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Lwów in the war

13 articles · 1939–1945

Lwów was occupied by the Red Army in September 1939 and by the Wehrmacht in June 1941. In July 1941 the Germans shot Polish professors and members of their households on the Wulka Hills. The occupation brought the destruction of Lwów's Jews, almost a third of the city's population before the war: the ghetto was liquidated in June 1943, and the Janowska camp was a site of mass executions. In July 1944 the Home Army and the Red Army fought for the city; in 1945 Lwów remained in the USSR.

1939

  1. 17 September 1939EventThe Soviet invasion of PolandAt dawn on 17 September 1939 the Red Army entered Poland without a declaration of war, carrying out the secret protocol of its pact with Germany.
  2. 17 September – 6 October 1939BattleSoviet invasion of PolandFrom 17 September 1939 the Red Army occupied eastern Poland, resisted by the KOP, Grodno, Lwów and Orlik-Rückemann's group. Fighting went on into October.
  3. 19 September 1939EventGerman and Soviet troops meetThe Red Army took Wilno and met the Wehrmacht near Lwów and Brest. On 22 September Guderian handed Brest over to Krivoshein’s tank brigade.
  4. 1 November 1939EventThe USSR annexes eastern PolandOn 1–2 November 1939 the Supreme Soviet annexed eastern Poland to the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSRs, citing rigged “elections” of 22 October.

1941

  1. 4 July 1941EventThe massacre of the Lwów professorsDuring the night of 3–4 July 1941 the German Security Police in Lwów arrested Polish professors and their relatives. At dawn they were shot on the Wulka Hills.
  2. 1 August 1941EventThe District of GaliciaOn 1 August 1941 the Germans added Eastern Galicia, with Lwów, Stanisławów and Tarnopol, to the General Government as its fifth district.

1942

  1. 17 March 1942EventKilling begins at BełżecOn 17 March 1942 the first transports of Jews from Lublin and Lwów reached the Bełżec camp. They were murdered in the gas chambers soon after arrival.

1943

  1. 19 November 1943EventThe Janowska camp uprisingOn 19 November 1943 the Germans murdered the Jewish prisoners of the Janowska camp in Lwów. That evening the “Death Brigade” of Sonderkommando 1005 revolted.

1944

  1. 15 January – 26 October 1944BattleOperation TempestFrom January to October 1944 the Home Army struck the retreating Germans and greeted the Red Army as hosts. The Soviets disarmed its units.
  2. 13 July 1944EventThe Lwów–Sandomierz offensive beginsOn 13 July 1944 Marshal Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front advanced on Rawa Ruska and Lwów, opening the offensive that drove the Germans out of Eastern Galicia.
  3. 13 July – 29 August 1944BattleLwów–Sandomierz offensiveFrom 13 July to 29 August 1944 Konev's 1st Ukrainian Front destroyed a German corps at Brody, took Lwów and Przemyśl and won a bridgehead across the Vistula.
  4. 23 July 1944EventThe Lwów uprisingOn 23 July 1944 the Home Army and the Red Army fought the Germans in Lwów. The city fell on 27 July; days later the NKVD arrested the Home Army commanders.

1945

  1. 16 August 1945EventThe Polish–Soviet border agreementOn 16 August 1945 Poland’s Provisional Government and the USSR signed a Curzon Line border deal, leaving Lwów and Wilno in the USSR, and a reparations pact.

People

Born or died here

  • Michał Karaszewicz-TokarzewskiCommander of the Service for Poland's Victory (1939), commander of the ZWZ under Soviet occupation (1940), deputy commander of the Polish Army in the East (1943–1944)
  • Tadeusz Boy-ŻeleńskiTranslator, theatre and literary critic, columnist; head of the chair of French literature at Lwów University (1939–1941)