The town played an important role in the development of trade between the Polish city of Toruń and Ruthenia from the 15th to 17th centuries.

In July 1807, following the Treaty of Tilsit, the town was transferred to the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw and after June 1815, became part of the Russian-controlled Congress Poland to 1916.

The German General Karl Litzmann won an important battle here against the Russian army and earned the nickname "the lion of Brzeziny".

Beginning in 1939 and the German occupation of Poland in World War II the entire region was part of the notorious Reichsgau Wartheland governed by SS Obergruppenfuhrer Arthur Greiser.

In 1942, hundreds of elderly, sick, and mothers with children were sent to the Chełmno extermination camp and were immediately gassed.