Choroszcz () is a town in north-eastern

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

, located in

Białystok County Białystok County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Podlaskie Voivodeship, north-eastern Poland, on the border with Belarus. It was created on 1 January 1999 as a result of the Polish local government refo ...

Podlaskie Voivodeship Podlaskie Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in northeastern Poland. The name of the voivodeship refers to the historical region of Podlachia (in Polish, ''Podlasie''), and significant part of its territory corresponds to th ...

, seat of

Gmina Choroszcz __NOTOC__ Gmina Choroszcz is an urban-rural gmina (administrative district) in Białystok County, Podlaskie Voivodeship, in north-eastern Poland. Its seat is the town of Choroszcz, which lies approximately west of the regional capital Białystok. ...

. The

Baroque The Baroque ( , , ) is a Western Style (visual arts), style of Baroque architecture, architecture, Baroque music, music, Baroque dance, dance, Baroque painting, painting, Baroque sculpture, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished from ...

palace in Choroszcz was the summer residence of the noble Branicki family, and is now part of the Museum of Polish Interiors. As of December 2021, the town has a population of 5,960.

History

Choroszcz was granted town rights by King

Sigismund I the Old Sigismund I the Old (, ; 1 January 1467 – 1 April 1548) was List of Polish monarchs, King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania from 1506 until his death in 1548. Sigismund I was a member of the Jagiellonian dynasty, the son of Casimir IV of P ...

in 1507. It was a

private town Private towns in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth were privately owned towns within the lands owned by magnates, bishops, knights and princes, among others. Amongst the most well-known former private magnate towns are Białystok, Zamość, R ...

, administratively located in the

in the Lesser Poland Province. Jan Klemens Branicki erected a Baroque palace, which served as the summer residence of the Branicki family. Following the Third Partition of Poland, in 1795, it was annexed by

Prussia Prussia (; ; Old Prussian: ''Prūsija'') was a Germans, German state centred on the North European Plain that originated from the 1525 secularization of the Prussia (region), Prussian part of the State of the Teutonic Order. For centuries, ...

. In 1807, it passed to the

Russian Partition The Russian Partition (), sometimes called Russian Poland, constituted the former territories of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth that were annexed by the Russian Empire in the course of late-18th-century Partitions of Poland. The Russian ac ...

of Poland. Choroszcz was one of the sites of Russian executions of Polish insurgents during the

January Uprising The January Uprising was an insurrection principally in Russia's Kingdom of Poland that was aimed at putting an end to Russian occupation of part of Poland and regaining independence. It began on 22 January 1863 and continued until the last i ...

. The execution sites are now marked by memorials.''Katalog miejsc pamięci powstania styczniowego w województwie podlaskim'', pp. 32–34 Following

World War I World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

, Poland regained independence and control of the town. In 1930, a psychiatric hospital was established in the town. Following the joint German-Soviet

invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland, also known as the September Campaign, Polish Campaign, and Polish Defensive War of 1939 (1 September – 6 October 1939), was a joint attack on the Second Polish Republic, Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany, the Slovak R ...

, which started

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

in September 1939, the town was first occupied by the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

until 1941, and then by Germany until 1944. In 1940, the Russians closed the psychiatric hospital and deported some patients to the Soviet Union, while others were relocated to the local rectory. In 1941, the Germans massacred several hundred remaining patients of the psychiatric hospital in today's Nowosiółki district as part of ''

Aktion T4 (German, ) was a campaign of Homicide#By state actors, mass murder by involuntary euthanasia which targeted Disability, people with disabilities and the mentally ill in Nazi Germany. The term was first used in post-WWII, war trials against d ...

''. After the war, it was administratively located in the "large" Białystok Voivodeship until 1975, and then the "small" Białystok Voivodeship until 1998.

Demographics

Detailed data as of 31 December 2021: In the 1921 census, 81.2% people declared

Polish Polish may refer to: * Anything from or related to Poland, a country in Europe * Polish language * Polish people, people from Poland or of Polish descent * Polish chicken * Polish brothers (Mark Polish and Michael Polish, born 1970), American twin ...

nationality, 16.2% declared Jewish nationality and 1.8% declared German nationality. Choroszcz had 827 Jewish residents in 1897, and 450 in 1921. Nearly all were murdered in the

Holocaust The Holocaust (), known in Hebrew language, Hebrew as the (), was the genocide of History of the Jews in Europe, European Jews during World War II. From 1941 to 1945, Nazi Germany and Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy ...

by the Germans during the Second World War.

Number of inhabitants by year

Church of Saint John the Baptist and Saint Stephen in Choroszcz 1

References

External links

Polish Culture: Museum of Polish InteriorsMuseum of Palace Insteriors in Choroszcz
(in Polish) {{Authority control Cities and towns in Podlaskie Voivodeship Białystok County Sites of Nazi war crimes in Poland Soviet World War II crimes in Poland