Lemberg, Lwów, L'viv, 1914–1947: Violence and Ethnicity in a Contested City

Central European Studies

by Christoph Mick

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).

Genres: Ukraine, History, Nonfiction

458 pages, Paperback

First published March 1, 2011

Reviews

[Ben Vos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Comprehensively researched. Maybe it was the translation from the German, but this book felt oddly bloodless. Despite the very many individuals quoted from a variety of sources, few names are given and although lots of people lived through all of the events described, because of the lack of named personalities, it is difficult to get a sense of that. Of course that's just an impression and doesn't reflect the reality and the book is a scholarly one, but I feel a stylistic choice on whether or not to personalise the experiences concerned, does leave the finished result feeling a little dry.

On a personal note, I think Mick has achieved something important in in his cool description of the causes and inescapability of anti-semitism amongst Poles and Ukrainians at this time and in this place. I don't feel he shys away from implying in the most calm and and non-judgemental way, that the anti-semites were possessed of irrational, unfair, blinkered and even stupid thinking and then acting on their non-thoughts. He doesn't use these words of course, but Mick does point out that the Jews alone, were not given any leeway amongst their neighbours for acting in their own interests whereas everyone else apparently had a right - national, historical romantic etc - to do so. Bundists, communists, assimilationists, chasidim, Zionists, all were damned.

[girlsublimed · Rating 4 out of 5]

great points abt perception of history, collective memory, and political mythologization, and national identity formation but gosh this guy got like every single military, government, political detail that exists in there while he was at ittt

[Matt · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a thorough look at the way the three main ethnic groups of Lviv (Poles, Ukrainians, Jews) interacted with each other from 1914 until 1947. As Mick says, most studies of the city focus on one of the three groups, and often fails to account for the overall impact and how all of them worked together through the turmoil of the First and Second World War.

Overall it is a decent book, and Mick does an admirable job of trying to cover three very distinct groups. Heavily footnoted, it is a translation from his earlier work in German, so many of the secondary sources are in German, which limits English readers. The conclusion is also really weak considering what he is trying to do here, in that it doesn't really say anything, and more just trails off after a couple pages. Mick does show that there was considerable interaction between the Poles, Ukrainians, and Jews, and that each group faced tragedy and difficulties throughout the era, obviously to different degrees. But overall it just feels like didn't present a strong enough case for his argument, though again it is a translated, and condensed, version of his prior work in German, which may have made a stronger case for the different ways the three groups experienced the time period. Overall still worth reading, as it is a comprehensive look at the political and military aspects of Lviv in the era, and does so without the bias inherent from focusing on one ethnic group.