Gmina Siennica
urban-rural gmina of Poland

Gmina Siennica is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Mińsk County, Masovian Voivodeship, in east-central Poland. Its seat is the village of Siennica, which lies approximately 10 kilometres (6 mi) south-east of Mińsk Mazowiecki and 44 km (27 mi) south-east of Warsaw.
The gmina covers an area of 111 square kilometres (42.9 sq mi), and as of 2006 its total population is 6,912 (7,334 in 2013).
Massacre during Second World War
During the German Invasion of Poland in 1939, German soldiers from Wehrmacht mass murdered 22 Poles and 2 Jews in Siennica in what is described as "sadistic beating by iron tools" and shooting between 13 and 14 September. The responsible German soldiers proclaimed to the gathered population that the Poles "pigs". The villagers were trapped and imprisoned in an historic church which the Germans shot at, terrifying the imprisoned people. At the same time two women with children were told they could go home, when they did, the Germans set fire to their homes and the women barely escaped with their lives, hiding outside the village. When some of the people tried to fulfil their physiological needs the German soldiers humiliated them and told that those who want can go outside the church. When some tried to do that, they were brutally beaten. During the murder other German soldiers used incendiary grenades to burn down 70 buildings.
The public source identifies “Gmina Siennica” as urban-rural gmina of Poland. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Gmina, Siennica and urban-rural.
Why this record matters
A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Gmina Siennica”, the useful work is to connect “urban-rural gmina of Poland” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.
The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Dec 16, 2025. The linked authority identifier is Q945326. Authority coordinates are 52.092, 21.619. 2 of 2 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 2006, 2013 and 1939.
The absence of detail may reflect summary conventions rather than a lack of surviving documentation. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.
How to read it
Use the entry as an orientation point, then follow its citations and revision history. Names, dates and institutional relationships should be checked against the original record.
- Subject orientation
- Search vocabulary
- Locating named sources
The closest primary source, responsible institution and strongest cited specialist reference.
Three-step research path
- Establish the record: confirm the title “Gmina Siennica”, its source revision and the description used here.
- Expand the search: follow Gmina Siennica primary sources, Gmina Siennica archive and Gmina research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
- Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.
Questions for further research
- Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Gmina Siennica”?
- Which institution is responsible for the underlying evidence?
- What terminology or title could unlock a more precise catalogue search?
Search terms from this dossier
This entry incorporates text from “Gmina Siennica” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.