Maciejow

Jews are first recorded as residing in Maciejów in 1563. In 1897, under the Russian Empire, the Jewish population of the town was 2,337 and comrised 60 percent of the total residents. After World War I Maciejów was incorporated into the independent Polish State. In 1921 2,206 Jews lived in the town, comprising roughly 70 percent of its total population. The Jews were shopkeepers, artisans, or traders in agriculture and other goods. Between the two world wars the Bund and various Zionist parties, especially the Hehalutz pioneer youth movement, were active in the town. Many Jewish children attended the Tarbut Zionist Hebrew-language kindergarten and the Tarbut sponsored elementary school. In September 1939, with the entry of the Red Army into the town following the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, Maciejów became part of Soviet Ukraine. Private enterprises were closed down and the Tarbut institutions were replaced with Soviet ones. It is estimated that in 1941 about 2,600 Jews were living in the town. The Germans occupied Maciejów on June 24, 1941. Within a few days a Jewish council (Judenrat) was established by the Germans. The council told the male Jews where and when to report for forced labor, initially for clearing the roads of small mines left behind by the Soviets as they retreated. Shortly afterwards, the German authorities ordered the Jews to wear white armbands with the Star of David (which were replaced later by yellow patches) on the front and back of their clothes. The Jewish houses had to be marked as well. The Jews were also ordered to surrender all valuables (gold, furs, etc.) via the Judenrat. In addition, the Germans demanded large monetary payments. On one occasion they burned the Torah scrolls from the synagogue and abused and humiliated old Jewish men. On another occasion the Germans beat and then murdered the rabbi of the town, apparently when their demands for money could no longer be met. During this first period of German occupation the Jewish population was placed under evening curfew. It was also prohibited from using any means of transportation. Later, Jews had to perform different kinds of forced labor - men swept the streets, worked at the sawmill, and loaded freight cars, while women cleaned German headquarters and did the laundry for the German authorities. On July 18, 1941, several hundred Jewish men were shot to death behind the local Catholic Church (that served as the German headquarters) by members of the Security Police and an SD murder squad, assisted by the Gendarmerie (German rural order police). A month later, according to one testimony, 300 Jewish young women were shot to death in the same place. Apparently at the end of summer 1941, an open ghetto was set up, where the remaining Jews from Maceijów and surrounding villages were concentrated. According to one testimony an orphanage was opened in the ghetto for children whose parents had been killed. In late August or early September 1942 the ghetto of Maciejów was liquidated. The surviving Jews, mainly women, children, and elderly people, were shot to death in the lime quarry on the edge of town. In 1942 and/or 1943 several hundred Jews who had managed to flee to the woods during and after the murder operations were caught and murdered. Maciejow was liberated by the Red Army on July 18, 1944. Later, the town was renamed Lukov (Lukiv).