World War II and After

When the German troops arrive, they find the prisons of many eastern Galician towns full of the bodies of prisoners that the Soviet occupiers murdered shortly before their retreat. A great number of these had been political prisoners, among them many Ukrainians who opposed the Soviet regime.

The discovery of the bodies sparks Ukrainian and Poles to run wild and kill Jews who are collectively blamed for supporting Bolshevism. The pogrom is led by Ukrainian nationalists commemorating "Bandera Day". (Stepan Bandera was a leader of the Nationalist Ukrainian organization (OUN) that supported Nazi Germany.) The pogrom continues for three consecutive days.

In Borysław, a local doctor Andrey Terlecky, a member of OUN, incites the Ukrainians against the Jews. Many are rounded up and forced to clean out the bodies from the prison, wash them in Panska Street and prepare them for burial. All the while, they are beaten and brutally treated.

By this date, the murders and plundering have stopped. The German soldiers, who have not actively participated in this first progrom, drive through the streets and shoot Jews who, badly wounded lie in the streets. 183 are buried in the Jewish cemetery of Borysław

In Schodnica, the Ukrainian militia murder Jews, destroy houses and property and plunder for two weeks.

The German Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei or SIPO) arrive in Drohobycz. They and other security organizations, with the assistance of the Ukrainian militia, will oversee the persecution of the Jews fro the remainder of the occupation. Felix Landau, a member of the SIPO, oversees the Jewish labour assignments. He takes over the former Jewish Home for the Aged and the "Villa Himmel" as his headquarters.

In these first days of the occupation, Jews, under pain of death, are forced to wear armbands A Judenrat or Jewish Council is established, the members taken from the prewar community leaders. In Drohobycz the Judenrat is led by by Drs. Isaac Rosenblatt and Maurycy Ruhrberg and in Borysław by Michael Herz, whose headquarters is established in the former Hebrew school. The liaison between the Judenrat and the German Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei) is Eduard Goldmann.

Labour bureaus (Arbeitsämte) are established to organize forced labour for all Jews between the ages of sixteen and sixty-five. In Drohobycz, the office of the Arbeitsamt is in the former Jewish orphanage on Sobieski Street.

More restrictions are forced upon the Jews of the town Jewish stores are looted and Jews are restricted from moving freely about the city or on selected streets.

Jews are gradually subjected to even more restrictions. Their properties are confiscated. Their businesses are taken over, plundered, or due to the murder of their owners, abandoned. Jews are now forbidden to enter public buildings, attend theatre or cinema, use public transportation or cars. The Nazis appropriate all radios, telephones, furs and jewelry owned by Jews. Their legal rights are suspended.

Jewish food rations are restricted severely. In order to survive, they are forced to sell their possessions.

October, 1941 The reduction in food rations for Jews results in their starvation and reduces the capacity to work of those in forced labour. The Germans take measures to increase their rations. The Judenrat and Landau agree to open a dairy, fruit and vegetable farm in Hyrawka under the leadership of Engineer Nafali Backenroth who has had success in dealing with the occupying forces. 250 Jews are stationed there, among them many women.

From the very beginning of the occupation, the German occupiers have been anxious to exploit the local petroleum industry for their war effort. When they arrived, twenty percent of the work force in the industry was Jewish.

The new German management of the companies has overruled the orders of the state to dispose of the Jewish labour, explaining that they were needed for the success of the industry and its contribution to the war effort. Forced labourers in these and other vital industries are given special armbands labeled with an "R" to indicate their status as Rüstungsarbeiter. They were given special armbands labeled with an "R" to indicate their status. As a result, Jewish workers and their families in these industries are given protection for many months.

The head of the German oil company, Beskiden-Öl AG (later Karpathen-Öl AG), was Berthold Beitz. For his many efforts to save his Jewish workers, Beitz was honoured with the title "Righteous among Nations".

Left: Jews dig their own graves. A photo taken by German soldiers during World War II.

Right: The place of execution in Bronica Forest. From the collection of Rubin Schmer.

Ghettos in Drohobycz and Borysław are defined but not fenced. The Judenrat and the Ukrainian militia keep watch to see that no one escaped the area.

The worst areas of Borysław are designated as the ghetto for the Jews, the Jewish quarter Wolanka, as well as Potok Gorny and Miskiewicza. In Drohobycz, Chary, Kowalska, Gabarska, Ribia, Schonica, and Sienkiewicz streets form the ghetto. Very little food is allowed into the ghetto with the result that many Jews begin to starve. Also in the winter of 1941 to 1942, many Jews, living in these cramped quarters succumb to a typhus epidemic.

