Wielkie Oczy is a village (town until 1935) in

Lubaczów County __NOTOC__ Lubaczów County () is a unit of territorial administration and local government (powiat) in Subcarpathian Voivodeship, south-eastern Poland, on the border with Ukraine. It came into being on January 1, 1999, as a result of the Polish loc ...

Subcarpathian Voivodeship Subcarpathian Voivodeship is a Voivodeships of Poland, voivodeship, or province, in the southeastern corner of Poland. Its administrative capital and largest city is Rzeszów. Along with the Marshal, it is governed by the Subcarpathian Regional As ...

, in south-eastern Poland, close to the border with

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

. It is the seat of the

gmina The gmina (Polish: , plural ''gminy'' ) is the basic unit of the administrative division of Poland, similar to a municipality. , there were 2,479 gminy throughout the country, encompassing over 43,000 villages. 940 gminy include cities and tow ...

(administrative district) called Gmina Wielkie Oczy. It lies approximately south of

Lubaczów Lubaczów ( ''Liubachiv'') is a town in southeastern Poland, close to the border with Ukraine, with 12,567 inhabitants Situated in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship, it is the capital of Lubaczów County and is located northeast of Przemyśl. Othe ...

and east of the regional capital

Rzeszów Rzeszów ( , ) is the largest city in southeastern Poland. It is located on both sides of the Wisłok River in the heartland of the Sandomierz Basin. Rzeszów is the capital of the Subcarpathian Voivodeship and the county seat, seat of Rzeszów C ...

History

In 1656 the village was given by wife of hetman Stanisław Rewera Potocki to soldier Andrzej Modrzejowski (later colonel,

starosta Starosta or starost (Cyrillic: ''старост/а'', Latin: ''capitaneus'', ) is a community elder in some Slavic lands. The Slavic root of "starost" translates as "senior". Since the Middle Ages, it has designated an official in a leadersh ...

and

podskarbi Podskarbi in the Kingdom of Poland and later in the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth was Minister (government), minister responsible for the treasury. Since 1569 also a senatorial office. The title although meaning treasurer can be deconstructed a ...

nadworny koronny) for saving hetman's life. So that Modrzejowski became almost neighbour and friend of Jan Sobieski (later king of Poland) who lived in Ukrainian

Yavoriv Yavoriv (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in Lviv Oblast, western Ukraine. It is situated about from the Poland, Polish border. It serves as the administrative centre of Yavoriv Raion and is situated approximately west of the oblast capital, Lviv. Yavoriv ...

at that time. In 1880, there were 996 Jews in the town (50,4% of the whole population). In 1921, there were 487 Jews living in Wielkie Oczy. This decrease in the population was caused by World War I as well as by the cholera epidemic in 1915. On the June 10, 1941, 168 Jews from Wielkie Oczy were displaced to the Krakowiec

ghetto A ghetto is a part of a city in which members of a minority group are concentrated, especially as a result of political, social, legal, religious, environmental or economic pressure. Ghettos are often known for being more impoverished than other ...

and 274 to the

ghetto. The old synagogue was dismantled and the Jewish cemetery was devastated. In December 1942, the Jews from the Krakowiec ghetto were taken to the Yavoriv ghetto and on April 16, 1943, they were killed by Nazis. At least 41 Jews were shot at the Jewish cemetery in Wielkie Oczy by the German and Ukrainian Police over the course of several executions that took place mainly in 1943 and 1944.

References

Villages in Lubaczów County {{Lubaczów-geo-stub