According to the testimony of one survivor, during the night between July 4 and 5, 1941 either German soldiers or Ukrainian nationalists set fire to an apartment house (on Ruska Street in the center of Tarnopol) in which several Jewish families lived. All, or almost all, of the house's resident were burned to death.

Related Resources

ChGK Soviet Reports

From the Testomony of Baruch Ayzenshtayn, who was born in 1900

State Extraordinary Commission for Investigation of Nazi War Crimes in the Soviet Union (ChGK) documentation dated 1943-1945, regarding crimes committed in Tarnopol, in the Tarnopol Region

…When the German occupiers arrived in Tarnopol, at about midnight between July 4 and 5, 1941 they set on fire a house on Ruska Street in which innocent Soviet Jewish civilians were living. About 25 people were living there the six-member Katz family, the eight-member Aykhembam[probably Aykhenbaum] family, the five-member Tumish family, and other families whose last names I do not know. All the residents of this house were burned to death since the Germans sealed the apartments, and posted guards [to prevent anyone from escaping]. When neighbors, including me, came running to put out the fire, the German guards shot at us. I told the sentry in German that we had come to put out the fire but, instead of replying, he shot me and I fell down. Then he was blinded by the lights of a passing vehicle and I succeeded in escaping…

GARF, MOSCOW R-7021-75-105 copy YVA M.33 / JM/19987

Ruska Street in Tarnopol

street

Murder Site

Poland

49.555;25.607