Bedzin

Będzin (bĕN`jēn), Ger. Bendzin (bĕn`tsĭn), town (1993 est. pop. 65,100), 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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Będzin 

a city in southern Poland in Katowice Province, at the Czarna-Przemsza River (Wisia basin). Population, 42,000 (1967). It is an industrial center in the Dabrowa coal basin; there is an open coal pit. Near Będzin there is a thermal electric power plant (600 megawatts). There is a metal-working industry; also production of electric cables and other items from nonferrous metals. There are also shoe-making and food enterprises. In the 14th-century castle there is a museum of local lore.