Chorzele

History

The first mention of Chorzele comes from a document of Duke Bolesław IV of Warsaw from 1444. The names comes from the Old Polish word orz or horz, similarly to the name of the Orzyc river. It was a settlement situated on the edge of the forest. It was vested with town rights in 1542. Chorzele was a royal town of the Crown of the Kingdom of Poland, administratively located in the Przasnysz County in the Masovian Voivodeship in the Greater Poland Province. It had trade contacts with Russia. The town was devastated during the Swedish invasion of Poland (Deluge) in the 1655–1656. Another clash between Polish insurgents and Russian troops occurred on March 14, 1863. In 1870 the municipal rights were revoked by the Russian administration as punishment for the uprising. In 1905 Chorzele was inhabited by 2,301 Jews, constituting 57% of the population. During World War I Chorzele suffered war damages that eventually limited the development of the town in the interbellum, and from November 1914 to 1918 it was under German occupation. In 1916 Chorzele obtained a railway connection. After the war, in 1918, Poland regained independence, and in 1919 the town rights were restored. The Battle of Chorzele was fought during the Polish–Soviet War on August 23, 1920. A Polish Border Guard station was located in the town in the interwar period. According to the 1921 census, the town had a population of 2,454, 64.7% Polish and 35.3% Jewish. In 1930, Chorzele was visited by President of Poland, Ignacy Mościcki. In 1940–1941, the anti-Polish propaganda film Heimkehr was shot in the town. In 1941, the Germans deported the local Jewish population, which was later exterminated in the Holocaust. On 20 January 1945, the town was captured by Soviet troops of the 32nd Cavalry Division of the 3rd…