Bolekhiv
Encyclopedia
Bolekhiv is a city in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast
(province
) of Ukraine
. It is designated into a self-administrated city district of oblast
subordination. As the other numerous cities of the Western Ukraine
Bolekhiv once was the home to a big Jewish community, population of which declined drastically during and after the World War II
.
defeated the Hungarians and it became part of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1546 Emilia Hrosovska established the local salt refinery in the town. The building of the refinery survived until the 21st Century. In 1603 Sigismund III Vasa
gave the town the Magdeburg rights
. In the 17th Century the region around the town was known for the famous Opryshky movement led by Oleksa Dovbush
. Simultaneously the region started to be colonized by German population. In 1890, half the population was Jewish. By the start of the 20th century half of the town's population were Jewish, but of about 5000 Jews including children only 48 survived World War II. After the war the city became the Raion
seat, but in 1964 its Raion was merged with the neighboring Dolyna Raion. Since 1993 the city has been under the direct Oblast subordination.
A year later, on 3 - 5 September 1942, the Jews got a warning message from the Judenrat
of Drohobych
that a murderous attack was ensuing. Several local Ukrainian residents decided to begin the massacre before the Germans arrived. Mostly children were caught in houses and thrown out a window. A women who was in the middle of giving birth was dragged out to the town square, forced to stand during birth, the newly born child was stamped to death, amongst laughing local residents. Many children were killed by kicks. The German Gestapo
policemen bragged that they had killed 600 children, and one Ukrainian civilian said that he alone had killed 97 children. (Following the war, a son of this man, living in the US, and serving as a priest read about these atrocities and dedicated the rest of his life helping commemorate the Jewish community of Bolekhiv). A total of 600-700 children and 800-900 adults were killed that day. Two thousand others were gathered and sent to Bełżec extermination camp. While marching to the train station they were forced to sing, mostly the song "Belz mein shtetele Belz".
At 1943, various murders and atrocities continued. At one stage, when there were still 900 Jews left, working at a local "work camp", for a few days groups of 100 and 200 Jews were taken to the nearby forest and shot. Evidence was given by local residents that the shots were so close, that some of the people drowned out the sound with heavy machinery.
Until late 1993 Bolekhiv was a city of Dolyna Raion. The city of Bolekhiv received a status of the city with oblast subordination on October 21, 1993 encompassing six adjacent rural municipalities (communes) with eleven villages responsible to its administration. The Bolekhiv municipality borders with the Dolyna Raion and three raions of Lviv Oblast
Zhydachiv Raion
, Stryi Raion
, and Skole Raion
. According to the Ukrainian Census (2001)
the city has population of 10,590 while its metro-area (all communities) - 21,232.
Rural municipalities (communes)
Most populous communities
The smallest community is the Huziiv commune with a population of 1,159 (2001).
Two main rivers that run through the Bolekhiv municipality are Sukil and Svicha eventually making their way to Dniester
.
's 2005 book The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
.
Regional orientation
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast
Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is the city of Ivano-Frankivsk. As is the case with most other oblasts of Ukraine this region has the same name as its administrative center – which was renamed by the Soviets after the Ukrainian writer, nationalist...
(province
Oblast
Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
) of Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. It is designated into a self-administrated city district of oblast
Oblast
Oblast is a type of administrative division in Slavic countries, including some countries of the former Soviet Union. The word "oblast" is a loanword in English, but it is nevertheless often translated as "area", "zone", "province", or "region"...
subordination. As the other numerous cities of the Western Ukraine
Western Ukraine
Western Ukraine may refer to:* Generally, the territories in the West of Ukraine* Eastern Galicia* West Ukrainian National Republic...
Bolekhiv once was the home to a big Jewish community, population of which declined drastically during and after the World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
.
