This article is about the city in Lublin Voivodeship. For other places with the same name, seeChelm (disambiguation). For the legendary city of fools, seeWise Men of Chelm.
The city is of mostly industrial character, though it also features numerous notable historical monuments and tourist attractions in the Old Town. Chełm is a multiple (former)bishopric. In the third quarter of the 13th century, it was the capital of theKingdom of Galicia–Volhynia. Chełm was once a multicultural and religious centre populated byCatholics,Eastern Orthodox Christians,Protestants andJews. The Jewish population was decimated inWorld War II, going from 15,000 Jewish inhabitants to mere dozens.[3] From 1975 to 1998 it was the capital of theChełm Voivodeship. The city's landmarks are the Castle Hill with theBasilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary and the uniqueChełm Chalk Tunnels spanning some 15 kilometres (9 mi) of underground routes.
The etymology of the name is unclear, though most scholars derive it from theProto-Slavic wordxъlmъ denoting a hill, in reference to the Wysoka Górkafortified settlement.[4][5] The town's centre is located on a hill calledgóra chełmska. However, it is also theorized that the name is derived from someCeltic root.
The first traces of settlement in the area of modern Chełm date back to at the least 9th century. The following century, afortified town (gord) was created and initially served as a centre of pagan worship. In 981 the town, then inhabited by the Slavic tribe ofBuzhans, was annexed from Poland by theKievan Rus', along with the surroundingCherven Towns. According to a local legend,Vladimir the Great built the first stone castle there in 1001. Following thePolish capture of Kiev in 1018, the region returned to Poland before it fell back to Kievan rule in 1031.
In 1235,Daniel of Galicia granted the town acity charter and moved the capital ofhis domain in 1241–1272 after destruction ofHalych by the Mongols in 1240–1241. Daniel also built a new castle atop the hill in 1237, one of the few Ruthenian castles that withstood Mongol attacks, and established an Orthodoxeparchy (diocese) centered at theBasilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary. Until the 14th century, the town developed as part ofKingdom of Galicia–Volhynia and then as part of the short-lived Princedom of Chełm andBelz (seeDuchy of Belz). In 1366, kingCasimir III the Great of Poland took control of the region after his victory in theGalicia–Volhynia Wars. On 4 January 1392, the town was relocated and granted rights underMagdeburg Law, with vast internal autonomy and the town saw an influx of Polish and other Catholic settlers.
The town was the capital of a historical region of theLand of Chełm, administratively a part of theRuthenian Voivodeship in theLesser Poland Province of the Kingdom of Poland. The city prospered in the 15th and 16th centuries. It was then thatThe Golem of Chełm by RabbiElijah Ba'al Shem of Chelm became famous, but the city declined in the 17th century due to the wars which ravaged Poland. In the 18th century, the situation in eastern Poland stabilized and the town started to slowly recover from the damages suffered during theSwedish Deluge and theKhmelnytsky uprising. It attracted a number of new settlers from all parts of Poland, including people of Catholic, Orthodox, and Jewish faiths. In 1794, theChełm Voivodeship was established. Chełm was one of the first towns to join theKościuszko's Uprising later that year. In theBattle of Chełm of 8 June 1794, the forces of Gen.Józef Zajączek were defeated by the Russians underValerian Zubov andBoris Lacy, the town was yet again sacked by the invading armies. The following year, as a result of theThird Partition of Poland, the town was annexed byAustria.
During theNapoleonic Wars in 1809, in the effect of thePolish–Austrian War, the town was briefly part of theDuchy of Warsaw. However, theCongress of Vienna of 1815 awarded it toImperial Russia. The town entered a period of decline as the local administrative and religious offices (including the bishopric) were moved toLublin. In the mid-19th century, theRussian Army turned the town into a stronggarrison, which made the Russian soldiers a significant part of the population. The period of decline ended in 1866, when the town was connected to a newrailroad. In 1875, theUniate bishopric was liquidated by the Russian authorities and all of the local Uniates wereforcibly converted to the Russian Orthodox Church. In the late 19th century, the local administrative offices were restored and in 1912 alocal gubernia was created. During the Russianrevolution of 1905 in the city was established the Ukrainian enlightenment society ofProsvita.
Early 20th-century view of Chełm
DuringWorld War I, in 1915 most of the Ukrainian and Russian minority was evacuated toSloboda Ukraine and Russia.[citation needed] The city fell underAustrian occupation. On 3 May 1918, Chełm was the site of a large Polish manifestation, as over 15,000 Poles gathered to celebrate the Polish3 May Constitution Day.[8] In September 1918,apostolic visitor Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti (futurePope Pius XI) visited the city, greeted by the local Polish population.[8] On 2 November 1918, local members of thePolish Military Organisation and students of local schools, led byGustaw Orlicz-Dreszer, disarmed Austrian soldiers and liberated the city from Austrian rule, nine days before Poland officially regained independence.[8] Chełm was one of the first liberated Polish cities of the formerRussian Partition of Poland.[8] The Polish 1st Cavalry Regiment was established in Chełm, which soon liberated the nearby towns ofWłodawa andHrubieszów.[8] In theinterbellum, Chełm was a county seat, administratively located in theLublin Voivodeship (1919–1939) of theSecond Polish Republic.
