Łask ł is a town in central Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

 with 18,948 inhabitants (2004). It's the capital of Łask County, and is situated in Łódź Voivodeship (since 1999), previously in Sieradz Voivodeship

Sieradz Voivodeship

Sieradz Voivodeship was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by Łódź Voivodeship.-1975-1998:Capital city: SieradzMajor cities and towns: :* Zduńska Wola ;...

 (1975-1998). 32nd Air Base

32nd Air Base

32nd Air Base is a Polish Air Force base, located in Łask, about 30 km south-west of Łódź. It is one of the two bases where Poland's F-16 fighters are stationed, the other being 31st Air Base. 9 of them were first moved there in October 2008 . The goal is to have 16 fighters, operated by...

 of the Polish Air Force

Polish Air Force

The Polish Air Force is the military Air Force wing of the Polish Armed Forces. Until July 2004 it was officially known as Wojska Lotnicze i Obrony Powietrznej...

 is located nearby.

History

With the invasion of Poland and the outbreak of the Second World War in September 1939, Łask was occupied by the Wehrmacht

Wehrmacht

The Wehrmacht – from , to defend and , the might/power) were the unified armed forces of Nazi Germany from 1935 to 1945. It consisted of the Heer , the Kriegsmarine and the Luftwaffe .-Origin and use of the term:...

 and annexed by Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany

Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...

. It was administered as part of the county or district (kreis) of Lask within Reichsgau Wartheland

Reichsgau Wartheland

Reichsgau Wartheland was a Nazi German Reichsgau formed from Polish territory annexed in 1939. It comprised the Greater Poland and adjacent areas, and only in part matched the area of the similarly named pre-Versailles Prussian province of Posen...

. Following the arrival of the Red Army

Red Army

The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

 and the end of the war, Łask became part of the People's Republic of Poland

People's Republic of Poland

The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...

.

See also

• Lasker (disambiguation)
• Laski (disambiguation)
  Laski (disambiguation)
  Laski or Łaski may refer to the following Polish villages:In Greater Poland Voivodeship :*Laski, Jarocin County*Laski, Kępno County*Laski, Turek CountyIn Łódź Voivodeship :*Laski, Pajęczno County...
  
  
• Shtetl
  Shtetl
  A shtetl was typically a small town with a large Jewish population in Central and Eastern Europe until The Holocaust. Shtetls were mainly found in the areas which constituted the 19th century Pale of Settlement in the Russian Empire, the Congress Kingdom of Poland, Galicia and Romania...