Mieroszów (formerly: ''Fyrląd''; ) is a town in Wałbrzych County,

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 ...

, near the border with the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

. It is the seat of the administrative district (

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 ...

) called Gmina Mieroszów. It lies approximately south-west of Wałbrzych, and south-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 ...

. As of 2019, the town has a population of 4,070.

History

Town rights were granted in 1303. During

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 ...

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

operated several forced labour camps in the town, initially mostly for

Poles Pole or poles may refer to: People *Poles (people), another term for Polish people, from the country of Poland * Pole (surname), including a list of people with the name * Pole (musician) (Stefan Betke, born 1967), German electronic music artist ...

(entire families with children), and later also for

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 ...

and Italian prisoners of war. In September 1944, a subcamp of the

Gross-Rosen concentration camp Gross-Rosen was a network of Nazi concentration camps built and operated by Nazi Germany during World War II. The main camp was located in the German village of Gross-Rosen, now the modern-day Rogoźnica in Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Poland, di ...

was established, in which initially some 300 Polish Jews were held, and later also Slovak and Hungarian Jews. Hard labour, starvation and

lice Louse (: lice) is the common name for any member of the infraorder Phthiraptera, which contains nearly 5,000 species of wingless parasitic insects. Phthiraptera was previously recognized as an order, until a 2021 genetic study determined th ...

resulted in the deaths of many prisoners. The camp was liberated on 9 May 1945 at the end of the war. No one from the SS camp staff was tried after the war.

Demographics

Sport

Mieroszów is known for the Jatki mountain (also called the New Saddle) which has a perfectly profiled hang-glider and paraglider launching slope for south winds. This is an easy training slope with a hang-glider ramp, but experienced pilots have done some long unpowered flights from the site.

Twin towns – sister cities

See twin towns of Gmina Mieroszów.

Notable people

* Fedor Krause (1857–1937), German neurosurgeon

References

External links

Jewish Community in Mieroszów
on Virtual Shtetl Cities and towns in Lower Silesian Voivodeship Wałbrzych County Cities in Silesia Czech Republic–Poland border crossings Holocaust locations in Poland {{Wałbrzych-geo-stub