During the joint German-Sovietinvasion of Poland, which startedWorld War II, on 27 September 1939 the invading SovietRed Armyoccupied Chełm, but withdrew two weeks later in accordance with theGerman-Soviet Frontier Treaty. As early as 7–9 October 1939 the city was occupied by German forces and renamedKulm.[9][10] At the beginning of the war, Chełm's population was around 33,000 of which 15,000 were Jewish. On Friday, 1 December 1939, at 8 o'clock, around 2000 Jewish men were driven at dawn to the market-square ("Okrąglak" or "Rynek") surrounded by the GermanSS formations and local indigenous officials.[11] They were forced on a death march toHrubieszów. Hundreds were murdered on the march, others were tortured and beaten. They were marched to the Soviet border where they were forced to cross the river under gunfire.[12][13][14] Eventually perhaps 400 of the men survived the Death March and 1600 were slaughtered.[15]
In January 1940, the Germans murdered 440 patients of the local psychiatric hospital, including 17 children, as part of theAktion T4.[16] In June 1940, during theAB-Aktion, the Germans carried out mass arrests ofPoles, who were then imprisoned in Lublin, and then often deported to theSachsenhausen concentration camp, while some were murdered in the region.[17] The local Polish mayor was murdered in a massacre of over 115 Poles committed by theGestapo in the nearby Kumowa Valley in 1940.[18] In late 1940, Jews were confined to a small portion of Chełm, living in very overcrowded conditions, up to several dozen a room. Jews were conscripted forforced labor near Chełm and in other locations. TheGerman Reich established 16forced labor camps in the newLublin district. Locals from neighboring villages and towns of Chełm also were forced to work in these camps. (alsoKhelm orKulm in German), Some of the camps were connected to the main railroad line through a 40 km (25 mi) railroadbranch line to the killing camps.
In 1942, duringOperation Reinhard, the highly secretiveBełżec,Treblinka, and theSobibór extermination camps were built near the forced labor camps. Their purpose was to murder all Polish Jews.[19] In May 1942, 1000 elderly Chełm Jews were sent to theSobibór extermination camp where they were immediately murdered. In August, 3000 to 4000 more were sent, including most of the children in the ghetto. In October, the SS and their Ukrainian auxiliaries rounded up and deported another 2000 to 3000 Jews to Sobibor. In November, the remaining Jews were marched to the railway station. Most were sent to Sobibor. Those in hiding were hunted, and the SS burned several ghetto buildings and killed many people who emerged from hiding. Some Jews remained in the ghetto as laborers, but they too were murdered in January 1943. There were only an estimated 60 Jews from Chełm who survivedthe Holocaust. Some survivors managed to find shelter in theChełm Chalk Tunnels. However, as many as 400 others who fled to the east at the beginning of the war returned to Chełm but quickly moved on.[20]
Memorial dedicated to the victims of the Stalag 319 POW camp
Following the 1941Operation Barbarossa the Germans established the Stalag 319prisoner-of-war camp in Chełm, in which they imprisoned Soviet,French, British,Italian and other Allied POWs.[21][22] A total of some 200,000 POWs passed through the camp, and some 90,000 died there.[22] In May 1944, the camp was relocated toSkierniewice.[21] The monument commemorating the victims of Stalag 319 was unveiled in Chełm in May 2009 in the presence of foreign diplomats.[22]
From 1942 through to 1945, Chełm was one of numerous locations of theVolhynian massacres of Poles by death squads ofOUN-UPA and groups ofUkrainian nationalists. The city and its environs allegedly witnessed revenge killings as well,[23][24] between Ukrainians and its Polish self-defence.[25][26] As noted by historiansGrzegorz Motyka andVolodymyr Viatrovych, the subject is highly controversial, because in 1944,Roman Shukhevych, leader ofOUN-UPA, issued an order to fabricate proofs of Polish responsibility for war crimes committed there.[27][28]
