Tuchola

Tuchola [tuˈxɔla] (former German name: Tuchel) is a town in the Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship in northern Poland. The Pomeranian town, which is the seat of Tuchola County, had a population of 13,418 as of 2013.

Geographical location

Tuchola lies about 50 kilometres (31 miles) north of Bydgoszcz, close to the Tuchola Forests. Forest areas to the east and north of the town form the protected area of Tuchola Landscape Park.

History

Settlement around Tuchola dates from 980, while the town was first mentioned in 1287. The place was one of the strongholds of the count of Nowe Peter Swienca, who owned a fortified domicile in the area. In 1330 Tuchola came into possession of the Teutonic Order. It received Culm law in 1346 from Heinrich Dusemer, the Grand Master of the Teutonic Knights.

After the Order's defeat in the Battle of Grunwald on July 14, 1410, a Polish-Lithuanian army captured the town on November 5, 1410, but the Order regained the town in the First Peace of Thorn in 1411. At the end of the Thirteen Years' War (1454–1466), however, it was ceded to Poland in the Second Peace of Thorn and became part of Royal Prussia.

Tuchola prisoner of war camp

The Tuchola prisoner of war camp, located in the town of Tuchola (Tuchel, Тухоля), was built and operated by the German Empire from 1914 until 1918 and then by the Second Polish Republic from 1920 until 1921.

German prisoner of war camp

The camp was constructed at the beginning of World War I by the Germans. Initially the German military command believed that the war would last no more than a few weeks and even if the campaign in the west lasted longer, the expectation was that the Russians would not be able to mobilize large forces for some time. However Tsarist Russia began an offensive in Eastern Prussia soon after the commencement of hostilities and the German army was forced to relocate substantial forces to the east. After crucial strategic mistakes by Russian generals at the Battle of Tannenberg and the First Battle of the Masurian Lakes, the Germans, after these victories, found themselves with a substantial number of captured Russian soldiers, around 137,000 prisoners. Without a prior plan to accommodate this many captives the Germans began hastily building the facilities to house them, most of which were located in Gdańsk Pomerania, including Tuchola.