In the village of Kolodianka, two memorials commemorate the at least 100 Jews who were shot by German units in 1941 in a field behind the railway station.
Kolodianka, 2019, The building of the railway station, behind it the former execution site with the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Kolodianka, 2019, General view of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Kolodianka is a village in the Zhytomyr oblast in the north of Ukraine. It is known that at least since 1778 Jews have verifiably lived in Kolodianka, although their number has always remained small. According to the 1926 census, 41 Jews lived in Kolodianka out of a total population of 1,213, which corresponded to about three percent. At the time of the German attack on the Soviet Union in June 1941 there were probably 47 Jews living in the village. The German Wehrmacht occupied Kolodianka in early July. Most of the Jews did not manage to flee before the arrival of the German troops. From the first day of the German occupation Jews were subjected to harassment and violence. Already in July German units murdered individual Jewish men, presumably on August 19 for the first time also women and children. Until the beginning of September all Jews of Kolodianka were murdered. The exact circumstances and identity of the perpetrators are unknown, but it is likely that units of Einsatzgruppe (mobile killing unit) C and police battalions as well as local auxiliary police were involved in the murders. Jews from outside the immediate vicinity were also murdered in Kolodianka. According to the recollections of contemporary witnesses, the victims were often kept behind barbed wire and maltreated for days before being shot in the field behind the small station building.
Kolodianka, 2019, The building of the railway station, behind it the former execution site with the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Kolodianka, 2019, General view of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
The exact number of Jews murdered in Kolodianka is uncertain. After the liberation of Kolodianka in January 1944, the Soviet commission of inquiry estimated that 250 Jews were shot and buried in the field behind the railway station. Researchers assume that the number of victims was not less than 100.
Kolodianka, 2019, General view of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Kolodianka, 2019, Information stele, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Only four Jews from Kolodjanka managed to survive the Holocaust. One of the survivors first returned to the village after the war, before leaving the Soviet Union in 1956. Whether the Soviet commission of inquiry opened and examined the mass graves in the field behind the railway station after the end of the fighting in Kolodianka is unknown. Soviet authorities are known to have investigated against local police officers and collaborators. In West Germany, proceedings were conducted in the 1960s against men of the Reserve Police Battalion 45, who evidently have been active in Kolodianka.
In 1996, members of the Jewish community from the nearby town of Novohrad-Volynskyi erected a memorial to the murdered Jews of Kolodianka. It stands at the edge of the field behind the railway station, where mass graves are suspected. In April 2017, non-invasive archaeological investigations were carried out in the field as part of the »Protecting Memory« project, which is based at the Berlin office of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, but the exact location of the mass graves could not be determined. In the summer of 2019, as part of the »Protecting Memory« project, the 1996 monument was repaired and a new information stele was erected, which provides information about the history of the site in Ukrainian, English and Hebrew.
In 1996, members of the Jewish community from the nearby town of Novohrad-Volynskyi erected a memorial to the murdered Jews of Kolodianka. It stands at the edge of the field behind the railway station, where mass graves are suspected. In April 2017, non-invasive archaeological investigations were carried out in the field as part of the »Protecting Memory« project, which is based at the Berlin office of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, but the exact location of the mass graves could not be determined. In the summer of 2019, as part of the »Protecting Memory« project, the 1996 monument was repaired and a new information stele was erected, which provides information about the history of the site in Ukrainian, English and Hebrew.
Kolodianka, 2019, Memorial from 1996 and new information stele, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Kolodianka, 2019, Residents of the village at the dedication of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
- Name
- Пам’ятник для вбитих євреїв у Колодянці
- Web
- https://www.erinnerungbewahren.de/kolodjanka/
- info@erinnerung-bewahren.de
- Open
- The memorial is accessible at all times.