Będzin
[key], town, Śląskie prov., SE Poland, on the Czarna
Przemsza River, a tributary of the Vistula. It is a heavy industry and
coal-mining center. Founded in the 14th cent., Będzin was situated on
the Wrocław-Kraków trade route. The first coal mine in the
Upper Silesian basin opened at Będzin in 1785. The town passed to
Prussia in 1795 and to Russia in 1815; it was returned to Poland in 1919. In
World War II, the Germans built a concentration camp there in which more
than 10,000 of the town's citizens were killed. In Będzin are the
ruins of a 13th-century castle.
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