Vasyliv | Chernivtsi

/ The former Jewish street in Vasyliv. Before the war, several Jewish families lived here. This is the road down which the Jews were taken to the Dniester to be killed.   ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum. Former Jewish house. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum. Todor H., born in 1929: "The Jews were arrested in their homes and taken to the banks of the Dniester River in a column. They were not allowed to take any belongings with them.”©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum. The Yahad team on the way to the execution site. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum. The interview at the execution site. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum. Todor H., born in 1929: “I stopped on the bank 500 meters from the execution site and watched. The view was clear and I could see everything.” ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum. The execution site of over a fifty Jews murdered in July 1941. They were forced into the river and shot. ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum. Today, there is a field close to the Dniester riverbank.  ©Les Kasyanov/Yahad - In Unum.

Execution of Jews in Vasyliv

1 Execution site(s)

Kind of place before:
Dniester Riverbank
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims:
Over 50

Witness interview

Todor H., born in 1929: "The Jews were arrested in their homes and then taken away in a column to the banks of the Dniester River. They were not allowed to take any belongings with them. They were calm even though they knew why they had been rounded up. There were guards on both sides of the column. Some were civilians, others were Romanian gendarmes and border guards. I saw the column and followed it because I was curious to see what would happen next. Then I stopped on the bank 500 meters from the execution site and watched. The view was clear, and I could see everything.” (Witness n°2332U, interviewed in Vasyliv, on October 26, 2017)

Historical note

Vasyliv is a village located in the historical Bukovina region, on the banks of the Dniester River, 39 km (24mi) north of Chernivtsi. Between 1772 and 1918, Vasyliv was ruled by the Austrian states of the Habsburg monarchy, Austrian Empire, and finally the Austro-Hungarian Empire. During the interwar period, it was taken over by Poland. There is not much information about the Jewish community that lived in the village before the war. According to local witnesses interviewed by Yahad, several Jewish families lived in Vasyliv. They all lived on a single street. Local Jews were mainly involved in small scale trade and handicraft. The local community did not have a synagogue or cemetery. 

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Vasyliv was occupied by Romanian forces in early July 1941. In July 1941, shortly after the occupation, a group of over 50 local Jews was rounded up and taken to the bank of the Dniester River to be shot. According to a local eyewitness, the column was escorted by Romanian gendarmes and some civilians. We were unable to find out for sure who conducted the shootings, but the shooters fired from rifles. The victims, including men, women, children and elderly people, were shot together in the Dniester River. Their bodies were carried away by the river currents.

Nearby villages

To support the work of Yahad-in Unum please consider making a donation

Do you have additional information regarding a village that you would like to share with Yahad ?

Please contact us at contact@yahadinunum.org
or by calling Yahad – In Unum at +33 (0) 1 53 20 13 17