Lviv pogroms
Encyclopedia
The Lviv pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...

s
were two massacres
History of the Jews in Ukraine
Jewish communities have existed in the territory of Ukraine from the time of Kievan Rus' and developed many of the most distinctive modern Jewish theological and cultural traditions. While at times they flourished, at other times they faced periods of persecution and antisemitic discriminatory...

 of Jews living in and near in the city of Lwów, the occupied Republic of Poland (now Lviv
Lviv
Lviv is a city in western Ukraine. The city is regarded as one of the main cultural centres of today's Ukraine and historically has also been a major Polish and Jewish cultural center, as Poles and Jews were the two main ethnicities of the city until the outbreak of World War II and the following...

, Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...

), that took place from 30 June to 2 July and 25–29 July 1941 during World War II. 700 Jews were killed in the rioting by some Ukrainian nationalists
Ukrainian nationalism
Ukrainian nationalism refers to the Ukrainian version of nationalism.Although the current Ukrainian state emerged fairly recently, some historians, such as Mykhailo Hrushevskyi, Orest Subtelny and Paul Magosci have cited the medieval state of Kievan Rus' as an early precedents of specifically...

 and Ukrainian militia
Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
The Ukrainische Hilfspolizei was a German mobile police force that operated in the General Government beginning on July 27, 1941. The total number enlisted numbered slightly more than 35,000. 6,000 of them - including 120 low-level officers - served in the District of Galicia...

 and further 3,500 Jews were killed by Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...

. During the interbellum
Interwar period
Interwar period can refer to any period between two wars. The Interbellum is understood to be the period between the end of the Great War or First World War and the beginning of the Second World War in Europe....

, Lviv had the third-largest Jewish population in Poland, which swelled further to over 200,000 Jews as refugees fled from the Nazis. Documents recently released by the Ukrainian Security Services indicate that the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...

 (OUN) may have been involved to a lesser degree than originally thought.

First pogrom

Immediately after the Germans entered the city, Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen
Einsatzgruppen were SS paramilitary death squads that were responsible for mass killings, typically by shooting, of Jews in particular, but also significant numbers of other population groups and political categories...

 with the participation of Ukrainian nationalists organized a pogrom in retaliation for the retreating NKVD's mass-murder of approximately 2,000-10,000 prisoners (including Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish intellectuals and political activists) at Lviv's three prisons (Brygidki prison, Łąckiego street prison and Zamarstynowska street prison). According to the lists of the victims most of them were Ukrainian. Although a significant number of Jews had also been among the victims of the NKVD massacre, they were collectively accused by the German authorities of having cooperated with the Soviets. Before the massacre, the Germans had spread the rumors implicating the Jews in the killing of Ukrainian political prisoners. The Ukrainian militia (which later became the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
The Ukrainische Hilfspolizei was a German mobile police force that operated in the General Government beginning on July 27, 1941. The total number enlisted numbered slightly more than 35,000. 6,000 of them - including 120 low-level officers - served in the District of Galicia...

) hastily created by the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists
The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists is a Ukrainian political organization which as a movement originally was created in 1929 in Western Ukraine . The OUN accepted violence as an acceptable tool in the fight against foreign and domestic enemies particularly Poland and Russia...

 after the occupation of the Lviv participated in the pogrom
Pogrom
A pogrom is a form of violent riot, a mob attack directed against a minority group, and characterized by killings and destruction of their homes and properties, businesses, and religious centres...

. It is alleged that during this pogrom nearly 700 Jews were murdered initially, with 3,500 more shot by the Einsatzgruppe.

Petlura days

A second pogrom took place in the last days of July 1941 and was labeled "Petlura Days" after the assassinated Ukrainian leader Symon Petlura
Symon Petlura
Symon Vasylyovych Petliura was a publicist, writer, journalist, Ukrainian politician, statesman, and national leader who led Ukraine's struggle for independence following the Russian Revolution of 1917....

. This pogrom was allegedly organized by Ukrainian nationalist circles with German encouragement. On 25 July, Ukrainian militants from outside the city, joined the Ukrainian militia (which later became the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
Ukrainian Auxiliary Police
The Ukrainische Hilfspolizei was a German mobile police force that operated in the General Government beginning on July 27, 1941. The total number enlisted numbered slightly more than 35,000. 6,000 of them - including 120 low-level officers - served in the District of Galicia...

) and participated in acts of violence against Jews. This group assaulted Jews according to prepared lists of individuals seen as collaborators with the Soviets. Jews were taken to the Jewish cemetery and murdered brutally. Ukrainian police circulated in groups of five and consulted prepared lists. Some 2,000 people were murdered in approximately three days.

Aftermath

According to Richard Breitman 5,000 Jews died as a result of these pogroms. In addition, some 3,000 persons, mostly Jews, were executed in the municipal stadium by the German military. According to the historian and chairman of the civic committee "Babi Yar" Vitali Nachmanovich the actual number of victims of these riots was smaller, estimated at 700, and the further 2,500 killings are attributable to the Einsatzgruppe.

The Lviv ghetto
Lwów Ghetto
The Lvov Ghetto or the Lwów Ghetto was a World War II ghetto set up in the city of Lwów on the territory of Nazi-administered General Government in German-occupied Poland. It was one of the largest Jewish ghettos established by Nazi Germany after the joint Nazi-Soviet invasion of Poland...

 was established after the pogroms, holding some 120,000 Jews, most of whom were deported to the Belzec extermination camp
Belzec extermination camp
Belzec, Polish spelling Bełżec , was the first of the Nazi German extermination camps created for implementing Operation Reinhard during the Holocaust...

 or killed locally during the following two years. Following the pogroms, Einsatzgruppen killings, harsh conditions in the ghetto
Ghetto
A ghetto is a section of a city predominantly occupied by a group who live there, especially because of social, economic, or legal issues.The term was originally used in Venice to describe the area where Jews were compelled to live. The term now refers to an overcrowded urban area often associated...

, and deportation to the Nazi concentration camps
Nazi concentration camps
Nazi Germany maintained concentration camps throughout the territories it controlled. The first Nazi concentration camps set up in Germany were greatly expanded after the Reichstag fire of 1933, and were intended to hold political prisoners and opponents of the regime...

, including the Janowska concentration camp
Janowska concentration camp
Janowska was a Nazi German labor, transit and concentration camp established September 1941 in occupied Poland on the outskirts of Lwów...

located on the outskirts of the city, resulted in the almost complete annihilation of the Jewish population. When the Soviet forces reached Lviv in 1944 driving out the Nazi occupation, only 200-300 Jews remained.

Controversy

The nature of the Lviv pogroms and their identifiable perpetrators remain controversial.
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