2 Killing site(s)
Ivan B., born in 1931:
"Witness: In 1941 or 1942, the Germans started deporting Jews [from Hlyniany to Peremyshliany].
Y.U.: And how was it happening? How were they being deported?
Witness: On carts. Every man in the village had horses and carts.
Y.U.: And they were told to transport the Jews?
Witness: Yes.
Y.U.: Did your father have a cart?
Witness: He had a horse and a cart.
Y.U.: Was your father also told to transport the Jews?
Witness: He was. My father was not the only one doing that.
Y.U.: So your father went to get the Jews. Were they allowed to take their belongings with them?
Witness: They were allowed to take everything.
Y.U.: Were there any Germans around to supervise how the Jews were preparing for the journey?
Witness: They were not interested in that. The Jews hid whatever money and valuables they had. They were allowed to take things with them, and they did, but they also left things behind.
Y.U.: Where did your father have to take the Jews?
Witness: To Peremyshliany.
Y.U.: Did you go with your father?
Witness: I did.
Y.U.: And where did you bring them in Peremyshliany?
Witness: There was a place there.
Y.U.: What kind of place was it? Was it a ghetto? Was it fenced off?
Witness: It was fenced off, and there were a lot of Jews there. We were adding them to the crowd.
Y.U.: And were there some Germans with you on the cart?
Witness: Why would there be Germans on our cart?
Y.U.: To make sure the Jews did not escape.
Witness: The Jews were obedient; they were sitting on that cart. They were hoping they would be given a house. There were a lot of empty houses.
Y.U.: And when you were transporting those Jewish families to Peremyshliany, did they wear those armbands, or was it later?
Witness: It was later. Those that stayed in Hlyniany wore those armbands.
Y.U.: So, when you took those Jews to Peremyshliany, they got off the cart, waited for a house to be assigned to them, and you went back?
Witness: Yes.
Y.U.: Was it only once that you took the Jews there, or did it happen several times?
Witness: Once we were told to carry stone as well.
Y.U.: And the Jews — did you take the Jews again to Peremyshliany? Did it happen in one day or over a couple of days?
Witness: A couple of days.
Y.U.: So the next day they engaged you and your father again?
Witness: Yes, we had horses and a cart."
(Testimony N°YIU3035U, interviewed in Hlyniany, on December 15, 2021)
"According to the testimony of local resident Tuz Petr Vasilievich, during the German occupation of the town of Hlyniany in 1942, all the Jews were taken from Hlyniany to a camp in the Peremyshliany district. From there, about 80 Jews escaped and returned to Hlyniany. The Germans carried out a raid in the town to capture the Jews. They detained about 60 people, who they took to the Jewish cemetery and forced to dig their own grave. They lined them up over the pit and shot them." [Special Report to the Head of the NKVD Department for the Lviv Region, written on November 18, 1944; GARF 7021-67-82, p.77/Copy USHMM RG.22-002M]
"Nazi troops entered Przemyślany [today Peremyshliany] on Tuesday, July 1, 1941.
On Friday afternoon, July 4, 1941, the Main Synagogue was set on fire, along with several elderly Jews — I heard — whom the Nazis had forcibly herded into the building. They then brought gasoline from military trucks, poured it on the wooden fixtures and pews inside the synagogue, set it on fire, and closed the main doors on the west side and the side doors on the north side. From about 350 meters, from our courtyard located on higher ground, we — our family and neighbors — saw the synagogue burning. We noticed only when the upper-story windows of the synagogue burst, and thick black smoke escaped. The fire in the synagogue raged throughout the night. At the same time as the synagogue, several neighboring ancient wooden houses were burned down. In one of these houses, the Blessed Isaac Low, a locksmith, was burned alive. He had been caught somewhere and, as I later learned, forcibly pushed into the burning house.
On July 8, 1941, it was announced in the city that Jews must wear armbands with the Star of Zion. […]
On October 4, 1941, written announcements were posted in the town stating that Jewish men aged 16 to 60 were to report for work the following day with shovels at the courtyard of the former Gymnasium.
