~ Town History ~
(Town Seal – date unknown)
BUKOWSKO (Yiddish – Bikavsk) Lwow district, Poland. Jews settled in the 18th century, much of their livelihood revolving around the town’s annual trade fair and later bolstered by the establishment of a dominant Hasidic court connected with the Dynow dynasty. The Jewish population stood at 748 (total 991) in 1900, but dropped to 494 in 1921 after emigration and the tribulations of WWI took their toll, with many on the verge of starvation. The advance of the Germans in 1939 brought a stream of refugees and subsequently a regime of forced labor and extortion. Those Jews not sent to labor camps were deported to the Belzec death camp in the summer of 1942, probably via Zaslawie.
Source: The
Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust Shmuel Spector
(editor) & Geoffrey Wigoder (Consulting Editor), Yad Vashem, Jerusalem
[2001] 0-8147-9356-8
Social and economic development
resulted in the establishment of a new category of social classification -
townsman. The townsmen class was mostly Jewish. The newly erected
synagogue(built most likely before 1745) located in the upper part of the
Bukowsko square became the irrefutable symbol of their domination.
Documents confirming the ownership of two apartment houses survived to the
present day. The buildings were owned by two Jews: Moszek Litman and
Tobiasz Aronowicz. Documents prepared by the Austrian government, clearly
illustrate the structure of the population as far as the ethnic segmentation is
concerned. According to a manuscript from 1790 there were 18 Jewish and
220 Catholic families residing in Bukowsko. Ten years later, the number of Jewish families increased to 33
while the number of Catholic families experienced a rather insignificant
increase to 221 families. The Jewish people supported themselves mostly
through commercial dealings with the Rusyn population residing in nearby
villages. The cattle exchange and the Bukowsko Markets would take place
in February on Ash Wednesday and in June, just before the feast day of Saints
Piotr(Peter) and Pawel.(Paul) At the same time the Jewish merchants
participated(as the middleman) in herring trading. This product was
especially valued and desired by the Polish and Rusyn people around the time of
Lent.
Polish townspeople constituted a significantly lower number of the population
as compared to the Jewish population of the same social class...."
Source: W gminie Bukowsko Jerzy
Zuba, ROKSANA, Krosno, Poland, 1999 -
ISBN 83-87282-84-7
(English Translation: Bukowsko
Gmina – Edited by Deborah Greenlee – page 26)
Bukowsko is located about 12 km southwest of Sanok. In 1880 advanced subscribers to a book titled Arye Debi Eilai were Eliezer Lipa Broner, Eli’ Pinter, David Verner, and Shabatai Yitzchak Miller
(Source: Chester G. Cohen, "Shtetl Finder," Heritage Books, Inc., 1989, ISBN 1-0555613-248-4)
The township of Bukowsko, as officially designated, is situated southwest of the city of Sanok or Sunik in Yiddish, at the foothills of the Baskid, on the border between Austrian Galicia and Hungarian Slovakia, until WWI. Since then, until WWII, it was the border between Polish Galicia and Slovakia. The origins of Bukowsko and its development are hardly known, since there are few written records. The same applies to the Jewish settlement in the township.
We know that the entire trade and commercial life of the township and the surrounding area was in Jewish hands. The workshops and even the transport system to and from Bukowsko to Sanok was in Jewish hands. The only exceptions were: the sale of pork and its derivatives; Christian religious needs; the postal system and government services, which were provided by non-Jews
(Source: “Sefer Zikaron le-Kehilat Sanok ve-ha-Siviva”[1970] (translated by William Leibner)
BUKOWSKO (Yiddish – Bikavsk) Lwow district,
Poland. Jews settled in the 18th century, much of their
livelihood revolving around the town’s annual trade fair and later bolstered by
the establishment of a dominant Hasidic court connected with the Dynow
dynasty. The Jewish population stood at 748 (total 991) in 1900, but
dropped to 494 in 1921 after emigration and the tribulations of WWI took their
toll, with many on the verge of starvation. The advance of the Germans in
1939 brought a stream of refugees and subsequently a regime of forced labor and
extortion. Those Jews not sent to labor camps were deported to the Belzec
death camp in the summer of 1942, probably via Zaslawie.
Source:
The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust Shmuel
Spector (editor) & Geoffrey Wigoder (Consulting Editor), Yad Vashem,
Jerusalem [2001] 0-8147-9356-8
A small town in Sanok county,
with a Roman Catholic parish church and a post office in the town, in the
foothills of the Beskid mountains, in the San River basin. It has a county
court, a one-classroom school, and markets for pigs, corn, cattle, and horses.
