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86-658: The town lies along the borders of Poland with both, westernmost Belarus and Ukraine, on the banks of the Bug River, 51 kilometres (32 miles) from Chełm in Poland and Brest in Belarus; 64 kilometres (40 miles) from Terespol , 86 kilometres (53 miles) from Lublin , and 77 kilometres (48 miles) from Liuboml in the Volyn Oblast of Ukraine. It is close to the Belarusian southernmost strip of

172-572: A marriage in 1802. It was in 1804, during these years of Austrian rule that Josef Rohrer wrote about the Mennonites of West and East Galicia . He wrote that they preferred to be called Täufer. He said that one group of Mennonites was stricter and was called Heftler, because they used hooks and eyes on their clothes rather than buttons, like the other group, the Knöfler. He wrote that the strict ones wore bears. He described wives being very careful to avoid

258-460: A Chamber of Deputies. A Council of Ministers functioned as the executive body of the duchy. Serfdom was partially abolished, as the serfs were granted personal freedom without gaining any economic liberties or privileges. All classes were to be equal before the law, although the nobility was still greatly favoured as members of the Sejm. While Roman Catholicism was the state religion, and religious tolerance

344-617: A butt of Jewish humor thanks to Jewish storytellers and writers such as Isaac Bashevis Singer , a Nobel Prize -winning novelist in the Yiddish language, who wrote The Fools of Chelm and Their History (published in English translation in 1973), and the Yiddish poet Ovsey Driz  [ he ; ru ; uk ; yi ] who wrote stories in verse. Notable adaptations of the Chełm Jewish folklore include

430-445: A friendly laugh or looking other men in the eye, for fear of being put under a ban for many weeks , so that no Mennonite would speak to her and her husband could not even sit at a table with her." Włodawa has an oceanic climate ( Köppen climate classification : Cfb ) using the −3 °C (27 °F) isotherm or a humid continental climate (Köppen climate classification: Dfb ) using the 0 °C (32 °F) isotherm. The town

516-603: A hill called góra chełmska . However, it is also theorized that the name is derived from some Celtic root. In 981 the town, then inhabited by the Slavic tribe of Buzhans , was annexed from Poland by the Kievan Rus' , along with the surrounding Cherven Towns . According to a local legend, Vladimir the Great built the first stone castle there in 1001. Following the Polish capture of Kiev in 1018,

602-694: A part of the Josephine colonization . In 1781, Austrian emperor Joseph II invited German farmers to move to Galicia , after seizing the region (which today lies in southeastern Poland and Western Ukraine ) in the First Partition of Poland . Other Amish however settled the vicinity of Włodawa, which was then still part of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (see Nolt, A History of the Amish, p. 64-65). Jerold A. Stahly writes of this community in

688-563: A period of decline as the local administrative and religious offices (including the bishopric) were moved to Lublin . In the mid-19th century, the Russian Army turned the town into a strong garrison , which made the Russian soldiers a significant part of the population. The period of decline ended in 1866, when the town was connected to a new railroad . In 1875, the Uniate bishopric was liquidated by

774-465: A room. Jews were conscripted for forced labor near Chełm and in other locations. The German Reich established 16 forced labor camps in the new Lublin district. Locals from neighboring villages and towns of Chełm also were forced to work in these camps. (also Khelm or Kulm in German), Some of the camps were connected to the main railroad line through a 40 km (25 mi) railroad branch line to

860-558: A small part of Austria's First Partition gains. De facto a Russian puppet state , it maintained its separate status only until 1831 when it was effectively annexed to the Russian Empire. Its constituent territories became the Vistula Land in 1867. The Constitution of the Duchy of Warsaw could be considered liberal for its time. It provided for a bicameral Sejm consisting of a Senate and

946-519: A substantial contingent of Polish troops, set out with the purpose of bringing the Russian Empire to its knees, but his military ambitions were frustrated by his failure to supply the army in Russia and Russia's refusal to surrender after the capture of Moscow; few returned from the march back. The failed campaign against Russia proved to be a major turning point in Napoleon's fortunes. After Napoleon's defeat in

