Lubaczów
Encyclopedia
Lubaczów l is a town in southeastern Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...

, close to the border with 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...

, with 12,405 inhabitants (02.06.2009).
Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship
Subcarpathian Voivodeship
Podkarpackie Voivodeship , or Subcarpathian Voivodeship, is a voivodeship, or province, in extreme-southeastern Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów...

 (since 1999), it is the capital of Lubaczów County
Lubaczów County
Lubaczów County is a unit of territorial administration and local government in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, south-eastern Poland, on the border with Ukraine. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish local government reforms passed in 1998. Its administrative seat and...

 and is located 50 kilometers northeast of Przemyśl
Przemysl
Przemyśl is a city in south-eastern Poland with 66,756 inhabitants, as of June 2009. In 1999, it became part of the Podkarpackie Voivodeship; it was previously the capital of Przemyśl Voivodeship....

.

Other names

Lubaczów is also called (or misspelled as): Libatchov, Libechuyv, Liubachev, Lubachov, Lubatchov, Lubichuv, Lubachow, Lubatchow.

History

  • 1211: Lubaczów is mentioned for the first time in surviving historical documents.
  • 1376 or 1377: Lubaczów acquired its status as town, receiving its city charter from the Ruthenian Voivodeship
    Ruthenian Voivodeship
    Ruthenia Voivodeship was an administrative division of the Kingdom of Poland . Together with Bełz Voivodeship, it formed Lesser Poland Province with its capital city in Kraków. Part of Lesser Poland region...

    , and became the center of the local government during its early history.
  • 1498: The Jews of Lubaczów are mentioned for the first time, when they were granted a lease
    Lease
    A lease is a contractual arrangement calling for the lessee to pay the lessor for use of an asset. A rental agreement is a lease in which the asset is tangible property...

     to collect Lubaczów customs duties that year.
  • 1532: The Polish King forbade the Jews of Lubaczów to do any business with the population in the surrounding villages.
  • 1538: Tax records show that there were eighteen Jewish families living in Lubaczów who paid taxes to the King.
  • 1565: The lustration
    Lustration
    Lustration is the government process regulating the participation of former communists, especially informants of the communist secret police, in the successor political appointee positions or in civil service positions in the period after the fall of the various European Communist states in 1989 –...

     of this year mentions only three Jewish families living in the town.
  • 1621, 1633 & 1639: Lubaczów Jews were involved in trade and crafts, and also had the right to brew
    Brewing
    Brewing is the production of beer through steeping a starch source in water and then fermenting with yeast. Brewing has taken place since around the 6th millennium BCE, and archeological evidence suggests that this technique was used in ancient Egypt...

     beer. They still held the lease for the collection of municipal fees, as well as the royal taxes from the entire starostwo
    Starostwo
    Starostwo , from the 14th century in the Polish Crown and later through the era of the joint state of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth until the partitions of Poland in 1795, referred to the crown lands administered by the official known as starosta...

     (local administrative unit) in these years.
  • 1648-1649: The Cossacks and Ukrainian
    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...

     farmers led by Bohdan Chmielnicki opposed the Polish government. In their eyes the Jews were agents of the Polish rulers, and with barbaric methods they attacked the Jews. In Lubaczów the shops at the Rynek
    Rynek
    Rynek may refer to the following places:*Rynek, Lesser Poland Voivodeship *Rynek, Masovian Voivodeship *Rynek, Subcarpathian Voivodeship *Rynek, Warmian-Masurian Voivodeship...

     (town square) and in the surrounding streets were completely burnt down.
  • 1662: The lustration of that year does not mention any Jewish households, though by the early eighteenth century a relatively large community did exist there, as evidenced by the amount of taxes paid to the royal treasury.
  • 1670: There were only five Jewish families in Lubaczów.
  • 1765: According to the census of that year, there were 687 Jews obliged to pay taxes who were living in the town and surrounding villages.
  • 1772: Lubaczów became part of the Austrian monarchy
    Habsburg Monarchy
    The Habsburg Monarchy covered the territories ruled by the junior Austrian branch of the House of Habsburg , and then by the successor House of Habsburg-Lorraine , between 1526 and 1867/1918. The Imperial capital was Vienna, except from 1583 to 1611, when it was moved to Prague...

