Known as Lemberg in German and Lwów in Polish, the city of L'viv in
modern Ukraine was in the crosshairs of imperial and national
aspirations for much of the twentieth century. This book tells the
compelling story of how its inhabitants (Roman Catholic Poles, Greek
Catholic Ukrainians, and Jews) reacted to the sweeping political changes
during and after World Wars I and II. The Eastern Front shifted back and
forth, and the city changed hands seven times. At the end of each war,
L'viv found itself in the hands of a different state.
While serious tensions had existed among Poles, Ukrainians/Ruthenians,
and Jews in the city, before 1914 eruptions of violence were still
infrequent. The changes of political control over the city during World
War I led to increased intergroup frictions, new power relations, and
episodes of shocking violence, particularly against Jews. The city's
incorporation into the independent Polish Republic in November 1918
after a brief period of Ukrainian rule sparked intensified conflict.
Ukrainians faced discrimination and political repression under the new
government, and Ukrainian nationalists attacked the Polish state. In the
1930s, anti-Semitism increased sharply. During World War II, the city
experienced first Soviet rule, then Nazi occupation, and finally Soviet
conquest. The Nazis deported and murdered nearly all of the city's large
Jewish population, and at the end of the war the Soviet forces expelled
the city's Polish inhabitants.
Based on archival research conducted in L'viv, Kiev, Warsaw, Vienna,
Berlin, and Moscow, as well as an array of contemporary printed sources
and scholarly studies, this book examines how the inhabitants of the
city reacted to the changes in political control, and how ethnic and
national ideologies shaped their dealings with each other. An earlier
German version of this volume was published as Kriegserfahrungen in
einer multiethnischen Stadt: Lemberg 1914-1947(2011).