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1032-452: A very large indemnity it owed to France), causing the Polish economy to suffer heavily. Indeed, to this day the phrase "sum of Bayonne" is a synonym in Polish for a huge amount of money. All these problems resulted in both inflation and over-taxation. To counter the threat of bankruptcy, the authorities intensified the development and modernization of agriculture. Also, a protectionist policy

1118-501: Is a rectangle with 2:3 proportions, divided into two parallel, horizontal stripes of the same width (upper – white, lower – green). On the upper strip, in the center, there is the coat of arms of Chełm. Chełm is twinned with: Duchy of Warsaw The Duchy of Warsaw ( Polish : Księstwo Warszawskie ; French: Duché de Varsovie ; German: Herzogtum Warschau ), also known as the Grand Duchy of Warsaw and Napoleonic Poland ,

1204-634: Is filled with colourful historic townhouses and contains a preserved old well. Most influential Members of Parliament ( Sejm ) elected from the Biała Podlaska/Chełm/Zamość constituency (2006) included: Badach Tadeusz (SLD-UP), Bratkowski Arkadiusz (PSL), Byra Jan (SLD-UP), Janowski Zbigniew (SLD-UP), Kwiatkowski Marian (Samoobrona), Lewczuk Henryk (LPR), Michalski Jerzy (Samoobrona), Nikolski Lech (SLD-UP), Skomra Szczepan (SLD-UP), Stanibuła Ryszard (PSL), Stefaniuk Franciszek (PSL), Żmijan Stanisław (PO) and Matuszczak Zbigniew (SLD). The flag of Chełm

1290-520: Is located to the south-east of Lublin , north of Zamość and south of Biała Podlaska , some 25 kilometres (16 miles) from the border with Ukraine . Chełm used to be the capital of the Chełm Voivodeship until it became part of the Lublin Voivodeship in 1999. The city is of mostly industrial character, though it also features numerous notable historical monuments and tourist attractions in

1376-535: Is represented by the local football club MLKS Włodawianka Włodawa who compete in the lower leagues. There are several monuments and tourist attractions worth seeing in Włodawa: Che%C5%82m Chełm ( Polish: [xɛwm] ; Ukrainian : Холм , romanized :  Kholm ; German : Cholm ; Yiddish : כעלם , romanized :  Khelm ) is a city in southeastern Poland with 60,231 inhabitants as of December 2021. It

1462-676: The Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary . Until the 14th century, the town developed as part of Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia and then as part of the short-lived Princedom of Chełm and Belz (see Duchy of Belz ). In 1366, king Casimir III the Great of Poland took control of the region after his victory in the Galicia–Volhynia Wars . On 4 January 1392, the town was relocated and granted rights under Magdeburg Law , with vast internal autonomy and

1548-625: The Brest Raion within the Brest Region bordering with north-western Ukraine. Włodawa was first mentioned in historical records in 1242. The first written mention of the town in an Old Slavonic chronicle which speaks about Prince Daniel staying there, escaping from the Tartars in 1241. In 1446-1447 the surrounding territories were annexed into the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and the river Włodawka marked

1634-694: The Essingen agreement for this group. When Austria took control of the Włodawa district in 1795 as part of West Galicia , there was no longer an international border separating the Amish Mennonites in Lemberger and Littauer congregations. The Amish all apparently left Falkenstein and Einsiedel in the next few years. Joseph Mündlein apparently moved to the Włodawa District, where he served as an elder, performing

1720-628: The Grand Duchy of Kraków . Finally, the bulk of the former Duchy of Warsaw, measuring some 128,000 km (49,000 sq mi), was re-established as what is commonly referred to as the " Congress Kingdom " of Poland, in a personal union with the Russian Empire . This broadly corresponded to the Prussian and Austrian portions of the Third Partition (apart from the area around Białystok) plus around half of Prussia's Second Partition conquests and

1806-680: The January Uprising in 1863. After the fall of the uprising, bloody repressions began and the attempts at Russification intensified. During World War I , from 1915 to 1918, the city was occupied by the Germans. Following Poland's return to independence , Włodawa became a seat of the Włodawa County . During the Polish–Soviet War , it was briefly occupied by the Russians, and then recaptured by

