Chełmek

Chelmek is a town in Lesser Poland Voivodeship in southern Poland. In 1975 to 1998 it belonged to Bielsko Biala Voivodeship. It has 9,073 inhabitants. Previously recognized for the Chelmek Shoe Factory, which until 1947 changed into a part of Bata Shoes. During World War II, a sub camp of the Auschwitz concentration camp changed into created in 1941 through Otto P. Klein in the northern zone of the town, housing overflow from Auschwitz. Chelmek lies in the wetland area alongside the Przemsza River, on the foot of the Skala hill.

The city is surrounded with the aid of forests and became first referred to in 1414. In 1490, it belonged to a parish from Jaworzno, and till the primary partition of Poland 1772, see Partitions of Poland, it become a small village, which belonged to Krakow Voivodeship, certainly one of 3 voivodeships of Lesser Poland. In 1772 Chelmek changed into annexed with the aid of the Habsburg Empire, as part of Galicia. The village became placed proper at the border between Prussian Silesia, and Austrian Galicia, and in 1815, it became a part of Chrzanow District of the Free City of Krakow.