Ivano-Frankivsk (Stanisławów, Stanislav) | Ivano-Frankivsk

The great synagogue in Ivano-Frankivsk, 1910 © Public domain, Wikipedia The great synagogue in Ivano-Frankivsk, view from the market place, 20th century © Public domain, Wikipedia Pepa (Penina) Grass & Her husband Isak Wolf Fink (he is native to Nezhnev), murdered in Ivano-Frankivsk © Given from family archive by Dr. Janette Silverman Rachel Grass, murdered in Ivano-Frankivsk © Given from family archive by Dr. Janette Silverman Samuel Grass, Diana Landsman Gras, their son Eugene, native to Stanislawow, survived the Holocaust by fleeing to Kazakhstan. Eugene’s daughter, Ella, also in the photo,still leaves in Ivano-Frankivsk,1987©Given from family archive by Dr. Janette Silverman DR HERSH (ZWI BEN SHMUEL MORDEHAI ) LANDMAN, born in 1904, a lawyer, was murdered on August 3, 1941, in the Black forest, close to the today’s village of Pavlivka, south of Ivano-Frankivks.©From the family archives, granted by the son Ajehandro Landman / An old Jewish cemetery in Ivano-Frankivsk © Guillaume Ribot - Yahad-In Unum Destroyed house in the Jewish cemetery where the Germans burnt the bodies © Guillaume Ribot - Yahad-In Unum Ivona, born in 1931 « I saw the Jews being brought to the Jewish cemetery as this day I went to the ghetto to buy some bread from a Jew » © Guillaume Ribot - Yahad-In Unum Maria D. «The pits were dug by two young Baundists. They prepared the pits in advance. I know that because they stocked their shovels in my uncle’s house.” © Guillaume Ribot - Yahad-In Unum The monument to the Bohorodchany Jews murdered in Ivano-Frankivsk, situated on the terrotiry of the Jewish cemetery © Guillaume Ribot - Yahad-In Unum The monument to the Holocaust victims from Ivano-Frankivsk and vicinity © Guillaume Ribot - Yahad-In Unum The second execution site of Jews from Ivano-Frankivsk. Back then it was a Jewish cemetery. Today, there is a cinema ’Kosmos’. © Markel Redondo/Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jews in Ivano-Frankivsk

4 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before :
Jewish cemetery
Memorials :
Yes
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims :
8,000-12,000

Witness interview

Ivona, born in 1931, explains: "There was one entrance [in the ghetto] watched by the gendarmes. On the street where I showed you the Margosh factory there were two security huts. The guards kept an eye on the Jews who worked at the factory. Another entrance was on the other side of Belvedere Street with two guards. The Jews were not allowed to approach the schlagbaum. If not, they could be shot dead.
YIU: Were the streets fenced in by a wooden or stone barrier?
Ivona: A wooden one. The windows on the ground floor were covered with planks bearing the Star of David.” (Eyewitness N°224, met in Ivano-Frankivsk, on August 25, 2005)

German archives

“My husband was in service of the Sicherheitspolizei headed by Krüger. His representative’s name was Brandt. My husband was an assistant “in the Jewish case”in Ivano-Frankivsk. I know it because he told me so. He said that he had some affairs in the ghetto and that he was called “the torturer of Stanislau”. In the same service where my husband worked there was the SS chief called Assmann W. As far as I remember, he was in charge of political affairs. Once, Assmann showed us a photo he took of the execution site. In that photo we could see the embankment of a pit and some naked people standing at the edge of it. They were standing with their backs turned to the SS. I saw my husband in this photo. He was standing with his gun, ready to shoot.” [Deposition of Katharina S., a wife of SS soldier, Hof, 1.2.1962; B162-4991]

Historical note

Ivano-Frankivsk, founded in 1654, is situated 113km (70 miles) southeast of Lviv. Prior to WWII there were about 25,000 Jews living in the city out of over 73,000 inhabitants. As all Galicia region the city was under Soviet occupation from September, 1939 till the Hungarians occupied it in on July 02, 1941. Shortly later the Germans arrived.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

In the late July, as the Germans came to the power, a Jewish council and police were created. The anti-Jewish measures were carried out by Gestapo and SS soldiers. The first action was carried out on August 3, 1941 against over than 500 Jewish craftsmen and intelligentsia who after being tortured in the prison were executed in the forest, called Black forest. This execution site is located close to todays’ village of Pavlivka. Another anti-Jewish aktion, known as “Bloody Sunday” took place on October 12, 1941. During this action the Security Police with the help of German order police shot between 8,000 and 12,000 Jews in the Jewish cemetery. Shortly after a closed ghetto was established where about 20,000 Jews remained living. On March 31, 1942, a more than half of ghetto residents not fit to work was sent to Belzec. During this operation hold by Gestapo and Ukrainian police lots of Jews were shot on the spot. From March till September isolated shootings of ill Jews took place. Lots of them died in ghetto due to hunger, diseases and terrible living conditions. Another wave of deportation during which over 3,000-4,000 Jews were sent to Belzec camp took place on September 12, 1942. The final liquidation of the ghetto was carried out on February 22-23, 1943. On 25 June, 1943, the last remaining Jews were executed. According to the sources, only 1,500 Jews native to Ivano-Frankivsk managed to survive the war.

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