Івано-Франківськ (Ivano-Frankivsk), Івано-Франківська міська рада, Івано-Франківська область, Україна

Latitude 48°55′0″N
Longitude 24°43′0″E
City Івано-Франківськ
County Івано-Франківська міська рада
State/ Province Івано-Франківська область
Country Україна

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Prior to 1962, Ivan-Frankivsk איוונו-פרנקיבסק was known as Stanyslaviv Станиславів Stanisławów Станислав Stanislau סטאַניסלאוו.

Stanisławów was erected as a fortress to protect the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from Tatar invasions.
Stanisławów was built on the site of the village of Zabolottya, which had been founded in 1437.
Thes name was coined by a Polish nobleman Andrzej Potocki, in honor of his father, Stanisław Rewera Potocki.
In 1662, the city was first mentioned, in connection with it being granted the Magdeburg rights.
In 1672, the Turks conquered the fortress of Kamieniec Podolski, Stanisławów, together with Halicz, became a strongpoint against Turkish forces.
In 1676, the city was attacked and besieged, but the Turks did not manage to capture and pillage the city.

Later, the fortress also successfully withstood attacks by Turkish and Russian forces. Extensively rebuilt during the Renaissance, it was sometimes called Little Leopolis.
In 1772, after the Partition of Poland, Stanisławów became a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and successively of the autonomous Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria.

During World War One, the frontline was for some time placed in the area of the city, Russians and Austrians fought several battles in Stanisławów and its vicinity.
In 1917 Russian forces burned the central districts, during the Kerensky Offensive.

In October 1918, the Austro-Hungarian Empire collapsed, and the Western Ukrainian People's Republic (ZUNR) was proclaimed.
In 1919, Stanisławów was a subject of Polish–Ukrainian skirmishes, and was annexed by Poland as part of the Second Polish Republic as the capital of the Stanisławów Voivodship.
Between May 25 - August 21, 1919, Stanisławów was also occupied by Romanian army.

 

 

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Jews in Stanisławów were permitted to build houses for themselves on the "Street of the Jews" (located at that time by the flood bank).

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There were more than 40,000 Jews in Stanisławów when it was occupied by the Germans on July 26, 1941.
During the Nazi occupation, from 1941 to 44), more than 600 educated Poles and most of the city's Jewish population was murdered.

 

 

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On August 1, 1941, Galicia became the fifth district of the General Government.
On October 12, 1941, called "Blutsonntag" ("Bloody Sunday"), thousands of Jews were gathered on the market square; then the German forces escorted them to the Jewish cemetery, where mass graves had already been prepared. On the way the German and Ukrainian escorts beat and tortured the Jews. At the cemetery the Jews were compelled to give away their valuables. The men of the Security Police (Sicherheitspolizei; Sipo) started mass shootings, assisted by members of the German Order Police (Ordnungspolizei) and the railroad police. The Germans ordered the Jews to undress in groups and then proceed to the grave,s where they were shot. They fell into the grave or were ordered to jump in before being shot.
The German forces shot between 8,000 and 12,000 Jews on that day.
Until July 1942, killings were carried out in Rudolf's Mill; from August onward, in the courtyard of the Sipo headquarters.
On August 22, 1942, the Germans held a "reprisal Aktion" for the murder of a Ukrainian, which they blamed on a Jew. More than 1,000 Jews were shot. German policemen raped Jewish girls and women before taking them to the courtyard of the Sipo headquarters.
About 11,000 Jews were still living in Stanisławów when the next Aktion took place.

 

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On February 22 or 23, 1943, Brandt, who had succeeded Hans Krüger as SS-Hauptsturmführer, ordered the police forces to surround the ghetto -- initiating the final liquidation.
Four days after the beginning of the Aktion, the Germans put up posters announcing that Stanisławów was "free of Jews."
In October 1965, a formal indictment was issued against Hans Krüger, after six years of investigations by the Dortmund State Prosecutor's Office.
On May 6, 1968, the Münster State Court sentenced him to life imprisonment.
He was released in 1986.
In 1966, trial proceedings were held in Vienna and Salzburg against members of the Schupo and the Gestapo in Stanisławów.

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On July 27, 1944, when the Soviet army reached Stanisławów, there were about 100 Jews in the city who had survived in hiding.
About 1,500 Jews from Stanisławów survived the war.

References

  1. Helfmann, Ernestine 'Tina' Esther
  2. Wechsler, Leib
  3. Wechsler, Mayer
  4. Wechsler, Moses