Information compiled from Yad Vashem’s Pinkas HaKehillot (Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Poland), the authoritative record of Jewish communal life in pre-war Eastern Europe.

Boryslaw Before the War

Boryslaw (Boryslav, Boryslav) was a city in Eastern Galicia — a region that had been part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, passed to newly independent Poland after World War I, and was briefly under Soviet occupation (1939–1941) before the German invasion.

The city was a major center of the petroleum industry; oil had been extracted in the region since the 1850s, and by the early twentieth century Boryslaw was one of the largest oil-producing cities in continental Europe.

  • Jewish population before the war: approximately 13,000–14,000, representing roughly 40% of the city’s total population
  • Active Jewish community life: synagogues, schools (cheders, a gymnasium), cultural and political organizations (Zionist, Bundist, Orthodox)
  • Many Jews worked in the oil industry and in related trades; skilled craftsmen (tailors, cobblers) served both the Jewish and non-Jewish population

The Holocaust in Boryslaw

German Occupation Begins (July 1941)

German forces occupied Boryslaw on July 1, 1941, following the rapid collapse of the Soviet front. Within days, local Ukrainian nationalists and German forces carried out the first wave of violence against Jews.

The Aktionen (Roundups and Deportations)

Over the next three years, the Germans conducted multiple systematic Aktionen — organized mass arrests, shootings, and deportations:

  • Jews were shot in mass executions at sites outside the city
  • Deportations went primarily to the Bełżec extermination camp, where victims were killed on arrival
  • The ghetto was progressively reduced in size as the Jewish population was murdered
  • Jews considered “useful” — those employed in essential industries or holding Arbeitskarten (work permits) — were temporarily spared during some Aktionen

The ZAL (Forced Labor Camp)

Jews not deported were confined to a ZAL (Zwangsarbeitslager) — a forced labor camp serving the oil installations. Herman Freiman is documented as having been in “Gh. u. ZAL Boryslaw” (Ghetto and Forced Labor Camp Boryslaw) from July 1941 through March 1944.

Workers in the oil industry and essential crafts — tailors, mechanics, skilled tradesmen — sometimes survived longer because the Germans needed their labor. Herman’s profession as a tailor (Schneider) is believed to have been a factor in his survival.

Final Liquidation (1943–1944)

The Jewish community of Boryslaw was nearly completely destroyed during the final liquidation actions of 1943–1944. By the time Soviet forces re-occupied the city in August 1944, only an estimated 400–600 Jews from a prewar population of 13,000–14,000 had survived.

After Liberation

The few survivors faced a destroyed community with no infrastructure, no property (confiscated or occupied by others), and in many cases no surviving family. Most survivors left Poland in the following years — some to displaced persons camps in the Western Allied zones of Germany and Austria, others to Palestine/Israel, the United States, or other countries.

Herman Freiman followed this path: from Boryslaw to Bielawa (Poland), to the Ulm DP Camp in Germany, and finally to Israel in November 1948.

Further Reading

  • Yad Vashem, Pinkas HaKehillot Polin (Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Poland), Boryslaw entry
  • The Boryslaw Yizkor Book — survivor testimonies and community memorial volume
  • Gesher Galicia — Galician Jewish genealogy resources