Obj. ID: 16056
Memorials Holocaust monument in Lutsk (Łuck), Ukraine, 1990
Memorial name
No official name
Who is Commemorated?
25,658 Jews from Lutsk and the vicinity, who were murdered here
Description
The monument is located on a hill. It is two black upright slabs sitting on a base next to each other. The right slab bears a Ukrainian inscription and images of a prison lattice, a barbed wire, a burning candle and a plant branch around the inscription. A Hebrew inscription and a Magen David are carved on the left, smaller slab. A third slab with a Magen David, Yiddish and Ukrainian inscriptions is leaned on the right one. A territory of the monument is surrounded by a metal fence.
Inscriptions
Hebrew:
כאן נרצחו ונקברו
באוגוסט 1942 ע”י הרוצחים הגרמניים
ועוזריהם 25,658 יהודי לוצק והסביבה
ה’ ינקום דמם!
Translation: Here, 25,658 Jews of Lutsk and the vicinity were murdered and buried by the German murderers and their assistants in August 1942. May God avenge their blood!
Ukrainian:
Жертвам
Фашистського
геноциду
від лучан.
На цьому місці в серпні 1942 року
німецько-фашистськими окупан-
тами розстрілені 25658 громадян
єврейської національності жителів
м. Луцька та околиць.
Вклонимося в скорботі прахові
невинних жертв.
Вічна Вам памʼять.
Translation: To the Victims of fascist genocide from people of Lutsk. At this place in August 1942, 25,658 citizens of Jewish nationality, residents of the city of Lutsk and surroundings were shot to death by the German fascist occupiers. Let's bow in sorrow to the ashes of the innocent victims. Eternal memory to You.
Yiddish:
דאָ זענען ערמאָרדעט געוואָרן
אין אויגוסט 1942 דורך די
פאשסטישע אקופּאנטן
25658 יידן סאָוויעטישע
בירגער, אײַנוווינער פון לוצק
און זײַנע געגענדן.
Translation: Here, 25,658 Jews, Soviet citizens, residents of Lutsk and its surroundings, were murdered in August 1942 by the fascist occupiers.
Commissioned by
Local people, regional authorities and the Jewish Natives of Lutsk from Israel and the USA
13 image(s)
sub-set tree: 
Fence – cast iron.
In the late August 1942, approximately 15,000 – 17,000 Jews from the Lutsk ghetto were murdered in Gurka Polonka. Several hundred more Jews were killed here during the next days. In December 1942, the Nazis murdered here the inmates of the Krasne labor camp [Yad Vashem].
According to Yad Vashem, Holocaust Survivors from Lutsk and the vicinity erected the first monument at the killing site in 1944. It had a Magen David, Hebrew and Russian inscriptions, which commemorated eight thousand Victims. A new concrete monument appeared at the killing site in 1986.
The concrete monument did not mention the ethnicity of the Victims. In 1990, some local people, regional authorities and the Jewish Natives of Lutsk from Israel and the USA erected a new monument there. The Government of Ukraine funded the monument, and the Federation of Volhynia Jews in New-York fenced the territory.
The unveiling ceremony took place on June 10, 1990 [Yad Vashem] or in July 1990. Around three thousand people participated in the event [U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad].
The Head of the Progressive Jewish community of Lutsk organizes annual commemoration of the Victims in August. Regional authority representatives, local residents, Jews from Lutsk, Israel and the USA take part in the event [Yad Vashem].
During the construction work on the site of the New Jewish cemetery in Lutsk in 2020, remains of eight Jews were discovered. After that, the local Orthodox Jewish community representatives applied to the city council for reburying them near the Holocaust monument. The authority representatives supported the initiative, and the reburial ceremony took place in the late July 2020 [TRK Avers].
"Commemoration of Jewish Victims in Luck,"
Untold Stories - Murder Sites of Jews in Occupied Territories of the USSR (Yad Vashem project), https://www.yadvashem.org/untoldstories/database/commemoration.asp?cid=815.
"Execution of Jews from Lutsk in Horodyshche/Polonka,"
The Map of Holocaust by Bullets, Yahad-In Unum, http://www.yahadinunum.orgwww.yahadmap.org/en/#village/horodysche-gorodishche-horodishtch-horodyszcze-horowidisce-lutsk-volyn-ukraine.234.
Istoriia yaka ne povynna povtorytysia: U Lutsku zhaduvaly znyshchenykh yevreiv," Volynski novyny, January 26, 2018, https://www.volynnews.com/news/society/istoriia-iaka-ne-povynna-povtorytysia-u-lutsku-zhaduvaly-znyshchenykh-yevre/ (accessed June 25, 2024)
Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues, and Mass Grave Sites in Ukraine (Washington, DC: U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, 2005), p. 53., https://jewishheritageguide.net/wp-content/uploads/2019/11/uscpaha_jewish_survey_ukraine_2005.pdf (accessed November 30, 2021)
"Luchany vshanuvaly pamiat zhertv Holokostu," Lutska miska rada, January 27, 2023, https://www.lutskrada.gov.ua/publications/luchany-vshanuvaly-pam-iat-zhertv-holokostu6788974 (accessed June 25, 2024)
"Lutsk: Castle,"
Shoah Atrocities Map - Ukraine (Tsal Kaplun Foundation), https://shoahatlas.org/u0701.html.
"Miejsce egzekucji i zbiorowy grób ofiar Zagłady,"
Virtual Shtetl (POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews), https://sztetl.org.pl/pl/miejscowosci/l/983-luck/116-miejsca-martyrologii/48325-miejsce-egzekucji-i-zbiorowy-grob-ofiar-zaglady.
"Perepokhovaly ostanky lutskykh yevreiv," Lutska miska rada, July 28, 2020, https://www.lutskrada.gov.ua/publications/perepokhovaly-ostanky-lutskykh-ievreiv (accessed June 25, 2024)
Photo of the concrete monument:
"Two Jewish women standing beside a memorial monument to the Jews of Lutsk who perished in the Holocaust," Ghetto Fighters House Archive, https://www.infocenters.co.il/gfh/notebook_ext.asp?book=86314&lang=eng (accessed June 25, 2024)
"The Guide: Memorial Monument Design, Development, and Care," Rohatyn Jewish Heritage, https://jewishheritageguide.net/en/guide/memorial (accessed July 1, 2024)
"U Lutsku perepokhovaly ostanky yevreiv," TRK Avers, July 28, 2020, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E6vWc52NuF0 (accessed June 25, 2024)