Boyanchuk (Boianchuk) | Chernivtsi

Execution of Jews in Boyanchuk

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:: Forest
Memorials:: Yes
Period of occupation:: 1941-1944
Number of victims:: 9

Witness interview

Dmytro Z., born in 1927, recalls: “I saw a 45-year-old Jewish woman being taken from her house to a ditch by Romanian soldiers. This ditch was located next to the road, about 1km away from the village of Horoshivka. I ran behind the soldiers so I saw everything. She was shot. The villagers buried her body with the other Jews near the forest. There is surely a monument or a gravestone at that place now. Those who were not killed were caught and brought to the Dnister river. I don’t know what happened to them there.” (Testimony n° 1910, interviewed in Boyanchuk on July 2nd, 2015)

Historical note

The village of Boyanchuk is located 30 km north of Chernivtsi. In the 19^th and beginning of the 20^th century it was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1914, near the village there was a Komarivka farm with a distillery where a lot of immigrants from Poland worked under false names. During this period, the Jews were not engaged in trade. Due to a railroad which connected the village with the Russian boarder, it was an important trade center. They had shops, inns, sawmills, dairy factories. There was a Jewish school. In 1918, Bukovyna became a part of Romania. The Romanian occupation regime was difficult for the local population. The Romanian authorities, unlike the previous Austrians, banned teaching in the Ukrainian language and eliminated the seven-year education system. In addition, excessive taxes were set. In response, a national liberation struggle unfolded. In 1940, Romania ceded the northern part of Bukovyna to the USSR. The village of Boyanchuk was re-occupied by the Romanian forces in early July of 1941.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

According to the local villager, interviewed by Yahad, about 9 local Jews were killed on the first day of the occupation by the Romanian soldiers. He happened to see the killing of a Jewish woman. The villagers buried her body with other victims in the forest. Two or three weeks later the remaining Jews were taken somewhere in the direction of the Dnister river. Their destiny is unknown but they were most likely executed there.

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