Babice, Oświęcim County

For other places with the same name, see Babice.

Babice
Village
Country	Poland
Voivodeship	Lesser Poland
County	Oświęcim
Gmina	Gmina Oświęcim
First mentioned	1314
Elevation	238 m (781 ft)
Population	1,582

Babice [baˈbit͡sɛ] is a village in the administrative district of Gmina Oświęcim, within Oświęcim County, Lesser Poland Voivodeship, in southern Poland.

The village has a population of 1,582.

History

The village was first mentioned in 1314. Since 1315 it belonged to the Duchy of Oświęcim, which in 1327 became a fee of the Kingdom of Bohemia. In the document of Jan IV of Oświęcim issued on 21 January 1457 in which the duke agreed to sell the Duchy of Oświęcim to the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland the village was mentioned as Babicze.

The territory of the Duchy of Oświęcim was eventually incorporated into Poland in 1564 and formed Silesian County of Kraków Voivodeship. Upon the First Partition of Poland in 1772 it became part of the Austrian Kingdom of Galicia. After World War I and fall of Austria-Hungary it became part of Poland. It was annexed by Nazi Germany at the beginning of World War II. A small subunit of the Auschwitz concentration camp existed here between March 1943 to January 1945. The camp was mainly for agricultural work on an SS farm. There were 159 men Prisoners as of January 17, 1945 and approximately 180 women prisoners of the summer of 1944. After war it was restored to Poland.