Rydułtowy

Template:Infobox settlement Rydułtowy Template:IPAc-pl (Template:Langx) is a town in southern Poland, in the Wodzisław County of the Silesian Voivodeship.Template:TERYT Rydułtowy is in the south-western part of the Silesian Highland, on the Rybnik Plateau, in the Oświęcim-Racibórz Valley.

A mining town, Rydułtowy has been closely bound with the 200-year-old "Rydułtowy-Anna" coal mine.

History

Rydułtowy was first mentioned in a document of the Diocese of Wrocław from 1228 as Rudolphi Willa, when it was part of the Duchy of Racibórz of fragmented Piast-ruled Poland.

In 1861, Rydułtowy Dolne had an entirely Polish population of 1,066, while Rydułtowy Górne had 360 inhabitants.<ref name=sgk>Template:Cite book</ref> In the late 19th century, the main occupation of the population was farming and coal mining.<ref name=sgk/> In 1923, the first Polish scout troop of Rydułtowy was founded.<ref name=ab>Template:Cite web</ref> Rydułtowy Dolne and Rydułtowy Górne were merged in 1926.

File:Rydultowy-ulica-lipowa-kalwaria-grob-zbiorowy-wojenny-jencow-radzieckich-5.JPG

Mass grave of over 70 Poles and 46 Soviet prisoners of war, victims of German forced labor camps

Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, Rydułtowy was occupied by Germany until 1945. Many local Polish scouts were killed during the war,<ref name=ab/> and some teachers from Rydułtowy were among Polish teachers murdered by the Germans in concentration camps as part of the Intelligenzaktion (see Nazi crimes against the Polish nation).<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The German Nazi administration operated five forced labour camps in Rydułtowy, including a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp.<ref name=mmab>Template:Cite web</ref> The prisoners of the camps were initially Poles from nearby settlements, and then also French, English and Soviet prisoners of war.<ref name=pt>Template:Cite web</ref> Over 1,000 mostly Jewish prisoners were held in the subcamp of Auschwitz.<ref name=mmab/> Prisoners unable to continue labour were sent back to Auschwitz and gassed there,<ref name=pt/> while over 50 prisoners died in the subcamp itself, also by suicide.<ref name=mmab/> In January 1945, the Germans evacuated the prisoners on foot to Wodzisław Śląski, and then deported them to the Mauthausen concentration camp.<ref name=mmab/>

In 1951, Rydułtowy was granted town rights, and the neighboring settlement of Pietrzkowice was included within town limits as a new district.<ref>Template:Cite Polish law</ref>