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On The Field
Yahad - In Unum's Final Investigations of 2021
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Region of Subcarpathia
23 November - 3 December
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"I went to see the pit a few days later and the earth was still moving..."
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(Top) Our team interviewed Czesław, born in 1936, who told us about the fate of the Jewish community of Mrzygłód, a small village in the Subcarpathian region. In the spring of 1942, all local Jewish families, around 20 men, women and children, were first taken from their houses by the Germans and transported to a nearby forest, around 1 km away, where the were all shot and killed and buried in a single mass grave. With the help of Czesław, the Yahad team was able to find the exact location of the grave, as the memorial errected to the victims' memory is not situated on the exact site of the killing. (Bottom left) Our team interviewed Irena, born 1931, In the town of Huwniki. There were two Jewish families living in the village, Irena knew them very well as they lived nearby. She recalled their names, Fretka, Rywka, Henku, and Hutka. "I went to school with Ida, we used to play together.". But when the Germans came, the two Jewish families, all 18 of them, were confined in a small ghetto on the territory of a local sawmill. One night in 1942, they were all taken to a nearby river and shot one by one, and later buried on the spot in a single grave. The site remains unmarked to this day. (Bottom right) Our team interviewed Anna, 1935, who told us about the day a group of nearly 30 Roma – elderly men, women and children - were shot in Komańcza in 1943. Anna was grazing her cow when she saw the group of victims being led away by the Germans to a nearby forest. “They were crying and moaning” – she said. “I was with my older sister hiding in some bushes. Soon after we heard gunfire from machine guns. They were all killed on the spot. I went to see the pit a few days later and the earth was still moving. It is horrible what happened to them.” Anna told us that she still visits the site to pay homage to the victims.
Photos: ©Piotr Malec
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For our 39th investigation trip to Poland, organized between November 23- December 3, 2021, the Yahad - In Unum team travelled to the region of Sanok in the Subcarpathian Province in order to conduct a research in the nearby towns and villages. This was a second research trip to the region, focused on the fate of Jewish communities in connection to their localities.
The team interviewed 20 witnesses and located 10 mass graves of Jewish and Roma victims. The recorded testimonies provide an important source of information about the fate of local Jewish communities who were either killed in the proximity of their houses or transported to a killing site in the region. The interviews touched the subject of pre-war Jewish life, persecution of Jews during the German occupation, deportations and shootings. The witnesses also gave important insight to the relations among different ethnic groups during the Soviet and German occupation, and the fate of these groups by the end of the war and during the first years of the Communist regime (resettlements, persecutions as a result of the shift of the border with USSR). The fate of local Roma groups was also an important part of the testimonies and investigations. A very important topic of the interviews was the collaborations of Ukrainian auxiliaries, their interaction with the local population and their role in the massacres, as well as the activity of the Ukrainian partisans (UPA) and massacres of ethic Poles perpetrated in the region.
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Region of Lviv
10-26 November & 5-17 December
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"There was a big pit in the forest and you could hear gunfire coming from there all day long. All the Jews were shot in a single day..."
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(Top) Our team interviewed Pavlo, born in 1935, in the village of Kurovychi. "I heard isolated gunshots and went to see what was going on. My brother and I saw four or five bodies of half-dressed Jewish men in the pit, with blood everywhere."(Bottom left) Our team interviewed Volodymyra, born in 1932, in the village of Chyzhykiv. Her house was a 10-minute walk from the scene of the shooting. At the site, the witness saw a pit measuring approximately 5x4m. There were 3-4 bodies lying next to it, and bodies in it. According to Volodymyra, the Germans probably left 3 or 4 Jews alive to fill the pit in and then killed them too. The Germans chased her away from the execution site when they saw her. (Bottom right) Our interviewed Mariia, born in 1928, in the village of Novyi Yarychiv. "I heard screaming and went outside to see what was happening. All the locals were being forced out of their houses. The Jews were removed from their houses in what they were wearing, some without shoes. The column was very big, everybody was walking. There were many children. The column was conveyed by armed men, two in front and two behind. It was January. All the locals were crying, the Jews were shouting and crying too. One man fell down, he was killed and his body was thrown on a truck that was driving in front of the column. There was a big pit in the forest and you could hear gunfire coming from there all day long. All the Jews were shot in a single day."
Photos: ©Les Kasyanov
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Over the course of its history, eastern Galicia has experienced many regime changes. As a region of diverse nationalities, it found itself at the heart of the wars that shook Europe in the first half of the 20th century: the First World War, the Civil War, the Russo-Polish War, the Second World War... This area was one of the most important centres of Jewish settlement. On the eve of 22 June 1941, 570,000 Jews lived in Eastern Galicia, in large cities such as Lviv, but also in smaller towns such as Jovkva, which was known as a shtetl - the town in Yiddish.
Two Yahad investigations took place at in the end of 2021 in the north and center of the region. These investigations focused on Early shootings of Jewish women and children: from August 1941, work camps for Jewish prisoners: DG IV, agricultural work, ghettos, deportations to Belzec, Auschwitz, Operation 1005, the looting of victims' property, victims of the NKVD, tensions between the Polish and Ukrainian communities, Operation Visla, various pogroms and the first shootings carried out by Einsatzgruppe C on Soviet territory (around Dobromyl).
Over the course of the these two investigations in the Lviv region, our team interviewed 54 witnesses and located 26 mass grave sites.
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Education - #BeyondMemory
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This week our online training program for Auschwitz Memorial / Muzeum Auschwitz guides came to an end. Renata Masna led the final session focused on "The fate of Jewish agricultural colonies during the Holocaust - from settlement to annihilation."
Since 2018, Yahad - In Unum has trained nearly 200 guides annually in both Polish and English on the specifics of the #Holocaust by Bullets. Before the pandemic, the museum received more than millions of visitors per year. The fourth edition of the program focused on the Holocaust in Lithuania, the persecution of people with disabilities, the fate of Soviet POWs and Jewish settlements in southern Ukraine. Thanks to Tomasz Michaldo for his help in organising the program.
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Follow us on social media for regular updates on our field research, historical material and more about In-Evidence, our interactive map of the Holocaust by bullets.
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Yahad - In Unum's Museo del Holocausto, Guatemala
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| The museum has put on a temporary exhibition at the Guatemalan Ministry of Education for two weeks from January 27th. |
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The museum has kicked of 2022 by continuing its activities in the fields of education and media. On January 24th, the museum took part in the filming of the Channel 27 Television Program Buenas Nuevas de Esperanza. On January 25th, it was involved in recording of the Alégrate Program, specifically aimed at a younger generation. Both programs were broadcast on Thursday, January 27, 2022 at national level (Guatemala), within the framework of Holocaust Remembrance Day 2022, in order to raise awareness about the importance of the culture of memory.
On Wednesday, January 26th, the museum ran a conference in tribute to the victims of the Holocaust. The event took place on zoom and facebook live. It focused on three main aspects of the Holocaust: the importance of memory, the elimination of inequalities and the non-victimization of the Jewish Community, highlighting the resilience of the survivors.
Furthermore, the museum has put on a temporary exhibition at the Guatemalan Ministry of Education, commemorating the Holocaust and raising awareness of the plight of the Jewish communities of Central America and across the globe.
The Holocaust Museum assumed the collective responsibility to promote education and strengthen the resilience of all universal citizens against the ideologies of hate, genocides and other heinous crimes that continue to occur in some parts of the world.
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