Bielsko (german: Bielitz, cs, Bílsko) was until 1950 an independent town situated in

Cieszyn Silesia Cieszyn Silesia, Těšín Silesia or Teschen Silesia ( pl, Śląsk Cieszyński ; cs, Těšínské Slezsko or ; german: Teschener Schlesien or ) is a historical region in south-eastern Silesia, centered on the towns of Cieszyn and Český T� ...

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 populous ...

. In 1951 it was joined with

Biała Krakowska Biała (the feminine form of Polish ''biały'' 'white') may refer to: Cities and towns in Poland Greater Poland Voivodeship (west-central Poland) *Biała, Gmina Trzcianka *Biała, Gmina Wieleń *Biała, Kalisz County *Biała, Konin County Łódź ...

to form the new town of

Bielsko-Biała Bielsko-Biała (; cs, Bílsko-Bělá, german: Bielitz-Biala, szl, Bjylsko-Bjoło) is a city in southern Poland, with a population of approximately 168,319 as of December 2021, making it the 22nd largest city in Poland, and an area of . It is a ...

. Bielsko constitutes the western part of that town. Bielsko was founded by the Cieszyn Piast dukes in the late 13th century on the grounds of village later called

Stare Bielsko Stare Bielsko (German: ''Alt Bielitz'', both literally meaning "Old Bielsko/Bielitz") is an osiedle (district) of Bielsko-Biała, Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It is located in the west-north part of the city, in Silesian Foothills. Osiedl ...

(''Old Bielsko''), on the Biała River. It was first mentioned in a written document in 1312. Originally settled by Germans, it became the largest German-language center (''Deutsche Sprachinsel Bielitz'') in the

Duchy of Teschen The Duchy of Teschen (german: Herzogtum Teschen), also Duchy of Cieszyn ( pl, Księstwo Cieszyńskie) or Duchy of Těšín ( cs, Těšínské knížectví), was one of the Duchies of Silesia centered on Cieszyn () in Upper Silesia. It was split o ...

, and remained so until the end of

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 vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. In 1572 it gained autonomy as the Duchy (State) of Bielsko. During the 18th century a rapid development of

textile Textile is an umbrella term that includes various fiber-based materials, including fibers, yarns, filaments, threads, different fabric types, etc. At first, the word "textiles" only referred to woven fabrics. However, weaving is not the ...

industry occurred, and at the beginning of the 19th century more than 500 weavers worked in the town. After the 1920 division of

between

and

Czechoslovakia , rue, Чеськословеньско, , yi, טשעכאסלאוואקיי, , common_name = Czechoslovakia , life_span = 1918–19391945–1992 , p1 = Austria-Hungary , image_p1 ...

it became, despite the protests of local Germans, a part of Poland. According to the

Austrian Austrian may refer to: * Austrians, someone from Austria or of Austrian descent ** Someone who is considered an Austrian citizen, see Austrian nationality law * Austrian German dialect * Something associated with the country Austria, for example: ...

census of 1910 the town had 18,568 inhabitants. The census asked people for their native language: 15,144 (84.3%) were German-speaking, 2,568 (14.3%) were Polish-speaking and 136 (0.7%) were Czech-speaking.

Jews Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

were not allowed to declare

Yiddish Yiddish (, or , ''yidish'' or ''idish'', , ; , ''Yidish-Taytsh'', ) is a West Germanic language historically spoken by Ashkenazi Jews. It originated during the 9th century in Central Europe, providing the nascent Ashkenazi community with a ver ...

, and most of them thus declared German as their native language. The most populous religious groups were

Roman Catholics The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

with 10,378 (55.9%), followed by Protestants with 4,955 (26.7%) and the

with 3,024 (16.3%).Ludwig Patryn (ed):
Die Ergebnisse der Volkszählung vom 31. Dezember 1910 in Schlesien
', Troppau 1912. The vast majority of the Jews were exterminated by Nazis during World War II, and the German population was expelled by the

Soviets Soviet people ( rus, сове́тский наро́д, r=sovyétsky naród), or citizens of the USSR ( rus, гра́ждане СССР, grázhdanye SSSR), was an umbrella demonym for the population of the Soviet Union. Nationality policy in ...

after the war under the terms demanded by Stalin at the

Potsdam Conference The Potsdam Conference (german: Potsdamer Konferenz) was held at Potsdam in the Soviet occupation zone from July 17 to August 2, 1945, to allow the three leading Allies to plan the postwar peace, while avoiding the mistakes of the Paris Pe ...

Notable people

* Three well-known

Holocaust survivors Holocaust survivors are people who survived the Holocaust, defined as the persecution and attempted annihilation of the Jews by Nazi Germany and Axis powers, its allies before and during World War II in Europe and North Africa. There is no unive ...

from Bielsko are

Kitty Hart-Moxon Kitty Hart-Moxon, OBE (born 1 December 1926) is a Polish-British Holocaust survivor. She was sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in 1943 at age 16, where she survived for two years, and was also imprisoned at other camps. Shortly after h ...

Roman Frister Roman Frister (17 January 1928 – 9 February 2015) wrote '' The Cap: The Price of a Life'', an autobiographical account of his life living in Nazi occupied Poland and then Poland under the communists. Frister spent time in: *the Cracow detenti ...

and

Gerda Weissmann Klein Gerda Weissmann Klein (May 8, 1924 – April 3, 2022) was a Polish-born American writer and human rights activist. Her autobiographical account of the Holocaust, ''All but My Life'' (1957), was adapted for the 1995 short film, ''One Survivor Re ...

. All three have written autobiographies and other works about their experiences during the Second World War. * The ancestors of the British peer

Christopher Tugendhat, Baron Tugendhat Christopher Samuel Tugendhat, Baron Tugendhat (born 23 February 1937) is a British Conservative Party politician, businessman, company director, journalist and author. He was a Member of Parliament from 1970 to 1977, then a member of the Europ ...

, are also from what was Bielitz. *

Gustav Gyula Geyer Gustav Július Geyer (1828–1900) was a Hungarian educator and entomologist. References 1828 births 1900 deaths Hungarian educators Hungarian entomologists People from Bielsko-Biała {{Hungary-bio-stub ...

Notable people

See also

Footnotes

References

External links