Two major factories are found there: Fabryka Maszyn Górniczych "Omag", which in the 1930s as Spółka Akcyjna Zjednoczenia Fabryk Maszyn i Samochodów "Oświęcim" (Oświęcim United Machinery and Automobile Manufacturing Inc.) produced the "Oświęcim-Praga" car which won a Monte Carlo Rally; and the Polinova Company (popularly known as Papownia).

Politically the village belonged then to the Duchy of Oświęcim, formed in 1315 in the process of feudal fragmentation of Poland and was ruled by a local branch of Piast dynasty.

In 1457 Jan IV of Oświęcim agreed to sell the duchy to the Polish Crown, and in the accompanying document issued on 21 February the village was mentioned as Brzesinka.

Following the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II in September 1939, the village was occupied and annexed by Nazi Germany.

[4] Additionally, in 1943, the Germans established a subcamp of the Auschwitz concentration camp in the village, in which they enslaved hundreds of men (initially mostly Poles and Russians, and later mostly Jews) as slave labour.