Jews of Belz fled to the Soviet Union in Autumn 1939 (the German–Soviet Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation and Demarcation). However, by May 1942, there were over 1,540 local Jewish residents and refugees in Belz. On June 2, 1942, 1,000 Jews were deported to Hrubieszów and from there to Sobibor extermination camp. Another 504 were brought to Hrubieszów in September of that year, after they were no longer needed to work on the farms in the area. Cultural trivia The Yiddish song “Beltz, Mayn Shtetele” is a moving evocation of a happy childhood spent in a shtetl. Originally this song was composed for a town which bears a similar-sounding name in Yiddish (belts), called Bălți in Moldovan/Romanian, and is located in Bessarabia (presently the Moldova Republic). Later interpretations may have had Belz in mind, though. The song has special significance in Holocaust history, as a 16-year-old playing the song was overheard by an SS guard at Auschwitz extermination camp, who then forced the child to play it repeatedly to ease the moods of Jews being herded into the gas chambers. Belz is also a very important place for Ukrainian Catholics and Polish Catholics as a place where the Black Madonna of Częstochowa (this icon was believed to have been painted by St. Luke the Evangelist) had resided for several centuries until 1382, when Władysław Opolczyk, duke of Opole, took the icon home to his principality after ending his service as the Royal emissary for Halychyna for Louis I of Hungary. Literature – Belles-lettres: a poem Maria: A Tale of the Ukraine written by Antoni Malczewski, and a novel Starościna Bełska: opowiadanie historyczne 1770–1774 by Józef Ignacy Kraszewski. Notable residents Vsevolod Mstyslavych of Volhynia, prince of Belz (1170–1196) Vasylko Romanovych, prince of Belz (1207–1211) Alexander Vsevolodovych, prince of Belz (1212–1234) Daniel of Galicia, prince of Belz (1234–1245) Lev I of Galicia, prince of Belz (1245–1264) Yuri I of Galicia, prince of Belz (1264–1301) Andrew of Galicia, prince of Belz (1308–1323) Boleslaw-Yuri II of Galicia, Polish–Lithuanian-Ruthenian prince of Belz (1323–1340) Yuri Narimuntovich (Jurgis Narimantaitis), Lithuanian, prince of Belz (1340–1377) Władysław Opolczyk, Silesian duke, Hungarian governor (1377–1378) Siemowit IV, Duke of Masovia, prince of Belz (1388–1426) Jaśko Mazowita, prefect of Belz (14th–15th centuries) Casimir II of Belz, prince of Belz (1434–1442) Jan Kamieniecki (1463–1513), starost of Belz Mikołaj Sieniawski (c. 1489–1569), voivode of Belz Jan Firlej (c. 1521–1574), voivode of Belz Jan Zamoyski (1542–1605),