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1892-526: The Lesser Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. The city prospered in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was then that The Golem of Chełm by Rabbi Elijah Ba'al Shem of Chelm became famous, but the city declined in the 17th century due to the wars which ravaged Poland. In the 18th century, the situation in eastern Poland stabilized and the town started to slowly recover from the damages suffered during

1978-516: The Leszczyński family for next generations. As Leszczyński was a Calvinist , Włodawa soon became an important center of Protestantism. In 1624 a Calvinist church and a school were built here. Between 1633 and 1648, the minister of the Calvinist congregation in Włodawa was Polish historian and poet Andrzej Węgierski . In 1634 a Calvinist synod was held in Włodawa, which was attended by delegates from

2064-961: The Paulines from the Jasna Góra Monastery in Częstochowa to Włodawa and built their monastery. In the 18th century, the city was the property of the Pociej, Flemming, Czartoryski and Zamoyski families. After the Partitions of Poland , Włodawa was annexed by Austria in 1795. Following the Austro-Polish War of 1809, it was regained by Poles and included within the short-lived Duchy of Warsaw . In 1815 it became part of Congress Poland , initially autonomous, but later forcibly integrated within Imperial Russia . The inhabitants of Włodawa actively joined

2150-520: The Polish Military Organisation and students of local schools, led by Gustaw Orlicz-Dreszer , disarmed Austrian soldiers and liberated the city from Austrian rule, nine days before Poland officially regained independence. Chełm was one of the first liberated Polish cities of the former Russian Partition of Poland. The Polish 1st Cavalry Regiment was established in Chełm, which soon liberated

2236-488: The Province of Posen . The city of Kraków and some surrounding territory, previously part of the Duchy of Warsaw, were established as the semi-independent Free City of Cracow [ sic ], under the "protection" of its three powerful neighbors. The city's territory measured some 1,164 km (449 sq mi), and had a population of about 88,000 people. The city was eventually annexed by Austria in 1846, becoming

2322-420: The Province of West Prussia ; the remaining territories (i.e., Greater Poland /Poznań), which covered an area of approximately 29,000 km (11,000 sq mi), were reconstituted into the Grand Duchy of Posen . The Grand Duchy and its populace had some nominal autonomy (although it was de facto subordinate to Prussia) but following the 1848 Greater Poland Uprising was fully integrated into Prussia as

2408-614: The Swedish Deluge and the Khmelnytsky uprising . It attracted a number of new settlers from all parts of Poland, including people of Catholic, Orthodox, and Jewish faiths. In 1794, the Chełm Voivodeship was established. Chełm was one of the first towns to join the Kościuszko's Uprising later that year. In the Battle of Chełm of 8 June 1794, the forces of Gen. Józef Zajączek were defeated by

2494-631: The see of Rome in the late 16th century as Ukrainian Catholic Eparchy of Chełm–Bełz , retaining its Byzantine Rite , but in 1867 it became part of the imperial Russian Orthodox Church , and is now the Archdiocese of Lublin and Chełm of the Polish Orthodox Church . The town was the capital of a historical region of the Land of Chełm , administratively a part of the Ruthenian Voivodeship in

2580-500: The Austrians and the Treaty of Schönbrunn ) increased to 10 (as the duchy territory increased). Each department was named after its capital city. In January 1807: The above 6 departments were divided into 60 powiats . Added in 1809: The duchy's armed forces were completely under French control via its war minister, Prince Józef Poniatowski , who was also a Marshal of France . In fact,

2666-453: The Duchy annexed West Galicia , the area of the 1795 Austrian partition , and the district of Zamość ( Zamoscer Kreis  [ de ] ): The duchy's area increased significantly, to around 155,000 km (60,000 sq mi), and the population also substantially increased, to roughly 4,300,000. According to the 1810 census, the duchy had a population of 4,334,000, of whom a clear majority were ethnic Poles. Jews constituted 7% of

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2752-500: The Duchy of Warsaw. It kept all its gains from the three previous partitions, together with Białystok and the surrounding territory that it had obtained in 1807. Its demands for the whole Duchy of Warsaw were denied by other European powers. Prussia regained some of the territory it had lost to the Duchy of Warsaw in 1807: a portion of what it had conquered in the Second Partition. The Kulmerland and Gdańsk (Danzig) became part of

