Brudzawki is a village in the administrative district of

Gmina Książki __NOTOC__ Gmina Książki is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Wąbrzeźno County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. Its seat is the village of Książki, which lies approximately north-east of Wąbrzeźno and n ...

, within Wąbrzeźno County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. It lies approximately east of

Książki Książki (german: Ksionsken) is a village in Wąbrzeźno County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, in north-central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Książki. It lies approximately north-east of Wąbr ...

, north-east of

Wąbrzeźno Wąbrzeźno (german: Briesen) is a town in Poland, in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, about northeast of Toruń. It is the capital of the Wąbrzeźno County. The population is 13,971 inhabitants (2004). History Along with Chełmno Land ...

, and north-east of Toruń.

History

The village was most probably founded in the 13th century. According to the documents of the Teutonic Order, it was called Kl. Brusau, Klein Brudzaw, Browse, Bruschaw, Brusau. The name might come from „brnąć” – “to wade” – the settlement was located on the flooded areas through which inhabitants were wading. The land was cultivated only at higher elevation. In the 15th century the village was owned by Osieczkowski family. In 1561 Mateusz Osieczkowski sold it to Jan Działyński. Olędrzy colonised Brudzawki in 1720. Their task was to drain the land and then bring it under cultivation. The village was annexed by Prussia in the First Partition of Poland in 1772. In 1773 there were 17 homesteads and a school which survived to the present day. Brudzawki was separated on 20 August 1828. The commune covered 627 ha. After 1914

Poles Poles,, ; singular masculine: ''Polak'', singular feminine: ''Polka'' or Polish people, are a West Slavic nation and ethnic group, who share a common history, culture, the Polish language and are identified with the country of Poland in Ce ...

bought farms from Germans. Following World War I, Poland regained independence and control of the village. Within interwar Poland, it was administratively located in the

Pomeranian Voivodeship Pomeranian Voivodeship, Pomorskie Region, or Pomerania Province (Polish: ''Województwo pomorskie'' ; ( Kashubian: ''Pòmòrsczé wòjewództwò'' ), is a voivodeship, or province, in northwestern Poland. The provincial capital is Gdańsk. The ...

. On 8 September 1939, during the German invasion of Poland at the start of World War II, an operation unit of the ''

Sicherheitspolizei The ''Sicherheitspolizei'' ( en, Security Police), often abbreviated as SiPo, was a term used in Germany for security police. In the Nazi era, it referred to the state political and criminal investigation security agencies. It was made up by the ...

'' (German security police) shot 50 Poles in a place where sand was mined, located by the

–Brudzawki road (see: '' Nazi crimes against the Polish nation''). To cover up the crime, Nazis exhumed the corpses by burning them on the spot in 1944. There is a monument and a plaque with the names of the people killed there.

References

Villages in Wąbrzeźno County {{Wąbrzeźno-geo-stub