Człuchów is a town of around 15,000 inhabitants in the region of Middle Pomerania, in the north-west of Poland.

By the beginning of the 13th century Człuchów was a Slavic settlement under the overlordship of the Kingdom of Poland located at the intersection of two trade routes. In 1312 the Teutonic Knights purchased the settlement for 250 silver marks from Nicholas of Poniec. The Order began constructing a fortress known as Schlochau on a hill east of the settlement; the fortress, the Order's second-largest after Marienburg, was completed in 1367. By 1323 it was used as a komturei (bailiwick) by the crusaders and consisted of three support buildings and the main castle. The fortress was so well-developed that Grand Master Heinrich von Dusemer granted the town Kulm law in 1348. After the defeat of the Order in the Thirteen Years' War, the town was transferred to Poland in the Second Peace of Thorn (1466). Many Jews immigrated to the town afterward, creating an enclosed Jewish quarter in the north of the town.

The town became part of the Kingdom of Prussia during the First Partition of Poland (1772), then part of the German Empire (in 1871) and finally, part of the Second Polish Republic after the Treaty of Versailles in 1919 following World War I.

During the German occupation during the World War II, the Nazis held a center for 600 members of the Hitler Youth.