Brzezinka b is a village in southern Poland

Poland

Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, located about 3 kilometres (1.9 mi) from Oświęcim

Oswiecim

Oświęcim is a town in the Lesser Poland province of southern Poland, situated west of Kraków, near the confluence of the rivers Vistula and Soła.- History :...

 (Auschwitz), in the district of Gmina Oświęcim

Gmina Oswiecim

Gmina Oświęcim is a rural gmina in Oświęcim County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland. Its seat is the town of Oświęcim, although the town is not part of the territory of the gmina....

, Oświęcim County

Oswiecim County

Oświęcim County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, southern Poland. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and largest town is Oświęcim, which lies ...

, Lesser Poland Voivodeship

Lesser Poland Voivodeship

Małopolska Voivodeship , or Lesser Poland Voivodeship, is a voivodeship, in southern Poland...

.

General information

The village is located near the confluence of the rivers Vistula

Vistula

The Vistula is the longest and the most important river in Poland, at 1,047 km in length. The watershed area of the Vistula is , of which lies within Poland ....

 and Soła, at the very center of the Vistula Valley, 240 meters above sea level. By the time of the construction of the first railroad station in 1856 the station was on Brzezinka's territory, but later it was transplanted to nearby Oświęcim (Auschwitz).

Two major factories are found there: Maszyn Górniczych "Omag", which in the 1930s, called Spółka Akcyjna Zjednoczenia Fabryk Maszyn i Samochodów "Oświęcim" (Auschwitz United Machinery and Automobile Manufacturing Inc.) produced the "Oświęcim-Praga" which won a Monte Carlo Rally; and the Polinova Company (popularly known as Papownia).

History

The name Brzezinka was given to the area as far back as 1385 and stems from the Polish word for the birch

Birch

Birch is a tree or shrub of the genus Betula , in the family Betulaceae, closely related to the beech/oak family, Fagaceae. The Betula genus contains 30–60 known taxa...

 trees which are plentiful. From 1440 to 1483 Brzezinka was owned by Jan Brzeziński. During World War II

World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...

 after annexation by Germany

Polish areas annexed by Nazi Germany

At the beginning of World War II, nearly a quarter of the pre-war Polish areas were annexed by Nazi Germany and placed directly under German civil administration, while the rest of Nazi occupied Poland was named as General Government...

 the village was chosen as the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau (Auschwitz II) German Nazi death camp, whose remains exist along with Auschwitz I as state museums to commemorate the victims of Nazism

Nazism

Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...

 and the Holocaust

The Holocaust

The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...

.

On 1 April 2007 Brzezinka was featured on The Amazing Race: All-Stars

The Amazing Race 11

The Amazing Race 11 is the 11th installment of the reality television show The Amazing Race...

.