Kamień Krajeński (; ''Kamień Pomorski'' between 1920–1945; german: Kamin in Westpreußen) is a town in

Sępólno County __NOTOC__ Sępólno County ( pl, powiat sępoleński) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, north-central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish l ...

Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, also known as Cuiavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship or simply Kujawsko-Pomorskie, or Kujawy-Pomerania Province ( pl, województwo kujawsko-pomorskie ) is one of the 16 voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divide ...

in northern

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 ...

, with 2,276 inhabitants (2004). It is located within the ethnocultural region of

Krajna Krajna is a forested historical region in Poland, situated in the border area between the Greater Poland, Kuyavian-Pomeranian and Pomeranian Voivodeships. The region consists of parts of Złotów, Piła, Sępólno, Nakło, Bydgoszcz and Czł ...

History

The first historical record of Kamień comes from 1107. Its name means "stone" in Polish. It was a seat of a

castellany A castellan is the title used in Medieval Europe for an appointed official, a governor of a castle and its surrounding territory referred to as the castellany. The title of ''governor'' is retained in the English prison system, as a remnant of ...

during the reign of

Bolesław III Wrymouth Bolesław III Wrymouth ( pl, Bolesław III Krzywousty; 20 August 1086 – 28 October 1138), also known as Boleslaus the Wry-mouthed, was the duke of Lesser Poland, Silesia and Sandomierz between 1102 and 1107 and over the whole of Poland between ...

. In the thirteenth century it belonged to the

Archbishop of Gniezno This is a list of archbishops of the Archdiocese of Gniezno, who are simultaneously primates of Poland since 1418.Teutonic Knights The Order of Brothers of the German House of Saint Mary in Jerusalem, commonly known as the Teutonic Order, is a Catholic religious institution founded as a military society in Acre, Kingdom of Jerusalem. It was formed to aid Christians on ...

in 1339 before reverting to Poland. In 1359 it received municipal rights from Archbishop

Jarosław Jarosław (; uk, Ярослав, Yaroslav, ; yi, יאַרעסלאָוו, Yareslov; german: Jaroslau) is a town in south-eastern Poland, with 38,970 inhabitants, as of 30 June 2014. Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (since 1999), previ ...

. Shortly after a defensive castle was built which survived until 1721. Administratively it was located in the Nakło County in the

Kalisz Voivodeship Kalisz Voivodeship may also refer to: *Kalisz Voivodeship (1314–1793) *Kalisz Voivodeship (1816–1837) The Kalisz Voivodeship was a voivodeship of the Congress Poland, that existed from 1816 to 1837. Its capital was Kalisz. It was established o ...

in the

Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown , subdivision = Province , nation = Poland , year_start = , event_end = Third Partition of Poland , year_end = , image_map = Prowincje I RP.svg , image_map_capt ...

. After the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Kamień was annexed by the

Kingdom of Prussia The Kingdom of Prussia (german: Königreich Preußen, ) was a German kingdom that constituted the state of Prussia between 1701 and 1918.Marriott, J. A. R., and Charles Grant Robertson. ''The Evolution of Prussia, the Making of an Empire''. Re ...

, and under the

Germanized Germanisation, or Germanization, is the spread of the German language, people and culture. It was a central idea of German conservative thought in the 19th and the 20th centuries, when conservatism and ethnic nationalism went hand in hand. In ling ...

name ''Kamin,'' it formed part of the Flatow district (''Landkreis Flatow'') in the Prussian Province of

West Prussia The Province of West Prussia (german: Provinz Westpreußen; csb, Zôpadné Prësë; pl, Prusy Zachodnie) was a province of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and 1878 to 1920. West Prussia was established as a province of the Kingdom of Prussia in 177 ...

. Since 1871, it belonged to

Germany Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...

. According to the census of 1910, Kamin had a population of 1,547, of which 1,312 (84.8%) were

Germans , native_name_lang = de , region1 = , pop1 = 72,650,269 , region2 = , pop2 = 534,000 , region3 = , pop3 = 157,000 3,322,405 , region4 = , pop4 = ...

. In 1920, the eastern part of the district including the towns of Kamień,

Więcbork Więcbork (; german: Vandsburg) is a town in northern Poland, located in the Sępólno County in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. In 2019 it had a population of 5,965. It is located within the ethnocultural region of Krajna. History After 96 ...

and

Sępólno Krajeńskie Sępólno Krajeńskie (german: Zempelburg) is a town in northern Poland, in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship. It is the capital of Sępólno County (P''owiat Sępoleński'') and Gmina Sępólno Krajeńskie. Zempelburg was part of Greater Po ...

, which had 30,516 inhabitants (including 8,600

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 ...

)Wolfgang Bahr: ''Kurze Geschichte des Flatower Landes''. In: ''Heimatbuch für den Kreis Flatow – Grenzmark Posen-Westpreußen – Provinz Pommern''. Heimatkreisausschuss für den Kreis Flatow (ed.), printed by Karl Neef oHG (Wittingen), Gifhorn 1971, pp. 37-42 (in German). was reintegrated with the newly established

Second Polish Republic The Second Polish Republic, at the time officially known as the Republic of Poland, was a country in Central Europe, Central and Eastern Europe that existed between 1918 and 1939. The state was established on 6 November 1918, before the end of ...

after the

Treaty of Versailles The Treaty of Versailles (french: Traité de Versailles; german: Versailler Vertrag, ) was the most important of the peace treaties of World War I. It ended the state of war between Germany and the Allied Powers. It was signed on 28 June ...

. The town became part of

. After the

German Invasion of Poland The invasion of Poland (1 September – 6 October 1939) was a joint attack on the Republic of Poland by Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union which marked the beginning of World War II. The German invasion began on 1 September 1939, one week afte ...

Sępólno County was annexed by

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

in 1939, and it became part of Landkreis Zempelburg. During the

German occupation German-occupied Europe refers to the sovereign countries of Europe which were wholly or partly occupied and civil-occupied (including puppet governments) by the military forces and the government of Nazi Germany at various times between 1939 an ...

were subject to persecutions, mass arrests, expulsions and massacres. Numerous Poles were imprisoned in a

concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simply ...

in Radzim and in a prison established by the ''

Selbstschutz ''Selbstschutz'' (German for "self-protection") is the name given to different iterations of ethnic-German self-protection units formed both after the First World War and in the lead-up to the Second World War. The first incarnation of the ''Selb ...

'' in

, and later murdered there or deported to other Nazi concentration camps. Mass arrests of Poles were carried out from September 1939. In 1945, the town was restored to Poland.

Number of inhabitants by year

References

Cities and towns in Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship Sępólno County {{Sępólno-geo-stub