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Lubaczow
A town in the Podkarpackie voivodship that was
granted its town charter in 1377, and was the seat of local
government
during its early history. The oldest mention of Jews in the
town dates
back to the late fifteenth century, when they were granted a
lease to
collect Lubaczow customs duties in 1498. Tax records show
that in 1538,
there were already eighteen Jewish families living in the
town, though
the lustration of 1565 mentions only three families.
Lubaczow Jews were
involved in trade and crafts, and also had the right to brew
beer. They
still held the lease for the collection of municipal fees,
as well as
the royal taxes from the entire starostwo (local
administrative unit) in
1621, 1633 and 1639. They probably also grew fruits and
vegetables, and
raised cattle and poultry on farms near the town.
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In the first half of the seventeenth century,
fires and disease caused a great deal of damage in Lubaczow;
the
situation was compounded by the effects of the Chmielnicki
uprising and
the Swedish "flood". The lustration of 1662 does not mention
any Jewish
households, though by the early eighteenth century a
relatively large
Community did exist there, as evidenced by the amount of
taxes paid to
the royal treasury. According to the census of 1765, there
were 687 Jews
obliged to pay taxes who were living in the town and
surrounding
villages. Beginning in 1772, the town was under the Austrian
partition;
during the course of the nineteenth century, its
significance gradually
declined. The town's Jews were mainly engaged in local
trade, and
Lubaczow's markets and fairs remained popular. The town had
no
factories. In 1880, the Jewish Community was comprised of
about 1,300
people (approximately 30% of the total population).
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During the interwar period, the Jews still made
up one-third of the town's population. They were involved in
small-scale production; they owned over 100 small crafts and
industrial
enterprises. In 1939, there were 2,300 Jews living in
Lubaczow.
At the start of the Second World War, the town was under
Soviet
occupation. After the Germans took control of the town, in
1942, a
ghetto was created. It held 7,000 people, including Jews who
had been
resettled there from nearby small towns. Most of them were
deported in
October 1942 and January 1943 to the death camp in Belzec.
(H.W./CM)
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