Kamyanets-Podolsky, located in the Khmelnytsky region of Ukraine, became one of the first places of mass executions of Jews immediately after the start of World War II in the territory of modern-day Ukraine.
From August 26 to 28, 1941, more than 23 thousand people were killed here.. As a result, during the occupation of Kamenets-Podolsky, about 30 thousand Jews.
This story of the mass executions of Jews in Kamianets-Podilskyi resonates with more recent tragedies, such as the horrors endured by the residents of Bucha and other Ukrainian cities during the Russian occupation. In both 1941 and 2022, we see how ruthless occupiers deliberately murdered innocent people, seeking to erase their identity and right to exist. Just as the Nazis tried to exterminate the Jewish people in Kamianets-Podilskyi, so too did Russian troops bring destruction and death to Ukrainian soil, most notably in Bucha.
These parallels highlight the horror of the cyclical nature of history, with new aggressors attempting to use old methods of terror. Yet, as then, Ukrainians and Jews today continue to fight for their freedom and dignity, preventing the aggressor from achieving its goals. The memory of past tragedies, such as Kamianets-Podilskyi, and more recent ones, such as Bucha, serves as a powerful reminder of the need to defend our people, culture, and right to life in the face of any threat.
On August 26, 2024, the Jewish community of Kamianets-Podilskyi gathered to honor the memory of the victims of these shootings. The memorial event in the Memory Square was attended by government officials headed by the mayor, public organizations, members of the Spiritual Council of the city, veterans' organizations, as well as the Polish and Armenian communities and residents of the city.
Also present were foreign guests from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia and Germany, whose mission was to ask for forgiveness for the crimes committed by their ancestors, reports United Jewish Community of Ukraine.
On July 11, 1941, the Nazis occupied Kamyanets-Podolsky and created a ghetto in the old part of the city, where all the local Jews were driven. Later, so-called “foreign” Jews were deported here – refugees from Germany, Austria, Czechoslovakia and Poland, who had found refuge in Hungary in 1939–1941. About 14,000 Jews from Transcarpathia, which was then under Hungarian control, were also taken to the Kamyanets-Podolsky ghetto.
Under the pretext of the impossibility of containing such a large number of deportees, Friedrich Eckeln, SS-Obergruppenführer and chief of police for the “South of Russia”, organized a special operation to exterminate them. On August 25, the Jews were ordered to leave the city, supposedly for resettlement. They were taken to the outskirts of the city, where they were forced to leave their valuables and some to undress. The people were driven into pre-dug pits and shot by officers of the 320th police battalion under the leadership of Eckeln.
After the bloody days of August 26-28, when about 23,600 Jews were shot, the mass killings continued. In total, about 30,000 Jews were killed during the occupation of Kamenets-Podolsky.
After the liberation of Podolia, seven mass graves were found in Kamenets-Podolsky and its environs, in one of which the bodies of 500 children were discovered.
In 2015, a memorial was erected in the city in memory of the murdered Jews.
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