• Memorials to the murdered Jews of Slavuta
In Slavuta, several memorials and memorial plaques on the »Place of Remembrance« and the »Field of Remembrance« remember the murdered Jews of the ghetto and the perished prisoners of war of the »Großlazarett (large military hospital) 301«.
Image: Slavuta, about 1900, Old market place, public domain
Slavuta, about 1900, Old market place, public domain

Image: Slavuta, 2013, Memorial for the murdered Jews of the ghetto at the »Field of Remembrance«, Yevgenni Shnayder
Slavuta, 2013, Memorial for the murdered Jews of the ghetto at the »Field of Remembrance«, Yevgenni Shnayder
Slavuta (Polish: Sławuta), located in the historical region of Volhynia on the banks of the Horyn River, was founded in 1633. After the second division of Poland in 1793, the city belonged to the Russian Empire. There was a synagogue at the latest in 1731. In the 19th century the Jewish inhabitants contributed significantly to the economic development of the city. At the beginning of the 20th century, there were anti-Jewish riots in the city during which several Jews were killed. On the eve of the Second World War about 5,100 Jews lived in the city, a bit more than a third of the total population.
The German Wehrmacht occupied the city on July 7, 1941. The first anti-Jewish »Aktionen« were carried out by members of the Polizeibataillon Süd (Police Battalion South) on August, 15 and September 3, 1941, murdering more than 1,000 Jews. At the beginning of March 1942, the Germans set up a fenced-in ghetto in Slavuta, where also Jews from the surrounding villages were held captive. In the beginning, about 5,000 Jews lived there under atrocious conditions. Many died of hunger and diseases or were shot. Some Jews were driven to conduct forced labour in other places where most of them also perished. On June 25, 1942, SD (Security Service of the SS) units murdered almost all the inhabitants of the ghetto. They were supported by members of the German constabulary and the local Ukrainian police force. Only a few Jewish specialists were initially left alive. In September 1942 the Germans shot all the remaining Jews and buried their bodies in a field south-east of the city. At the same place also thousands of prisoners of war were buried who died because of lack of medical care or hunger in the local prisoner-of-war camp under the code name »Großlazarett (major military hospital) 301« . A few of the prisoners could be saved thanks to the medical help of a resistance group.
Image: Slavuta, about 1900, Old market place, public domain
Slavuta, about 1900, Old market place, public domain

Image: Slavuta, 2013, Memorial for the murdered Jews of the ghetto at the »Field of Remembrance«, Yevgenni Shnayder
Slavuta, 2013, Memorial for the murdered Jews of the ghetto at the »Field of Remembrance«, Yevgenni Shnayder
At the end of July 1941 the motorized 1st SS infantry brigade was in the Slavuta area. Their members shot dozens of Jews under the pretext of having supported »Bolshevism«. From August 15 to September 3, 1941 a unit of the 45. Polizeibataillon Süd (Police Battalion South), led by SS-Obersturmführer Engelbert Kreuzer stayed in Slavuta. It was responsible for carrying out two »Aktionen«: On August 18, 1941, their members shot 322 Jews and on August 30, 1941 another 911 Jews. During the largest »Aktion« on June 25, 1942, SD (Security Service of the SS) units shot a total of approximately 5,000 Jews from the ghetto, most of them near the water tower in the south-east of the city. According to eyewitness accounts, 300 Jewish children were murdered by throwing them into a well in the ghetto. In the »Großlazarett (major military hospital) 301« some 15,000 prisoners of war perished due to hunger and disease. Among them were also Jews.
Image: Slavuta, 2017, Site of mass shooting at the »Großlazarett 301«, Christian Herrmann
Slavuta, 2017, Site of mass shooting at the »Großlazarett 301«, Christian Herrmann

Image: Slavuta, 2017, Memorial for the 300 murdered children, Christian Herrmann
Slavuta, 2017, Memorial for the 300 murdered children, Christian Herrmann
On January 15, 1944 Soviet partisans together with a Red Army unit reclaimed the city. After the war many Jews returned to Slavuta, in 1945 about a quarter of the city's 8,000 inhabitants were Jews. A new Jewish community emerged. Its more than two hundred years old synagogue had survived the war and remained open throughout the Soviet era. In 1979 only about 1,300 Jews lived in the city and the number continued to drop in the following years. Nevertheless, the Jewish community is still active today and amongst other things runs a Sunday school with Hebrew lessons.
Already in the years before the collapse of the Soviet Union, the first memorial was erected in memory of the murdered children of the city. Located in the area of the former ghetto, it is now part of the »Place of Remembrance«, which was inaugurated in 1990 together with other memorials. At the same time, the »Field of Remembrance« was created in the south-east of the city, where the »Großlazarett (major military hospital) 301« used to be. It consists of several memorials and memorial plaques remembering the murdered Jews and prisoners of war who are buried in eleven mass graves. The memorial to the murdered Jews of the ghetto symbolically represents two hands encircled by barbed wire. Inside the monument there is a memorial plaque with the Ukrainian inscription: »To the Victims of Fascism – prisoners of the Slavuta ghetto who were shot in June 1942«. It is supplemented by a Hebrew inscription and a Star of David.
The Jewish cemetery was repaired in 1990 by domestic and foreign volunteers. In 2000, human remains of murdered Jews were exhumed and reburied here. A new gravestone commemorates the victims.
Image: Slavuta, 2017, Synagogue, Christian Herrmann
Slavuta, 2017, Synagogue, Christian Herrmann

Image: Slavuta, 2017, Building of the former »Großlazarett 301«, Christian Herrmann
Slavuta, 2017, Building of the former »Großlazarett 301«, Christian Herrmann
Image: Slavuta, 2017, Remains of the former »Großlazarett 301«, Christian Herrmann
Slavuta, 2017, Remains of the former »Großlazarett 301«, Christian Herrmann
Image: Slavuta, 2017, Jewish cemetery, Christian Herrmann
Slavuta, 2017, Jewish cemetery, Christian Herrmann
Image: Slavuta, 2013, Jewish cemetery, Yevgenni Shnayder
Slavuta, 2013, Jewish cemetery, Yevgenni Shnayder
Image: Slavuta, 2013, Mass grave established in 2000 for murdered Jews in the Jewish cemetery, Yevgenni Shnayder
Slavuta, 2013, Mass grave established in 2000 for murdered Jews in the Jewish cemetery, Yevgenni Shnayder
Name
Pamjatniki jewrejam zahyblym u Slawuti
Address
Memorialnyy kompleks Pole Pamyati, at the main street T-18-04
30000 Slawuta
Web
http://myshtetl.org/khmelnitskaja/slavuta.html
E-Mail
velvl770@gmail.com
Open
The memorials are accessible at all times.