Koluszki is a town, and a major railway junction, in central Poland, in Łódź Voivodeship, about 20 km east of Łódź with a population of 12,776 (2020). The junction in Koluszki serves trains that go from Warsaw to Łódź, Wrocław, Częstochowa and Katowice. It is also connected to Radom and Lublin by an eastbound line. History Koluszki was first mentioned in 1399, when it was part of the Jagiellonian-ruled Kingdom of Poland. In the 14th and 15th century, it prospered along the trade route between Gdańsk and Ruthenia. By 1790, there was a grist mill, sawmill, brewery, and inn. Under the Second Partition of Poland in 1793, the settlement was annexed by Prussia. It was regained by Poles and included in the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw in 1807, and afterwards it became part of Congress Poland following the Congress of Vienna in 1815, later forcibly integrated into Russia. On September 2, 1846, the settlement was first connected to the emerging Polish railways as part of the mainline between Warsaw and Kraków. Following the development of Łódź as an industrial center, Koluszki served as the junction for its rail. By 1900, about half of the settlement worked for the railway in some capacity and the settlement developed around the railway and bus stations. After World War I Poland regained independence, and Koluszki was reintegrated with the reborn state. The town suffered during both world wars. World War II On 1–5 September 1939, in the first days of the German invasion of Poland, which started World War II, the German Luftwaffe raided Koluszki multiple times. On September 1–3, many inhabitants fled, and Polish anti-aircraft artillery shot down six German planes. On September 6, the Germans entered Koluszki and the occupation began, Koluszki was annexed directly to Germany and its population was subjected to various repressions, including mass arrests, deportations to Nazi concentration camps and murder. Mass arrests of Polish intelligentsia, including teachers, were carried out on November 9, 1939 as part of the Intelligenzaktion. Nevertheless, it was a local center of the Polish resistance movement, and Polish partisans were active in the area. The occupiers operated a forced labour camp for Poles and Jews at a local sawmill. The Germans also established a Jewish ghetto in April 1941. Hundreds of Jews from around the area were sent to the Koluszki ghetto so that the pre-war Jewish population of about 500 swelled to