maciej Bogusz Stęczyński, Mielec 1847.jpg|thumb|left|Mielec in 1847 by Maciej Bogusz Stęczyński]]

In 1853, the county town of Mielec governed an area in which there were 106 settlements and 91 castral municipalities. In 1892, on Kosciuszko Street a new City Council building and police barracks were built. The development of the county town was interrupted by a huge fire, which destroyed three quarters of the city. This catastrophe caused the city to apply for a state loan of 12 crowns, the receipt of which led to the rapid development of the city. By the beginning of the twentieth century, the market place in Mielec was surrounded by brick houses, and in 1902, a courthouse was built. In 1912, a gymnasium (or academic high school) and the office of County Council were established and buildings constructed to house them.

[[World War I]] caused much damage to the infrastructure and economy of city of Mielec and the county.

===Interwar period===
In the [[interwar years]] many streets were paved with cobbles. In addition, a private power plant, various craft workshops, and retail businesses were established. In 1934, the Mielec region suffered a huge flood that destroyed more than 11,000 households. The house and [[photographic studio]] of the early 20th-century Polish photographer {{interlanguage link|August Jaderny|pl|display=1}} was a meeting place of the local artistic community in the interbellum.<ref name=jad>{{cite web|url=https://www.mielec.pl/mielec/warto-zwiedzic/jadernowka/|title="Jadernówka"|website=Mielec.pl|access-date=10 September 2020|language=pl}}</ref>

[[File:Mielec rynek 1932.jpg|thumb|left|Mielec in 1932]]
Mielec's economy has been based for the last 70 years around a single industrial enterprise, which transformed the city and increased its population sixfold. This process began in the 1930s, when Poland launched a significant expansion of its [[arms industry|armaments industry]], focused on building factories in the newly created [[Central Industrial Region (Poland)|Central Industrial Region]] (Polish: Centralny Okręg Przemysłowy, abbreviated COP). In 1936, a state-owned factory making airplane chassis was established (State Aviation Works - Airframe Fakcory No. 2) on the outskirts of the town, an area then known as Cyranka. The factory started to build a new bomber, the PZL P-37 or "Łoś" (English: "Moose"). Additionally, in the years 1937-1939 a large aviation factory belonging to the [[Państwowe Zakłady Lotnicze|PZL]] company was set up. This new manufacturing industry necessitated the development of residential housing for factory workers and management personnel.

===World War II===
[[File:Pomnik Armii Krajowej w Mielcu, 2014.JPG|thumb|[[Home Army]] monument]]
After the outbreak of [[World War II]], the city and the airplane company fell into the hands of the German invaders. The period of [[Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)|German occupation]] lasted from 9 September 1939 to 6 August 1944 in Mielec. In the years of 1939–1944, the factory produced German bombers, and from 1943 also manufactured the fighter plane He–297. The Nazis staffed much of the factory with [[Forced labour under German rule during World War II|slave labour]]. Initially, Jews from Mielec were enslaved in this [[Mielec forced labor camp|forced labor camp]]. In 1942, the Jewish population of Mielec was deported to [[death camps]], except for a few who remained as slave labour at the factory. Before the war, the Jewish population of Mielec was 2,800 out of a total population of 5,500. During the deportation, the factory hangars were the site of a mass murder of several hundred of Mielec's Jews, who were buried there. Subsequently, the factory used slave labour composed of Jews from other regions, [[prisoners of war]], political prisoners, etc. The [[Gestapo]] used Jewish informants, the so-called ''V-leute'' in region to penetrate underground resistance and denounce hiding Jews;special barracks were set up in labour camp near Mielec for Jewish informers and their families, who were granted special privileges. These informants operated between 1942 and 1943 when they were finally executed by Gestapo themselves.<ref>''The Holocaust and European Societies: Social Processes and Social Dynamics'' edited by Frank Bajohr, Andrea Löw ''The Pazifizierungsaktion as a Catalyst of Anti-Jewish Violence: A Study in the Social Dynamics of Fear Tomasz Frydel'' w page 163 Palgrave Macmillan; 2016</ref><ref>''Perpetrators and Perpetration of Mass Violence: Action, Motivations and Dynamics (Routledge Studies in Genocide and Crimes against Humanity) edited by Timothy Williams, Susanne Buckley-Zistel'' ''Judenjagd: Reassessing the Role of Ordinary Poles as Perpetrators in the Holocaust'' Tomasz Frydel pages 193-194, 2018</ref> After the war, a monument was placed at the factory with a vague inscription typical of holocaust memorials during the Communist era: "To those employees of the Factory and the inhabitants from the area of both Polish and Jewish nationality murdered during World War II: A tribute from Mielec's Youth." Another mass grave of Jews with a monument may be found in one corner of the Mielec Catholic cemetery, where the victims of a 1941 Nazi atrocity were buried. During the German occupation, all of Mielec's Jewish institutions and the Jewish cemetery were destroyed, and also many of the Jewish homes.

