Drohobych

Drohobych (Ukrainian: Дрогобич, pronounced [droˈɦɔbɪtʃ] ⓘ; Polish: Drohobycz [drɔˈxɔ.bɨt͡ʂ] ⓘ; Yiddish: דראָהאָביטש‎, romanized: drohobitsh) is a city in the south of Lviv Oblast, Ukraine.

As an outcome of World War II, the city was incorporated into the Ukrainian part of the Soviet Union, which in 1991 became the independent Ukraine.

The city was the birthplace of such well-known personalities as Elisabeth Bergner, Yuriy Drohobych (Kotermak), Ivan Franko and Bruno Schulz.

However, scholars perceive this legend with skepticism, pointing out that Drohobych is a Polish pronunciation of Dorogobuzh, a common East Slavic toponym applied to three different towns in Kievan Rus'.

Most of the local Poles, as well as the Greek Catholics and the Jews, were murdered at the time, while some managed to survive in the Bell tower not taken in the raid.

In 1928 the still extant Ukrainian private gymnasium (academically oriented secondary school) opened in the center of the city.

After the invasion Nazi Germany wanted to incorporate the city into its General Government due to its oil fields, but the USSR refused and annexed it.

Its local Polish boy scouts created the White Couriers organization, which in late 1939 and early 1940 smuggled hundreds of people from the Soviet Union to Hungary across the Soviet-Hungarian border in the Carpathian Mountains.

Immediately after the Germans entered the city, Ukrainian nationalists started a pogrom which lasted for three days, supported by the Wehrmacht.

Despite the large Jewish population prior to the war, a current resident has stated that he was one of only two Jews who came back to his village to live after 1945.

Industries currently based in the city include saltworks, oil-refineries, chemicals, machinery, metallurgy, and food processing.

A former castle tower
Coat of arms of Drohobych
Coat of arms of Drohobych