1 Execution site(s)
Maria G. evokes: "The Jews dug their own pits, accompanied by ten requisitioned Ukrainians. People climbed on trees to watch the execution in spite of the ban. The Germans shot them so that they fell down into the pit." (Witness N°453, interviewed in Berestechko, on April 1, 2007).
Berestechko is located 82 kilometers west- southwest of Rivne. 177 shops of the town’s 234 belonged to Jews who were artisans, tailors and furriers. There were a Jewish school and a cultural center for the Jews in 1937. There were 2,625 Jews living in the town in 1938. The German occupation began on June 23, 1941.
There were two shootings in Berestechko. The first anti-Jewish measures were carried out in August 1941 when the Germans assisted by local Ukrainians executed 300 Jewish men near the local castle. In October 1941, a ghetto surrounded by barbed wire was established. The ghetto population was executed from September 7 to 9, 1942.
According to Maria G. (Witness N°453, interviewed in Berestechko on March 31, 2010) during the first shooting, Jews, Gypsies and partisans were shot by the Germans. During the second one, almost 3000 Jews (with a lot of refugees) were shot at 3 kilometers from the town. The Jews were brought by trucks to the execution site. Some of them managed to escape. The Jews had to dig their own grave helped by local Ukrainians who were requisitioned.
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