2838-599: The Germans carried out mass arrests of Poles , who were then imprisoned in Lublin, and then often deported to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp , while some were murdered in the region. The local Polish mayor was murdered in a massacre of over 115 Poles committed by the Gestapo in the nearby Kumowa Valley in 1940. In late 1940, Jews were confined to a small portion of Chełm, living in very overcrowded conditions, up to several dozen

2924-614: The Holocaust . Some survivors managed to find shelter in the Chełm Chalk Tunnels . However, as many as 400 others who fled to the east at the beginning of the war returned to Chełm but quickly moved on. Following the 1941 Operation Barbarossa the Germans established the Stalag 319 prisoner-of-war camp in Chełm, in which they imprisoned Soviet, French , British, Italian and other Allied POWs. A total of some 200,000 POWs passed through

3010-610: The Nazis with Soviet assistance and weapons. The Jewish cemetery was demolished by the Germans who used the headstones as road building material, and turned the Synagogue into military storage. On the road to Włodawa there is a memorial to the Jews from Włodawa who were killed at Adampol. No Jews are known to live in the town today, although the handsome, Baroque , Wlodawa Synagogue serves as major tourist attraction. A Włodawa landsmenschafte (society)

3096-635: The Old Town. Chełm is a multiple (former) bishopric . Its name comes from the Proto-Slavic word xъlmъ , a hill, in reference to the Wysoka Górka fortified settlement . In the third quarter of the 13th century, it was the capital of the Kingdom of Galicia–Volhynia . Chełm was once a multicultural and religious centre populated by Catholics , Eastern Orthodox Christians , Protestants and Jews . The population

3182-517: The Poles expected that the duchy would be upgraded to the status of a kingdom and that during Napoleon's invasion of Russia, they would be joined by the liberated territories of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania , Poland's historic partner in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . On 28 June, the Sejm formed the General Confederation of the Kingdom of Poland , establishing a system of government similar to

3268-654: The Poles on 17 August 1920. In 1939, before the onset of World War II , the population of Włodawa was 9,293. There was a garrison of heavy artillery regiment and the division of the field artillery in the town, used by the Pomorze and the Modlin armies in the defence of Poland against Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union . Włodawa was bombed by the Luftwaffe on 3 September 1939. Future Polish war hero Witold Pilecki fought against

3354-421: The Russian authorities and all of the local Uniates were forcibly converted to the Russian Orthodox Church. In the late 19th century, the local administrative offices were restored and in 1912 a local gubernia was created. During the Russian revolution of 1905 in the city was established the Ukrainian enlightenment society of Prosvita . During World War I , in 1915 most of the Ukrainian and Russian minority

3440-438: The Russians under Valerian Zubov and Boris Lacy , the town was yet again sacked by the invading armies. The following year, as a result of the Third Partition of Poland , the town was annexed by Austria . During the Napoleonic Wars in 1809, in the effect of the Polish–Austrian War , the town was briefly part of the Duchy of Warsaw . However, the Congress of Vienna of 1815 awarded it to Imperial Russia . The town entered

3526-424: The area through his generals. Although many European states and ex-rulers were represented at the Congress of Vienna in 1815, the decision-making was largely in the hands of the major powers. It was perhaps inevitable, therefore, that both Prussia and Russia would effectively partition Poland between them; Austria was to more-or-less retain its gains of the First Partition of 1772. Russia sought all territories of

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3612-437: The areas annexed by Austria in the Partitions of Poland . During the war, the German colonists settled by Prussia during Partitions openly rose up against the Varsovian government. After the Battle of Wagram , the ensuing Treaty of Schönbrunn allowed for a significant expansion of the duchy's territory southwards with the regaining of once-Polish and Lithuanian lands. As a result of Napoleon's campaign in 1812 against Russia,

3698-402: The border between the Duchy and the Polish Crown within the Polish–Lithuanian Union . In 1475 Michał and Aleksander Sanguszko received the town in exchange with the Polish King Casimir IV Jagiellon . For the next 100 years the town became the home for the Sanguszko family . They built their castle here and developed the town's prosperity. The Sanguszko profited from the border crossing which