By the end of World War II, only a remnant of Chełm's Jewish population ofc. 18,000 survived. They managed toemigrate to Israel, theUnited States,Canada,Latin America, orSouth Africa. Chełm became well-known as a butt ofJewish humor thanks to Jewish storytellers and writers such asIsaac Bashevis Singer, aNobel Prize-winning novelist in theYiddish language, who wroteThe Fools of Chelm and Their History (published in English translation in 1973), and the Yiddish poetOvsey Driz [he;ru;uk;yi] who wrote stories in verse. Notable adaptations of the Chełm Jewish folklore include the comedyChelmer Khakhomim ("The Wise Men of Chelm") byAaron Zeitlin,The Heroes of Chelm (1942) byShlomo Simon, published in English translation asThe Wise Men of Helm (Simon, 1945) andMore Wise Men of Helm (Simon, 1965), as well as the bookChelmer Khakhomim byY. Y. Trunk.[29]Allen Mandelbaum's"Chelmaxioms : The Maxims, Axioms, Maxioms of Chelm" (David R. Godine, 1978) treats the wise men of the Jewish Chełm as scholars who are knowledgeable but lacking sense. Some Chełm stories emulate the interpretive process ofMidrash and theTalmudic style of argumentation,[30] and continue the dialogue between rabbinic texts and their manifestation in the daily arena.[31][32] The seemingly tangential questioning that is typical of the Chełm Jewish Council can be interpreted as a comedic hint at the vastness of Talmudic literature. The combination of paralleled argumentation and linguistic commonality allows the Jewish textual tradition, namely Talmudic, to shine through Chełm folklore.[33]
After Poland's independence, thePolish census of 1921 found a population of 23,221, 56.2% Polish, 42.1% Jewish, 1.0% Ukrainian (by declared nationality), and 52.0% Jewish, 40.9% Roman Catholic, 5.9% Orthodox, 0.9% Lutheran (by confession).[34]
In September 1939, at the onset of World War II, Jews constituted 60% (18,000) of the city's inhabitants.[35]
The main landmarks and tourist attractions of the city are Góra Chełmska with theBaroqueBasilica of the Birth of the Virgin Mary and theChełm Chalk Tunnels, located underneath the city, a unique structure in Europe and the world. The town's main historic square is thePlac Łuczkowskiego (Łuczkowski Square), which is filled with colourful historic townhouses and contains a preserved old well.
Most influential Members of Parliament (Sejm) elected from the Biała Podlaska/Chełm/Zamość constituency (2006) included: Badach Tadeusz (SLD-UP), Bratkowski Arkadiusz (PSL), Byra Jan (SLD-UP), Janowski Zbigniew (SLD-UP), Kwiatkowski Marian (Samoobrona), Lewczuk Henryk (LPR), Michalski Jerzy (Samoobrona), Nikolski Lech (SLD-UP), Skomra Szczepan (SLD-UP), Stanibuła Ryszard (PSL),[37] Stefaniuk Franciszek (PSL), Żmijan Stanisław (PO) and Matuszczak Zbigniew (SLD).
The flag of Chełm is a rectangle with 2:3 proportions, divided into two parallel, horizontal stripes of the same width (upper – white, lower – green). On the upper strip, in the center, there is the coat of arms of Chełm.
^abc"Local Data Bank". Statistics Poland. Retrieved17 August 2022. Data for territorial unit 0662011.
^"Główny Urząd Statystyczny" [Central Statistical Office] (in Polish). To search: Select "Miejscowości (SIMC)" tab, select "fragment (min. 3 znaki)" (minimum 3 characters), enter town name in the field below, click "WYSZUKAJ" (Search).
^Bakalczuk-Felin, Meilech and Moshe M. Shavit."Preface".The History of the Jews in Chelm. JewishGen, Inc. Retrieved14 July 2013.
^Berkenstat Freund, Gloria and Ben-Tzion Bruker, Lazar Kahan, Y. Herc, Yitzhak Groskop, J. Grinszpan."The Slaughter of the Jews in Chelm".Destruction of Chelm. 2013 by JewishGen, Inc. Retrieved14 July 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Berkenstat Freund, Gloria, Irene Szajewicz and Gitl Libhober."Witness Testimony by Gitl Libhober".DESTRUCTION OF CHELM. 2013 by JewishGen, Inc. Retrieved14 July 2013.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
^Megargee, Geoffrey (2012).Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. p. Volume II 623.ISBN978-0-253-35599-7.
^Aktion Reinhard Camps.Sobibor Labour Camps. 15 June 2006. ARC Website.
^Dobroszycki, Lucjan (2012).Survivors of the Holocaust. Bloomington, Indiana: University of Indiana Press. pp. 72, 79.ISBN978-1-56324-463-6.
^abMegargee, Geoffrey P.; Overmans, Rüdiger; Vogt, Wolfgang (2022).The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933–1945. Volume IV. Indiana University Press, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. p. 310.ISBN978-0-253-06089-1.
^abcJacek Barczyński (8 May 2009)."Obóz Stalag 319".Media Regionalne. Dziennik Wschodni. Archive.is. Retrieved10 August 2013.
^Ihor Ilyushin (11 September 2009),Розділ 5. Бойові дії ОУН і УПА на антипольському фроиі. Chapter 5, pp. 264–266, in the Ukrainian language. From:Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army. Institute of Ukrainian History, Academy of Sciences of Ukraine.
The list includes the 107 urban municipalities governed by acity mayor (prezydent miasta) instead of a town mayor (burmistrz) ·Cities with powiat rights are initalics · Voivodeship cities are inbold
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