    .
  • 1787: Around thirty Jewish families in Lubaczów asked the Austrian government to give them land so that they could be farmers, but there was no response to their plea.
  • 19th century: The Jewish community in Lubaczów grew stronger and the Jews worked as traders in agricultural products, and peddling in the nearby villages.
  • 1880: The eastern and western railway lines in Poland were connected after a new railway was built from Jarosław, and Lubaczów became important after getting its own railway station. That year, the Jewish Community was about 1,300 people (approximately 30% of the total population).
  • 1891: A Business directory for Galicia is published, containing about 25000 names of people in the professions. It includes several people from Lubaczów.
  • 1896: A hospital was built in Lubaczów.
  • 1899: There was a big fire in Lubaczów in 1899 and the town was largely damaged. Among those who lost their homes were 220 Jewish families comprising almost 1000 people.
  • 1906: The Address Directory for Galicia was published. It had 550 pages.
  • 1914-1918: During World War I, around 500 Jews left Lubaczów and many did not come back till the middle of the twenties.
  • 1918: Poland was declared an independent state. The rule of Austria-Hungary
    Austria-Hungary
    Austria-Hungary , more formally known as the Kingdoms and Lands Represented in the Imperial Council and the Lands of the Holy Hungarian Crown of Saint Stephen, was a constitutional monarchic union between the crowns of the Austrian Empire and the Kingdom of Hungary in...

     was over. Lubaczów became part of independent Poland.


  • 1931: According to most sources, this year there were 6291 citizens in the city of Lubaczów, out of whom 1794 were Jews. However, according to a table from the "Population of the Eastern Galicia in 1931", the locality of Lubaczów had a total population of 51,885, from where 23,686 (43.7%) were Polish, 24,470 (47.2%) were Ukrainian, 3,503 (6.8%) were Yiddish (probably referring to Jews) and 226 (0.4%) were of other descent.
  • 1933: The Jewish Cemetery in Lubaczów was closed by the Polish authorities, and was reopened only after a long public struggle.
  • 1939: According to "Where Once We Walked
    Where Once We Walked
    Where Once We Walked , compiled by noted genealogist Gary Mokotoff and Sallyann Amdur Sack, is a gazetteer of 37,000 town names in Central and Eastern Europe focusing on those with Jewish populations in the 19th and first half of the 20th centuries.The book includes a cross-referenced...

    " there were 1,715 Jews in Lubaczów before the Holocaust. According to other sources, there were 2,300.
  • September 1, 1939: Germany invaded Poland.
  • September 7, 1939: Lubaczów was bombed by German planes. There was fighting around Lubaczów. The Polish Army retreated to the east, to Lwów
    Lviv
    Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...

    .
  • September 12, 1939: The Germans occupied Lubaczów.
  • September 26, 1939: The Soviet Red Army
    Red Army
    The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

     occupied Lubaczów. According to the Soviet-German Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Poland was divided and Lubaczów became part of the Soviet territories. Until June 22, 1941, Lubaczów was ruled by the Soviets.
  • June 22, 1941: The German Army
    German Army
    The German Army is the land component of the armed forces of the Federal Republic of Germany. Following the disbanding of the Wehrmacht after World War II, it was re-established in 1955 as the Bundesheer, part of the newly formed West German Bundeswehr along with the Navy and the Air Force...

     occupied Lubaczów for the second time after heavy fighting with the Red Army.
  • April 1942: There were 2270 Jews in Lubaczów.
  • May 1942: 2000 Jews were brought by the Germans to Lubaczów from the surrounding villages.
  • October 1942: The Nazis gave the order that a Jewish Ghetto
    Ghetto
    A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...

     should be established in Lubaczów. Within 48 hours the Jews were overcrowded within the ghetto. Shortly after that the first transport of Jews was sent from Lubaczów to Belzec
    Belzec extermination camp
    Belzec, Polish spelling Bełżec , was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for implementing Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust...

    . Jews from Niemirów
    Niemirów
    Niemirów may refer to the following places:*Niemirów, Biłgoraj County in Lublin Voivodeship *Niemirów, Chełm County in Lublin Voivodeship *Niemirów, Podlaskie Voivodeship *former name of Nemyriv in Ukraine...

     and Potilitz were brought to Lubaczów. At its peak, the Ghetto became home for 7000 Jews, who were kept in apartments located in the center of the town. About 5-6 families lived in each apartment.
  • November 1942: Most of the Jews from Oleszyce
    Oleszyce
    Oleszyce is a small town in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, Poland, with 3,089 inhabitants .During World War II, on 16 September 1939 there was a battle near Oleszyce, in which General Józef Kustroń fell, the commander of the Polish 21st Mountain Infantry Division.-References:Notes...

