Obj. ID: 44710
Jewish Funerary Art  Memorial to citizens and POWs in the New Jewish Cemetery in Ivano Frankivsk, Ukraine, 1964

To the main object: New Jewish Cemetery in Ivano Frankivsk (Stanisławów), Ukraine

In 1931, there were about 140,000 Jews in the whole Stanisławów region [Solovka and Oryshko, p. 69]. In 1939, there were about 26,500 Jews in Stanisławów (now Ivano-Frankivsk) [Solovka and Oryshko, p. 560]. Soviet troops occupied Stanisławów in September 1939. In July 1941, the Hungarian army entered the city, and Nazi Germany control of it in August 1941 [United States Holocaust Memorial Museum]. 

On August 3–4, 1941, Nazi Germans killed 2,865 of Stanisławów’s Jews in Gestapo prison and the forest in Pawełcze (now Pavlivka) [Solovka and Oryshko, p. 139]. 

On October 12, 1941, between 8,000 and 12,000 Jews were killed in the New Jewish cemetery [Encyclopedia, p. 832].

Jews were not only killed in Stanisławów and its surroundings. Since March 31, 1942, Jews from the Stanisławów region were also deported to the Bełżec killing center [Encyclopedia, p. 832].

On September 12, 1942, the last large mass murder took place in Bandler Square in Stanisławów [Solovka]. 

Jews in Stanisławów were also killed in Rudolf’s mill, where old and sick people were held [Solovka]. 

On February 23, 1943, the Stanisławów Ghetto was officially liquidated and Stanisławów was announced as “free of Jews”. About 1,500 Jews from Stanisławów survived the war [Encyclopedia, p. 833].

Several Actions took place in the New Jewish cemetery in Stanisławów. The first and largest one took place on October 12, 1941. During the week of April 12, 1942, about 3,000 Jews were brought from Rudolf's mill and killed in the cemetery. Every Saturday from July until October 1942, Nazis brought 500 Jews to the cemetery and shot them. After the official liquidation of the Stanisławów Ghetto on February 23, 1943, mass murders continued in the cemetery. From January 25, 1944, until March 25, 1944, 105 inmates of Janowska concentration camp were forced to excavate the bodies, burn them and crush bones. The exact number of people killed in the New Jewish Cemetery in Stanisławów is unknown [Solovka and Oryshko, p. 139–144]. 

Estimates of the number of victims of the Holocaust in Stanisławów vary. According to the Soviet Extraordinary State Commission to Investigate German-Fascist Crimes Committed on Soviet Territory, 127,352 Jews perished in Stanisławów. A modern researcher Liubov Solovka considers this amount erroneous and suggests that this amount included all Jews killed in the Stanisławów region without considering Jewish refugees and Jews deported from Hungary. According to Solovka, approximately 40,000 Jews were killed in the New Jewish cemetery in Ivano-Frankivsk [Solovka and Oryshko, p. 560–561].

Memorialization activities in the New Jewish Cemetery in Ivano-Frankivsk started in the 1940s. The first monument was erected by the Local Jewish Survivors [Zeltser]. It is designed to not stand out among the other graves in the cemetery.

This monument was erected by the Soviet authorities in 1964 ["Ivano-Frankivska oblast"]. The inscription does not specify the ethnicity of the victims and indicates that more than 100,000 Soviet citizens were killed at this place. According to Solovka, it contributed to the emergence of the myth about the number of people killed in the New Jewish Cemetery [Solovka, Liubov and Svitlana Oryshko, p. 460]. The Ivano-Frankivsk Regional Executive Committee included the monument to The List of Monuments of History and Monumental Art of Local Significance in the Ivano-Frankivsk Region by decision no. 612/4 on November 28, 1969 ["Ivano-Frankivska oblast"]. 

Further memorialization activity took place in Independent Ukraine. In the 2000s, a Memorial to 120,000 victims of the Holocaust was erected by the Local Jewish Community. It is the highest and the most outstanding monument in the cemetery, its inscription does not specify, that all the 120,000 Jews were killed in the New Jewish Cemetery in Ivano-Frankivsk. Therefore, it can be assumed, that it is dedicated to the victims of the Holocaust from the whole Stanisławów region [Solovka and Oryshko, p. 461–462].

There are also two monuments that commemorate smaller Jewish communities. A Memorial to Jews from the vicinities of Stanisławów was erected by the Local Jewish Community in the 2000s [Solovka and Oryshko, p. 461–462, 560]. A Memorial to Jews of Bohorodchany was installed in the cemetery by Hasten and Halpern Families in 2002 [Levin].