Kurów was probably firstly mentioned in the Gesta principum Polonorum of Gall Anonim as castrum Galli, what is interpreted as the Castle of the Kurowie.

During the November Uprising, in February 1831, the minor Battle of Kurów took place, when the Polish forces under general Józef Dwernicki defeated a Russian army.

Among the targets destroyed was a civilian hospital (marked with red crosses), where many victims perished.

However, most of the Poles imprisoned in Kurów escaped and joined the Polish Home Army units operating from the nearby forests.

On November 13, 1942, the SS murdered 36 Jews,[1] and on March 6, 1944, the Germans executed 45 Poles, members of the Home Army, with 10 being publicly hanged at the Old Market Square and 35 shot at Puławska Street.

Though some Polish Christians denounced Jews to the Germans, others helped shelter and save several of Kurów's Jews: Mieczysław Kutnik, Adam Turczyk, Wacław Mańko, and Andrzej and Katarzyna Zarzycki, the latter whom were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad Vashem after the war.

[4] Many former Jewish residents of Kurów emigrated to America, Israel, Argentina, France before World War II and other points elsewhere, wherever they could find refuge.