• Memorial to the Jews of Borysław
Two memorials in Boryslav (Polish: Borysław) honour the memory of the town's over 10,000 Jews, who were shot by the SS or murdered in death camps between 1941 and 1944.
Image: Boryslav, undated, Oil refineries, Dr. Bernd Schmalhausen, photo archive, Essen
Boryslav, undated, Oil refineries, Dr. Bernd Schmalhausen, photo archive, Essen

Image: Boryslav, 2016, Memorial stone at the site of the November 28, 1941 mass shooting, Manfred Mayer
Boryslav, 2016, Memorial stone at the site of the November 28, 1941 mass shooting, Manfred Mayer
Boryslav, which is located in Galicia close to Lviv, was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire before World War I; after the war, it became part of newly-reborn Poland.
At the beginning of the 20th Century, the small town in the Northern Carpathians became a centre of the oil industry. Before World War II, Borysław was home to about 14,000 Jews. On the onset of war in 1939, the town came under Soviet occupation, in accordance with the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. In the following months, Jews too fell victim to the persecution and terror of the Soviet secret service NKVD.
Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, Borysław was occupied by German troops. Immediately after that, a pogrom was staged by Ukrainians and with the approval of the occupying authorities against Jews who were blamed for having had collaborated with the NKVD. After that, the SS began carrying out systematic executions of Jews in collaboration with police forces and Ukrainian auxiliary police. In the summer of 1942, about 6,000 Jews were deported from Borysław to the nearby extermination camp at Bełżec, which had been established shortly beforehand by the SS. In Boryslaw itself, the SS operated a forced labour camp. The remaining Jews were forced to move to the camp and to work for the German »Karpaten-Öl-Aktiengesellschaft«, which had administered the local oil fields since 1941. Time and again the company's managing director Berthold Beitz was able to protect Jewish workers from being deported to the death camps by asserting their »significance for the war efforts«. At the beginning of 1944 only about 1,200 Borysław Jews were alive; the SS deported them to the Płaszów and Auschwitz concentration camps. Only few survived.
Image: Boryslav, undated, Oil refineries, Dr. Bernd Schmalhausen, photo archive, Essen
Boryslav, undated, Oil refineries, Dr. Bernd Schmalhausen, photo archive, Essen

Image: Boryslav, 2016, Memorial stone at the site of the November 28, 1941 mass shooting, Manfred Mayer
Boryslav, 2016, Memorial stone at the site of the November 28, 1941 mass shooting, Manfred Mayer
Only a few hundred of the approximately 14,000 Borysław Jews survived, many thanks to Berthold Beitz's efforts.
Image: Boryslav, 1943, Jewish forced labourers after their hiding place is discovered, among them Sabina Haberman (left, in profile), USHMM
Boryslav, 1943, Jewish forced labourers after their hiding place is discovered, among them Sabina Haberman (left, in profile), USHMM

Image: Boryslav, 2012, Monument in memory of the former Jewish cemetery, Klaus Hasbron-Blume
Boryslav, 2012, Monument in memory of the former Jewish cemetery, Klaus Hasbron-Blume
After World War II, Boryslav became part of the Soviet Union; today, it lies in Ukraine. There are several memorials in the town to commemorate the murdered Jews of Boryslav. One of them is at the site of a mass shooting, bearing an inscription in Hebrew, Ukrainian and English, commemorating the Borysław Jews who were murdered on November 28, 1941, and buried there. A further memorial is located behind the slaughterhouse, where several mass shootings had been carried out. Moreover, a monument was erected at the site of the former Jewish cemetery. Also, a memorial plaque can be seen on the building of the forced labour camp of the »Karpathen-Öl AG«.
In 2010, the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe published the memoirs of Sabina Van Der Linden-Wolanski (née Haberman), who was born and raised in Borysław. She was the only one of her family to survive persecution and forced labour.
Image: Boryslav, undated, The former forced labour camp of the »Karpathen-Öl AG«, Leonid Milman, private archive
Boryslav, undated, The former forced labour camp of the »Karpathen-Öl AG«, Leonid Milman, private archive

Image: Boryslav, undated, Memorial behind the slaughterhouse, the site of several mass shootings, Leonid Milman, private archive
Boryslav, undated, Memorial behind the slaughterhouse, the site of several mass shootings, Leonid Milman, private archive
Name
Pamjatnyk na zhadku pro jewrejiw Borislawa
Open
The memorials are accessible at all times.