    , about 2000, were brought to Lubaczów.
  • December 1942: The Germans
    Germany
    Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...

     promised there would be no further killing of Jews in Lubaczów because most of those who were still there were working for the Germans as slave laborers. The Nazis had already shipped 2500 Jews to the extermination camp at Belzec.
  • January 5, 1943: There was a great snowstorm that brought great cold. The Germans collected all finished and unfinished items from the Jewish tailors and shoemakers. A rumor spread that the Germans would kill all the Jews. Whoever had the possibility fled that night from the ghetto.
  • January 6, 1943: Around 8 a.m., the final mass execution of the Jews in Lubaczów started. The killings continued until till January 14. Some were killed when found in their underground secret bunkers. Others were brought to the Jewish cemetery where an estimated 1200 Jews were killed and buried in a mass grave
    Mass grave
    A mass grave is a grave containing multiple number of human corpses, which may or may not be identified prior to burial. There is no strict definition of the minimum number of bodies required to constitute a mass grave, although the United Nations defines a mass grave as a burial site which...

    . Some were sent to Belzec extermination camp
    Belzec extermination camp
    Belzec, Polish spelling Bełżec , was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for implementing Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust...

    . The very few Jews who survived did so by fleeing into the forests and by joining the partisans
    Partisan (military)
    A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...

    .
  • July 21, 1944: The Germans finally withdrew and the Soviet Red Army
    Red Army
    The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...

     re-occupied Lubaczów. Poland became a communist country aligned with the Soviet Union.
  • 1945: Lubaczów (in Podkarpackie
    Subcarpathian Voivodeship
    Podkarpackie Voivodeship , or Subcarpathian Voivodeship, is a voivodeship, or province, in extreme-southeastern Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów...

     province) was one of only a few locations in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lwów
    Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lviv
    The Archdiocese of Lviv of the Latins is a metropolitan archdiocese of the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church in western Ukraine. Archbishop Mieczyslaw Mokrzycki is the current metropolitan archbishop of the archdiocese.- History :...

     to remain within Poland when the national boundaries were redrawn that year.
  • 1984: An inventory of the parish records from the archdiocese of the church archive established there was drawn up.
  • 1992: The position of the Lubaczów area within the Polish diocesan structure was regularized and it became part of the Diocese of Zamość-Lubaczów. There was still a church archive in Lubaczów.
  • 1999: Lubaczów becomes part of the Subcarpathian
    Subcarpathian Voivodeship
    Podkarpackie Voivodeship , or Subcarpathian Voivodeship, is a voivodeship, or province, in extreme-southeastern Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów...

     Voivodeship
    Voivodeship
    Voivodship is a term denoting the position of, or more commonly the area administered by, a voivod. Voivodeships have existed since medieval times in Poland, Romania, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Russia and Serbia....

    .

Lubaczów today

Lubaczów currently has about 13,000 inhabitants. The proximity of the border with 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...

, which at the same time is the eastern border of the European Union
European Union
The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

, and the plans to build a border crossing point in the nearby Budomierz create great development potential related to serving border traffic. Lubaczów has good and well-lighted roads, modern water, sewage, gas and power systems as well as a new sewage treatment plant. It has an idyllic atmosphere. Lubaczów is located around a central marketplace and park surrounded by the most important institutions, numerous shops and service outlets. It has a high degree of public safety. Lubaczów's location makes it an ideal start for trips to the Roztocze
Roztocze
Roztocze is a range of hills in east-central Poland and western Ukraine which rises from the Lublin Upland and extends southeastward through Solska Wilderness and across the border into Ukrainian Podolia. Low and rolling, the range is approximately 180 km long and 14 km wide...

 region and the Południoworoztoczański Landscape Park. Efficient bus and railway transport as well as a developed road system make it easily accessible.

Twin towns — Sister cities

Lubaczów is twinned with:
City Country Year
Yavoriv
Yavoriv
Yavoriv is a city located in the Lviv Oblast of western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Yavoriv Raion and rests approximately 50 km west of the oblast capital, Lviv....

  Ukraine
Tostedt
Tostedt
Tostedt is a municipality in the district of Harburg, in Lower Saxony, Germany. It is situated approx. 35 km southwest of Hamburg, and 12 km southwest of Buchholz in der Nordheide....

  Germany
Érd
Érd
Érd is city and urban county in Pest county, Budapest metropolitan area, Hungary.-History:The area has been inhabited since ancient times. Archaeological findings indicate that prehistoric men lived here 50,000 years ago....

  Hungary


External links

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