History
The first mention of Bolekhiv, originally called Bolechów, dates back to 1371, when Hungarian Queen Izabela gave this property to one Danylo Dazhbohovych for meritorious service. But not too long after that the Polish King JogailaJogaila
Jogaila, later 'He is known under a number of names: ; ; . See also: Jogaila : names and titles. was Grand Duke of Lithuania , king consort of Kingdom of Poland , and sole King of Poland . He ruled in Lithuania from 1377, at first with his uncle Kęstutis...
defeated the Hungarians and it became part of the Kingdom of Poland. In 1546 Emilia Hrosovska established the local salt refinery in the town. The building of the refinery survived until the 21st Century. In 1603 Sigismund III Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa
Sigismund III Vasa was King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania, a monarch of the united Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1587 to 1632, and King of Sweden from 1592 until he was deposed in 1599...
gave the town the Magdeburg rights
Magdeburg rights
Magdeburg Rights or Magdeburg Law were a set of German town laws regulating the degree of internal autonomy within cities and villages granted by a local ruler. Modelled and named after the laws of the German city of Magdeburg and developed during many centuries of the Holy Roman Empire, it was...
. In the 17th Century the region around the town was known for the famous Opryshky movement led by Oleksa Dovbush
Oleksa Dovbush
Oleksa Dovbush was a famous Ukrainian outlaw, leader of opryshky, who became a folk hero, often compared to Robin Hood.-Biography:...
. Simultaneously the region started to be colonized by German population. In 1890, half the population was Jewish. By the start of the 20th century half of the town's population were Jewish, but of about 5000 Jews including children only 48 survived World War II. After the war the city became the Raion
Raion
A raion is a type of administrative unit of several post-Soviet countries. The term, which is from French rayon 'honeycomb, department,' describes both a type of a subnational entity and a division of a city, and is commonly translated in English as "district"...
seat, but in 1964 its Raion was merged with the neighboring Dolyna Raion. Since 1993 the city has been under the direct Oblast subordination.
Bolekhiv Jews in World War II
On the 28th of October 1941, the Germans rounded up 800 of the richer Jews, doctors, and others from their homes, including the Rabbis, and marched them to Dom Katolitzi, a public building in the north of the town, were they were tortured for two days without food and finally taken to a nearby forest and murdered by shooting in what the Germans euphemistically called an Aktion. During these two days, the people were forced to stand in a pyramid, with the Rabbis naked on top, singing German praise songs. They were then thrown to the ground several times. One woman had her face smashed with a chair, another had his head severed so badly, that his son (Dr. David Lands) did not recognize his body, taken along with them to the killing site. Several people died of suffocation in the building, when forced to bow down.A year later, on 3 - 5 September 1942, the Jews got a warning message from the Judenrat
Judenrat
Judenräte were administrative bodies during the Second World War that the Germans required Jews to form in the German occupied territory of Poland, and later in the occupied territories of the Soviet Union It is the overall term for the enforcement bodies established by the Nazi occupiers to...
of Drohobych
Drohobych
Drohobych is a city located at the confluence of the Tysmenytsia River and Seret, a tributary of the former, in the Lviv Oblast , in western Ukraine...
that a murderous attack was ensuing. Several local Ukrainian residents decided to begin the massacre before the Germans arrived. Mostly children were caught in houses and thrown out a window. A women who was in the middle of giving birth was dragged out to the town square, forced to stand during birth, the newly born child was stamped to death, amongst laughing local residents. Many children were killed by kicks. The German Gestapo
Gestapo
The Gestapo was the official secret police of Nazi Germany. Beginning on 20 April 1934, it was under the administration of the SS leader Heinrich Himmler in his position as Chief of German Police...
policemen bragged that they had killed 600 children, and one Ukrainian civilian said that he alone had killed 97 children. (Following the war, a son of this man, living in the US, and serving as a priest read about these atrocities and dedicated the rest of his life helping commemorate the Jewish community of Bolekhiv). A total of 600-700 children and 800-900 adults were killed that day. Two thousand others were gathered and sent to Bełżec extermination camp. While marching to the train station they were forced to sing, mostly the song "Belz mein shtetele Belz".
At 1943, various murders and atrocities continued. At one stage, when there were still 900 Jews left, working at a local "work camp", for a few days groups of 100 and 200 Jews were taken to the nearby forest and shot. Evidence was given by local residents that the shots were so close, that some of the people drowned out the sound with heavy machinery.
Administrative divisions
Bolekhiv municipality (city council)Until late 1993 Bolekhiv was a city of Dolyna Raion. The city of Bolekhiv received a status of the city with oblast subordination on October 21, 1993 encompassing six adjacent rural municipalities (communes) with eleven villages responsible to its administration. The Bolekhiv municipality borders with the Dolyna Raion and three raions of Lviv Oblast
Lviv Oblast
Lviv Oblast is an oblast in western Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Lviv.-History:The oblast was created as part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic on December 4, 1939...