On October 5, 1941, approximately 400 Jews, regardless of profession or education, responded to the call. They were then sorted into groups of 100 and, under separate Gestapo escort, led to the forest in the northern part of the city — the so-called “Brzezina”, located behind the hospital. As it later turned out, each group had to dig its own grave in a separate clearing. That day, before evening, shooting was heard from the same forest, along with the terrible screams of those being murdered, which lasted for about two or three hours. There, everyone was murdered and shot. […]
In May 1942, in the home of the Blessed Isaac Türkisch, the local Judenrat treated a dozen or so Jews suffering from typhus in a hospital. One day, a Gestapo commander named Grzymek arrived for an inspection. After examining the patients, he ordered them all to be carried out into the yard. Commander Grzymek took out a pistol and, walking in a circle, fired one shot at each patient before leaving the hospital. The bodies of the murdered were taken to the Jewish cemetery. […]
In August 1942, the Przemyślany Ghetto was established in the eastern part of the city center.
During the subsequent Aktion, large pits were dug in other locations in the “Brzezina” forest. Jewish women were ordered by the Gestapo to strip naked, fold their clothing separately, and store their rings and wedding bands apart. The victims stood over the grave, and a Gestapo officer shot them, causing them to fall into it. I also heard stories about victims being forced to lie down on the corpses in the grave, and then the Gestapo officer shot them. […]
During 1942, three so-called Aktions took place in which several thousand Jews were killed — men, women, and children — both locals and a large number of people who had arrived in 1939 from western Polish cities to escape the Germans.
In September 1942, a single transport of Jews was loaded onto freight cars at the Przemyślany railway station. Everyone had to gather naked, and then men were loaded into the cars separately, women separately, and children separately. It was said that, at that time, the elderly woman who owned a pharmacy, the Blessed Gisela Linskerowa, dropped dead on the spot. The train departed toward Lviv, supposedly bound for Bełżec […] " [Testimony of Jozef Kolabinski from 29.10.1960; AŻIH, 301-5753 pp.4-5]
Peremyshliany, a small town located about 40 km (25 mi) east-southeast of Lviv, has changed hands several times. It belonged to Poland until 1772, then to the Austrian Empire (1772–1919), Poland again (1919–1939), the Soviet Union (1939–1941), and Nazi Germany (1941–1944) as part of the District of Galicia.
The Jewish presence in Peremyshliany dates back to at least 1581. In the 18th and 19th centuries, the town became known for its Hasidic figures, including Rav Meir bar Yaacov and Rav Menachem Mendel, both followers of the Baal Shem Tov. A Jewish hospital was established in 1842, and in 1875, Galicia’s first Colonization Society, promoting Jewish resettlement in Eretz Israel, was founded there.
In the aftermath of the First World War, the Jewish population declined to about one-third of its pre-war size, and their economic activity weakened. According to the 1900 census, the town’s Jewish population numbered 2,934, constituting 61.8% of the total population. In 1921, there were 4,093 inhabitants, including 2,051 Jews (50.1%). By 1931, the city was inhabited by 67% Poles, 20% Jews, 13% Ukrainians, and others.
In Peremyshliany, Jews were primarily engaged in trade or skilled crafts such as shoemaking and leatherwork. Local resident Sofia Ch., born in 1931 and interviewed by Yahad, recalled several Jewish neighbors: Sofia, who sold beer; Mendel, who traded lime; and the wife of Kynel, who ran a shop.
During the 1920s and 1930s, the town was home to various Jewish political movements and organizations. By the 1930s, many Jewish youths were involved in Communist Party cells. At the time, a few newspapers were printed in Yiddish and Hebrew. A Hebrew-language school and the cultural association Toynbee Hall also operated in the town.
In mid-September 1939, Peremyshliany was first occupied by the Wehrmacht, but control soon shifted to the Red Army under the terms of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. Before retreating in 1941, Soviet forces killed a number of local people, including members of the intelligentsia, both in the town and nearby areas. Many Jewish residents fled alongside the withdrawing Soviet troops.
On the eve of the German occupation, Peremyshliany’s Jewish population was estimated at no fewer than 2,600, including refugees who had arrived from western Poland in the fall of 1939.
