Sventoszów

Sventoszów is a large military town on the Kwisa River in Lower Silesia (southwestern Poland). The first mention of this settlement, which was once located in Prussia , dates back to the XIV-XV centuries. In 1898, representatives of the zu Don family allocated a vast territory of forest and other unused lands from their Silesian possessions to equip them with a military training ground ^[1] . Remoteness from residential areas, terrain features — swamps, canals, sand fields, forests, hills — made it possible to conduct exercises here for infantry, sappers, artillery, and other military branches. The landfill was called Neuhammer. In 1900, the first soldiers' barracks were built here. Expanding gradually, by 1905 the landfill began to occupy 5 thousand hectares.

During the First World War, a camp for Russian prisoners of war was set up on the outskirts of the town. In 1914-1919, about 33 thousand people passed through it ^[1] . Prisoners were brought to work in a cardboard factory. With the money received for their work, they managed to erect a monument to their fallen countrymen in 1916.

During the Third Reich, the Neuhammer training ground expanded significantly. If in 1934 it housed about 2400 soldiers, then in 1936 it was already 8600. The maximum capacity of the training ground reached 10 thousand soldiers. Until 1939, Manstein’s tank army was located in Neuhammer, later exercises were held for SS groups, which included Ukrainians (mainly Vlasovs), Latvians and Lithuanians, and later the Galichina SS grenadier division. Himmler came here to inspect the troops.

During the Second World War, in Zagan and its environs, the Germans created a complex of camps for prisoners of war, which consisted of the Stalag VIII C and its branches - the Stalag in Kunau (Konin-Zagansky) and the Stalag VIII E (308) in Neuhammer. All of them were subordinate to the 8th military district of the Wehrmacht with the main headquarters in Breslau . Stalag VIII E (308) in Neuhammer in the first months of the war was intended exclusively for Polish soldiers captured during the September 1939 campaign . After the battles won in the west in 1940, French prisoners of war began to fall into the camp ^[1] .

After Hitler's attack on the USSR, Soviet prisoners of war began to arrive in the VIII E stalag, the first of which were delivered to Neuhammer on July 12, 1941. In 1942, their number was more than 100,000 people. Because of abuse and hard work, people quickly died. Those who were physically stronger were taken to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp (Auschwitz). In total, about 300 thousand prisoners passed through the stalag VIII C, and their average daily number was 50 thousand ^[1] . One and a half kilometers from the camp there is a mass grave in which about 20 thousand prisoners of war, mainly Slavic nationalities, are buried ^[2] . Before entering Sventoszów, 100 meters from the bridge over Kwisa, a monument to the “Eternal memory of those killed and tortured” was erected. It consists of a pedestal and a stone block, concrete steps lead to it. The tablet on the stone reads: “To the eternal memory of 20 thousand Polish and Soviet soldiers killed and tortured in the prisoner of war camp of the Nazi Wehrmacht in Sventoszow during World War II.”

February 13, 1945 the city ​​was taken by the Red Army . For some time, units of the 2nd Army of the Polish Army were located on the territory of Neuhammer. After the war, Lower Silesia, including Neuhammer, were transferred in accordance with the decisions of the Yalta and Potstdam conferences to Poland . The city was renamed Sventoszów.

From 1945 to 1992, Soviet troops were stationed in Sventoszów. In 1945-1954, in the former prisoner camp there was a special prison of the NKGB (MGB) of high security. Since the summer of 1945, the 20th Zvenigorod Panzer Division of the Northern Group of Forces , as well as a motorized rifle regiment, a missile division and artillery units began to be deployed in the town itself. It was one of the largest bases of the Soviet troops in Poland, covering an area of ​​15,020 ha. Both parts of Sventoszów were connected by wooden and metal bridges. In the town there were 58 barracks, 98 garages, 14 dining rooms, a hospital complex, 1687 apartments for military families, and in addition, a large number of civilian facilities. In the most active period, 12 thousand soldiers and military families lived here. Sventoszów was kept secret and disappeared from geographical maps for several decades.

After 1989, in connection with the change of the political regime in Poland and in accordance with the agreements signed by the USSR and Poland, Soviet troops began to be withdrawn from Sventoszów. On May 5, 1992, the Polish side adopted the first complex of military facilities. On May 18, 1992, in the presence of the commander of the Northern Group of Forces of the Soviet Army, Colonel General Viktor Dubynin and the commander of the Silesian Military District, Division General Tadeusz Wilecki, an act of transferring the entire garrison took place. The last Soviet soldiers left Sventoszów on July 20 of that year.

After the withdrawal of Soviet troops, reconstruction of buildings began. Some of them were transferred to the civilian population. The 10th tank brigade of Polish troops was introduced into another part of the town. Currently, Свwiętoszczów, the largest training center in Poland (over 37,000 hectares), is located in Sventoszow, where the largest NATO exercises are held.

Sventoszow is divided into two parts. The main part of Sventoszów is located on the right bank of Kwisa. The smaller one is located on the left bank of the river and in the past was called Old Sventoszów. There are several residential buildings and the railway station of the inactive railway Zagan - Jelenia Gora . The soil is sandy. The highest mountain is called Kappelbrunn.

• Sventoszów. Zelenogurskie Voivodeship // Bonus.superjob.ru
• Sventoszów in Wikimapia
• Sventoszów News (Polish)