In early July 1941, during the first weeks of the German
Operation Barbarossa, the city was captured by the
Wehrmacht, and the
District of Galicia was created. Drohobych had a petrol-producing plant essential for the German war effort. In September 1942, Drohobych became the site of a large, open type ghetto, Jewish men of working age remained at the local refinery. The remaining slave-workers were transferred to labor facilities, with about 450 people murdered in February 1943. The last of the Drohobycz Jews were transported in groups to Bronicki Forest (
las bronicki, i.e. Bronica Forest) and massacred over execution pits between 21 and 30 May 1943.
Felix Landau, an SS Hauptscharführer of Austrian origin serving with an
Einsatzkommando z.b.V based in Lemberg, participated in the mass executions of Jews, and wrote about it in his daily diary. One of the most notable inmates of the Drohobych Ghetto was
Bruno Schulz, educator, graphic artist and author of popular books
Street of Crocodiles and the
Cinnamon Shops. He painted murals for the children's room of one of the German officials before being shot, and after the war, became the most famous Polish writer detained and killed in the Ghetto. The mathematicians
Juliusz Schauder and
Józef Schreier lived in the ghetto before their deaths in 1943. Drohobych was liberated by the forces of the Red Army on 6 August 1944. There were only 400 survivors who registered with the Jewish committee after the war ended. ==See also==