The Jews of Lemberg: A Journey to Empty Places

This is the first comprehensive book about the Jews of Lviv. The empty spaces, where once stood the synagogues, are filled now with powerful stories of survivors and newcomers. A hundred years ago Lemberg (or Lemberik as the Jews called it) was part of the Habsburg Empire and famed for its splendour and rich cultural life, a rival to its sister city Cracow. In the interwar years, known now by the Polish name Lwow, the city was a jewel in the crown of the young Republic of Poland. Until the German occupation in 1941 a Jewish community of over 100,000 people lived in Lwow. When the Soviet Union annexed the city in 1944 virtually all the Jews had disappeared in the Holocaust, and the Polish and ethnic German inhabitants were expelled. Ukrainians and Russians took their places, and after the lowering of the Iron Curtain the city sank into oblivion. For seven hundred years Jews made major contributions to the culture, economy and social life of the city. The Nazis not only exterminated the Jews, but also did their best to wipe out all traces of them. The history of the Lemberik Jews is a journey to empty spaces.The core of the book consists of three life-stories of Jewish survivors, whose lives are interwoven with the tragic history of the city. All three life-stories are accompanied by a chapter on material places and their histories. In these attention is not only paid to the past, but also to the contemporary Jewish community in Lviv. The book is preceded by a historical introduction and in the end matter the reader will find lists of literature and websites for further information. Carefully selected pictures enrich the text throughout, and the book includes a visitor’s map of the town.