3784-585: The camp, and some 90,000 died there. In May 1944, the camp was relocated to Skierniewice . The monument commemorating the victims of Stalag 319 was unveiled in Chełm in May 2009 in the presence of foreign diplomats. From 1942 through to 1945, Chełm was one of numerous locations of the Volhynian massacres of Poles by death squads of OUN-UPA and groups of Ukrainian nationalists . The city and its environs allegedly witnessed revenge killings as well, between Ukrainians and its Polish self-defence. As noted by historians Grzegorz Motyka and Volodymyr Viatrovych ,

3870-417: The central and southeastern parts of present-day Poland. The duchy was held in personal union by Napoleon's ally, Frederick Augustus I of Saxony , who became the duke of Warsaw and remained a legitimate candidate for the Polish throne . Following Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia , Napoleon seemingly abandoned the duchy, and it was left to be occupied by Prussian and Russian troops until 1815, when it

3956-507: The children in the ghetto. In October, the SS and their Ukrainian auxiliaries rounded up and deported another 2000 to 3000 Jews to Sobibor. In November, the remaining Jews were marched to the railway station. Most were sent to Sobibor. Those in hiding were hunted, and the SS burned several ghetto buildings and killed many people who emerged from hiding. Some Jews remained in the ghetto as laborers, but they too were murdered in January 1943. There were only an estimated 60 Jews from Chełm who survived

4042-436: The city was occupied by German forces and renamed Kulm . At the beginning of the war, Chełm's population was around 33,000 of which 15,000 were Jewish. On Friday, 1 December 1939, at 8 o'clock, around 2000 Jewish men were driven at dawn to the market-square ("Okrąglak" or "Rynek") surrounded by the German SS formations and local indigenous officials. They were forced on a death march to Hrubieszów . Hundreds were murdered on

4128-415: The comedy Chelmer Khakhomim ("The Wise Men of Chelm") by Aaron Zeitlin , The Heroes of Chelm (1942) by Shlomo Simon , published in English translation as The Wise Men of Helm ( Simon , 1945) and More Wise Men of Helm ( Simon , 1965), as well as the book Chelmer Khakhomim by Y. Y. Trunk . Allen Mandelbaum 's "Chelmaxioms : The Maxims, Axioms, Maxioms of Chelm" (David R. Godine, 1978) treats

4214-447: The duchy had already been liberated by a popular uprising that had escalated from anti-conscription rioting in 1806. One of the first tasks for the new government included providing food to the French army fighting the Russians in East Prussia . The Duchy of Warsaw was created by French Emperor Napoleon I , as part of the Treaty of Tilsit with Prussia . Its creation met the support of both local republicans in partitioned Poland, and

4300-433: The duchy was heavily militarized, bordered as it was by Prussia , the Austrian Empire , and Russia , and it was to be a significant source for troops in various campaigns of Napoleon. The duchy's army was of considerable size when compared to the duchy's number of inhabitants. Initially consisting of 30,000 of regular soldiers (made up of both cavalry and infantry), its numbers were to rise to over 60,000 in 1810, and by

4386-415: The duchy's economy. To make matters worse, in 1808 the French Empire imposed on the duchy an agreement at Bayonne to buy from France the debts owed to it by Prussia. The debt , amounting to more than 43 million francs in gold, was bought at a discounted rate of 21 million francs. Although the duchy made its payments in installments to France over a four-year period, Prussia was unable to pay it (due to

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4472-611: The early modern period, a time when the Polish-speaking community of the region was predominately engaged in agriculture, Jews appear to have composed much of the population of the city, engaged in all forms of craft production and trade. The community was devastated by the Chmielnicki massacres of 1648, but afterwards re-established and rebuilt. By 1765 the town had 630 Jews. In 1693, the town had 197 dwellings, 89 owned by Jewish families. The census of 1773 records Jewish physicians, butchers, millers, barbers, goldsmiths, tailors, furriers, merchants, and carters, in addition to one Jew in each of

4558-428: The east, most of the territory of the Duchy of Warsaw was occupied by Russia in January 1813 during their advance on France and its allies. The rest of the duchy was restored to Prussia. Although several isolated fortresses held out for more than a year, the existence of the Varsovian state in anything but the name came to an end. Alexander I of Russia created a Provisional Highest Council of the Duchy of Warsaw to govern

