Świętoszów (; german: Neuhammer am Queis) is a village in the administrative district of

Gmina Osiecznica __NOTOC__ Gmina Osiecznica is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Bolesławiec County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the village of Osiecznica, which lies approximately north-west of Bolesławiec and wes ...

, within

Bolesławiec County __NOTOC__ Bolesławiec County ( pl, powiat bolesławiecki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, southwestern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish lo ...

Lower Silesian Voivodeship Lower Silesian Voivodeship, or Lower Silesia Province, in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divided. The voivodeship was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Wrocław, Legnica, Wałbr ...

, in south-western

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

in the Lower Silesian Wilderness, on the river Kwisa. It lies approximately north of Osiecznica, north-west of

Bolesławiec Bolesławiec (pronounced , szl, Bolesławiec, german: Bunzlau) is a historic city situated on the Bóbr River in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in western Poland. It is the administrative seat of Bolesławiec County, and of Gmina Bolesławiec, ...

, and west of the regional capital -

Wrocław Wrocław (; german: Breslau, or . ; Silesian German: ''Brassel'') is a city in southwestern Poland and the largest city in the historical region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the River Oder in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Europe, r ...

History

In the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th or early 6th century to the 10th century. They marked the start of the Mi ...

the region was inhabited by the

Bobrzanie The Bobrzanie are one of the Silesian tribes mentioned in the '' Prague document'' from the 11th century AD. The area they inhabited was located on the Bóbr Bóbr ( cs, Bobr, german: Bober, ) is a river which carries water through the north o ...

tribe, one of the Slavic Lechitic tribes, and it became part of the emerging Polish state under its first historic ruler

Mieszko I Mieszko I (; – 25 May 992) was the first ruler of Poland and the founder of the first independent Polish state, the Duchy of Poland. His reign stretched from 960 to his death and he was a member of the Piast dynasty, a son of Siemomysł and ...

in the 10th century. Probably in the 14th century a

forge A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to th ...

was established at the site of the village, however the village itself was founded after 1550. In the 1898 the

German Army The German Army (, "army") is the land component of the armed forces of Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German ''Bundeswehr'' together with the ''Marine'' (German Navy) and the ''Luftwaf ...

created a very large training ground here. In

World War I World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was List of wars and anthropogenic disasters by death toll, one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, ...

it was the site of a large

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, internment camps, and military prisons. ...

for

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

n soldiers. After 1919, Polish Silesian insurgents were held in the camp. In 1941 the

Bergmann Battalion The Special Group Bergmann or the Bergmann Battalion (german: Sonderverband Bergmann) was a military unit of the German Abwehr during World War II, composed of five German-officered companies of the Caucasian volunteers. History The Bergmann ...

and

Nachtigall Battalion The Nachtigall Battalion ( en, Nightingale Battalion), also known as the Ukrainian Nightingale Battalion Group (german: Bataillon Ukrainische Gruppe Nachtigall), or officially as Special Group NachtigallAbbot, Peter. ''Ukrainian Armies 1914-55'', ...

trained in Neuhammer. In

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

another POW camp

Stalag VIII-E Stalag VIII-E (also known as Stalag 308) was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp located next to the village of Neuhammer, Silesia (now Świętoszów, Poland). It was about south of the camps Stalag VIII-C and Stalag Luft III at Sagan, Sil ...

was built here, to house Polish and

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

prisoners. In 1942 they were replaced with

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

prisoners, and the camp was placed under the administration of

Stalag VIII-C Stalag VIII-C was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp, near Sagan, Lower Silesia (now Żagań, Poland). It was adjacent to the famous Stalag Luft III, and was built at the beginning of World War II, occupying . It housed Allied POWs of va ...

near Żagań. At least 50,000 Soviet prisoners died here from disease, starvation and inhumane treatment, the last 200 of them killed as traitors after the war by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (russian: Наро́дный комиссариа́т вну́тренних дел, Naródnyy komissariát vnútrennikh del, ), abbreviated NKVD ( ), was the interior ministry of the Soviet Union. ...

. A

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian language, Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist R ...

base until 1992, today it is the site of a

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 62,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military history stre ...

base, and since January 2017 also the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

forces.

Sports

The local

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly ...

club is Twardy Świętoszów, which competes in the lower leagues, reaching the

III liga III liga (Trzecia liga) is a Polish football league that sits in the fourth tier of the Polish football league system. Until the end of the 2007–08 season, III liga referred to a league at the third tier (now called II liga) but this was c ...

(fourth tier) in 2010.

Gallery

File:Swietoszow-dworzec.jpg, The railway station File:Swietoszow-wieza.jpg, Water tower File:Swietoszow-10bkpanc.jpg, 10th Armored Cavalry Brigade File:Świętoszów1.JPG, Memorial to the victims of the Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia

References

Villages in Bolesławiec County {{LowerSilesian-geo-stub

History

Sports

Gallery

See also

References