Toszek is a town in
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, in
Gliwice CountyGliwice County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat is the city of Gliwice, although the city is not...
,
Silesian VoivodeshipSilesian Voivodeship is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centring on the region known as Upper Silesia...
, with 4,000 inhabitants.
The beginning of the settlement and fortified keep is dated in the ninth and tenth centuries when the area was ruled by the Piasts,
Mieszko I of PolandMieszko I , was a Duke of the Polans from about 960 until his death. Member of the Piast dynasty, he was son of the legendary Siemomysł, grandchild of Lestek and father of Bolesław I the Brave, the first crowned King of Poland, and Świętosława , a Nordic Queen.The first historical ruler of Poland,...
and later Bolesław I the Brave
http://www.toszek.pl//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=3.
The fortified keep had grown to the size of a town during the rule of Duke of Wrocław Bolesław Wysoki and during his rule it received city rights in 1235.
Toszek is a town in
PolandPoland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe . Poland is bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, in
Gliwice CountyGliwice County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Silesian Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat is the city of Gliwice, although the city is not...
,
Silesian VoivodeshipSilesian Voivodeship is a voivodeship, or province, in southern Poland, centring on the region known as Upper Silesia...
, with 4,000 inhabitants.
History
The beginning of the settlement and fortified keep is dated in the ninth and tenth centuries when the area was ruled by the Piasts,
Mieszko I of PolandMieszko I , was a Duke of the Polans from about 960 until his death. Member of the Piast dynasty, he was son of the legendary Siemomysł, grandchild of Lestek and father of Bolesław I the Brave, the first crowned King of Poland, and Świętosława , a Nordic Queen.The first historical ruler of Poland,...
and later Bolesław I the Brave
http://www.toszek.pl//index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=3.
The fortified keep had grown to the size of a town during the rule of Duke of Wrocław Bolesław Wysoki and during his rule it received city rights in 1235. After 1281 it became the seat of the regional Duchy and title of local ruler Bolesław was "the enlightened Bolesław, Duke of Toszek".
In the 1300s the original Piast settlement passed to the
HabsburgThe House of Habsburg or Hapsburg was an important royal house of Europe and is best known for being an origin of all of the formally elected Holy Roman Emperors between 1452 and 1740, as well as rulers of the Austrian and Spanish Empire and several other countries...
s. In 1536, the city received
Magdeburg rightsMagdeburg Rights or Magdeburg Law were a set of German town laws regulating the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages granted with it by a local ruler. Modelled and named after the laws of Magdeburg developed during many centuries of the Holy Roman Empire, it was possibly the most...
from King
Ferdinand IFerdinand I was a Central European monarch from the House of Habsburg. He was Holy Roman Emperor from 1558, King of Bohemia and Hungary from 1526. He ruled the Austrian hereditary lands of the Habsburgs most of his public life, at the behest of his elder brother, Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor and...
(later Emperor). In 1593
Rudolf IIRudolf II , Holy Roman Emperor as Rudolf II , King of Hungary as Rudolf , King of Bohemia as Rudolf II and Archduke of Austria as Rudolf V...
sold the castle and the area to Freiherr von Redern auf Groß Strehlitz. It was owned by Joseph von Eichendorff from 1791 to 1797.
Like many other areas in Silesia, the Toszek area was subjected to
GermanisationGermanisation is either the spread of the German language, people and culture either by force or assimilation, or the adaptation of a foreign word to the German language in linguistics, much like the Romanisation of many languages which do not use the Latin alphabet...
when the Silesian dukes became independent from Poland.
Tost burned down on 18 August 1677, and was looted in 1807.
On 20 March 1921 during voting a majority of inhabitants voted to remain in Germany rather than be moved to Poland (1348 or 86% vs. 217 or 13,8 %, at 97,4 % turnout). During
KristallnachtKristallnacht or the Night of Broken Glass was an anti-Jewish pogrom in Nazi Germany and Austria on 9 to 10 November 1938. It is often called Novemberpogrome or Reichspogromnacht in German....
, the Toszek Jews were sent to concentration camps, where later they all were murdered.
After the Second World War a Soviet
NKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including...
camp was established in the city where between June-December 1945 about 3000 incarcerated people died. About 1000 prisoners were from Silesia including Breslau, but from July 1945 the NKVD brought in thousands more prisoners from the
BautzenBautzen ; is a city in eastern Saxony, Germany, and administrative center of the eponymous district. It is located on the Spree River. As of 2005, its population is 42,189...
area of Saxony. Sybille Krägel from Saxony, whose father died in the Tost prison, and others, traced the prisoner lists and over 4500 are identified by now with 800 more yet unidentified; also see Soviet NKVD. A memorial to NKVD victims is placed in Toszek.
Literature
- Johannes Chrząszcz: Geschichte der Städte Peiskretscham und Tost sowie des Toster Kreises in Ober-Schlesien (Verlag: G. Palla, Peiskretscham, 1900)
- Johannes Chrząszcz: Die Geschichte der Städte Peiskretscham und Tost sowie des Kreises Tost-Gleiwitz (2., verbesserte und erweiterte Auflage; Verlag: Palla, Peiskretscham, 1927) (djvu-Datei)
- Kurt Rosenberg: Tost vor 100 Jahren (erschienen in "Oberschlesien – Zeitschrift zur Pflege der Kenntnis und Vertretung der Interessen Oberschlesiens" (7. Jahrgang, 1908, S. 531–598).)
- Krägel: Bild-Dokumentation Tost.Gefängnis-Lager des sowjetischen NKWD in Oberschlesien, Freisinger Künstlerpresse W. Bode, 2. Aufl. 2001, ISBN 3927067164
External links