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Dolina, Ukraine

DOLINA, town in Stanislavov district, Ukraine, in Poland between 1917 and 1939. Although Jews are mentioned in 1472, a community was only established in 1638, when they received a permit from the king to build a synagogue and cemetery and to trade, on condition that they pay taxes like the other burgers. After the Austrian annexation they suffered in the years 1772–1868 from severe restrictions and heavy and humiliating taxes. At the end of the 19th century many of the local Jews emigrated. The Jewish population was 2,654 in 1900 (29% of the total), 2,014 in 1921, and 2,488 in 1931. In the 1920s the economic conditions deteriorated. With the help of the Joint an orphanage, soup kitchen, and interest-free loan association were established. In the 1930s the economy improved after several factories reopened. Between September 1939 and June 1941 Dolina was under Soviet rule, with all public life terminated and industry and trade nationalized. Dolina was occupied by the Germans on July 2, 1941. In the beginning of August a group of Hungarian and local Jews was executed in a forest near the town. In July 1942 all the Jews from the environs were concentrated in Dolina and 3,000 people were murdered in ditches in the local cemetery. About 50 Jews joined the Babi partisan unit, but only five survived along with a few who hid in the forests.


Sources:I. Schipper, Kulturgeshikhte fun di Yidn in Poyln Beysn Mitlalter (1926), index; Sefer ha-Zikkaron li-Kedoshei Bolekhov (1957).

[Shmuel Spector (2nd ed.)]

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