4644-410: The entire Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth . Protestants from Bohemia , Moravia and Silesia also settled in Włodawa at that time. In 1648, the Cossack - Tatar army plundered and destroyed the city, killing almost the entire population, including all Jews. In 1657 the city was devastated again, this time by the Swedes during the Deluge . John III Sobieski and the subsequent Polish kings granted

4730-409: The former Prussian provinces of New East Prussia , Southern Prussia , New Silesia , and West Prussia . In addition, the new state was given the area along the Noteć river and the Land of Chełmno . Altogether, the duchy had an initial area of around 104,000 square kilometres (40,000 sq mi), with a population of approximately 2,600,000. The bulk of its inhabitants were Poles . In 1809

4816-562: The former commonwealth with the hope of reclaiming the partitioned territories. However, Napoleon did not want to make a permanent decision that would tie his hands before his anticipated peace settlement with Russia, and did not recognize the confederation of 28 June. Nevertheless, he proclaimed the attack on Russia as a second Polish war and allowed the Lithuanian Provisional Governing Commission to fall under Polish influence. Any peace settlement or restoration of Poland-Lithuania were not to be, however. Napoleon's Grande Armée , including

4902-405: The ghetto liquidation action, at the end of October 1942 hundreds of Jews escaped to the surrounding forests. Włodawa Jews were mostly deported to Sobibór, but some were executed locally at the German Arbeitslager workcamps such as the one at Adampol . Several Jews from Adampol and the Włodawa Ghetto were able to escape, and joined the Parczew partisans in the forests, fighting actively against

4988-411: The inhabitants (perhaps an underestimation), Germans – 6%, Lithuanians and Ruthenians – 4%. Superficially, the Duchy of Warsaw was just one of the various states set up during Napoleon's dominance over Eastern and Central Europe, lasting only a few years and passing with his fall. However, its establishment a little over a decade after the Second and Third Partitions, that had appeared to wipe Poland off

5074-425: The invaders near Włodawa. Under German occupation , Włodawa was the location of a subcamp of the Stalag 319 prisoner-of-war camp for Allied POWs. The existence of a Jewish community in Włodawa is first recorded in connection with the Lublin fair of 1531. By 1623 Włodawa had a representative in the Council of the Four Lands . The community's prosperity was due to the granting of a city charter in 1534. For much of

5160-405: The killing camps. In 1942, during Operation Reinhard , the highly secretive Bełżec , Treblinka , and the Sobibór extermination camps were built near the forced labor camps. Their purpose was to murder all Polish Jews. In May 1942, 1000 elderly Chełm Jews were sent to the Sobibór extermination camp where they were immediately murdered. In August, 3000 to 4000 more were sent, including most of

5246-407: The large Polish diaspora in France, who openly supported Napoleon as the only man capable of restoring Polish sovereignty after the Partitions of Poland of the late 18th century. However, it was created as a satellite state (and was only a duchy , rather than a kingdom). The Duchy has also been described as a puppet state or a client state of Napoleon's France. The newly recreated state

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5332-423: The map, meant that Poles had their hopes rekindled of a resurrected Polish state. Even with Napoleon's defeat, a Polish state continued in some form until the increasingly autocratic Russian state eliminated Poland once again as a separate entity. Altogether, this meant that an identifiable Polish state was in existence for at least a quarter of a century. At the 200th anniversary of the creation of this iteration of

5418-411: The march, others were tortured and beaten. They were marched to the Soviet border where they were forced to cross the river under gunfire. Eventually perhaps 400 of the men survived the Death March and 1600 were slaughtered. In January 1940, the Germans murdered 440 patients of the local psychiatric hospital, including 17 children, as part of the Aktion T4 . In June 1940, during the AB-Aktion ,

5504-462: The nearby towns of Włodawa and Hrubieszów . In the interbellum , Chełm was a county seat, administratively located in the Lublin Voivodeship (1919–1939) of the Second Polish Republic . During the joint German-Soviet invasion of Poland , which started World War II , on 27 September 1939 the invading Soviet Red Army occupied Chełm, but withdrew two weeks later in accordance with the German-Soviet Frontier Treaty . As early as 7–9 October 1939

