1 Execution site(s)
Ananii K., born in 1927: “They would bring the bundles with them, although it was difficult. Even boys had to carry them.
I saw these columns of Jews being brought [through the village]. After a period of calm, another group was led through. This is how they were deported to [Transnistria]. But I don’t know what they did with them afterwards.” (Witness n°2350U, interviewed in Podilia, on March 15, 2018)
"At the end of November 1943, the Germans shot 44-45 Jews working at the Ulashkovtsy sovkhoz, whose director at the time was a German named G**. I don’t know the names of the victims’ families, as they weren’t from here, but I did see the shooting. It was early morning in November 1943. As the Jews came from the surrounding villages to work, they gathered in the courtyard of the sovkhoz. A German from the Gestapo, accompanied by four or five soldiers, arrived and gathered the Jews in the stable. About a hour later, four German soldiers began taking the Jews in groups of ten to the stone extraction pit on the territory of the Ulashkovtsy sovkhoz. The ten Jews taken to the pit were lined up facing it, and the Gestapo men shot each one in the back of the head with their rifles."[Depsition of a local villager, Petro V., born in 1911, given to the Soviet State Extraordinary Commission (ChGK); GARF 7021-75-?/ USHMM: RG 22.002M, reel 17]
Ulashkivtsi is located 80 km (50mi) south of Ternopil, between the towns of Chortkiv and Tovste. Its Austrian-Polish name was Leszkowitz. Little is known about the Jewish community in Ulashkivtsi. It was rather small compared to the communities in the nearby towns of Tovste, located 13 km (4mi) south and Chortkiv, located 24 km (16mi) northwest. According to local testimonies recorded by Yahad, several families lived here, including the Simko, Tudel, and Derman families. The Jews lived in the center and mainly owned shops, but some of them were artisans. The community had a small synagogue and a cemetery. The villagers worked for a rich Pole who owned the land and the filwarok (manor). Under Soviet rule, it was transformed into a collective farm. On the eve of the war, about 140 Jews remained in the village.
Ulashkivtsi was occupied by German and Hungarian troops on July 7, 1941. On July 6, 1941, before the Germans arrived, a pogrom was organized. About 70 Jews, mainly children and elderly people, were killed in their houses, on the streets, and their properties were plundered. According to a witness interviewed by Yahad who lived next to a Jewish family, Mendel’s children were killed during the pogrom, while him and his wife managed to flee. After the pogrom, few Jews remained in the village. In in the summer of 1941, a labor camp was established in the former Polish manor. A group of about 50 Jews, men, women, and children were transferred there. There is no exact information on what happened to the Jewish laborers. According to the archives, an execution was conducted in Ulashkivtsi in November 1943. During this murder operation, 44 Jews native to nearby villages such as Mylivtsi and Rosokhach were killed and buried in a mass grave located in the stone quarry. According to one eyewitness, the Jews were first gathered in the farm’s stable and then were led outside and shot in groups of ten. Their bodies were later buried in the same mass grave as the bodies of the 70 Jews killed during the pogrom. The execution was conducted by the German Gestapo assisted by a Ukrainian policeman. Today, there is no memorial at the site. According to the witness, columns of Jews from Romania were taken through the village in the direction of Transnistria.
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