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This project seeks to collect all Jewish families from Busk, Ukraine.
Background
Busk is situated in Eastern Galicia, 36km from the city of Lwow (Lemberg), and 36km from the town of Brody and about 30km from Zloczow, the birthplace of the poet Imber, the author of Hatikva. The railway station at Busk is in the village of Krasne, about 6km from Busk. It is a central depot from which the trains travel in every direction: to Lwow, Zloczow, Tarnopol, Brody and Rowne in Russia. To and from the station, passengers used to travel by horse-drawn carriages which were run by a few Jewish families in Busk.
Busk is built on a hill and is surrounded by brooks and rivers, largest of which is the famous “Bug” which flows through the middle of the town. Storks congregate on the shores which is why the Coat of Arms depicts an image of a Stork. There are six suburbs surrounding Busk. They are populated by Polish and Ruthenian peasants, artisans and other workers.
History
Busk is a very old town with a long history. It was granted town charter in 1411 by Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, it belonged to the Belz Voivodeship, and was the seat of a separate administrative unit, the Land of Busk.
The town remained part of Poland until the first partition of Poland (1772), when it was seized by the Habsburg Empire, and remained in Austrian Galicia until late 1918. In the interwar period, Busk belonged to Kamionka Buska County, Tarnopol Voivodeship, until Soviet invasion of Poland (September 1939).
- In 1913, the population of Busk was 8,000, including 3,500 Poles, 2,700 Jews and 1,800 Ukrainians.
- From the beginning of the 19th century, Busk became the property of the Badeni family.
- The Jews worked in agriculture or had retail businesses, working with peasant grain and cattle traders.
Many of the surrounding farms were the property of the Polish Earl Kazimierz Badeni who was an Austrian patriot and a favourite of the royal family of Habsburg in Vienna. At one time, Badeni served as Prime Minister to H.M. Franz Joseph I from the house of Habsburg in Vienna, he knew many of the Jews personally and spoke to them in Yiddish.
Poor Jews were exempted by Badeni from paying the town taxes. The only remnant left of Earl Badeni's family is a grandson, Kazimierz, who is Cardinal in the Taciturnos Monastery in the Polish holy city of Czestochowa.
Jewish Community
Busk had a very active mainly Orthodox Jewish community before World War II. The first synagogue was built in 1502. The Jews were very poor, clad in rags and lived in a state of poverty.
- On July 1, 1941, German forces occupied Busk. The Jewish population was transferred to a ghetto then eliminated on May 21, 1943. 1500 Jews perished during this operation.
- A witness recalled of the executions of the Jews, "All middle-aged Jews were gathered to work. Then, they were taken to the execution site...while others dug the pits. Raisel Meltzak, a Jewish child from Busk, was among the first Holocaust survivors to have her testimony recorded when she was interviewed by David P. Boder at a home for displaced Jewish orphans in France on September 8, 1946.
There is proof that by the end of the 17th century, only 400 Jewish souls were alive.
By the end of the 17th century, only 400 Jewish souls were alive. The state of poverty, toiling night and day for their mere existence and suffering most in times of conflict prevented Jews from owing property. This changed throughout Galicia during Austria's occupation in 1772 when Jews were permitted to purchase rural lands, properties and farms as peace and stability settled in Busk.
Improvement in Health Conditions
In addition to practising medicine Dr Leo Scheps took part in public affairs and did a great deal in improving health conditions of the population. His son, Morris Sheps was born in Busk in 1833 and attended high school and university in Lwow, becoming a well known writer, favoring an Austro-Franco alliance as against an alliance with Prussia. One of Morris' closest friends was the famous statesman Georges Clemenceau, known as “The Tiger”. Clemenceau, a passionate defender of Dreyfus, was a senator and was elected twice as Premier of France.
In August 1914, (the start of World War I), most of Busk's Jews fled in lieu of the Russian invasion, seeking refuge as far as they could from the front line. Most did not return to Busk. Among these emigrants were Mr. Simon Zipper and the Padwa brothers who are now outstanding members of the Busker Society in New York.
With the establishment of Polish rule in Busk in 1920, life slowly turned back to normal.
People
- Alice Habsburg
- Yevhen Petrushevych
- Chanoch Dov Padwa
- Moritz Szeps
References
- State Statistics Service of Ukraine. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
- Excerpts from "A History of the town of Busk" - by Abraham Shayari,
- "Execution Sites of Jewish Victims Investigated by Yahad-In Unum". Yahad-In Unum Interactive Map. Retrieved 23 January 2015.
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The interview with thirteen-year-old Raisel Meltzak is understandably fragmentary. Boder disagreed with the judgment of supervisory personnel at the home that she was somewhat mentally retarded, believing rather that she was deeply disturbed.
He cut the interview short, possibly to save her from further stress, and did not take it up again. Her parents, natives of southeastern Poland, an area of mixed Polish and Ukrainian population, hid their family from the Germans in a bunker, and then in the forests, alternately helped and looted by the local Ukrainians. Her father allowed himself to be persuaded by Jews from his own community that it was safest to return to the ghetto, whereas her mother insisted on chancing fugitive survival for herself and her two children. Raisel was spared having to go into the details of her mother's death. Judging from the fact that the child spoke better Polish than Yiddish, she may have come through the Holocaust by being taken in by Polish peasants.
From FRESH WOUNDS: EARLY NARRATIVES OF HOLOCAUST SURVIVAL by Donald L. Niewyk.