Pidhorodtsi (Pidgorodtsi, Podgorodtsy) | Lviv

Pidhorodtsi is a village located about 100 km (68mi) southwest of Lviv. Part of Eastern Galicia, the village was under Polish rule until 1772, when it was taken over by the Austro-Hungarian Empire where it remained until late 1918. During the interwar period, it came back under Polish rule until September 1939, when the village was taken over by the Soviet Union following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Little is known about the prewar local Jewish community. According to the only testimony recorded by Yahad - In Unum, there were at least thirty Jewish families living in the village. The majority of the Jews lived of commerce, they had small shops, stalls, and kiosks where they sold different kinds of goods. Others were craftsmen. The Jewish children went to the same school as non-Jews. There was neither a synagogue nor a cemetery in the village. The nearest town with a big Jewish community was Skhidnytsia.  

Pidhorodtsi was first occupied by the Hungarian Army in July 1941, followed by German troops. Little historical sources are available about the village, although there is a monument to the victims erected in the 1970s. The only witness interviewed by Yahad provided few details. However, according to him, when the Germans arrived, thirty or so Jewish families who lived in the village were arrested and locked up in a warehouse building. They subsequently shot the men before shooting the women two weeks later. The bodies were buried in a pit at the execution site. With the help of the local witness Yahad, was able to identify both sites, the initial site where the victims were shot, and the place of reburial. It was impossible to establish the exact date of the execution, but according to the monument, the shootings took place from July to August 1941.