Łuków through time
A chronological route through dated events and source accounts in the memorial book. Dates reflect what the selected evidence states and do not imply independent corroboration.
- Twelfth–fifteenth centuries
Łuków’s early history and town formation
The memorial book places an early settlement in Łuków in the twelfth century, dates the town’s establishment to 1230, and records its official designation as a town in 1403.
- Seventeenth–eighteenth centuries
Rights and recorded communal presence
A 1659 charter granted Łuków Jews rights connected with residence, trade, crafts, property, worship, and burial. By 1765, records counted 911 Jewish poll-tax payers in Łuków.
- Early to mid-nineteenth century
Religious institutions and population growth
The Great Synagogue was rebuilt at the beginning of the nineteenth century. The book records 1,877 Jews in Łuków in 1840 and 2,255 in 1861.
- 1905–1919: industry, politics, and civic organization
Modern communal life expands
The period saw workers’ activity and secret Bundist organization, the relocation of Gastman’s shoe factory to Łuków, the founding of a library, political parties, city council elections, and a Bund cooperative shop. Relief from New York and the Joint also connected local life to wider Jewish networks.
- 1920s: political struggle and education
Conflict, culture, and new schools
The book records attacks on Jews, arrests and murders of political activists, and continuing Bundist activity. It also recalls the first Jewish football team in 1921, the Medem school in 1928, and expanding Jewish educational life.
- 1939–1942: occupation, ghettoization, and mass murder
The destruction of Jewish Łuków
The German invasion was followed by occupation, the establishment of a ghetto and Judenrat, shootings, and Aktionen. One recorded action killed approximately 1,500 Jews, while another deportation account names Treblinka and extermination camps.
- Wartime years: hiding, escape, and resistance
Survival under extreme danger
Testimonies describe escapes into forests, families hiding in workshops and rural homes, underground assistance to partisans, and partisan action. They also record that some hidden families were found and murdered.
- 1944–1946: liberation, return, and remembrance
After liberation
The records associate Łuków’s liberation with survivors’ reunions, while other accounts describe return, continuing persecution, repatriation, and a March 1946 testimony. Memorial evenings and survivor publications began preserving the destroyed community’s history.