Wyszków () is a town in eastern Poland with 26,500 inhabitants as of 2018. It is the capital of Wyszków County in Masovian Voivodeship.

History

The village of Wyszków was first documented in 1203. Wyszków was located on a trade route connecting Toruń with Brześć. It was granted town rights in 1502. It was administratively located in the Kamieniec County in the Masovian Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. It was destroyed during the Swedish invasion of Poland (Second Northern War) in 1655–1660, Poles led by Mikołaj Bołtuć defeated the invading Russians in the on August 18, 1920.

Fierce fights between the Poles and the invading Germans took place in the area on September 8–10, 1939 at the beginning of World War II. The town was then occupied by Germany, which made it part of the Warsaw District of the General Government. Before the war 45% of Wyszków's population of 12,000 were Jewish; after the war there were none. The Germans killed over 7,000 inhabitants of Wyszków, including 5,000 Jews, and operated a forced labour camp for Soviet prisoners of war.

In post-war Poland, the town was administratively part of the Warsaw Voivodeship until 1975, and the Ostrołęka Voivodeship from 1975 to 1998. In 1961, Rybienko Leśne was included within Wyszków's town limits as a new district.

A monument of Polish mathematician and cryptologist Jerzy Różycki was unveiled in 2018.

Sports

The most notable local sport clubs are football team and volleyball team . Both compete in the lower leagues.

Wyszków in culture

Wyszków is the setting of the song Wyszków Tonie (lit. Wyszków is Sinking) by Polish rock band Elektryczne Gitary, released in the 1993 album A Ty Co. It uses sinking as an extended metaphor for succumbing to alcoholism.

Notable people

thumb|Monument to [[Mordechaj Anielewicz]]

  • Mordechai Anielewicz (1919–1943), leader of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
  • Jarosław Kalinowski (born 1962), Polish politician
  • Berek Lajcher (1893–1943), Polish physician and activist
  • Lanberry (born 1987), Polish singer and songwriter
  • Jerzy Różycki (1909–1942), Polish mathematician and cryptologist who worked at breaking German Enigma machine ciphers before and during World War II; spent part of his childhood and graduated from high school in Wyszków.

References

  • Jewish Community in Wyszków on Virtual Shtetl