• Memorial to the murdered Jews of Lypovets
In the small Ukrainian town of Lypovets, several memorials commemorate the Jews murdered there.
Image: Lypovets, about 1900, Street scene on a postcard, public domain
Lypovets, about 1900, Street scene on a postcard, public domain

Image: Lypovets, 2019, Old and new elements of the memorial complex, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Lypovets, 2019, Old and new elements of the memorial complex, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Lypovets is a small town founded in the Middle Ages, located on the river Sob 35 kilometers east of Vinnytsia. After the partition of Poland, Lypovets belonged to the Russian Empire. At the end of the 19th century almost half of the approximately 8,500 inhabitants of the town were Jews. In 1919 and 1920 there were at least two anti-Jewish pogroms in Lypovets. Thereafter, the Soviet policy of collectivization and the suppression of religions led to many Jews moving to larger cities. Whereas in 1926, 3,605 Jews were still counted in Lypovets, representing 42 per cent of the total population of 8,638, by 1941 there were probably only about 1,200 Jews living in the city.
The German Wehrmacht occupied Lypovets on July, 13 1941. Only a few Jews managed to flee before the arrival of the German troops. The Germans set up a local Ukrainian police force to assist them, among other things, in implementing anti-Jewish measures.
On September 12, German units – presumably members of Einsatzkommando (subgroup of Einsatzgruppe) 6 of Einsatzgruppe (mobile killing unit) C – shot and killed at least 200 young Jewish men and women from Lypovets near the village of Bereziwka.
In the autumn of 1941 a ghetto was established in Lypovets to which all Jews had to move. The living conditions were so catastrophic that many inhabitants of the ghetto died of hunger, disease and exhaustion. In April or May 1942 German units, supported by local police, murdered almost all the inhabitants of the ghetto in a field near the village of Vikentiivka. Previously, workers on a farm had to dig a large pit. The victims had to undress and lay down in the pit, after which they were shot with submachine guns. The murderous action dragged on for days. Afterwards only about 50 specialized Jewish workers remained in the ghetto, who were probably murdered in the autumn. Later on, Jews from outside Lypovets were brought on several occasions to the town to be shot.
Image: Lypovets, about 1900, Street scene on a postcard, public domain
Lypovets, about 1900, Street scene on a postcard, public domain

Image: Lypovets, 2019, Old and new elements of the memorial complex, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Lypovets, 2019, Old and new elements of the memorial complex, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
In the first murder operation, members of German units murdered at least 200 Jews, mainly young men and some young women. Approximately 750-800 Jewish children, women and men from the ghetto fell victim to the large mass shooting in spring 1942. Later, smaller and larger groups of Jews, several hundreds in all, were brought to Lypovets and murdered there.
Image: Lypovets, 2019, Memorial and information stele at the mass grave, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Lypovets, 2019, Memorial and information stele at the mass grave, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko

Image: Lypovets, 2019, Inauguration ceremony of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Lypovets, 2019, Inauguration ceremony of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
The Red Army finally liberated Lypovets on March 13, 1944. Only a few Jews managed to survive in hiding until then. After the liberation, a Soviet commission of inquiry investigated the situation on site. Several local collaborators were arrested, but the crimes themselves were only incompletely documented. In the Federal Republic of Germany some perpetrators were investigated, but in the trials of the 1960s and 1970s hardly anyone was convicted of crimes committed in the Vinnytsia region.
In the early post-war years, the survivor Leontii Usharenko ensured that memorials were erected at the mass graves in the field near the village of Vikentiivka. At two mass graves earth mounds were raised and obelisks were erected. Their inscription remembered the »Soviet citizens« who had been murdered there. As was customary in the Soviet Union at the time, the Jewish identity of the victims was not mentioned. In the 2010s, thanks to the initiative of a local businessman, these obelisks were supplemented by commemorative plaques bearing Stars of David to indicate the Jewish identity of the victims. It is remarkable that the monuments survived the decades until the end of the Soviet Union unscathed, although they were located on an agricultural field, because in many other places similar monuments were levelled.
In 2016 and 2017, a team conducted non-invasive archaeological investigations 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. This enabled the exact location of the mass graves to be determined. Finally, in 2019, the old monuments were repaired and supplemented with new elements and information steles as part of the »Protecting Memory« project.
Image: Lypovets, 2017, Archaeological investigations and obelisk from the post-war years, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Lypovets, 2017, Archaeological investigations and obelisk from the post-war years, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko

Image: Lypovets, 2019, Second mass grave in the field, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Lypovets, 2019, Second mass grave in the field, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Name
Меморіали жертвам Голокосту у полі біля с. Вікентіївкa
Web
https://www.erinnerungbewahren.de/lypowez/
E-Mail
info@erinnerung-bewahren.de