Peremyshliany was occupied by Wehrmacht troops on July 1, 1941. On July 4, 1941, a pogrom broke out during which the main synagogue and nearby houses were burned down. At least ten Jews perished in the flames, and many others were beaten and robbed. Yahadwitnesses Olga B., born in 1924, and Orysia B., born in 1933, confirmed the events, with Orysia recalling German soldiers with metal gorgets forcing Jews into the flames.
Shortly afterward, in the summer of 1941, anti-Jewish measures were implemented in the town. These included registering Jewish residents, requiring them to wear armbands bearing the Star of David, and subjecting them to forced labor.
In August 1941, Peremyshliany came under German civil administration. An outpost of the Kriminalpolizei, a German Gendarmerie post, and a Ukrainian Auxiliary Police unit were established.
During the first Aktion, carried out on November 5, 1941—presumably by a detachment of Security Police from Tarnopol, assisted by a Gendarmerie unit—385 Jewish men deemed unfit for work were taken to a nearby forest and shot.
In 1942, an open ghetto was established in Peremyshliany to confine both local Jews and those from nearby communities. The ghetto covered a large part of the town, excluding the main square where the German police headquarters and Judenrat were located. According to testimony from Orysia B., the ghetto included parts of Poshtova, Borshtshivska, Bazarna, and Pidvalna Streets, beginning near the synagogue and the church. It was guarded by local policemen, and Jews were not allowed to leave. Orysia recalled secretly passing milk through a hole in a stone fence to a Jewish woman and her child. Usually, it was children who brought food into the ghetto, as it was too dangerous for adults.
The ghetto’s living conditions were appalling—marked by hunger, cold, and disease—which led to the deaths of hundreds of inmates over the course of its existence. Orysia witnessed bodies being thrown from a hospital window and later taken away on carts for burial. Isolated killings of groups of Jews also occurred, including a shooting in May 1942, when more than 100 Jews were killed.
The Peremyshliany ghetto was liquidated through a series of deportation Aktions carried out in 1942 and 1943. The first Aktion, in September 1942, was conducted by the German Security Police, with assistance from the German Gendarmerie and local police. Nearly 3,000 Jews were deported to the Bełżec killing center.
Following this deportation, Jews from surrounding villages, including Hlyniany and Svirzh, were relocated to the Peremyshliany ghetto. Ivan B., born in 1933 and interviewed by Yahad, recalled that in 1942 Jews were taken from his village, Hlyniany, to the Peremyshliany ghetto. His father was assigned to transport Jewish families for two days, and Ivan accompanied him out of curiosity.
In early November 1942, another Aktion resulted in the deaths of 200 Jews from Peremyshliany. According to multiple sources, the ghetto was sealed on December 2, and just three days later, during a further deportation Aktion on December 5, 2,400 Jews perished—600 of them killed on the spot in the ghetto. On May 22, 1943, during the final liquidation of the ghetto, around 2,000 people were shot either within the ghetto or in a nearby forest. Isolated killings of Jews caught in hiding continued until the end of the German occupation.
On March 21, 1943, a Jewish labor prison camp was established, where prisoners were forced to work in quarries and on road construction. The camp was liquidated on June 28, 1943, resulting in the killing of 250 women and the deportation of 200 men to the camp in Kurovytchi.
According to various sources and eyewitness testimonies, numerous Jews who perished in Peremyshliany during the war were killed and buried in multiple locations. These included a nearby forest, the local Jewish cemetery, and surrounding villages, including Korosno. Today, however, the only monument in the forest commemorates 385 Jewish men, although the forest itself is believed to contain multiple mass graves. In addition, during a 2005 research trip, Yahad, with the help of local residents, identified an unmarked burial site of an unknown number of Jewish victims. This site was found beneath a footpath between vegetable gardens, located behind the old Jewish cemetery.
While it is estimated that around 4,000 Jews were killed or died in Peremyshliany during the war, some were rescued by local Ukrainians. For example, Leskviv Maria, the mother of Yahad witness Iryna S., hid two Jewish girls and was later recognized as Righteous Among the Nations. In the context of rescuing Jews, Olga B. (born in 1924) spoke about Father Omelyan Kovch, a Ukrainian priest who was arrested by the Gestapo and died in Majdanek for providing Jews with more than 600 baptismal certificates. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 2001.
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