5590-412: The onset of World War II, Jews constituted 60% (18,000) of the city's inhabitants. The main landmarks and tourist attractions of the city are Góra Chełmska with the Baroque Basilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary and the Chełm Chalk Tunnels , located underneath the city, a unique structure in Europe and the world. The town's main historic square is the Plac Łuczkowskiego (Łuczkowski Square), which

5676-426: The region returned to Poland before it fell back to Kievan rule in 1031. In 1235, Daniel of Galicia granted the town a city charter and moved the capital of his domain in 1241–1272 after destruction of Halych by the Mongols in 1240–1241. Daniel also built a new castle atop the hill in 1237, one of the few Ruthenian castles that withstood Mongol attacks, and established an Orthodox eparchy (diocese) centered at

5762-533: The requirements of the French raison d'état , who largely treated the state as a source of resources. The most important person in the duchy was, in fact, the French ambassador, based in the duchy's capital, Warsaw. Significantly, the duchy lacked its own diplomatic representation abroad. In 1809, a short war with Austria started. Although the Duchy of Warsaw won the Battle of Raszyn , Austrian troops entered Warsaw, but Varsovian and French forces then outflanked their enemy and captured Kraków , Lwów and some of

5848-469: The right to four annual fairs . Horses and, above all, oxen from nearby Volhynia were sold at these fairs, with the latter being even sold to Kraków , Poznań , Berlin and Vienna . These fairs, as well as the staple right for salt contributed to Włodawa's wealth. In the 17th century, Rafał Leszczyński , father of the future Polish King Stanisław Leszczyński , became the owner of Włodawa, but due to debts he sold it to Ludwik Pociej . Pociej brought

5934-423: The subject is highly controversial, because in 1944, Roman Shukhevych , leader of OUN-UPA , issued an order to fabricate proofs of Polish responsibility for war crimes committed there. By the end of World War II, only a remnant of Chełm's Jewish population of c. 18,000 survived. They managed to emigrate to Israel , the United States , Canada , Latin America , or South Africa . Chełm became well-known as

6020-412: The time of Napoleon's campaign in Russia in 1812, its army totaled almost 120,000 troops out of a total population of just 4.3 million people – a similar number of troops in total available to Napoleon at Austerlitz, from a country of more than 25 million people. The heavy drain on its resources by forced military recruitment, combined with a drop in exports of grain, caused significant problems for

6106-415: The town saw an influx of Polish and other Catholic settlers. The Latin Church Diocese of Chełm was created in 1359, but its seat was moved to Krasnystaw after 1480. Renamed as Diocese of Chełm–Lublin in 1790, it was suppressed in 1805, but since 2005 Chełm is nominally restored and listed by the Catholic Church as Latin titular bishopric . The Eastern Orthodox bishopric entered communion with

6192-409: The trades of coppersmith, cobbler, glazier, chandler, and wheelwright. There were also 8 schoolmasters, 2 educators, a cantor, a bass player and a cymbal player. There were 2,236 Jews in 1827 and 6,706 in 1907. In the late 19th century Włodawa had a Jewish-owned steam-powered flour mill, tannery and soap factory. Of the 184 stores in the town, 177 were owned by Jews. Włodawa's first Zionist organization

6278-501: The vastness of Talmudic literature. The combination of paralleled argumentation and linguistic commonality allows the Jewish textual tradition, namely Talmudic, to shine through Chełm folklore. After Poland's independence, the Polish census of 1921 found a population of 23,221, with 12,064 Jews, 9,492 Roman Catholics (Poles), 1,369 Orthodox Christians (Ukrainian, Ruthenians and Belarusians) and 207 Lutherans (Germans). In September 1939, at

6364-677: The vicinity of Włodawa in his work "Mennonite and Amish Identities Among the Swiss Volhynians in Europe": "In the Lithuanian congregation in Urszulin and Michelsdorf in the Włodawa district, one preacher was Christian Graber, ordained in 1790 in Montbeliard to go to Poland. Christian Stucky of Alsace served there as and elder from the 1790s to the 1830s. Graber, Stucky, and Johann Flickinger signed