The Roman Catholic parish, of Sanok deanery, has 1,280 faithful; at one time
Bukowsko belonged to the parish of Nowotaniec. A parish church was built here
in 1648; the current one was erected in 1710. [Volume 1, p. 471]
(Source: Slownik Geograficzny Krolestwa Polskiego - Warsaw 1880 - Translated by William F. Hoffman, PGSA Fall 2001 Rodziny)
In the early 1940’s, Bukowsko(miasto/town) in the region of Lwów had between 494-700 Jewish inhabitants. In Bukowsko Wies (village) there were approximately 129 Jewish inhabitants.An article on Bukowsko(miasto/town) appears in Volume III, pages 69-70 of the Pinkas HaKehillot.
(Source: List of Polish TownsTranslation from Jewish Communities Destroyed in the Holocaust. Avraham Klevan, Preliminary Edition, Yad Vashem Martyrs' And Heroes' Remembrance Authority, Jerusalem, 1982, Poland.)
Bukowsko
is a village and also is the location for the local government (gmina)
overseeing several other villages. The county seat (powiat) is in Sanok.
Sanok is also the seat of the county (powiat) court. 2,473 inhabitants in
Bukowsko. Railroad station is 14 km away in NowosielceGniewosz (Gniewosz has
since been dropped from the name of this village).
Post Office and Telegraph are
located in Bukowsko. Telephone is in Sanok. Bukowsko, the gmina, has
records of landowners. There is one Catholic church. There is an association of
craftsmen and manufacturers. Also, an association of manufacturers, traders,
and bar owners. Bukowsko has a country market (farmer's market) on Thursdays. A
country fair is held twice a year. Volunteer firemen (department). Head
fireman: K. Stobnik
(Source: 1929 Polish Business Directory translated by Debbie Greenlee)
At the end of 1941 the County of Cracau was divided in the Town of Cracau (Kreisfreie Stadt Krakau) and twelve districts.(The number in the parentheses would be the number of Jewish inhabitants in the major towns within a district.) The major towns in the Sanok District included: Sanok (4770), Baligród (abt. 880), Bukowsko (750), Lesko (abt. 2750), Lutowiska (1420), Mrzyglód (more than 520), and Ustrzyki Dolne (in July, 1942: abt. 3000).
In the first half of September, 1942 the Jews of the Sanok District were exterminated. In order to concentrate the population of this district, a special camp was established in Plonna (Szczawne). Because the occupiers thought it too difficult to take people from remote villages like Olsznica, Stefkowa, Wankowa, Ropienka, Czarna, etc. to Plonna, entire families were shot on the spot. Others were taken to the working camp in Zaslawie, [Note: Today Zaslawie is known as Zaslaw. Zaslaw is located 8.5 miles ENE of Bukowsko.] where about 11,000 people were packed together in barracks meant for 500. After a few days 4,000 of them were deported to Belzec, the old people were shot in the woods. Not much later two transports with about 9,000 people left Zaslawie for Belzec. (97)
(Source: Summary of E. Podhorizer-Sandel's article in ZIH-Biuletyn 1959 No. 30, p. 87-109)
(Bukowsko) Labor camp. Established on Aug. 15, 1942, liquidated on Oct. 15, 1942. It was located in a house with two stories (ground floor and 1st floor). Imprisoned were Jewish citizens, 60 on average. They carried out road construction. During the liquidation of the camp, the prisoners were taken to Zaslawie. [Note: Today Zaslawie is known as Zaslaw. Zaslaw is located 8.5 miles ENE of Bukowsko.]
(Source: Glówna Komisja Zbrodni Hitlerowskich w Polsce - Rada Ochrony Pomników Walki i Meczenstwa - Obozy hitlerowskie na ziemiach polskich 1939-1945 Warsaw[1979] (translated by Petje Schröder)
The Jews dominated in
Bukowsko’s population from the beginning of its existence. Already in 1745, the
number of Jews must have been very high as they had their own synagogue in the
upper part of the Market Square. In 1790 the Austrians, who owned this land by
now, took a census which showed that 18 Jewish and about 220 Catholic families
were living in Bukowsko. The trade in cattle was the best developed branch of
the local economy, and the Bukowsko Fairs, which took place several days before
Ash Wednesday and SS Peter’s and Paul’s day, were famous in the neighbourhood.
On 6 September 1772 the manor in Bukowsko burnt down. The
historical records of this fire also mention a brewery, a town hall and fish
ponds in the town. In the 19th century our town started to develop fast. At the
end of that century, it was at the height of its development and became one of
the most populated and biggest centres of handicraft and trade in Sanok County,
next to Sanok and Rymanów. (for the complete
history as recorded at the town’s website, click
here)