Boryslav (, ; ) is a city located on the Tysmenytsia (a tributary of the Dniester), in Drohobych Raion, Lviv Oblast (region) of western Ukraine. It hosts the administration of Boryslav urban hromada, one of the hromadas of Ukraine. Boryslav is a major center of the petroleum and ozokerite industries.

History

Modern Boryslav emerged through amalgamation of four settlements: Boryslav itself, Tustanovychi, Volianka and Mraznytsia.

Oil and ozokerite production

thumb|left|Oil wells in Borysław

During the first half of the 19th century small-scale manual production of oil started. Along with ozokerite natural gas was also produced in Boryslav. On the day following the Germans' arrival, local Ukrainians launched a pogrom, participated in by some German soldiers, that murdered approximately 350 Jews and wounded and robbed many more. The first official anti-Jewish actions began at the end of November 1941, when around 1,500 Jews, the majority of whom were deemed weak and unable to work, were shot by the Ukrainian militia and German security police in the forest near the town of Truskavets. During the winter of 1941–1942, many Jews died of hunger and disease, including typhus. In May 1942, an official ghetto was established; some Jews from neighboring towns were brought there to live. At the beginning of August 1942, Jews, including those from neighboring villages, like Pidbuzh and Skhidnytsya, were rounded up by the German police, Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, and Jewish police. Some were shot on the spot, about 400 were sent to the Janowska concentration camp near Lwów, and 5000 were sent to Belzec where they were immediately gassed.

Two separate ghettos were created in Boryslav, including one for workers in the oil industry. In October 1942, the Germans and local Ukrainians and Poles, led by German soldiers, rounded up more than 1000 Jews and sent them to Belzec to be murdered. In another action in November, about 1500 Jews were rounded up, held for three weeks under depraved conditions in a local cinema, and then sent to Belzec.

thumb|upright|World War II German post stamp

During the fifth action in February 1943, 600 Jews were shot by members of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police, German police, and the Schupo. The isolated executions of Jews in hiding took place all the time from May till June 1943 until the total liquidation of the Boryslav ghetto at the end of June 1943. Over the course of one week, the German forces murdered around 700 Jews (sick, young and elderly Jews and members of the Jewish Police). Other Jews were hunted down by Ukrainian and German forces and shot. The remaining Jews were deported to different labor camps (Plaszów and Mauthausen) from April to June 1944. In all, over 10,000 Jews native to Boryslaw were shot by Germans and Ukrainians or murdered in the camps.

Jewish lives saved

Despite the persecutions, between 250 and 800 Jews in Boryslav managed to survive the Nazi occupation. Among them was the family of engineer Abraham Lipman, whose wife and son were rescued by Ukrainian Greek Catholic priest Vasyl Popel (1908-1982), a godson of metropolitan bishop Andrey Sheptytsky. Popel housed the Lipmans at his family home, allowing them to eventually rejoin Abraham and flee from the city, later emigrating to Poland. Following the war Vasyl was declared "enemy of the people" by Soviet authorities and spent 11 years in labour camps of Kolyma and Kazakhstan. In 2003 Vasyl Popel, as well as his mother Motrona (1870-1962) and wife Stefania (1919-1995) were recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by the Yad Vashem memorial centre. Another family awarded that title was the Miniv family from Boryslav.[https://drogmedia.net.ua/2023/05/14/toj-khto-vriatuvav-zhyttia-podibnyj-tomu-khto-vriatuvav-tsilyj-svit/]

For a description of the events in Boryslav during the war, see the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos. A personal-account history of this period is recounted by the Polish-American writer — and Boryslav native — Wilhelm Dichter in his popular and acclaimed literary debut, Koń Pana Boga. It is a memoir of the war in Borsylav as Dichter experienced it as a Polish-Jewish child.

After World War II

thumb|upright=0.5|Coat of arms in 1996–2012

Following Germany's defeat in World War II, the town came again under Soviet rule. Most local Poles were expelled to Poland, with a sizeable group settling in Wałbrzych, now a twin town of Boryslav. During the Soviet era Boryslav produced 80% of all oil in Ukrainian Carpathians. An oil distillery, plants producing machinery for oil industry, ozokerite, candle, lubricant and gum factories were operating along with several technial schools and a geological institute.

Demographics

Between 1880 and 1931 the population of Boryslav increased almost threefold, with the proportion of Ukrainians and Jews declining from 28 to 23% and from 62% to 28% respectively, meanwhile the percentage of Poles increased from 10% to 48%.

Landmarks and visitor attractions

  • Tustan fortress, a historic-cultural preserve
  • Skole Beskids, a National Park

International relations

thumb|Memorial in [[Wałbrzych to Poles resettled from Boryslav to Wałbrzych]]

Twin town – sister city

Boryslav is twinned with:

  • Wałbrzych in Poland (since 27 February 2009)

Notable people

thumb|upright=0.6|Mykhailo Dragan

  • Hank Brodt (1925-2020), Holocaust survivor and author of Hank Brodt Holocaust Memoirs. A Candle and a Promise [Amsterdam Publishers, 2016]
  • Johan (Jan) Zeh (1817–1897), pharmacist, discovery of technology that led to the establishment of a new industry based on petroleum. Scientists worked out a method of distilling Boryslaw crude oil, and on 30 March 1853 constructed the first kerosine lamp
  • Mykhailo Dragan (1899–1952), Ukrainian art historian, born in Tustanovychi
  • José Maurer (1906-1968), stage and cinema actor starring mainly in the Yiddish theatre in Europe, Argentina and Israel
  • Zbigniew Balik (born 1935), Polish scientist and politician, deputy to the Sejm 1989–1991.
  • Wilhelm Dichter (born 1935), engineer, Holocaust survivor and writer
  • Wladyslaw Nehrebecki (1923–1978), a Polish animator and cartoon director, creator of Bolek and Lolek
  • Michael Sobell (1892–1993), British businessman and philanthropist
  • Shevah Weiss (1935–2023), Israeli politician
  • Vira Vovk (1926–2022), Ukrainian poet
  • Zdzisław Żygulski, Jr. (1921–2015), Polish art historian and professor of the Academy of Fine Arts in Kraków

<gallery>

File:Борислав парк качалки.jpg|Oil pumps in the Boryslav city park, 2009

File:The bell tower of the Church of St. Anna. Boryslav..JPG|The bell tower of the Church of St. Anne

File:Церква Успення Пресвятої Богородиці на Мражниці. Борислав.jpg|Assumption Church

File:Церква Покрови Пресвятої Богородиці (Борислав).jpg|Intercession Church

File:Борислав-Палац Культури.jpg|Polish-built Palace of Culture for Oilers, 2009

File:Міцкевич борислав.jpg|Bust of Adam Mickiewicz

File:Пам’ятник Франку І.Я. Борислав.jpg|Ivan Franko monument

File:Boryslav3.JPG|City administration building, 2006

</gallery>

See also

  • Wilhelm Dichter
  • Sabina Wolanski (1927–2011), Holocaust survivor

References

  • Boryslav in the Encyclopedia of Ukraine
  • Soviet military topographic map 1:100,000
  • DrogMedia
  • holocaust memories [memories of a lost childhood by holocaust from Prof. Lipman]
  • [http://amsterdampublishers.com/en/hank-brodt-holocaust-memoirs] [Hank Brodt Holocaust Memoirs - A Candle and a Promise by Deborah Donnelly]