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Dukla
Dukla is a town situated on the Jasiołka river, where the Low Beskids and the Jasielsk-Sanok Depression meet, twenty kilometers from Krosno and 17 km from the border crossing in Barwinek.
Sights of interest:
- ruins of the synagogue at ul. Cergowska
- castle
– historical museum
- late Baroque church of St. Maria Magdalena
- late Baroque church and monastery of the order of St. Bernard (Cistercians)
- the ruins of an eighteenth-century brewery
- military cemeteries
- a kirkut situated on ul. Trakt Węgierski
- a museum of the oil industry, named after I.Łukasiewicz in Bóbrka (an outdoor museum)
- a Łemko museum in Zyndranowa, which also has some items of Jewish art
History
The historical origins of this town reach back to the Middle Ages, when it first appeared in the documents in the fourteenth century. From the early fifteenth century, it is known that the town was already governed by Magdeburg Law. Dukla’s location along the "Hungarian Route" - used by the wine trade - encouraged its growth, as well as a great deal of banditry. Dukla was granted a privilege from king Zygmunt III Waza for the sale and storage of Hungarian wines, and towards the late sixteenth century, the town had its own customs-house, and numerous privileges related to markets, fairs and the storage of goods. The Dukla holdings belonged to the Męciński family, and then the Mniszch family, famous for its thirst for power and influence, who rebuilt the castle in the Rococo style. They introduced a requirement that burgher children attend school, funded the construction of the church and established a Masonic Lodge. Successive wars and disputes among the magnates, as well as fires, weakened the town's position. Nevertheless, it began to revive, and a church was built in honor of the blessed Jan of Dukla, a hermit. Nevertheless, the partitions and natural disasters, as well as typhus and cholera epidemics, meant that it had forever lost its previous position.
Jews in Dukla
A lack of documents has made it impossible to determine exactly when Jews first appeared in Dukla, though it is likely that they first came as the wine trade increased. They were also involved in crafts and money lending. In the late nineteenth century, thanks to Ignacy Łukasiewicz, the oil industry began to develop in the Podkarpacie region, and refineries were established. One was owned by Izaak Reich in the nearby village of Cergowa and the town itself had refineries belonging to Ehrenreiche and Wietschnew and Son.
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In the late nineteenth century, approximately 2,400 of Dukla's 3,000 inhabitants were Jewish. This helps explain the saying noted in the diary of Kazimierz Chłędowski, the son of the administrator of the Męciński family estate:
"Dukla is a town of Judah's sons
And in it four Bernardines"
"Dukla miasto Judy synów
A w nim czterech bernardynów"
During the First World War, the Russian army was stationed in Dukla. In 1915, the town suffered a fire that reduced its population radically from 3,500 to just 1,000. After Poland regained its independence in 1918, Dukla experienced an economic and social upturn. A number of Polish and Jewish political organizations were founded.
Cemetery in Dukla. Photo: A.Olej&K. Kobus:
During the Second World War, Dukla endured, and despite the fact it was attacked from many sides, conspirational activities were organized there. During the September campaign in 1939, the Ukrainian detachment of Colonel Sushko, pseudonym "Brandenburg" entered Dukla, supported by the Slovaks, and occupied the castle. Afterwards, the following units were stationed in the palace: Grenzschutz, SS "Galizien", and Wehrmacht detachments. The heaviest fighting took place in the autumn of 1944, during the Carpathian-Dukla operation. The Germans put the Jews in a ghetto, where many of them were shot on site, or in the nearby forests. In 1940, they burned down the synagogue, which dated back to 1758. Today only its ruins remain. The kirkut, situated to the south of town, still survives, and though it was damaged by the Germans, many matsevot are still there. It is known that the local population hid Jews, despite knowing that such aid was punished by the death penalty. Even in September 1944, not long before their retreat, the Germans shot Mieczysław Rój along with the five Jews he had been hiding.
Dukla was looted and 90% destroyed; of its population, only several dozen survived.
For many years after the war, it remained depopulated, but it was slowly rebuilt. In the 1950's, it had only 600 inhabitants; today, it has over 2,000. In 1984, Dukla was awarded the Grunwald Cross for its service during the war. More recently, the well-known Polish writer Andrzej Stasiuk has drawn attention to Dukla in his prose.
You are welcome to discuss about "Dukla"
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