ZABOLOTOV

ZABOLOTOV (Pol. Zablotów), town in Ivano-Frankovsk (Stanislav) district, Ukraine. The Jewish settlement in Zabolotov developed in the 18th century, and by 1764 there were 986 Jews in the town. From 1772 till 1918 the region was part of the Austrian empire. In the early 19th century there was a strong hasidic trend in the community, due mainly to David Hager (d. 1848; see kosov ), who founded a rabbinic dynasty centered in the town. The baron de hirsch Foundation established a school and a bank. The Jewish population numbered 1,730 (49% of the total) in 1880; 2,009 (50%) in 1890; 2,092 (49%) in 1900; and 2,171 (46%) in 1910. Toward the end of World War I many Jews left Zabolotov because of antisemitic attacks. In 1921 there were only 1,454 Jews (41%) left. Between the world wars the town was under Polish administration. (Shimshon Leib Kirshenboim) -Holocaust Period Under Soviet rule (1939–41) the town's Jewish institutions were disbanded. Early in July 1941 Hungarian forces took Zabolotov. The Ukrainians organized pogroms against the Jewish inhabitants. The town passed to direct German rule in September 1941. The Germans imposed a judenrat , headed by Neta Feliks, but he was removed shortly after for refusing to fulfill German orders. On Dec. 22, 1941, the authorities carried out an Aktion against the Jews, killing and burying 900 Jews in trenches on the road to Trojce. About 100 Jews were shot in the town itself. This was followed by the deportation of 250 Jews on April 11, 1942, to an unknown destination. On April 24 orders were given for the general evacuation of the remaining Jews to the ghetto in kolomyya within a three-day time limit. The mass exodus of inhabitants was averted for a few days by the payment of a sum of money, but afterward everyone moved, except for 20 persons designated as "indispensable," who were allowed to stay. In the Kolomyya ghetto the refugees underwent starvation and suffered from disease. About 250 Jews working in the vicinity of Zabolotov were again allowed to live in the town, and were exempt for the meantime from deportation. On Sept. 7, 1942, the remainder of the Jewish community of Zabolotov, along with all the Jews in that district, were sent to Snyatyn. They were all deported to the belzec extermination camp. The Zabolotov Jews in Kolomyya were liquidated along with the other inmates of the Kolomyya ghetto in an Aktion in January 1943. Societies of former residents of Zabolotov function in Israel and the U.S. (Aharon Weiss) -BIBLIOGRAPHY: B. Wasiutyński, Ludność źydowska w Polsce w wiekach XIX i XX (1930), 124; R. Mahler, Yidn in Amolikn Poyln in Likht fun Tsifern (1958), index; Ir u-Metim: Zabolotov ha-Mele'ah ve-ha-Ḥarevah (Heb. and Yid., 1949), a memorial book.