Hrubieszów

Early history

In the 10th century the area formed part of the Cherven Cities, a territory which was included within the emerging Polish state by its first historic ruler, Mieszko I. It was invaded and annexed from Poland by Kievan Rus' in 981, and afterwards it changed possession several times between Poland and Rus', and even fell to the Mongol Empire in the mid-13th century. The origins of the town go back to the early Middle Ages, when a defensive gord existed on the Huczwa river island. It was first mentioned in 1254, as a hunting settlement located among forests.

In 1366, the area, along with Hrubieszów, then called Rubieszów, was eventually recaptured by King Casimir III the Great, and reintegrated with the Kingdom of Poland. Sometime in the late 14th century, a wooden castle was built here, as a residence of a local governor. Probably in 1400 Rubieszów received a town charter from Polish king Władysław II Jagiełło, who visited it in 1411, 1413 and 1430. A castle and church were later added. King Casimir IV Jagiellon ordered the construction of a route from Lublin to Lwów passing through Rubieszów. Several Polish-Lithuanian congresses were held in Rubieszów.^[4] The town was raided several times by the Tatars between 1498 and 1526.^[4] In 1672, Tatars raided the town once again, but were eventually defeated by Poles led by John III Sobieski.^[4]

Late modern period

After the First Partition of Poland in 1772, Hrubieszów was annexed by Austria. In 1800, Stanisław Staszic founded the Hrubieszów Agricultural Society, the first cooperative organization in Europe, which existed until 1945. The name of the town was changed in 1802 from Rubieszów to Hrubieszów. Following the Austro-Polish War of 1809 the town became part of the short-lived Polish Duchy of Warsaw, then in 1815 it became part of Russian-controlled Congress Poland, within the Lublin Governorate. In 1909, its population was 15,000.

Hrubieszów was the site of victorious battles fought by the Poles against Russia during the 19th-century uprisings. First during the November Uprising, on 15 February 1831, the Poles defeated the Russians in Hrubieszów and captured their commander, then at the beginning of the January Uprising, on 23 January 1863, a 400-strong insurgent unit captured the town.^[5]

In the final weeks of World War I, in November 1918, a newly formed Polish unit from Chełm liberated the town.^[6] It was integrated with the Second Polish Republic, within which it was administratively part of the Lublin Voivodeship. In 1919, the 4th Polish Rifles Regiment was based in Hrubieszów, before relocating to Bełz.^[7] During the Polish–Soviet War, in August and September of 1920, the Battle of Hrubieszów was fought, won by the Poles.^[8] In 1921, the Polish 1st Krechowce Uhlan Regiment was briefly stationed in Hrubieszów, before relocating to Augustów.^[9]

World War II and post-war period

During the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland, which started World War II, the German army entered the town on 15 September 1939. Ten days later the Germans withdrew and the Soviet army occupied the town, but after a fortnight returned it to the Germans, in accordance with a new Soviet-German agreement. Over a dozen Poles who were either born, educated or lived and worked in Hrubieszów, including the head of the local Military Recruitment Office, the former mayor and the former deputy starost, were murdered by the Russians in the Katyn massacre in 1940.^{[10][11][12][13]} During the German occupation, the region witnessed the Zamość Uprising. Many inhabitants, including almost all of the 7,000 Jewish residents, were murdered in the Holocaust. In 1944, the German occupation ended, and the town was restored to Poland, although with a Soviet-installed communist regime, which stayed in power until the Fall of Communism in the 1980s.

After World War II, what remained of the town's Ukrainian population was expelled to the Soviet Union. In May 1946, the town was the site of the attack on Hrubieszow, the largest joint action by the partisans of the Polish anti-communist Freedom and Independence movement and those of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army.

Between 1975 and 1998, the town was administratively part of the Zamość Voivodeship.

Jewish resistance

In the summer of 1941, Julek (Joel/Jakób) Brandt, a leader of the Zionist youth movement Betar from Chorzów who was a relative of the chairman of the Hrubieszów Judenrat (Jewish Council), Samuel Brandt, arranged for several hundred members of the Betar youth movement in the Warsaw Ghetto to work on local farms and estates, including one in Dłużniów and Werbkowice. Before the war, the estate in Dłużniów had belonged to Maks Glazermann, a Jewish engineer from Lwów who was left to run the property. Among those sent to Dłużniów was a young woman from Warsaw named Hanka Tauber. Her account of what went on there was recorded in the ghetto diary of Abraham Lewin.

Most of the Betar youth were killed in the spring of 1942 and in subsequent months together with the local Jewish population. A small number, however, managed to return to the ghetto and later took part in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising of 1943. Julek Brandt escaped from a transport heading for the Sobibor extermination camp. He was denounced by locals who tuned him over to the Gestapo in Hrubieszów. There he was put to work by Gestapo Obersturmbannführer Ebner, who named him chief of a small work camp on Jatkowa Street. At the end of 1942, Brandt was executed by Ebner.^[17] Ebner himself was assassinated in December 1942.