Today Lviv is one of the main culture centres of Ukraine, and it is a historic city that
survived occupation by both the Soviets and Germans during the Second World War.
Today over 700,000 people live there, but during World War 2 it was the scene for some
of the worst anti semitic attacks upon Jews during June and July 1941.
It’s estimated that thousands were killed in the Lviv Pogroms and many were rounded
up and were executed by the Einsatzgruppen, the German death squads who were responsible
for the deaths of millions.
But also inside of the city, there were large scale beatings and acts of violence, much
abuse and also looting and robbery.
The city once it fell under occupation changed heavily, but what is the story of this?
Join us today as we look at the Horrific Torture of the civilians of Lviv.
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Before the Second World War, Lviv was multicultural and had a population around half of what it
has today.
Inside there were around 32% of people who were Jewish, and over 50% ethnic polish people.
But shortly after the signing of the German Soviet Frontier Treaty, the Germans and the
Soviet Union assigned 200,000 square kms of polish territory lived in by over 13 million
people to the Soviet Union.
Lviv was then annexed into the Soviet Union, and whilst the Soviet’s occupied the land,
there were large scale prisoner executions.
Many polish people were being rounded up and were being placed inside of Soviet secret
police NKVD prisons, and were then executed in massacres.
Some prisoners were locked in basements and then these prisons were set on fire and were
torched.
But following operation Barbarossa and the speed that the Germans were advancing, Stalin
gave instruction for these executions of prisoners to take place, and it’s estimated that tens
of thousands were killed inside of the prisons.
But before the German invasion, there had been collaboration from Ukrainian Nationalists,
and a group known as the OUN.
These had been working with the Germans, and the Lviv group was led by a far right leader
named Stepan Bandera.
Along with other far right leaders, they perpetuated the anti semitic ideas that the Nazis also
had.
But when the Germans attacked the Soviet Union and launched Barbarossa, there were around
160,000 Jews living inside of Lviv.
Many refugees had came to the city from German occupied Poland.
The OUN had anticipated that Russians, Polish and Jews would be destroyed in battles around
Lviv, and they distributed many leaflets during the beginning of the German invasion.
Some of these instructed German soldiers that their fight was not yet done, as the fight
was to destroy the Jews who they believed were the enemy.
But in the morning of the 30th June 1941, the city of Lviv became occupied by the German
military.
On the very same day, Jews were being forced to remove the dead bodies of the NKVD’s
victims who had been slaughtered in the prisons, and many were forced to clean up the city
following the fighting.
But many German soldiers and it’s believed the civilians of Lviv then began to take their
anger out on Jewish people, who they believed had been collaborating with the Soviets.
Many blamed the Jews for the large scale prison massacres, and some Jews were abused and violently
beaten, and some were even murdered.
The OUN formed militia groups, and and these then encouraged violence against the Jews
and took part in it.
On the 1st July a pogrom was launched against them, and Jews were being taken from their
apartments.
They were forced to clean the streets on their hands and knees and partake in other humiliation.
Jewish women were stripped naked and were abused and beaten, being kicked and punched.
Widescale assault was also committed against the women, and Jewish people were being taken
to three prisons where they were to exhume the bodies of prisoners again, before they
were too executed and shot.
But on the 2nd July 1941, the Einsatzgruppen arrived at Lviv.
These were the mobile death squads that carried out large scale executions of civilian populations.
Units from Einsatzgruppe C arrived, and then more Jews were being transported to the prisons
where they were shot and buried in large trenches.
Ukranians were also helping and collaborating with the SS in this, and the mass killings
took place over a number of days.
The killings were considered more discreet, as Jews were gathered into a stadium, before
there were then placed onto trucks and vehicles before they were taken to the execution sites.
They would have been forced into trenches, amongst the bodies of the dead before they
too were shot.
But then a second attack and pogrom would take place in Lviv at the end of July 1941.
Throughout the weeks more people were being killed, but the attack was known as the Petliura
Days.
These killings were encouraged by the Germans and Ukranian militants from outside of Lviv
joined in the attacks.
On the 25th July many people began to gather at the police stations, and they then assaulted
Jews with clubs, knives, axes and other sharp bladed weapons.
They went around hunting for their victims, and then began to loot homes and steal property.
Police arrested Jews in their homes, whilst the civilians were also attacking them in
the streets and many were beaten to death and were murdered.
It’s believed that in this attack 2000 people were killed in 3 days of bloody antisemitic
violence.
There have been conflicting reports about the amount of victims, but it\s believed in
the first pogrom around 5000 were killed, along with another 3000 who were shot by the
einsatzgruppen.
In the second pogrom more than 1000 were killed, and more than 2000 people were then killed
yet again by the Eisnatzgruppen.
The Lviv ghetto was later established in November 1941, and around 120,000 jews were held here.
The majority were later transported to Belzec extermination camp where they were killed
inside the gas chambers as soon as they arrived, or many were killed by the harsh conditions
and executions that took place there.
It’s believed that only 1% of the Jews of Lviv survived the occupation and the war,
as the evil actions inside of the city and the deportations took their lives.
Families were shattered and broken up, but the violence in the summer months of 1941
inside of the city was untold and harrowing.
But inside of the Ukranian city, Lviv was decimated by not just the Nazis but also the
soviets.
The local prison population was executed en mass, but then as the Germans approached the
victims became the jewish civilians which were living there.
The einsatzgruppen would take the lives of millions during world war 2 in mass shootings,
and inside of the city there was horrific scenes of barbarism exhibited by the Germans,
Soviets and also the collaborators.
What happened in Lviv was some of the most disgusting and despicable crimes of the Second
World War.
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