During the German occupation, the [[Polish resistance movement in World War II|Polish underground resistance movement]] had important centers in the former house of photographer August Jaderny<ref name=jad/> and in the house of the Dębicki family. On March 29, 1943, a Polish underground partisan unit [[Jędrusie]] and the [[Home Army]] successfully carried out a daring attack on a German prison and liberated about 180 prisoners.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://twojahistoria.pl/encyklopedia/kalendarium/co-sie-zdarzylo-29-marca/|title=29 marca. W 1943 roku oddział podziemia rozbił więzienie w Mielcu, uwalniając 180 osób|website=TwojaHistoria.pl|access-date=10 September 2020|language=pl}}</ref>

===Recent history===
After 1945, the factory became the largest aviation factory in Poland under the name [[PZL Mielec|WSK-Mielec]] "Wytwórnia Sprzętu Komunikacyjnego" (English: "Transport Equipment Manufacturing Centre"). This plant was the main source of employment for people in Mielec and surrounding communities. At first, the factory produced Soviet-designed planes under license. Thus, it was the primary production site of the widely used [[Antonov An-2|An-2]] [[Cargo aircraft|transport plane]]. It also manufactured Polish versions of the [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-15|MiG-15]] and [[Mikoyan-Gurevich MiG-17|MiG-17]]fighters. The factory also built planes designed in Poland such as the trainer plane [[PZL TS-11 Iskra|TS-11 Iskra]] used by Poland and India. It produced over 16,000 aircraft, which were mainly licensed for export to the USSR.

After 1989 and the economic changes due to the [[Revolutions of 1989|fall of communism]], factory orders declined and the plant encountered serious financial difficulties. It continued to produce successful aircraft types, but at much lower volumes than during [[Cold War|the Cold War]]. Self-government of Mielec Township was established in 1990.

The situation changed in 1995, due to the establishment of Poland's first Special [[Economy|Economic]] Zone EURO-PARK Mielec. In 1998 the aviation plant changed its name to [[PZL Mielec|PZL-Mielec]] "Polskie Zakłady Lotnicze" (English: "Polish Aviation Works"). In 2007 the factory was acquired by [[Sikorsky Aircraft|Sikorsky]] (in 2015 Sikorsky was acquired by Lockheed Martin), and was planned to be the main production site of the export version [[UH-60 Black Hawk]] helicopter.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=205626 |title=Newest BLACK HAWK Helicopter to Demonstrate Capabilities in First Visit to Poland |publisher=Prnewswire.co.uk |access-date=2008-10-31}}</ref> Also Mielec has been the production site of sports-luxury car [[Leopard (car)|Leopard 6 Litre Roadster]].<ref>[http://www.leopardautomobile.com/ Leopard Automobile official website]</ref><ref>[http://www.leopard.se/history.htm History of Leopard Automobile] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100811093035/http://www.leopard.se/history.htm |date=2010-08-11 }}</ref>