Kovel gives its name to one of the oldest runic inscriptions which were lost during World War II. The Kovel spearhead, unearthed near the town in 1858, contained text in Gothic.[3]
History
The name Kovel comes from a Slavonic word for blacksmith hence the horseshoe on the town's coat of arms. The rune-inscribed Spearhead of Kovel was found near Kovel in 1858. It dates to the early 3rd century, when Gothic tribes lived in the area.
Kovel (Kowel) was first mentioned in 1310.[4] It received its town charter from the Polish King Sigismund I the Old in 1518.[4] In 1547 the owner of Kowel became Bona Sforza, Polish queen.[4] In 1564 starost of Kowel became Kurbski (d. 1584).[4] From 1566 to 1795 it was part of the Volhynian Voivodeship. Kowel was a royal city of Poland. In 1792 the 3rd Polish Vanguard Regiment was garrisoned in Kowel, and later on also the 2nd Polish National Cavalry Brigade was stationed there.[5]
During the Polish–Soviet War, on September 12, 1920, it was the site of a battle between the Poles and Russians.[7] The Poles won the battle, capturing a large amount of weapons and military equipment, including two armored trains and 26 cannons.[7] In the interwar period, Kowel served as the capital of Kowel County in Wołyń Voivodeship of the Polish Republic. It was an important garrison of the Polish Army, here the headquarters of the 27th Volhynian Infantry Division was located. Furthermore, at the village of Czerkasy, a large depot of the Polish Army was located. In 1924, construction of the St. Stanislaus Bishop and Martyr Roman Catholic church began.
In World War II, following the joint Nazi German-Soviet invasion of Poland in 1939, Kovel was occupied by the Soviet Union and had a large number of Jewish refugees from German-occupied Poland. The area had a large presence of the Communist Party of Western Ukraine, and thus the Red Army was generally greeted as liberators.[8] Subsequently, in 1941 Operation Barbarossa the Germans having conquered the town on 28 June 1941 murdered 18,000 Jews in Kovel, mostly during August and September 1942. The Germans operated the Stalag 301 POW camp, a subcamp of the Stalag 360 POW camp and a Dulag transit POW camp in the town.[9]
About 8,000 Jews were murdered in the forest near Bakhiv on 19 August 1942 during the liquidation of the Kovel ghetto, established on 25 May 1942. Jewish victims were driven by train from Kovel to Bakhiv where pits were dug close to the railroads. Actually there were two ghettos, one within the city and another in the suburbs of Pyaski. Both ghettos had 24,000 Jews, including many refugees. The Jews from both ghettos were executed at different places and at different time. The Jewish community ceased to exist.[10][11]
Kovel's historic railway stationKovel's modern railway station
Kovel is the north-western hub of the Ukrainian rail system, with six rail lines radiating outward from the city. The first of these was built in 1873, connecting the city with Brest-Litovsk and Rivne. In 1877 Kovel was linked by the Vistula River Railroad with Lublin and Warsaw.
^ abcdRąkowski, Grzegorz (2005). Wołyń. Pruszków: Oficyna Wydawnicza "Rewasz". p. 85. ISBN83-89188-32-5.
^Gembarzewski, Bronisław (1925). Rodowody pułków polskich i oddziałów równorzędnych od r. 1717 do r. 1831 (in Polish). Warszawa: Towarzystwo Wiedzy Wojskowej. pp. 7, 11.
^ abRyłko, Władysław (1929). Zarys historji wojennej 7-go pułku artylerii polowej (in Polish). Warszawa. pp. 22–23.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Megargee, 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. pp. 96, 282, 363. ISBN978-0-253-06089-1.
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