Skala on the River Zbrucz

Skala on the River Zbrucz is a town in the Ukraine. It was, at one time, named simply "Skala." To distinguish itself from another town with that same name, the town compounded its name, variously, to "Skala on the River Zbrucz," "Skala Podolska" (in Ukrainian), and "Skala Podolskaya" (in Russian). [Skala on the River Zbrucz, website hosted by JewishGen Inc. [http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/SkalaPodol/index.html#People] ]

History

Geographically, Skala on the River Zbrucz straddles traditionally Ukrainian regions and traditionally Polish regions. Because of this precarious location, it has a history of ethnic diversity and has been, during periods of war or political unrest, particularly susceptible to turmoil. [Skala on the River Zbrucz, website hosted by JewishGen Inc. [http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/SkalaPodol/index.html#People] ] [Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Poland, Volume II, Pinkas Hakehillot Poland Series, Yad Vashem, see chapter titled "Skala (Skala Podolskaya)" [http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol2_00395.html] ] [Nancy Sinkoff, Out of the Shtetl, Making Jews Modern in the Polish Borderlands, (Brown Judaic Studied, 336)]

Prior to World War I, Skala on the River Zbrucz was part of the province of Galicia, on the eastern border of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. [Skala on the River Zbrucz, website hosted by JewishGen Inc. [http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/SkalaPodol/index.html#People] ]

In 1919 -- after World War I, the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, and the Polish-Ukrainian War -- Skala on the River Zbrucz became part of eastern Poland. It was populated mostly by Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews. [Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Poland, Volume II, Pinkas Hakehillot Poland Series, Yad Vashem, see chapter titled "Skala (Skala Podolskaya)" [http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol2_00395.html] ] [Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, Love In A World Of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl's Holocaust Memoirs (Devora Publishing, 2005)] The town was at the eastern edge of Poland and it bordered the Soviet Union, from which it was separated only the Zbrucz River. [Max Mermelstein (Weidenfeld), et al., Skala, (Skala Benevolent Society, New York, Tel Aviv, 1978)] [Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Poland, Volume II, Pinkas Hakehillot Poland Series, Yad Vashem, see chapter titled "Skala (Skala Podolskaya)" [http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol2_00395.html] ]

Prior to the World War II, Skala on the River Zbrucz was home to a significant Jewish population. [Max Mermelstein (Weidenfeld), et al., Skala, (Skala Benevolent Society, New York, Tel Aviv, 1978)] Cossacks from the east frequently crossed over the river to raid the town ("see" raid (military)), focusing their violence and destruction on Skala's Jewish population. [Max Mermelstein (Weidenfeld), et al., Skala, (Skala Benevolent Society, New York, Tel Aviv, 1978)] [Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities in Poland, Volume II, Pinkas Hakehillot Poland Series, Yad Vashem, see chapter titled "Skala (Skala Podolskaya)" [http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/pinkas_poland/pol2_00395.html] ] [Fanya Gottesfeld Heller, Love In A World Of Sorrow: A Teenage Girl's Holocaust Memoirs (Devora Publishing, 2005)]

In 1939 -- toward the beginning of World War II -- the Soviet Union invaded Skala on the River Zbrucz ("see", Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)) and forcibly "resettled" many of the Ukrainians, Poles, and Jews to remote areas of the Soviet Union ("see", Deportations from border territories in 1939–1941 [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Involuntary_settlements_in_the_Soviet_Union#Deportations_from_border_territories_in_1939.E2.80.931941] ).

In the summer-autumn of 1941, the territories annexed by the Soviet Union were overrun by Nazi Germany in the course of the initially successful German attack on the USSR. Most of the Jews from Skala on the River Zbrucz perished during the Holocaust. [Max Mermelstein (Weidenfeld), et al., Skala, (Skala Benevolent Society, New York, Tel Aviv, 1978)] ("See generally", World War II and the Destruction of Polish Jewry [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Poland#World_War_II_and_the_destruction_of_Polish_Jewry_.281939.E2.80.9345.29] ).

After the defeat of Nazi Germany, Skala on the River Zbrucz officially became part of the Soviet Union as a result of the territorial changes of Poland after World War II. It became part of the Ukraine on July 16, 1990, when the Ukraine declared its independence from the Soviet Union ("see", Ukraine - Independence [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ukraine#Independence] )

References

ee also

Second Polish Republic

Occupation of Poland (1939–1945)

Polish-Ukrainian War

Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union

List of villages and towns depopulated of Jews during the Holocaust

Population transfer in the Soviet Union

Forced settlements in the Soviet Union

Additional External Resources

Bibliography for Skala Researchers [http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/SkalaPodol/Bibliography.html]

Tracy Abraham, To Speak for the Silenced (Dvorah Publishing Company, 2007)

Skala Monument in Holon, Israel [http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/SkalaPodol/IsraelMemorialMaxM.html]