M.52.DAIFO - Documentation from the State Archives of the Ivano-Frankovsk Region

M.52.DAIFO - Documentation from the State Archives of the Ivano-Frankovsk Region
 
 History of the Archives:
 
 The Archives was established in December 1939 and was called the Regional Historical Archives of Stanislawow until 1941. Before its establishment, all of the documentation was kept in institutions of the authorities and in public institutions. This documentation began to be collected by the Stanislawow UNKVD as of November 1939 in the new regional Archives after the same institutions and organizations were cancelled by the Soviet authorities. The name of the Archives was changed during 1941-1958 and became the State Archives of the Stanislawow Region. Following the German invasion into Ukraine the collection and arrangement of the Archives was halted. Most of the documentation, except tor the departmentalized sub-groups and the administrative documentation, remained inside the Archives and afterwards some of it was destroyed or taken outside the country. At the end of the war the Archive's workers acted in order to arrange and re-catalog the documentation that remained. The Archives' name was changed to the Regional State Archives of Stanislawow in 1958. As of 1962, with the changing of the name of the region, the Archives received the name: the State Archives of the Ivano-Frankovsk Region. From 1980 until the present the name has been: the State Archives of the Ivano-Frankovsk Region. 
 
 This Sub-Record Group includes documentation from the State Archives of the Stanislawow Region, today the Ivano-Frankovsk Region in Ukraine, and it includes official and administrative documentation of the Polish authorities in Stanislawow and the region, regarding Jewish political parties and religious, charity, women's, sports and youth organizations from the late 1930s and until 1939; documentation of the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission from 29/01/1944-25/01/1945, regarding the murder of the Jewish population in Stanislawow during the German occupation and includes questionnaires of Security Service workers affiliated with the Sicherheitsdienst (SD), documentation of the Gendarmerie headquarters' propaganda department, and documentation of the head of the Stanislawow area during 1941-1942; lists of German war criminals, and lists of Jewish residents of the Stanislawow district who perished during 1941-1944, produced from documents of the NSDAP affiliated with the government in the Galicia area;
 
 Historical background:
 
 Stanislawow was a city in the East Galicia region, under the rule of Poland. According to the census of 1931, residing there were 24,823 Jews. In September 1939 Stanislawow was annexed to the Soviet Union and was included in the Soviet Ukrainian Republic. Many Jewish refugees from western and central Poland, which were under German rule, settled in Stanislawow during 1939-1941.
 
 On 02 July 1941, ten days after the German invasion of the Soviet Union, Stanislawow was occupied by the Hungarians, who were allies with the Germans. The local Ukrainians immediately began to riot against the Jews at the start of the occupation. The Hungarian authorities intervened and prevented the riots. The Hungarians exiled approximately 1,000 Jews to Stanislawow from the Carpathian Ruthenia area, which was under Hungarian rule. In late July 1941, the city of Stanislawow, which now had approximately 40,000 Jews, was transferred to the direct administration of the Germans. On 02 August 1941, Jews who were skilled professionals were requested to present themselves before the authorities at the Gestapo offices. They were detained and several days later more than 500 of the Jews were transferred outside the city, where they were murdered. In August and September 1941, many other anti-Jewish decrees were imposed on the Jews of Stanislawow, including the obligation to wear an armband with a Jewish star, sending of Jews to forced labor, and ransom payments; Jewish property was also stolen and confiscated, including the apartments of Jews; during 01-15 December 1941, the Jews of Stanislawow were ordered to move to the Stanislawow Ghetto established in the city. Hunger and disease caused mass mortality. The Judenrat, which was established at the start of the occupation, opened up soup kitchens, cared for elderly people and orphans, and operated two hospitals, which helped the ghetto inmates to a small extent. 
 
 Another "Aktion" took place on 31 March 1942. German and Ukrainian policemen kidnapped Jews on the street and from their homes, and concentrated them in one of the city's squares in order to conduct a selection. The only Jews to be released were those who had work permits from various places of work. The remainder of the Jews, approximately 5,000 people, were sent to their extermination in Belzec camp. Several hundred people were murdered during the "Aktion" on the streets and in the courtyards of the ghetto. Following this "Aktion", the area of the Stanislawow Ghetto was decreased and its residents were divided into three groups: Group A included experts in factories essential to the German economy; Group B included regular laborers who worked in less important labor places; and Group C included people defined as unfit for labor. During July 1942, approximately 1,000 Jews were massacred in the Stanislawow Ghetto, on the pretext that a Ukrainian policeman was beaten by a Jew. During the same period, several members of the Judenrat and Jewish policemen were executed by hanging. During the "Aktion" of 12 September, another 5,000 Jews were deported to Belzec camp, and in the Stanislawow Ghetto itself, there were approximately 1,000 corpses of Jews who were murdered during the "Aktion". During autumn 1942 and the 1942/1943 winter, hundreds of Jews were concentrated in camps established near factories and important labor places, and thus the fear increased among those same Jews who were considered to be "non-productive" that their end was approaching. At the same time, rescue attempts increased. There were Jews who attempted to rescue themselves by means of equipping themselves with "Aryan documents". Other Jews searched for hiding places and shelter with Christian acquaintances or attempted to cross the border to Romania. From January until late February 1943, the liquidation of the Stanislawow Ghetto was carried out. During these same weeks, German and Ukrainian policemen "cleansed" the ghetto of the remaining Jews, street by street and house by house. During the course of one day, on 26 January 1943, approximately 1,000 Jews were murdered. By March 1943, only several hundred Jews remained in the labor camps near the factories in Stanislawow, but during 1943 they were also murdered by the Germans and their Ukrainian collaborators.
 
 Stanislawow was liberated by the Soviet Army on 27 July 1944. Only approximately 1,500 of the Jews of Stanislawow survived. Most of the survivors were among the Jews who were in the Soviet Union during the war, and only approximately 100 Jews who survived were in hiding places, having been helped in most part by Poles.
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 1. Information Center regarding the Holocaust, Yad Vashem International School for Holocaust Studies, 2/2
 
 2. A. Kruglov, "Catastrophe of Ukrainian Jewry, 1941-1944", The Encyclopaedic Directory, Kharkov, "Karavella 2001".