page_title: Bytom
section_title: Notable people
hierarchical_section_title: Bytom / Notable people
caption_attribution_description: English: St. Jack Church in Bytom Polski: Kościół Św. Jacka w Bytomiu
context_page_description: Bytom is a city with powiat rights in southern Poland, in Silesia, in centre of Metropolitan Association of Upper Silesia and Dąbrowa Basin.
  It is one of the oldest cities in the Upper Silesia, and the former seat of the Piast dukes of the Duchy of Bytom. Until 1532, it was in the hands of the Silesian Piasts, then it belonged to the Hohenzollern dynasty. After 1623 it was a state country in the hands of the Donnersmarck family. From 1742–1945 the town was within the borders of Prussia and Germany, and played an important role as an economic and administrative centre of the local industrial region. Until the outbreak of World War II, it was the main centre of national, social, cultural and publishing organisations fighting to preserve Polish identity in Upper Silesia.
  During Kristallnacht in 1938, Nazi Germans burned down the Bytom Synagogue. In 1942, the Beuthen Jewish community was liquidated and its members were the first transport to be sent to Auschwitz concentration camp.
  After the war, decades of the Polish People's Republic were characterized by a constant emphasis on the development of heavy industry, which deeply polluted and degraded Bytom.
context_section_description: Grzegorz Gerwazy Gorczycki (c. 1665–1734), Polish composer and musician
  Heinrich Schulz-Beuthen (1838–1915), German composer
  Siegfried Karfunkelstein (1848–1870), Prussian soldier
  Ernst Gaupp (1865–1916), German anatomist
  Ludwig Halberstädter (1876–1949), radiologist
  Adolf Kober (1879–1958), rabbi and historian
  Maximilian Kaller (1880–1947), bishop of Warmia
  Kate Steinitz (1889–1975), German-American artist and art historian
  Hartwig von Ludwiger (1895–1947), German general
  Max Tau (1897–1976), Jewish-German-Norwegian writer, editor and publisher
  Henry J. Leir (1900–1998), American industrialist, financier, and philanthropist
  Friedrich Domin (1902–1961), German film actor
  Herbert Büchs (1913–1996), German General
  Józef Kachel (1913–1983), head of the pre-war Polish Scouting Association in Germany
  Hans-Joachim Pancherz (1914–2008), German aviator and test pilot
  Horst Winter (1914–2001), German-Austrian jazz musician
  Leo Scheffczyk (1920–2005), German theologian and cardinal
  Haim Yavin (born 1932), Israeli news anchor
  Wolfgang Reichmann (1932–1991), German actor
  Reinhard Opitz (1934–1986), German political scientist
  Józef Szmidt (born 1935), Polish triple jumper
  Jan Liberda (1936–2020), Polish footballer
  Wiesław Ochman (born 1937), Polish opera singer
  Jan Banaś (born 1943), Polish footballer
  Walter Winkler (1943–2014), Polish footballer
  Zygmunt Anczok (born 1946), Polish footballer
  Jerzy Konikowski (born 1947), chess player
  Leszek Engelking (born 1955), Polish poet, writer, translator and scholar
  Waldemar Legień (born 1963), Polish judoka, Olympic champion from Seoul and Barcelona
  Marzena Godecki (born 1978), Australian actress
  Dorota Kobiela (born 1978), Polish filmmaker
  Paul Freier (born 1979), German footballer
  Jakub Pszoniak (born 1980), Polish writer
  Gosia Andrzejewicz (born 1984), Polish pop singer
  Martyna Majok (born 1985), Polish-American playwright
  Kamil Drozd (born 1997), Polish musician
caption: St. Hyacinth's Church – an example of Neo-Romantic architecture in Bytom
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