Luck, Poland

Lutsk is a city on the Styr River in northwestern Ukraine. Before World War II it was part of Poland.

Background

The earliest references to Jews in Lutsk date to 1409. In 1432, the town’s Jews were granted rights equal to those of their counterparts in Kraków and Lithuania.

In 1795, as a result of the Third Partition of Poland, the Russian empire annexed Lutsk. The town’s Jewish population grew as a result of Russian imperial legislation (in 1804) that evicted Jews from villages. Despite frequent fires and the threat of expulsion—Lutsk was included in the list of border towns prohibited to Jews in 1844—the community continued to grow in the 19th century.

It remained part of Russia until 1915 when it was occupied by Austria-Hungary. During the Polish-Bolshevik War, on 16 May 1919 the city was occupied by the newly established Polish state.

In the 1920s and 1930s, Lutsk was a provincial centre, where all the large Jewish political parties were active. In addition to Jewish schools, the town hosted a Bet Yosef yeshiva and about 50 synagogues and prayer houses belonging to various religious and professional groups.

World War II

Under the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, Lutsk, along with the rest of western Volyn, was annexed by the Soviet Union in September 1939. The Soviet authorities closed down political, charitable, communal, and cultural institutions, arresting business leaders and political figures.

The Germans occupied Lutsk during the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941. They overlooked the Soviet killings of Poles and Jews prior to their withdrawal. But the killings of Ukrainians were documented and the Jews were to be held responsible for what the Soviets did as they were generally regarded as Soviet collaborators. The Ukrainian People’s Militia organised a pogrom and burned the synagogue.

During the Nazi occupation, most of the Jewish inhabitants of the city were forced into the Luck Ghetto, and then murdered at an execution site not far from the city. In total, more than 25,000 Jews were executed at point-blank range. 

Aftermath

The Red Army occupied Lutsk on 2 February 1944. Only about 150 Jews emerged from hiding. The Jewish community was never restored.