The town was founded in 1742 by
Moravian immigrants. As members of the
Moravian Church, they fled from persecution in their
Catholic homeland. The name
Niesky is the
Germanised version of the
Czech word
nízký ("low"). In 1776, at the age of 12,
Benjamin Henry Boneval Latrobe, future designer of the
United States Capitol, as well as of the
Baltimore Basilica, was sent to the Moravian School at Niesky. Niesky was administered by the
Moravian Church until 1892, when a separate civil administration was established. In 1931 it obtained a coat of arms, and in 1935 it was granted
town rights. The Germans evacuated the prisoners in February 1945, leaving only those unable to walk in the camp. During the march, weak prisoners and those unable to continue walking were murdered by the Germans and buried in forests along the way. The prisoners remaining in the camp were liberated by the
Polish Second Army which captured the town on 18 April 1945. On 26 July 1945 the city issued three postage stamps of its own. ==Localities==