• Memorial to the murdered Jews of Kryvyi Rih
Two memorials in the major Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih remember the approximately 5,000 Jews and 800 POWs who were murdered in October 1941.
Image: Kryvyi Rih, undated, Historical view, public domain
Kryvyi Rih, undated, Historical view, public domain

Image: Kryvyi Rih, 2013, Holocaust memorial on the museum grounds, Museum Michail Marmer
Kryvyi Rih, 2013, Holocaust memorial on the museum grounds, Museum Michail Marmer
The city of Kryvyi Rih (Russian: Krivoi Rog) is the centre of the Kryvbass in southern Ukraine, an ore-mining and metallurgy region. Jews lived in the city which was founded in 1775 since the second half of the 19th century. In the beginning of the 20th century there were several anti-Semitic excesses in which the city's synagogue was partly destroyed. The synagogue was desecrated under Stalin in the 1930s and used by the Soviet military. In 1939 the Jewish population was 12,700, counting for approximately 6,45% of the total population.
The German Wehrmacht occupied the city on August 14, 1941. At that time about a third of the Jewish population was still in the city, the majority having fled to the east before. Many of them joined the Red Army. From the first day of occupation Jews had to wear a badge. A few days later the Einsatzkommando 6 (killing squad) of the Einsatzgruppe C (mobile killing unit) arrived. By the end of the month the unit shot 105 Jews. They remained in town until the end of October, killing more Jews during that period, mainly Jewish members of collective farms.
Two months after they occupied the city the Germans forced all Jewish inhabitants to gather in front of the former synagogue in what is now the Kanasskaya road. Units of the SS and the police regiment Russia South led the Jewish children, women and men to a pit of shaft No. 5 in the near ore-mining area. There they forced the Jews to undress and shot them in groups of 10 to 15 persons. The following day they murdered more Jews and POWs and buried their bodies in the same pit. The Jewish community was obliterated.
Image: Kryvyi Rih, undated, Historical view, public domain
Kryvyi Rih, undated, Historical view, public domain

Image: Kryvyi Rih, 2013, Holocaust memorial on the museum grounds, Museum Michail Marmer
Kryvyi Rih, 2013, Holocaust memorial on the museum grounds, Museum Michail Marmer
During the first weeks after the occupation of Kryvyi Rih the Einsatzkommando 6 (mobile killing squad) murdered about 105 Jews. On October 14 and 15, 1941 units of the SS and the police regiment Russia South murdered up to 1,500 Jews and 800 POWs of Stalag 338 from the nearby village of Shevchenko.
Image: Kryvyi Rih, October 15, 1941, Jews on their way to the execution, Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein
Kryvyi Rih, October 15, 1941, Jews on their way to the execution, Landesarchiv Schleswig-Holstein

Image: Kryvyi Rih, 2014, Old memorial, Dmitry Antonov
Kryvyi Rih, 2014, Old memorial, Dmitry Antonov
Kryvyi Rih was liberated by the Red Army on February 22, 1944. In 1990 a memorial to the »Victims of Fascism« was erected about one kilometre west of the actual site of the mass shootings south of the city. The Ukrainian inscription reads: »Near this place, at shaft No. 5, 6,419 civilians and 820 POWs were murdered during the Great Patriotic War«.
With Ukraine gaining independence the Jewish community positioned itself anew. New organisations were formed, schools and centres of prayer were opened. In 2010 the synagogue »Beys Stern Shulman« was opened which incorporates a library and the Museum Michail Marmer. The museum was named after its patroniser and covers the development of the Jewish community since about 1860, the anti-Semitic pogroms at the beginning of the 20th century and the annihilation of the Jewish community by the German occupiers in 1941. The synagogue is built on the site of the former Jewish parish hall that the Soviet authorities destroyed in 1932. In 2013 a memorial was erected on the grounds remembering the murdered Jews of Kryvyi Rih. The Russian inscription reads: »To the Jewish victims of the Holocaust in the years 1941–1943. Nazi occupiers viciously murdered up to 15,000 Jews from Kryvyi Rih«. Below is an inscription in Hebrew. The Jewish community of Kryvyi Rih today has about 1,200 members.
Image: Kryvyi Rih, undated, Old synagogue, public domain
Kryvyi Rih, undated, Old synagogue, public domain

Image: Kryvyi Rih, 2013, Site of mass shootings, Dmitry Antonov
Kryvyi Rih, 2013, Site of mass shootings, Dmitry Antonov
Image: Kryvyi Rih, 2014, The synagogue »Beys Stern Shulman« opened in 2010, Dmitry Antonov
Kryvyi Rih, 2014, The synagogue »Beys Stern Shulman« opened in 2010, Dmitry Antonov
Image: Shevchenko, 2014, Memorial Stalag 338, Dmitry Antonov
Shevchenko, 2014, Memorial Stalag 338, Dmitry Antonov
Name
Pamjatnyk schertwam holokostu w Krivomu Rohi
Address
Pushkina Vulitsa 46
50002 Krywyj Rih
Phone
+380 (056) 405 44 47
Web
http://jewish-museum-marmer.dp.ua/
E-Mail
s08-01-58p@yandex.ru
Open
The memorial is accessible at all times.