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The project is dedicated to the memory of 300 years of a Jewish community of Stanisławów and its 50,000 members (of the county) that were brutally annihilated by the Nazis and their local Polish and Ukrainian collaborators in the Holocaust, in WW2.
This project seeks to collect all Jewish families from the town of Ivano-Frankivsk (Stanyslaviv, Stanislau, or Stanisławów), Ukraine.
Photo: The Synagogue in Ivano-Frankivsk / Stanisławów
In August 1939, approximately a month before the Nazi invasion of Poland and the Soviet occupation of Stanisławów (today Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine) a census was taken of the entire city. The census encompassed approximately 14,400 households, averaging 4-5 individuals per household. Since religion was recorded, Jewish households/individuals can be readily identified. This census is the last pre-World War II list of residents of this very important city in what was once eastern Galicia. All the religious, social, and political currents in Jewish life were evident in Stanisławów, one of the larger towns in Galicia, where 55 synagogues and prayer houses, including one of Sadigura Hasidim, existed between the two world wars.
Ivano-Frankivsk (Ukrainian: Іва́но-Франкі́вськ; formerly Stanyslaviv, Stanislau, or Stanisławów) is a historic city located in the western Ukraine.
Stanisławów, established in 1654, quickly evolved into an important trade center. In the years 1663-1664, in order to reinforce the town's position, its owner, Andrzej Potocki, invited the Armenians and Jews from Moldavia and Hungary. They were granted personal rights, the right to settle and tax reliefs. They had their own, independent council, they received land to build houses. In 1654 another privilege was granted that guaranteed the newcomers religious freedom (Neminem ad exercitum liberum religionis admittendi).
The Jewish street in Stanisławów was situated near the embankment. There was a synagogue, three other buildings of religious purposes, as well as houses, pharmacies and shops. Jews were allowed to engage in the trade of gold, silver, furs, clothes, hats and other merchandises. They were allowed to sell articles in their shops and buildings, but not in the market place. Only Jewish butchers and bakers enjoyed this privilege, though they had to pay a relevant fee to the owner of the town.
In the late 17th century, the Jewish quarter was located at the Trynitarski Square, next to the town embankment. That is where Jews built their first synagogue, a Beth Midrash and a mikvah. The first wooden synagogue became the centre of the Jewish quarter. Stanisławów and its Jewish community suffered heavy losses during the war between the Polish Republic and Turkey (1683-1699). Stanisławów also suffered from the Khmelnytsky Uprising and the fights between Polish kings, Augustus II and Stanisław Leszczyński.
In accordance with the new privileges, granted in the years 1717-1721, they received the right to build another quarter and a new wooden synagogue. In 1777, after 16 years of construction, the new brick synagogue was completed.
In 1732, the Stanisławów Kehila included 1470 out of a total population of 3321 (44.3%).
In 1772, the town came under Austrian occupation. Stanisławów became the centre of the circuit - the Austrian administrative unit. At that time, 17 500 Jews lived in the town and its surroundings.
The constitution adopted by the Emperor of Austria on the 25th of April in 1848 guaranteed religious freedom in the Austrian Empire. It strengthened the position of the Jewish population in Stanisławów. In 1848, 15 Christians and 27 Jews were elected to the town council, which provoked a negative reaction of the Poles.
After WW1, in the 1920s the local Jewish population was divided into two groups. One was pro-Polish and the other one was more orthodox. During the interwar period, Jews began to lose their exposed position in Stanisławów for the benefit of Poles and Ukrainians.
There were more than 50,000 Jews in Stanisławów County when it was overrun by the Hungarian army on behalf of Nazi Germany on 2 July 1941. On the 26th of July 1941, after the Germans entered Stanisławów, Judenrat was established. At the beginning of August 1941, hundreds of Jews, mainly representatives of liberal professions, were shot. Only 10 Jewish doctors and 13 engineers were spared. In the autumn of 1941, a ghetto was established. On 12 October 1941 during the so-called Bloody Sunday, some 10,000–12,000 Jews were shot by the German uniformed SS-men from SIPO and Orpo together with the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police at the Jewish cemetery, into hastily dug mass graves. On the 31st of March 1942, about 5000 Jews were executed; another several thousand were killed in April in the same year. In April, September and October 1942, Jews were transported to the extermination camp in Bełżec. Other cases of genocide, when thousands of Jews were executed, took place in the summer of 1942 and on the 12th of December 1942. In February1943 the ghetto was liquidated. Next, on the 25th of April and 25th of June 1943, Jews who remained in the labor camp were murdered. Tens of Jewish professionals remained detained in the Stanisławów prison till the spring of 1944. Approximately 1500 Jews, who survived in the East, returned to the town after it had been taken over by the Soviets in July 1944.
In 1999, about one thousand Jews lived in the town, now known as Iwano-Frankiwsk.