Shtetl: Kovel, Ukraine

Other alternate names: Kowel [Polish], Kovl [Yiddish]



Latitude 51°13´, Longitude 24°42´




Postcard picture of Kovel, circa 1915. (By permission of Mark Heckman)



Background Information

• History  (Minor updates on Nov. 19 including description of the city by a writer covering relief efforts after the Soviet-Polish war, Zionist youth movements in Kovel and a recollection of the Nazi occupation; on Nov. 7, 2009 about population changes after Kovel came under Russian rule in 1797 and additional information about Jewish partisans during the German occupation)
  

  Kovel obtained its status as a city in 1518. It was in the district of Volhynia, then part of the Duchy of Lithuania which was establishing itself as a dominant power among the principalities that had been part of the Kievan Rus' dynasty. During the next century, the Jewish community fared reasonably well as far as their rights and economic influence. But tensions from economic competition, anti-Semitism and crusades against heretics led to worsening conditions in the 1600s with complaints by Kovel burghers to the king and, in 1648, the Cossack-led Chmielnicki massacres. The late 19th and 20th century saw the growth of a vibrant Jewish community - economically, politically and intellectually - but the rapid succession of World War I, the Bolshevik-Polish war and becoming part of a reconstituted Poland, with its waves of virulent anti-Semitism, had devastating effects. The Soviet occupation in 1939 effectively ended Jewish community life, and the occupation by the Nazis which quickly followed, wiped out the Jews of Kovel. The anguish of many of those who lost their lives was recorded in nearly 100 pencil-written notes on the walls of the city's Great Synagogues, lamenting the dead, asking remembrance and calling for vengeance on the Germans. (Click Here for more.)

• Bibliography (Updated 19 September 2009)
• The Last Notes of Those Who Died Written on the Walls of the Great Synagogue (Updated 7 October 2009)
• Kovel's History from City's Official Website

Maps

• View Kovel via Mapquest
• View Kovel via Maplandia (offers satellite views)
• Late 18th century map titled in old Russian "Map of Kovel Town." The legend in the lower left notes Catholic and Orthodox churches, and the Jewish school and cemetery.
• Map showing Kingdom of Poland and Grand Duchy of Lithuania, 1561-1629, under whose rule Kovel had been since the 14th century.
• Map showing Kovel during the three partitions of Poland (1772, 1793, 1795)
• The Battle of Kowel between Polish and Bolshevik forces, 1920 (click on map to magnify it).
• Layout of the city from the Pinkas Kovel.
• Soviet topographic map of Kovel
• Street Map of Modern Kovel
  
  

Pictures

• Historical Photos of Kovel - Album One
  
  
• Historical Photos of Kovel - Album Two   (Updated 14 August 2009)
  
  
• Historical Photos of Kovel - Album Three   (Updated 30 September 2009)
  
  
• Photos of Kovel taken in 2006 - Album Four   (Updated 17 August 2009)
  
  
• Picasa Page Collection of "Photos by Haya" showing the Great Synagogue and its conversion to a textile factory

Kovel Links

• Help Translate the Kovel Memorial Book into English The JewishGen Yizkor Project has undertaken an effort to translate the Pinkes Kovel into English. If you want to help, you can do so by clicking on this link.
  
  
• Pinkes Kovel In Hebrew. Access Book through the "Select Community" Index.
  
  
• Table of Contents of the Pinkes Kovel in English Updated Nov. 2, 2009
  
  
• "What Is a Pinkes? Chapter about Kovel's Memorial Book in "From a Ruined Garden: The Memorial Book of Polish Jewry."
  
  
• List of Deceased from Memorial Book for former residents of Kowel Published in Buenos Aires, 1951
  
  
• The Cemetery at Kovel
  
  
• Wikipedia Kovel site
  
  
• The Israeli Organization of The Jews of Kovel and Its Surroundings Mostly in Hebrew.
  
  
• 1929 Business Directory for Kowel
  
  
• Michal Friedman's story of life in Kovel As recorded by Centropa.org.
  
  
• JewishEncyclopedia.com Entry on Kovel
  
  
• JewishGen's Ukraine SIG
  
  
• Voliner Group on Yahoo
  
  
• A General History of Jews in the Ukraine from the 4th Century B.C. to the 1930s
  
  

Memoirs and Family Stories

This section is a work in progress. Please contact me if you want your family stories included here.


• The Story of the Kimmel Family  (Updated 22 August 2009)
  
  

  My Kimmel ancestors started with Simcha Benjamin (Bunim) Kimmel. He was born sometime before 1829 in Russia (and died around 1900) and had two sons, Itzhak David Kimmel and Beryl Wolf. Both immigrated to New York, Itzhak David in 1901 when he was 36 while brother Beryl Wolf, about 54, followed in May, 1906. The lines of the family tracing to David and Beryl both lived in Brooklyn - in the same 71 square miles - but as years passed, they became unaware the other existed. I did not learn that until 2006 when I connected through JewishGen with fellow researcher Dov Rubin, Beryl's grandson, who was able to make the connection when he asked about a blurry photo he had found that turned out to be my great-grandfather. (Click Here for more.)

• Descendant Chart of the Kimmel-Rubin Families
  
  
• Descendant Chart of the Turkenitz (Turkenitch)/Kimmel/Stern Families
  
  
• The Josiowicz Family
  
  

Searchable Databases

Would you like to connect with others researching Kovel? Click the button to search the JewishGen Family Finder database.




for any surname or town.
• of Shoah Victims' Names for Kovel.

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Compiled by Bruce Drake Updated 19 November 2009 Copyright © 2009 Bruce Drake

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