In the 10th century, the area became part of the emerging Polish state under the
Piast dynasty. The oldest known mention of the village comes from 1277, when it was granted by Duke
Mestwin II to the
Diocese of Włocławek. It was
invaded and occupied by the
Teutonic Order in the 14th century. In 1454, the region was reincorporated to the
Kingdom of Poland by King
Casimir IV Jagiellon upon the request of the anti-Teutonic
Prussian Confederation. After the
Second Peace of Thorn in 1466, the Teutonic Order renounced any claims to the region and recognized it as part of Poland. Świekatowo was a private church village of the Diocese of Włocławek, administratively located in the Świecie County in the
Pomeranian Voivodeship of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1686, it was visited by Bishop
Bonawentura Madaliński. Following
World War I, Poland regained independence in 1918, and the village was restored by
Germany to the
Second Polish Republic in 1920 per the
Treaty of Versailles. During the
German invasion of Poland, which started
World War II in 1939, German forces on 3 September murdered 26 Poles. The massacre happened as Poles were attending a church mass from which they were dragged out by German soldiers and shot (see
Nazi crimes against the Polish nation). From 1939 to 1945, under
German occupation, the village belonged to the
administrative region of Marienwerder in the newly formed province of
Reichsgau Danzig-West Prussia. In 1941, the occupiers carried out
expulsions of Poles, who were then placed in a transit camp in
Tczew for three weeks, and afterwards deported to the
Warsaw District of the
General Government in the more eastern part of German-occupied Poland, while their houses and farms were handed over to German colonists as part of the
Lebensraum policy. In 1942, the village was renamed
Schweike to erase traces of Polish origin. Towards the end of
World War II, it was captured by the
Red Army and was restored to Poland. ==Transport==