Alternate names: Czarnków [Pol], Czarnikau [Ger], Scharnikau [Ger, 1940-45]. 52°54' N, 16°34' E, 37 miles NNW of Poznań (Posen). Jewish population: 997 in 1871 and 240 in 1933. Słownik Geograficzny Królestwa Polskiego (1880-1902), I, pp. 748-750: "Czarnków". The town in Czarnków-Trzcianka County in Greater Poland Voivodeship, previously in Piła Voivodeship (1975-1998) has 12,000 inhabitants and is seat of the gmina. The area on the Noteć river with many hills surrounding the town is called Szwajcaria Czarnkowska ("Czarnków's Switzerland"). From 1772-1919, the town belonged to the Kingdom of Prussia and Imperial Germany. The Jewish community founded in the 17th century was sent possibly in Lodz ghetto. Yizkor: Le-korot kehilat Tsarnikau, Jerusalem, 1957 or 1958. The Jewish community probably dates from the beginning of the seventeenth century when Prince Sapieha had various relations with the Jews living there. The community numbered 470 in 1815, 1,200 persons from 1855-64, and 600 in 1900. An old synagogue, built in 1759, was replaced in 1878 by a new one. In 1842, the community built its own schoolhouse, enlarged in 1878. [April 2009]
Czarnków-Trzcianka County (Polish: powiat czarnkowsko-trzcianecki) is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) came into being on January 1, 1999. The county contains three other towns: Trzcianka, 11 mi N of Czarnków, Krzyż Wielkopolski, 24 mi W of Czarnków, and Wieleń, 17 mi W of Czarnków. 2006 population is 86,134.[April 2009]
CEMETERY: On Rolna Str., the cemetery with 30 gravestones has a pre-burial house currently used as a private residence. In 1819, the new cemetery was established on Posener Chaussée, the land of the old one transferred to the city to a forest. [April 2009]
CZARNKOW (I): US Commission No. POCE000402 and 403. The US Commission is not finished rechecking this file. [2000]