Erica
Brody is in Galicia which is and always was a Ukrainian region. Before World War I, it was part of the Austro Hungary empire. After 1918 it became part of Greeter Poland until World War II.
I am taking the following from Wikipedia:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Galicia_(Eastern_Europe)
“During the First World War, Galicia saw heavy fighting between the forces of Russia and the Central Powers. (Which the Austro - Hungarian empire was the major member of mk) The Russian forces overran most of the region in 1914 after defeating the Austro-Hungarian army in a chaotic frontier battle in the opening months of the war. This gave Russia the opportunity to invade Germany from the south. However the Russians were pushed out of Galicia in the spring and summer of 1915 by a combined German, Austro-Hungarian and Turkish offensive.
In 1918, Western Galicia became a part of the restored Republic of Poland, while the local Ukrainian population briefly declared the independence of Eastern Galicia as the West Ukrainian People's Republic. These competing claims lead to the Polish-Ukrainian War. Upon reclaiming its former territories and seeing a much greater threat from the Communist Russia Poland made common cause with Ukrainian administration in Kiev, the Ukrainian People's Republic against Bolshevist Russia. During the Polish-Soviet War a short-lived Galician SSR in Ternopil was established. Eventually, the whole of the province was recaptured by Poles and divided into four voivodeships, with capitals in Kraków, Lviv (Lwów), Ternopil (Tarnopol) and Stanyslaviv (Stanisławów).
The Ukrainians of the former eastern Galicia and the neighbouring province of Volhynia, made up about 15% of the Second Polish Republic population, and were its largest minority. Poland's annexation of Eastern Galicia, never accepted as legitimate by some Ukrainians, was internationally recognized in 1923. This attitude, among other local problems, contributed to growing tensions between the Polish government and the Ukrainian population, eventually giving the rise to the militant underground Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.In the western part of Galicia, Rusyn Lemkos formed the Lemko-Rusyn Republic in 1918, initially attempting to unite with Russia, instead of Ukraine. As this was impossible, they later attempted to unite with Rusyns from the area south of the Carpathians, in an attempt to join Czechoslovakia as a third ethnic entity. This effort was suppressed by the Polish government in 1920, and the area was incorporated into Poland. The leaders of the republic were tried by the Polish government, but were acquitted.
Thus after the World War I and unsuccessful struggles for independence, Galicia ended up being in Poland again. Ukrainian Galicians underwent polonization and discrimination durind these years. One could not get a state employment if he would not become Polish Roman Catholic. "
Before World war II, Brody was a border town between Russia and Poland. My grandfather used to smuggle saccharine from Russia to Poland and sell it at a profit. I can write a book about the stories my father used to tell me about that.
The faith of Brody after during the war is also taken from the web site:
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/brody/brody.html
You can find waht heppend to Brody and it's jewish population on the memorial website
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/brody/brody.html
Two books were published about Jewish Brody (written by the survivors - including my father), a survivor organization and a big Memorial site in Israel. The details can be found on the web site.
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