Szczerców is a

village A village is a clustered human settlement or community, larger than a hamlet but smaller than a town (although the word is often used to describe both hamlets and smaller towns), with a population typically ranging from a few hundred to ...

Bełchatów County __NOTOC__ Bełchatów County ( pl, powiat bełchatowski) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Łódź Voivodeship, central Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local governmen ...

Łódź Voivodeship Łódź Voivodeship (also known as Lodz Province, or by its Polish language, Polish name ''Województwo łódzkie'' ) is a province-Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship in central Poland. It was created on 1 January 1999 out of the former Łódź ...

, in central Poland. It is the seat of the gmina (administrative district) called Gmina Szczerców. It lies approximately west of Bełchatów and south-west of the regional capital

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

. It is located in the Sieradz Land.

History

Szczerców was a royal town of the Kingdom of Poland, administratively located in the Sieradz County in the

Sieradz Voivodeship Sieradz Voivodeship () was a unit of administrative division and local government in Poland in the years 1975–1998, superseded by Łódź Voivodeship. A Voivodeship is an area administered by a voivode (Governor), and the Sieradz Voivodeshi ...

in the Greater Poland Province. The town had a history of Jewish migration and settlement, with 35 percent of the population claiming Jewish ancestry at the start of World War II. Shortly after Hitler's forces invaded Poland in 1939, German troops arrived in the town at September 3, 1939. Polish and German troops fought bitterly between September 4 and 5, resulting in the near destruction of the town. The synagogue was burned, and its ruins dismantled after the war, while the majority of Jewish residents took shelter in nearby towns Zelów and Bełchatów. Among the soldiers to perish in the fighting at Szczerców was Prince Oskar of Prussia (1915–39), a lieutenant with Nazi German Infantry Regiment 51 and a grandson of deposed

Kaiser Wilhelm II Wilhelm II (Friedrich Wilhelm Viktor Albert; 27 January 18594 June 1941) was the last German Emperor (german: Kaiser) and King of Prussia, reigning from 15 June 1888 until his abdication on 9 November 1918. Despite strengthening the German Emp ...

, through his son Prince Oskar (1888-1958).

References

Villages in Bełchatów County Sieradz Voivodeship (1339–1793) Piotrków Governorate Łódź Voivodeship (1919–1939) {{Bełchatów-geo-stub