The first transports begin. At the beginning of the month, the SIPO demands a list of 2,500 Jews for deportation. The Judenrat succeeds in reducing the number to 1500. The Jews are told that they will be taken to an area near Pinsk for resettlement and that they should bring food for two weks, money, valuables and tools.They are assembled in the gymnasium of the Sokal Society in Mickiewicz Street. Instead they are loaded on cattle cars and transported to Belźec where they are gassed.

In Borysław, a new Aktion for "resettlement" begins. Poles and Ukrainians are ordered on pain of death not to harbour Jews. In the early morning, hundreds of Jews from the ghetto Wolanka are arrested and locked in the Grazyna cinema. However, many, having heard of the results of the transport in Drohobycz in March, escape to the forests and hiding places.

The SIPO raid the hospital, shoot the patients in their beds and arrest the staff. The Jewish orphanage is also raided and the children taken off in their nightclothes.

In the evening, the raid begins again in all areas of the town. Jews are rounded up or killed on the spot. The cinema becomes too small to hold them and other buildings are commandeered as holding cells.

In the morning the transport of the prisoners begins. Berthold Beitz, the director of Karpathen-Öl appears at the station to save as many of his workers as he can. He manages to remove 150 people from the transport.

About 6,000 Jews are taken in this Aktion and killed in Belźec.

After this Aktion, only one Jewish marriage takes place. Following medieval custom, the ceremony is held in the cemetery to help the community avert further disaster.

The house occupied by Gestapo officer Felix Landau where the artist and writer, Bruno Schultz created frescoes.
From the collection of Reuben Schmer

The Germans take revenge on Reiner's action by shooting 230 people in Nura Street and the general area at random on the following day. Among those shot is Bruno Schulz, the writer and artist who taught in the Jewish High School in Drohobycz. During the occupation, he was protected by Felix Landau, the officer of the SIPO who commissioned him to paint murals on the walls of his house.

From now on, the protection given to the Rüstungsarbeiter, the workers whose labour was, until now, considered necessary for the war effort, is removed, despite the attempts of Beitz to save them. Over the next few months the Jews in the various labour camps and factories are liquidated in several Aktions.

Dr. Ruhrberg, the leader of the Judenrat in Drohobycz is shot.

A new Judenrat in Drohobycz is established under the leadership of Jacob Gerstenfeld who is shot in 1943.

Berthold Beitz is able to rescue a small number of these prisoners. The rest are murdered.

170 women and children are shot in Bronica in a brutal Aktion. Many of the women were taken from the camp Hyrawka where they produced food.

The 522 Jews left in the camps in Borysław are transported to Plaszów.

200 Jews in Truskawiec are assembled in the synagogue and old they will be resettled to Turkey. They are shot.

Some remaining Jews try to save themselves by hiding, escaping to Hungary across the Capathian mountains, or (a few) by obtaining Aryan papers. Many from Borysław are caught with the cooperation of the local Ukrainians, mostly those working in league with the bands of Stepan Bandera. They are killed by the Germans.

In the autumn, the Red Army succeeds in driving the Germans out of eastern Galicia. Drohobycz and Borysław are ceded to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic and become known as Drogobych and Borislav. Drogobych becomes the capital of a new Soviet oblast (although in 1959, it will become part of the Lviv oblast).

The new government nationalizes industries, banks and all private business, collectivizes the land and reorganizes schools and cultural facilities according to the Soviet model.

In all of Galicia, only a few thousand Jews have managed to survive the Holocaust. By now, most have left Poland for Israel and other countries. The Jewish communities of Drogobych and Borysław have ceased to exist.

The Groyse Shil in Drohobycz today

From the collection of Leonard Oppenheim

The creative achievements of three Jews from Drohobycz become widely recognized. The art of Max Lilien is place on permanent exhibition in the Museum of Modern Art in Tel Aviv. A film of the life and work of Maurycy Gottlieb is made and installed for permanent viewing in the Museum of the Diaspora (Beth Hatefutsot) in Tel Aviv. English translations of the work of Bruno Schultz's writings are printed and received with critical acclaim.

Left: The monument in Bronica before restoration.

Right: The restored monument in Bronica Forest