Place:Hel, Pomorze, Poland

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source: Family History Library Catalog

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Hel (; formerly ) is a seaside resort city in Puck County, Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, located on the tip of the Hel Peninsula, some from the Polish mainland.

History

the text in this section is copied from an article in Wikipedia

Early developments

The Kashubian village of Hel was first mentioned in 1198 as a centre of herring trade area named Gellen. In one of the Danish chronicles of 1219 it is mentioned that a damaged ship of King Valdemar II the Victorious was set ashore on an "Island of Hel". By the 13th century the village became one of the most important trade centres of the area, competing with the nearby town of Danzig. It was then that the village was granted city rights by Duke Świętopełk II the Great of Pomerania. The privileges were again confirmed in 1378 when the town came under the rule of the Teutonic Order. Following the Order's defeat, under the imposed Second Treaty of Thorn in 1466 this area was annexed by Poland.

Initially the town (Aldstadt) was some from its present-day centre. It contained a church, hospital, city house, two market places, several guest houses and a small port. However, during the 15th century the peninsula started to shrink through marine erosion and soon the town was moved to a safer place. In 1417 St Peter's Church was built in the town, devoted to the patron saint of fishermen. Hel experienced a period of growth, but was later left behind by the faster-growing city of Danzig. In 1466 King Casimir IV of Poland granted the town as a fief to the rulers of Danzig, which ended the century-long struggle for economic domination over Danzig Bay. In 1526 King Sigismund I the Old withdrew all privileges previously granted to Hel and sold the town and the peninsula to the city authorities of Danzig. Since then Hel's fate was tied to the fortunes of its bigger neighbour.

In the 17th and 18th centuries prolonged warfare and a series of natural disasters severely damaged the town. It was severely depopulated, and in 1793 it was annexed by Prussia in the Second Partition of Poland. In 1872 the government of the newly formed German Empire abolished the town rights granted to Hel six centuries previously. After that the village of Hela (as it is called in German) lost much of its significance.

Modern times

The period of decline was halted in 1893 when a fishing harbour was built in the village. It provided a shelter for fishing vessels, but also became a popular destination for weekend trips of the inhabitants of Danzig and Zoppot (Sopot). In 1896 the village was granted the status of a sea-side resort.

As a result of World War I and the Treaty of Versailles Poland was re-established as an independent nation. Hel, before the war a predominantly German village (93% in 1905), became again part of Poland. In 1921 a new railway was built along the peninsula connecting the town to the mainland. The authorities of the Pomeranian Voivodeship also planned to build a road to the village, but the peninsula was found too narrow at the time. Soon Hel became one of the most important tourism centres in Polish Pomerania. New suburbs of villas were built for tourists, as well as a new church, school, fishing institute and geophysical observatory. In addition, the village became one of the two main naval bases of the Polish Navy. The harbour was expanded and in 1936 the president declared the peninsula a "Fortified Area" under jurisdiction of the Polish Army. The naval base was expanded significantly and a battery of coastal artillery was built to provide cover for the military facilities.

During the invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the Hel Peninsula was one of the longest-defended pockets of Polish Army resistance. Approximately 3,000 soldiers of the Coastal Defence Group (Grupa Obrony Wybrzeża) units under Kmdr Włodzimierz Steyer defended the area until 2 October 1939. Shortly before capitulation, Polish military engineers detonated a number of torpedo warheads, which separated the peninsula from the mainland transforming it into an island. Afterwards, Hel was occupied by Germany. Already in 1939, the occupiers carried out the first expulsion of Poles, who were then enslaved as forced labour of new German colonists in various places in the region. During the occupation, the Kriegsmarine used the Hel naval base to train U-boat crews. At the end of the war the village was the last part of Polish soil to be liberated: the German units encircled there only surrendered on 14 May 1945, six days after Germany had capitulated.

After the war the village yet again became a naval base. In 1960 a road linking Hel with Jastarnia on the mainland was built. Three years later city rights were reintroduced. Since then the tourist industry started to recover and several hotels, guest houses and inns were built. In 1996 the Polish Navy sold all remaining parts of the peninsula to the civilian authorities and only a small naval base is there today.

The harbour now serves primarily as a yacht marina, though there are some fishing boats and ferries to Gdańsk, Sopot and Gdynia in the summer.

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