6450-578: The wise men of the Jewish Chełm as scholars who are knowledgeable but lacking sense. Some Chełm stories emulate the interpretive process of Midrash and the Talmudic style of argumentation, and continue the dialogue between rabbinic texts and their manifestation in the daily arena. The seemingly tangential questioning that is typical of the Chełm Jewish Council can be interpreted as a comedic hint at

6536-544: Was a French client state established by Napoleon Bonaparte in 1807, during the Napoleonic Wars . It initially comprised the ethnically Polish lands ceded to France by Prussia under the terms of the Treaties of Tilsit , and was augmented in 1809 with territory ceded by Austria in the Treaty of Schönbrunn . It was the first attempt to re-establish Poland as a sovereign state after the 18th-century partitions and covered

6622-472: Was also guaranteed by the constitution. The administrative divisions of Duchy of Warsaw were based on departments , each headed by a prefect . This organization was based on the French model , as the entire duchy was in fact created by Napoleon and based on French ideas, although departments were divided into Polish powiats (counties). There were 6 initial departments, after 1809 (after Napoleon's defeat of

6708-413: Was bringing good income. In 1534 the town received city rights , confirmed in 1540. At that time the influx of the Jewish population started, which promoted commerce and crafts. The location on the large river, Bug, favored the rapid development of the city as a commercial and transit center. By the end of the 16th century, Włodawa passed into the hands of Andrzej Leszczyński and from that time belonged to

6794-428: Was evacuated to Sloboda Ukraine and Russia. The city fell under Austrian occupation. On 3 May 1918, Chełm was the site of a large Polish manifestation, as over 15,000 Poles gathered to celebrate the Polish 3 May Constitution Day . In September 1918, apostolic visitor Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (future Pope Pius XI ) visited the city, greeted by the local Polish population. On 2 November 1918, local members of

6880-452: Was formally an independent duchy, allied to France , and in a personal union with the Kingdom of Saxony . King Frederick Augustus I of Saxony was compelled by Napoleon to make his new realm a constitutional monarchy , with a parliament (the Sejm of the Duchy of Warsaw ). The Varsovian duchy was never allowed to develop as a truly independent state; Frederick Augustus' rule was subordinated to

6966-465: Was formally divided between the two countries at the Congress of Vienna . The east-central territory of the duchy acquired by the Russian Empire was subsequently transformed into a polity called Congress Poland , and Prussia formed the Grand Duchy of Posen in the west. The city of Kraków, Poland's cultural centre, was granted "free city" status until its incorporation into Austria in 1846. The area of

7052-711: Was formed in 1898, the town also had Bund , Agudath Israel and Poalei Zion organizations. There was a Beis Yaakov school for girls also. Włodawa was over 70% Jewish before the Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland and the Holocaust . The city became part of the Nazi German Lublin District of the General Government following the invasion. Włodawa Ghetto was set up by the German administration in 1941. Jews from all neighbouring locations were sent there. The Ghetto

7138-545: Was founded in America for survivors and descendants of Włodawa's Jewish Community and has members scattered throughout the US, Canada, Australia, England, Israel and elsewhere. London had a Wlodawa Synagogue (London) . In the 1700s, while some Amish families traveled west from Germany and Switzerland in their quest for religious freedom to the colony of Pennsylvania , others would venture to Central and Eastern Europe , largely as

7224-460: Was homogenized after World War II . The first traces of settlement in the area of modern Chełm date back to at the least 9th century. The following century, a fortified town ( gord ) was created and initially served as a centre of pagan worship. The etymology of the name is unclear, though most scholars derive it from the Proto-Slavic noun denoting a flat hill. The town's centre is located on

7310-464: Was introduced to protect industry . According to the Treaties of Tilsit , the area of the duchy covered roughly the areas of the 2nd and 3rd Prussian partitions , with the exception of Danzig (Gdańsk) , which became the Free City of Danzig under joint French and Saxon "protection", and of the district around Białystok , which became part of Russia. The Prussian territory was made up of territory from

7396-652: Was overcrowded and lacked food and medicine. Starvation and disease were common. Round ups for the Holocaust transports to the nearby Sobibór extermination camp took place in waves: 1,300 Jews in May 1942, 5,400 in October, 2,800 in November 1942, and 2,000 in April 1943, as well as the last 150 in May 1943. In June, all remaining Jewish children under the age of 10 were deported and gassed. During

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