This day, November 6, 1941, in Lviv, by order of the Major General of the SS Police of the Halychyna District, Fritz Katzman, the creation of a separate Jewish precinct – a ghetto, was announced. The initiative was confirmed by the decree of district governor Hans Frank dated November 8, 1941.

The official announcement about the creation of the ghetto appeared on November 12 in the newspaper “Lvivski Visti”. It published the article “Jewish Quarter in Lviv”, in which it was said that the separation of a residential quarter for Jews is a forced affair, because it is the Jews who supposedly bear the responsibility for the increase in the prices of products. This was the position of the new government, which it implements through its own propaganda mouthpieces.

At that time, about 150,000 Jews lived in Lviv, among them 110,000 natives, and 40,000 refugees from German-occupied Poland. The least suitable part of the city was allocated for Jews. Ukrainians and Poles who lived in the houses that were part of the Jewish district had to move to another part of the city. In this way, the Jewish community was separated from other Lviv residents. When the resettlement was completed, the ghetto area was surrounded by a fence and barbed wire.

Intolerable living conditions were created for the Jews. Each person was allocated three square meters of space (later limited to two); the corridor and the kitchen were counted as living space. So, 24-26 people could live in a two-room apartment. When moving into the ghetto, Jews had to make a list of all the items in their own home. The wealthier tried to hide money and jewels, which were then exchanged for food. As the witnesses of these terrible events recall in their memoirs, armed German officers or soldiers entered the homes of Jews and took everything they liked.

Privileged residents of the ghetto were considered specialists in certain fields – engineering, crafts and medicine, workers of enterprises, as well as government officials of the Judenrat (“Jewish council” – the administrative body of self-government in the ghetto). They were settled on a separate plot. They were issued a special certificate for movement in the territory of Lviv.

The most disenfranchised inhabitants of the ghetto were the so-called “extras” – children and old women. The little one especially bothered the guards. After all, children often helped adults: small children could disappear unnoticed and look for food on the Aryan side; teenagers were overbearing and delivered messages and weapons to the ghetto. So, many families tried to hide the “old and young” behind false walls, in basements and attics. However, such measures did not always work. The Nazis systematically carried out raids aimed at destroying the “superfluous”. Over time, the population of the ghetto became fewer and fewer – everyone, including high professionals and members of the Judenrat, were considered “redundant”. Jews were sent to death camps, and sometimes shot on the outskirts of Lviv. On June 16, 1943, the Jewish district in Lviv was liquidated. The last inhabitants of the ghetto even managed to organize an armed uprising, as a result of which several policemen were killed and wounded. After liquidating the ghetto, the Nazis declared Lviv a “Jew-free” city.

In memory of the third largest ghetto in Europe (after Warsaw and Lodz) in the early 1990s. The revived Jewish community of Lviv established a memorial to the victims of the Lviv ghetto. One of the memorial plaques states that the ghetto claimed the lives of 136,800 Jews. Only 300 Jews who hid in the city's sewer network survived…

Olena Ishchenko