Rudky | Lviv

Rudky is located 40 km from Lviv. In 1932, there were 1,962 Jews in the village. According to Yahad’s witness, Volodymyr G. (Witness N°758), 52% of the village population was Jewish in 1939. There was a synagogue and the Jews of Rudky were very religious. The Jews were merchants or artisans. During the first occupation, the Germans arrived in Rudky on September 12, 1939. They burnt Jewish houses and a pogrom was organized. The second occupation began on June 27, 1941.

The first aktion took place in July 1941.  39 Jews of the intelligentsia were shot by a unit of the Sipo and the SD in the forest 3 km from Rudky. On November 25, 1942, a ghetto was established in the village. During a second action at the end of November 1942, 821 Jews were deported to Belzec. In December, the Jews of the nearby village of Komarno were also integrated to the ghetto. There were altogether 2,500 Jews in the ghetto. Several of Yahad’s witnesses mentioned executions in the old Jewish cemetery. Ivan K. (Witness N°761) saw a shooting in this cemetery. The Jews were brought on foot or by truck to the execution site. Before going in the trucks, they had to give up their valuables. A grave was dug. The Jews had to go out of the trucks five by five and were shot one by one on a wooden plank. The liquidation of the ghetto took place on April 9, 1943 and was organized by Sipo, SD, German gendarmerie and the local Ukrainian police. Around 300 Jews were sent to the Janowska labor camp in Lviv. The remaining 1,700 Jews were brought to the forest, led into two ditches near Brzezina forest.  Yahad’s witness, Stefania F. (Witness N°759) saw the gathering of the Jews before they were taken to the forest. She remembers they were brought on big trucks. According to the historian Martin C. Dean, the victims were put on a wooden plank over the ditch and were shot.