Bolechow

Jews lived in Bolechów from the early 17th century. In the 18th century, they were active in the salt trade, and wealthy Jewish merchants imported wines and spices from Hungary and the Ottoman Empire. In the early 19th century, under the Austrian Empire, tanning became a significant source of income for the locals, and later, with the decline of the salt industry, the lumber industry became another such source. In 1910, the town was home to 3,085 Jews, who made up seventy-eight percent of the total population. After World War I, Bolechów, as part of Eastern Galicia, was incorporated into the Second Polish Republic. In 1921, Jews made up about seventy-seven percent of the total population of the town, which stood at 3,150. In the interwar period, most local Jews made their living from industry, artisanship, and commerce. Several Zionist parties and their youth movements (such as Gordonia, Beitar, Hashahar, and Hashomer Hatzair) were active in the town, as were Agudath Israel and the Bund. The community had a complementary Hebrew-language Tarbut school, which operated a library. In 1931, the town's Jewish population stood at 2,986. In September 1939, in the aftermath of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Bolechów became part of Soviet Ukraine. Under Soviet rule, all the Jewish public and political institutions were dissolved. Private commerce was banned; the large factories were nationalized, and most of the artisans were organized into state-owned cooperatives. After the outbreak of World War II, many Jewish refugees from western Poland passed through Bolechów on their way to Romania and Hungary. The community opened a soup kitchen for these Jews and provided them with lodgings in public buildings and private homes. In June 1940, many of the refugees who had taken shelter in the town and had not accepted Soviet citizenship were arrested and deported into the Soviet interior. On the eve of the Nazi invasion of the USSR, Bolechów was home to an estimated 3,300 Jews. On July 3, 1941, Bolechów was occupied – first by Hungarian, and then by Slovak troops. On July 24, a local Ukrainian militia murdered about twenty young Jews, some of whom were suspected Communists, under the bridge over the Sukieł River in the town. A week later, another group of Jews were murdered on the same pretext. In August 1941, Bolechów was handed over to the German authorities. The local Jews were ordered to wear Star of David armbands and forbidden to use the sidewalks. A night curfew was imposed on the Jewish residents, who were also barred from leaving the town. Hundreds of Jews were recruited for forced labor on a daily basis. In the summer of 1941, some Jewish deportees from Carpatho-Ruthenia arrived in Bolechów. In late July or early August 1941, a Jewish council was established in the town upon the orders of the occupying authorities; it was initially headed by Dr. Reifeisen. A Jewish Order Service, under the command of the attorney Pressler, was also set up. In October 1941, the Jews of Bolechów were required to pay a large monetary contribution. On October 29, 1941, between 850 and 1,000 Jews were shot by the Security Police and a SD unit in the forest near the village of Taniawa. Those trying to flee were caught and murdered at the same site. In October 1941, Dr. Reifeisen, the head of the Judenrat, committed suicide, and Dr. Schindler was then appointed to replace him. In late 1941, the local Jews were required to surrender their fur coats and warm clothing. In the fall and winter of 1941-1942, the Jews redoubled their efforts to find work in factories that manufactured goods for the Germans, hoping that the work permits would spare them when the next murder operation came. The death rate from starvation and disease among the local Jews (who included a number of Hungarian refugees) soared during the winter; the Judenrat established a soup kitchen to provide some food for the indigent. There was also a Jewish hospital, staffed by Jewish doctors and female volunteers. A census taken on June 10, 1942 recorded 4,281 Jews in the town of Bolechów and its outlying villages. Of these, 1,588 were deemed fit to work, and most of them were working directly for the Germans. In August 1942, Jews from the outlying towns and villages of Wełdziż, Wygoda, Wyszków, and Mizuń Stary, as well as some Jews from Rozniatów, were resettled in Bolechów. On September 3-5, 1942, more than 1,600 Jews were deported to the Bełżec extermination camp. During the roundup, 400-600 Jews (mainly children, as well as elderly and sick people) were killed by Germans and Ukrainian auxiliary policemen near the town hall, in the market square, and elsewhere in the town; most of them were buried at the Jewish cemetery of Bolechów. After this murder operation, there were approximately 2,500 Jews left in Bolechów. In October 1942, all the Jews in the town, including those from the surrounding villages, were required to move into the "Jewish residential area" (open ghetto), which was off-limits to non-Jews. The area was not fenced off or guarded, but the Jews were forbidden to leave its borders, under threat of harsh punishment. On October 21, 1942, the Germans and the Jewish Order Service arrested 400 ghetto inmates, including a number of factory workers, and deported them to Bełżec several days later. On November 20-23, 1942, the Germans arrested another 300 Jews, most of whom had been trying to hide; they, too, were deported to Bełżec. As of October 29, 1942, there were 1,748 Jews officially registered in Bolechów. Most of them worked in the timber industry (for the German HOBAD company), at the leather workshops, at the barrel and furniture factories, and in the combined town industries (Vereinigte Stadt Industrie); some were artisans. 147 of the Jews were members of the Judenrat, the Jewish Police, and the sanitation service. By November 1, 1942, the establishment of the ghetto was complete, but the Jews working at the barrel factory, the leather factory, and in the combined town industries still resided in various parts of the town, outside the ghetto, mostly in barracks set up at their respective factories. By December 1942, the Jewish laborers in Bolechów had all been relocated to the barracks (labor camps) of the relevant factories, each of which was surrounded by a high fence. By that time, the non-working Jews living in the Jewish residential area had all been deported to the town of Stryj. As a result of this resettlement, the Bolechów Ghetto was liquidated only a few weeks after its establishment. In a series of subsequent murder operations, the labor camps were liquidated, as well. On March 5, 1943, the Jews who had been brought to the barrel factory camp from the Stryj Ghetto were shot at the town's Jewish cemetery, along with the members of the Jewish Order Police. On the next day, Dr. Schindler, head of the Judenrat, committed suicide. On March 12 or 28, a group of twenty-eight Jews from the sanitation service were shot at the same murder site. Most of the members of the Judenrat were also killed during that month. On July 6 (or 13), 1943, some 300 inmates of the United City Industry, Road Construction Authority, and Water Management camps were shot dead at the horse burial ground, near the village of Dolzka in the southern part of town. By August 22, 1943, the construction of a central labor camp, which would house the inmates of all the lesser camps, was complete. Three days later, on August 25, the inmates of the new labor camp were shot at the Jewish cemetery in Bolechów, and the town was declared "Judenrein" (free of Jews). Bolechów was liberated by the Red Army on August 6, 1944.