Szczerców is a

village A village is a human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to a few thousand. Although villages are often located in rural areas, the term urban v ...

Bełchatów County __NOTOC__ Bełchatów County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. ...

Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship ( ) is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship (province) of Poland. The province is named after its capital and largest city, Łódź, pronounced . Łódź Voivodeship is bordered by six other voivodeships: Masovian Voivodeship ...

, in central Poland. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

(administrative district) called

Gmina Szczerców __NOTOC__ Gmina Szczerców is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Bełchatów County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland. Its seat is the village of Szczerców, which lies approximately west of Bełchatów and south-west of the region ...

. It lies approximately west of

Bełchatów Bełchatów () is a city in central Poland with a population of 55,583, as of December 2021. It is located in Łódź Voivodeship, southwest of Warsaw. The Bełchatów Power Station, Elektrownia Bełchatów, located in Bełchatów, is the largest ...

and south-west of the regional capital

Łódź Łódź is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located south-west of Warsaw. Łódź has a population of 655,279, making it the country's List of cities and towns in Polan ...

. It is located in the

Sieradz Land Sieradz Land (; Latin: ''Terra Siradiae'') is a historical region in central Poland, a part of Łęczyca-Sieradz Land (). Its traditional capital is Sieradz, while other bigger cities are Piotrków Trybunalski (another historically important ...

History

Szczerców was a royal town of the Kingdom of Poland, administratively located in the Sieradz County in the

Sieradz Voivodeship Sieradz Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by Łódź Voivodeship. A Voivodeship is an area administered by a voivode (Governor), and the Sieradz Voivodesh ...

in the Greater Poland Province. The town had a history of Jewish migration and settlement, with 35 percent of the population claiming Jewish ancestry at the start of World War II. Shortly after Hitler's forces invaded Poland in 1939, German troops arrived in the town at September 3, 1939. Polish and German troops fought bitterly between September 4 and 5, resulting in the near destruction of the town. The synagogue was burned, and its ruins dismantled after the war, while the majority of Jewish residents took shelter in nearby towns

Zelów Zelów (; ) is a town in Bełchatów County, Łódź Voivodeship, in central Poland, with 7,459 inhabitants (2020). It is located in the historic Sieradz Land. History Zelów was probably founded in the 13th century, when it was part of fragmen ...

and

. Among the soldiers to perish in the fighting at Szczerców was Prince Oskar of Prussia (1915–39), a lieutenant with Nazi German Infantry Regiment 51 and a grandson of deposed

Kaiser Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor and King of Prussia from 1888 until his abdication in 1918, which marked the end of the German Empire as well as the Hohenzollern dynasty ...

, through his son Prince Oskar (1888-1958).

Natural history

In 2023 a skeletal remain (an

osteoderm Osteoderms are bony deposits forming scales, plates, or other structures based in the dermis. Osteoderms are found in many groups of extant and extinct reptiles and amphibians, including lizards, crocodilians, frogs, temnospondyls (extinct amph ...

) of a fossil (

Miocene The Miocene ( ) is the first epoch (geology), geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words (', "less") and (', "new") and mea ...

)

crocodylian Crocodilia () is an order of semiaquatic, predatory reptiles that are known as crocodilians. They first appeared during the Late Cretaceous and are the closest living relatives of birds. Crocodilians are a type of crocodylomorph pseudosuchian ...

was found on the Szczerców field of the Bełchatów mine. This is the northernmost finding of a

Neogene The Neogene ( ,) is a geologic period and system that spans 20.45 million years from the end of the Paleogene Period million years ago ( Mya) to the beginning of the present Quaternary Period million years ago. It is the second period of th ...

fossil crocodylian at world's scale.

References

Villages in Bełchatów County {{Bełchatów-geo-stub