Bolekhiv
Bolekhiv (; ; ) is a regional city in Kalush Raion, Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast (province) of Ukraine. It was once home to a large Jewish community, very few of whom survived World War II. Bolekhiv hosts the administration of Bolekhiv urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Population: . History. Bolekhiv is first mentioned in historical records in 1371 after the defeat of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia to Poland. During the Galicia–Volhynia Wars in the 14th century, Bolekhiv was variously held by Poland, Hungary (Danylo Dazhbohovych), and Lithuania. Subsequently, King Jogaila of Poland succeeded and Bolekhiv became part of the  Kingdom of Poland. In 1546, Emilia Hrosovska established a salt refinery in the town. In 1603, Sigismund III Vasa gave the town the Magdeburg rights. At that time, the Bolekhiv region was involved with the Opryshky movement led by Oleksa Dovbush and German colonists arrived. After World War II, Bolekhiv became a raion (a region of local governance). In 1964, its raion was merged with Dolyna Raion. Since 1993 the city has been governed by the Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. Until 18 July 2020, Bolekhiv was incorporated as a city of oblast significance and the center of Bolekhiv Municipality. The municipality  was abolished in July 2020 as part of the administrative reform of Ukraine, which reduced the number of raions of Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast to six. The area of Bolekhiv Municipality was merged into Kalush Raion. Bolekhiv Jews. A Jewish community existed in Bolekhiv (Yiddish pronunciation: Bolechov) since its establishment by Nicholas Gydzincki. The town founder proclaimed equal rights to the three ethnic groups living there, Jews, Polish Catholics and Ruthenians (Ukrainians of the Greek Orthodox), and this was confirmed by Sigismund III Vasa, the king of the new Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, formerly crown prince of Poland, the grand duke of  Lithuania, and later to become king of Sweden. The town was a privately owned town, and the changes of ownership or inheritance had a strong impact on all the residents of the town, especially the Jews. In 1670, after the Tatars invaded and burnt the town down, the town owner gave the Jews a large loan to rebuild. Towards the middle of the 19th century there was much tension between the Jews and the other ethnicities. A Hassidic rebbe, Rabbi Shneibalg, "the Rebbe of Bolechov", had a large Hassidic court in the town. By 1890, seventy-five percent of the  population of Bolekhiv (4,237 people) was Jewish. Atrocities began in 1935, by a hostile government and population, and escalated after the German conquest in 1941. By 1940 the Jewish population of Bolekhiv reached about 3,000. On 28 and 29 October 1941, four months after capturing the town, the German police carried out a first "Aktion" (German annihilation operation) in Bolekhiv, which included a list of 1,000 of the Jewish rabbis, leaders, doctors and richer people, who were tortured for two days, and then shot in a nearby forest, some buried alive. In 1941 and 1942 thousands of Jews were added  to the population, from the surrounding towns. About a year later, 3 to 5 September 1942, the Germans planned a second Aktion. The Jews were warned in advance by a member of their Judenrat who was in a nearby town, but many of the local Ukrainians began a murder spree in the preceding afternoon, targeting mainly children, in horrific acts of barbarity. The Germans joined in the action, and continued to grab people from their houses or hiding places. About 1,500 Jews were murdered, 600-700 of them children, and an additional 2,000 Jews were sent to the Belzec death  camp where most were subsequently murdered. Other Aktions continued into 1943 when the surviving 900 Jews, working in makeshift "work groups", were marched to the cemetery nearby, in groups of 100 or 200, and shot. Only 48 Jews of the town survived World War II Geography. The Bolekhiv municipality was located in the western part of Ukraine in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast. It shared borders with Dolyna Raion (east), Lviv Oblast (north, southwest and west), Zhydachiv Raion, Stryi Raion, and Skole Raion. Two rivers, the Sukil and the Svicha, run through the town before joining the Dniester. The Carpathian Mountains lie  to the southwest. Bolekhiv is on Ukraine highway 10 between Dolyna and Stryi. The capital, Kyiv is approximately 300 km away in a west northwesterly direction. Administrative divisions. On 21 October 1993, Bolekhiv received the status of a regional city (up until then, it had been a city in Dolyna Raion). It encompasses six rural municipalities (communes) and eleven villages. The communes are: Population. In 2001, Bolekhiv city's population was 21,232. The largest districts in Bolekhiv are Bolekhiv city (10,590), Tysiv commune (3,352) and Mizhrichchia commune (1,891). The smallest community is the Huziiv commune with a population of 1,159  (2001).