[2] After the Deluge in the mid-17th century, Jews, Masovians, and Old Believer Russians began living in Berżniki alongside the native Lithuanians.

[2] On 25 June 1863, the rebel squads of Feliks Kołyszko, V. Hlaska and L. Čempinskis clashed with the Imperial Russian Army near Berżniki.

[2] Until the early 20th century, most of the parishioners (about 6,000 people) were Lithuanian, but due to the influence of the manors, the church and the Polish schools, the population began to be rapidly Polonized.

[6] During the German occupation (World War II), the Germans arrested the local Polish parish priest Józef Śledziński in April 1940 and then imprisoned him in Suwałki and the Soldau and Sachsenhausen concentration camps.

[7] He died after being beaten by the Germans in Sachsenhausen in August 1940 (see Nazi crimes against the Polish nation).

[7] Works of art and vital records were looted by the Germans from the local church and taken to Königsberg.