Тчев: История города на Висле

Tczew (, ; formerly ) is a city on the Vistula River in Eastern Pomerania, Kociewie, northern Poland with 59,111 inhabitants (December 2021). Around 1200 Sambor I, Duke of Pomerania, built a fortress here. By 1252 the settlement was known by the names Tczew and Dirschau. In 1258 a city council was created and in 1260 Tczew was granted town rights. The townspeople were expelled by the Teutonic Knights and the town's organization ceased to exist for more than half a century. It was rebuilt from 1364 to 1384, and was granted Kulm law by Winrich von Kniprode. After the Polish victory in the Battle of Grunwald in 1410, the town was briefly recaptured by Poland. In 1457, during the Thirteen Years’ War, Bohemian mercenaries on the Order's service sold Tczew to Poland in lieu of indemnities. The Second Peace of Thorn (1466) confirmed the reincorporation of Tczew to Poland. It became a county seat within the Pomeranian Voivodeship in the newly created Polish province of Royal Prussia, soon also part of the Greater Poland Province.

During the Protestant Reformation most of the town's inhabitants converted to Lutheranism. In 1626, it was occupied by king Gustav II Adolf of Sweden, who built a pontoon bridge across river Vistula and who had his camp at the southern side of the town. Although it was rebuilt, it then suffered during the Polish Swedish Wars. In a nearby battle on 2 September 1657, the Poles were defeated by the combined troops of Brandenburg and Sweden under general Josias II, Count of Waldeck Wildungen. and later on, one of the insurgents' main escape routes from partitioned Poland to the Great Emigration led through the city. With the unification of Germany, the town became part of the German Empire in 1871 and from 1887 was the capital of the Dirschau district in the Province of West Prussia. The town grew rapidly during the 19th century after the opening of the Prussian Eastern Railway line connecting Berlin and Königsberg, with the Vistula bridge near Dirschau being an important part. Under Prussian and German rule, the Polish population suffered from forced Germanization; for example Poles were denied Polish schools, and refused to teach their children German. The German official Heinrich Mettenmeyer wrote that German appointed teachers were treated with the highest disdain by Polish children and their parents. The town remained a center of Polish resistance, and Poles established various organizations, including the Bank Ludowy ("People's Bank"). After Poland regained independence in 1918, local Poles formed the People's Council in preparation for reintegration with Poland. During the German occupation of Poland (1939–45) Tczew, as Dirschau, was annexed into the newly formed province of Reichsgau Danzig West Prussia of Nazi Germany. The Polish population was subjected to mass arrests, repressions, expulsions and murder. The SS Heimwehr Sturmbann Götze entered the town in September 1939 to carry out actions against Poles, including mass arrests with the help of local Germans organized in the Selbstschutz, who denounced local Polish activists. The Germans imprisoned hundreds of Poles in camps established in a former factory (present day museum), in a craft school and in military barracks. In November 1939, Germans carried out executions of numerous Poles from Tczew, including local teachers, officials (including pre war mayor Karol Hempel,) craftsmen, a policeman, and even a seventeen year old student. Catholic priests from Pelplin, who were not murdered in Pelplin, were imprisoned in the Tczew barracks and then murdered in the Szpęgawski Forest (see also Nazi persecution of the Catholic Church in Poland). In January 1940, the SS and Selbstschutz carried out two public executions of 33 Polish residents, including railway employees, officials, craftsmen and merchants, at the market square. Also Poles from Starogard and Tuchola counties, who refused to sign the Volksliste, were imprisoned in Tczew and then murdered in a nearby forest. From 1939 to 1941, the Einsatzgruppe operated a penal forced labour camp in the town. In 1941, the Germans created a transition camp for Poles expelled from the region in a local factory (present day museum). People were held there for several weeks, and then expelled to the General Government. Some inhabitants were also deported to forced labour to Germany. After World War II the town, was one of the most damaged cities of Gdańsk Pomerania. Virtually none of its remaining factories were capable of production. There had been considerable loss of population down to around 18 20 thousand people. Shortly before the end of World War II it was occupied by the Soviet Army. After the end of war the town became part of People's Republic of Poland and renamed Tczew again. German residents were dispossessed and expelled; Polish residents took the first effort of reconstruction, and revitalization.

From 1975 to 1998, it was administratively located in the Gdańsk Voivodeship. In 1984 the Museum of the Vistula River, a branch of the National Maritime Museum in Gdańsk, was opened in the building of the pre war metal products factory, in which during World War II Germans operated a transit camp for Poles expelled from the region.

The coat of arms of Tczew depicts a red griffin in honor of Duke Sambor II, who granted the town municipal rights in 1260.

For the last 19 years, the town has been the host location for the annual English Language Camp. The camp, often nicknamed "Camp Tczew" is hosted by the American Polish Partnership for Tczew and offers students a three week program where they have the opportunity to interact with Americans and improve their English.