Brzezinka

Brzezinka ( Birkenau German ) is a town in the municipality Oswiecim in southern Poland Voivodeship Lesser Poland ( Malopolska ) southwest of Krakow. The town has about 2,100 inhabitants.

Birkenau was during the Second World War site of most of the concentration and extermination camp Auschwitz -Birkenau.

Geography

Brzezinka is located three kilometers west of Oświęcim. The place is located at an altitude of 240 m above sea level. NN in the valley of the Vistula, on the east bank.

History

The town's name derives from the Polish name for birch forest. The first written record dates from 1385 and is connected to the donation of pasture land to a Dominican monastery.

During the construction of the railway station was a 1865 first built in the municipality. This station was later moved closer to Oświęcim.

As of 1941, the place was cleared to build on the corridors of the village to the extermination camp Auschwitz -Birkenau on the orders of the German occupying forces.