Zhydachiv Raion
Zhydachiv Raion
Zhydachiv Raion is a raion in Lviv Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Zhydachiv. It has a population of 80 812.It was established in 1939.-External links:*...
, Stryi Raion
Stryi Raion
Stryi Raion is a raion in Lviv Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Stryi. It has a population of 67 700.It was established in 1939.-See also:* Subdivisions of Ukraine* Lviv Oblast...
, and Skole Raion
Skole Raion
Skole Raion is a raion in Lviv Oblast in western Ukraine. Its administrative center is Skole. It has a population of 50 310.It was established in 1940.-External links:*...
. According to the Ukrainian Census (2001)
Ukrainian Census (2001)
The first Ukrainian Census was carried out by State Statistics Committee of Ukraine on 5 December 2001, twelve years after the last Soviet Union census in 1989....
the city has population of 10,590 while its metro-area (all communities) - 21,232.
Rural municipalities (communes)
- Huziiv - Huziiv
- Kozakivka - KozakivkaKozakivkaKozakivka is a village of the Bolekhiv municipality in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast . First written records date back to 1578....
, Sukil - Mizhrichia - Mizhrichya, Zarichia
- Pidberezhia - Pidberezhia
- Polianytsia - Polyanytsia, Bubnysche, Bukovets
- Tysiv - Tysiv, Tanyava
Most populous communities
- Bolekhiv city - 10,590
- Tysiv commune - 3,352
- Mizhrichia commune - 1,891
The smallest community is the Huziiv commune with a population of 1,159 (2001).
Two main rivers that run through the Bolekhiv municipality are Sukil and Svicha eventually making their way to Dniester
Dniester
The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
.
Famous people
- Ber of Bolechow or Dov Ber Birkenthal(1723–1805), a Jewish merchant and scholar. He wrote memoirs in Hebrew whose manuscript is in the National Library of Canada in Ottawa. The memoirs were translated into Yiddish (Klal-farlag, Berlin, 1922) and into English (Arno Press, New York, 1973) by Mark Vishnitzer.
- Daniel MendelsohnDaniel Mendelsohn-Life and career:Mendelsohn was born on Long Island. He graduated with a B. A. in Classics from the University of Virginia, which he attended from 1978 to 1982 as an Echols Scholar, and received his M. A. and Ph. D. in Classics from Princeton University, where he was a Mellon Fellow in the...
(born 1960), a writer and scholar who wrote a book The Lost: A Search for Six of Six MillionThe Lost: A Search for Six of Six MillionThe Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million is a non-fiction memoir by Daniel Mendelsohn, published in September 2006, which has received critical acclaim as a new perspective on Holocaust remembrance...
about the Jewish community of Bolekhiv - Natalia Kobrynska (1855–1920), famous Ukrainian writer and public activist. She organized the female movement in the region and was friend of Olha KobylianskaOlha KobylianskaOlha Julianivna Kobylianska was a Ukrainian modernist writer and feminist.-Origin:Kobylianska was born in Gura Humorului in Bukovina in the family of a minor administration worker of Ukrainian noble decent from the Dnieper region. She was the fourth child of seven of Maria Werner and Julian...
. - Ivan FrankoIvan FrankoIvan Yakovych Franko was a Ukrainian poet, writer, social and literary critic, journalist, interpreter, economist, political activist, doctor of philosophy, the author of the first detective novels and modern poetry in the Ukrainian language....
, he visited the city in 1884-1888 and later wrote its drama The Stolen Hapiness (Ukradene schastia)
Popular culture
The town is a principal subject of Daniel MendelsohnDaniel Mendelsohn
-Life and career:Mendelsohn was born on Long Island. He graduated with a B. A. in Classics from the University of Virginia, which he attended from 1978 to 1982 as an Echols Scholar, and received his M. A. and Ph. D. in Classics from Princeton University, where he was a Mellon Fellow in the...
's 2005 book The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million
The Lost: A Search for Six of Six Million is a non-fiction memoir by Daniel Mendelsohn, published in September 2006, which has received critical acclaim as a new perspective on Holocaust remembrance...
.
Location
Local orientationRegional orientation