Świętoszów () is a village in the administrative district of

Gmina Osiecznica __NOTOC__ Gmina Osiecznica is a rural gmina (administrative district) in Bolesławiec County, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. Its seat is the village of Osiecznica, which lies approximately north-west of Bolesławiec and wes ...

, within

Bolesławiec County __NOTOC__ Bolesławiec County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, southwestern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms pas ...

Lower Silesian Voivodeship Lower Silesian Voivodeship (, ) in southwestern Poland, is one of the 16 Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeships (provinces) into which Poland is divided. It covers an area of and has a total population of 2,899,986. It is one of the wealthiest ...

, in south-western

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 ...

in the

Lower Silesian Wilderness Lower Silesian Forest () is the largest continuous forest of Poland, with total area of 1650 square kilometers. It is located in southwestern Poland, in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship and the Lubusz Voivodeship, near border with Germany. Western ...

, on the river Kwisa. It lies approximately north of Osiecznica, north-west of

Bolesławiec Bolesławiec (pronounced , ) is a historic city situated on the Bóbr River in the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, in south-western Poland. It is the administrative seat of Bolesławiec County, and of Gmina Bolesławiec, Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Gm ...

, and west of the regional capital

Wrocław Wrocław is a city in southwestern Poland, and the capital of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship. It is the largest city and historical capital of the region of Silesia. It lies on the banks of the Oder River in the Silesian Lowlands of Central Eu ...

History

In the

Early Middle Ages The Early Middle Ages (or early medieval period), sometimes controversially referred to as the Dark Ages (historiography), Dark Ages, is typically regarded by historians as lasting from the late 5th to the 10th century. They marked the start o ...

the region was inhabited by the Bobrzanie tribe, one of the Slavic Lechitic tribes, and it became part of the emerging Polish state under its first historic ruler

Mieszko I Mieszko I (; – 25 May 992) was Duchy of Poland (966–1025), Duke of Poland from 960 until his death in 992 and the founder of the first unified History of Poland, Polish state, the Civitas Schinesghe. A member of the Piast dynasty, he was t ...

in the 10th century. Probably in the 14th century a

forge A forge is a type of hearth used for heating metals, or the workplace (smithy) where such a hearth is located. The forge is used by the smith to heat a piece of metal to a temperature at which it becomes easier to shape by forging, or to the ...

was established at the site of the village, however the village itself was founded after 1550. In the 1898 the

German Army The German Army (, 'army') is the land component of the armed forces of Federal Republic of Germany, Germany. The present-day German Army was founded in 1955 as part of the newly formed West German together with the German Navy, ''Marine'' (G ...

created a large training ground ( de) here. In

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 ...

it was the site of a large

prisoner-of-war camp A prisoner-of-war camp (often abbreviated as POW camp) is a site for the containment of enemy fighters captured as Prisoner of war, prisoners of war by a belligerent power in time of war. There are significant differences among POW camps, inte ...

for

Russia Russia, or the Russian Federation, is a country spanning Eastern Europe and North Asia. It is the list of countries and dependencies by area, largest country in the world, and extends across Time in Russia, eleven time zones, sharing Borders ...

n soldiers. After 1919, Polish Silesian insurgents were held in the camp. In August 1939 the ground was the scene of a military air disaster ( de) when 13 Stuka dive bombers of the Luftwaffe flew into the ground in low-lying cloud. In 1941 the Bergmann Battalion and Nachtigall Battalion trained in Neuhammer. In

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 ...

another POW camp

Stalag VIII-E Stalag VIII-E (also known as Stalag 308) was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp located next to the village of Neuhammer, Silesia (now Świętoszów, Poland). It was about south of the camps Stalag VIII-C and Stalag Luft III at Sagan, ...

was built here, to house Polish and French prisoners. In 1942 they were replaced with

Soviet 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 ...

prisoners, and the camp was placed under the administration of Stalag VIII-C near

Żagań Żagań (French language, French and , ) is a town in western Poland, on the Bóbr river, with 25,731 inhabitants (2019), capital of Żagań County in the Lubusz Voivodeship, located in the historic region of Lower Silesia. Founded in the 12th ce ...

. At least 50,000 Soviet prisoners died here from disease, starvation and inhumane treatment, the last 200 of them killed as traitors after the war by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

. A

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

base until 1992, today it is the site of a

Polish Army The Land Forces () are the Army, land forces of the Polish Armed Forces. They currently contain some 110,000 active personnel and form many components of the European Union and NATO deployments around the world. Poland's recorded military histor ...

base, and since January 2017 also the

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO ; , OTAN), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental Transnationalism, transnational military alliance of 32 Member states of NATO, member s ...

forces.

Sports

The local

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

club is Twardy Świętoszów, which competes in the lower leagues, reaching the

III liga III liga (Trzecia liga), currently named Betclic III liga due to its sponsorship by Betclic, is a Polish football league that sits in the fourth tier of the Polish football league system. Until the end of the 2007–08 season, III liga ref ...

(fourth tier) in 2010.

Gallery

File:Swietoszow-dworzec.jpg, The railway station File:Swietoszow-wieza.jpg, Water tower File:Swietoszow-10bkpanc.jpg, 10th Armored Cavalry Brigade File:Świętoszów1.JPG, Memorial to the victims of the

Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia The Massacres of Poles in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia (; ) were carried out in Occupation of Poland (1939–1945), German-occupied Poland by the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), with the support of parts of the local Ukrainians, Ukrainian popu ...

References

Villages in Bolesławiec County {{LowerSilesian-geo-stub

History

Sports

Gallery

See also

References