Sępólno Krajeńskie
Sępólno Krajeńskie is a town in northern Poland, in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, about northwest of Bydgoszcz. It is the capital of Sępólno County and Gmina Sępólno Krajeńskie and has a population of 9,258.
History
The town received Magdeburg rights in 1360 from king Casimir the Great of Poland. It was located in the valley of the Sępólna River, which flooded the old castle because of its proximity to a nearby lake. Sępólno was a private town and it initially belonged to the Pakoski family, and later also the Ostroróg, Goślubski, Zebrzydowski, Smoszewski, Brez and Potulicki families until 1821. The town formed part of the Kalisz Voivodeship of the Greater Poland Province of the Polish Crown.During the Thirteen Years' War between Poland and the Teutonic Knights the area was captured by the Knights and the town itself looted. Sępólno suffered during the Swedish invasions and epidemics in the 17th century. In the 18th century the town had a number of weavers, shoemakers and farmers. The Jews of the town traded textiles and other fabricated goods to both Royal Prussia and Duchy of Prussia. A new synagogue was built in 1734.
The town was annexed by the Kingdom of Prussia during the First Partition of Poland in 1772. Fires in 1781 and 1782 destroyed 73 houses, so that there existed now 84 devastated sites in the town. In the year of 1783 the town had altogether 183 houses, most of them having thatched roofs. There was an influx of Jews, who, however, gradually emigrated westwards in the 19th century.
Sępólno was part of the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw in 1807–1815 during the Napoleonic Wars, and afterwards it was re-annexed by Prussia. In 1871 the town became part the German Empire, where as Zempelburg it formed part of the Flatow district of the province of West Prussia. It was a center for the textile and shoemaking industries. Despite Germanisation policies, Poles established various organisations, including the Bank Ludowy in 1910.
In 1920, the eastern part of the former Flatow district with the towns of Kamień Krajeński, Więcbork and Sępólno was reintegrated with the restored Polish Republic after the Treaty of Versailles. The town became the seat of Sępólno County.
Sępólno was invaded by Nazi Germany on September 1, 1939, the first day of World War II, and was later annexed and made the seat of Zempelburg district within the Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. During the German occupation, Poles were subject to persecutions, mass arrests, Germanisation, expulsions and massacres. Numerous Poles were imprisoned in a concentration camp in Radzim and in a prison established by the Selbstschutz in Sępólno, and later murdered on site or deported to other Nazi concentration camps. Mass arrests of Poles were carried out from September 1939, and the first executions of Polish inhabitants were carried out by the Germans at the turn of September and October 1939. Mass executions of Poles in Sępólno were carried out in various places, for example on the railway tracks connecting Sępólno and Kamień Krajeński, at the primary school and at the shooting range, local Poles were also murdered in Radzim, Karolewo, Rudzki Most. Local Jews were also murdered in Radzim. In early 1945 the town was captured by the Soviets, who plundered the town, raped many women, deported Germans to Siberia, and fought the Polish underground resistance movement. Afterwards the town was restored to Poland.
Landmarks of Sępólno Krajeńskie include a Protestant church in the market built in 1857.
Number of inhabitants by year
| Year | Population |
| 1783 | 1,628, including 651 Protestants, 390 Catholics and 581 Jews |
| 1805 | 2,492, including 1,434 Christians and 1,058 Jews |
| 1853 | 3,178, including 1,969 Christians and 1,218 Jews |
| 1875 | 3,516 |
| 1880 | 3,736 |
| 1890 | 3,510, including 2,011 Protestants, 839 Catholics and 657 Jews |
| 1905 | 3,810, including 1,246 Catholics and 393 Jews |
| 1910 | 3,818, including 637 Poles |
| 1920 | 3,513 |
| 1931 | 3,318 |
| 1943 | 5,207 |
| 2007 | 9,249 |
Points of interest
Notable residents
- Moritz Brasch, philosopher
- , Polish international footballer
Literature
- F. W. F. Schmitt: Topographie des Flatower Kreises. In: Preußische Provinzialblätter, Andere Folge, Vol. VI, Königsberg 1854, pp. 257–289 and pp. 432–461, Vol. VII, Königsberg 1855, pp. 42–46 and pp. 105–118
- Goerke, Otto: Der Kreis Flatow. In geographischer, naturkundlicher und geschichtlicher Beziehung dargestellt. 2. Auflage, Gifhorn 1981, mit einem Nachtrag über die Zeit von 1918 bis 1945 von Manfred Vollack
- Mathias Niendorf: Minderheiten an der Grenze - Deutsche und Polen in den Kreisen Flatow und Zempelburg 1900–1939. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1997,
- Günter Bleck: Die deutsche Bevölkerung in den Herrschaften Zempelburg und Vandsburg 1750–1812. J. G. Herder-Bibliothek Siegerland, 1991.