Raków, Greater Poland Voivodeship

Raków is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Łęka Opatowska, within Kępno County, Greater Poland Voivodeship, in west-central Poland. It lies approximately 2 km south of Łęka Opatowska, 13 km south-east of Kępno, and 157 km south-east of the regional capital Poznań.

History
In 1360, the village was granted by Bishop of Wrocław Przecław of Pogorzela to canon of Poznań Stefan Gromassy. Later on, it was a private village of Polish nobility, including the Rakowski and Siemiański families.

Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the village was occupied by Germany until 1945. In September 1941, the German gendarmerie carried out expulsions of Poles, who were deported to a temporary transit camp in nearby Opatów, while their houses were handed over to new German colonists as part of the Lebensraum policy. The Poles were soon enslaved as forced labour and either sent to Germany or to German colonists in the county.