During the interwar period, Drohobych was a provincial town in the Lwów Voivodeship of the Second Polish Republic with 80,000 inhabitants,[1] the seat of Drohobycz county with an area of 1,499 square kilometres (579 sq mi) and population of around 194,400 people.

In September 1942, Drohobych became the site of a large, open type ghetto,[3] holding around 10,000 Jews in anticipation of the final deportations to killing centres in Operation Reinhard.

[3] 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.

[5] 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.

[6] 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.