Online Store Contact us About us
Yad Vashem logo

Murder story of Radomyshl Jews in the Kuzmichiv Ravine

Murder Site
Kuzmichev Ravine
Ukraine (USSR)
The remaining Jews of Radomyshl and other locations in the county who were, apparently, imprisoned in the ghetto were murdered in Kuzmichiv Ravine, located in the forest near the Kel'vich farmstead. German reports date the operation to September 6, 1941, although some testimonies state that the shooting took place either on August 6-7 or in late September - early October 1941. According to German reports the victims included 1,107 adults shot by Sondercommando 4A and 561 children murdered by the local police. Some testimonies state that the young Jewish children were not shot but killed by being smashed against each other and then thrown into a separate pit, where they were buried. Some sources report the number of adult Jewish victims as 2,661.

Some testimonies say that Jewish children from the Radomyshl orphanage were arrested and then taken from the police station to a pit that had been prepared in advance. Their number ranged from 35 to 100 according to different sources. The shooting apparently took place around the same time and at the same location as the one of the ghetto inmates, although some testimonies locate the murder site of the Jewish orphans as the forest beyond the town.

Related Resources
In his book G.Tsvik writes:
The Jews of Radomyshl were completely annihilated in September 1941 in the Kuzmichi Ravine. …About 2,000 people were shot there.
G.Tsvik, The History of Radomyshl (Zhitomir, 2015) p. 250 (Ukrainian)
Kuzmichev Ravine
ravine
Murder Site
Ukraine (USSR)
50.494;29.233