Lubaczów
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Lubaczów is a town in southeastern Poland, close to the border with Ukraine, with 13,000 inhabitants (1998).
Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship (since 1999). It is the capital of Lubaczów County. It is located 50 Km NNE of Przemysl. The town square was called Rynek.
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[edit] Other names
Lubaczów is also called (or misspelled as): Libatchov, Libechuyv, Liubachev, Lubachov, Lubatchov, Lubichuv, Lubachow, Lubatchow.
[edit] Timeline
- 1211: Lubaczów is mentioned for the first time in surviving historical documents.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 Podkarpackie voivodship, 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 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 of this year mentions only three Jewish families living in the town.
- 1621: A Jew named Szapsel was murdered by farmers in the vicinity of Lubaczów.
- 1621, 1633 & 1639: Lubaczów Jews were involved in trade and crafts, and also had the right to brew beer. They still held the lease for the collection of municipal fees, as well as the royal taxes from the entire starostwo (local administrative unit) in these years.
- 1648-1649: The Cossacks and Ukrainian 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 (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.
- 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 Jaroslaw, and Lubaczów became important after getting its own railway station. That year, the Jewish Community was comprised of about 1,300 people (approximately 30% of the total population).
- 1891: A Business directory for Galicia[1] 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 close to thousand persons.
- 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 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"[2], 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" 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 Lwow.
- September 12, 1939: The Germans occupied Lubaczów.
- September 26, 1939: The Soviet Red Army 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 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 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. Jews from Niemerow 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 Olescyze, about 2000, were brought to Lubaczów.
- December 1942: The Germans 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 AM, 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. Some were sent to Belzec. The very few Jews who survived did so by fleeing into the forests and by joining the partisans.
- July 21 1944: The Germans finally withdrew and the Soviet Red Army re-occupied Lubaczów. Poland became a communist country aligned with the Soviet Union.
- 1945: Lubaczów (in Podkarpackie province) was one of only a few locations in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Lwow 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 Voivodeship.
[edit] Famous people
- Robert Korzeniowski (b. 1968) - racewalker, Olympic golden medallist
[edit] Lubaczów today
Lubaczów currently has about 13,000 inhabitants. The proximity of the border with Ukraine, which will be the eastern border of the EU, 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 region and the Południoworoztoczański Landscape Park. Efficient bus and railway transport as well as a developed road system make it easily accessible. The area has clean air, beautiful landscapes, and picturesque and well-marked trekking routes.
