• Memorial to the murdered Jews of Kysylyn
Since 2015 a memorial near the place of Kysylyn (polish: Kisielin) commemorates the approximately 500 Jews who were shot there on August 15, 1942.
Image: Kysylyn, undated, Historic view of of the town, Włodzimierz Sławosz Dębski
Kysylyn, undated, Historic view of of the town, Włodzimierz Sławosz Dębski

Image: Kysylyn, 2015, Memorial for the murdered Jews of Kysylyn, Anna Voitenko
Kysylyn, 2015, Memorial for the murdered Jews of Kysylyn, Anna Voitenko
Kysylyn (polish: Kisielin), located about 40 km northeast of Lutsk in the historic region of Volhynia belonged to Poland until September 1939 and was then occupied by Soviet forces as a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop-Pact. First mentionings of Jewish inhabitants date back to the 17th century. Due to the effects of the First World War the population number dropped heavily. In 1939 several hundred Jews live in Kysylyn, the other inhabitants were Ukrainians and Poles.
At the end of June 1941, only a few days after their invasion of the Soviet Union the German Wehrmacht occupied Kysylyn. The German occupying authorities set up a Ukrainian police unit and started to suppress the Jews by forced labour, curfews and identifying armbands. The measure encouraged the Ukrainian police and anti-semitic locals to turn violent towards the Jews. In mid-August 1941 the German occupiers shot 48 Jews and two Ukrainians near the Catholic church on the pretext of having been supporters of the Soviet regime. On November 1, 1941 they established a ghetto in Kysylyn to which all Jews from Kysylyn and and nearby villages were relocated to. On August 12, 1942 the German occupiers liquidated the ghetto. Prior they had local non-Jews dig a pit not far from the Polish cemetery. Following this, German and Ukrainian police took the Jews from the ghetto to the pit and shot them.
According to reports a group of Roma people were shot near the Jewish mass grave a few days later.
About one year later Ukrainian nationalists murdered many Poilsh inhabitants of Kysylyn. The mass grave of the Polish victims is presumed to be not far from the one of the Jewish victims.
Image: Kysylyn, undated, Historic view of of the town, Włodzimierz Sławosz Dębski
Kysylyn, undated, Historic view of of the town, Włodzimierz Sławosz Dębski

Image: Kysylyn, 2015, Memorial for the murdered Jews of Kysylyn, Anna Voitenko
Kysylyn, 2015, Memorial for the murdered Jews of Kysylyn, Anna Voitenko
About 500 Jews were shot in August 1942 during the »Aktion« of the liquidation of the ghetto. 20 Jews managed to escape but only one survived the war. A further 48 Jews were already shot by the occupiers in the late summer of 1941. Only a handful of the Kysylyn Jews survived the German occupation.
Image: Kysylyn, 1917, Jewish cemetery, www.jewishmag.com
Kysylyn, 1917, Jewish cemetery, www.jewishmag.com

Image: Kysylyn, 2015, Dedication plaque of the memorial, Anna Voitenko
Kysylyn, 2015, Dedication plaque of the memorial, Anna Voitenko
Since 1991 a basalt memorial plaque in the town centre remembers the 48 Jews and two Ukrainians who were shot there in August 1941.
More than 70 years there was no memorial for the victims of the mass shootings of August 1942. The contours of the mass grave vanished on the fields which were used for agriculture.
As part of the international project »Protecting Memory« supported by the German foreign office, the American Jewish Committee Berlin bult a new memorial site in the summer of 2015. The memorial consists of a 400-square-meter surface covered with crushed stone amid the fields. A plaque informs about the annihilation of the Jewish community of Kysylyn.
Image: Kysylyn, 2015, Total view of the memorial, Anna Voitenko
Kysylyn, 2015, Total view of the memorial, Anna Voitenko

Image: Kysylyn, 2015, Information stele, Anna Voitenko
Kysylyn, 2015, Information stele, Anna Voitenko
Name
Pamjatnyk jewrejam zahyblym u Kysylyna
Phone
+380 (044) 285-90-30
Fax
+380 (044) 285-90-30
Web
http://www.protecting-memory.org/de/memorial-sites/kysylyn/
E-Mail
uhcenter@holocaust.kiev.ua
Open
The memorial is accessible at all times.