During the second half of 1941, some Soviet activists, Jews and non-Jews alike, were shot in the Tuczyn public park.
According to a testimony, during the partial liquidation of the Tuczyn Ghetto on September 24, 1942, some Jews who had been caught by the Ukrainian auxiliary policemen were taken to the town park and shot there.
Shortly afterward, the German Landwirte, Richter, issued an order, according to which any Jew who came back to Tuczyn from the Pustomyty Forest would be given accommodation, work, and bread. As a result, several hundred Jews (mainly women and children) returned to the town, and were settled in several houses. A few days later, most of them were taken to the town cemetery to be shot, while one group was shot in the park instead. Subsequently, some other Jews, who had apparently been caught hiding, were also shot in the Tuczyn public park.
Related Resources
ChGK Soviet Reports
ChGK Soviet Reports from Tuczyn
…Following the liberation of the area of [Tuczyn] from the German-Fascist occupiers by Red Army troops, the [ChGK] Committee carried out an investigation and exhumation of the [mass] graves of the shot, burned, and tortured civilians in the Tuczyn area. It has established [the following]:
…[Mass] grave # 6. Located in the park of the town of Tuczyn, where 318 shooting victims were buried….
From the testimony of Irina Richter, who was born in 1905 in the village of Pustomyty near Tuczyn:
…Now, I can also tell you that, for 2.5 years – from the minute the Germans entered Tuczyn until their departure from the Tuczyn area… – all [sic for some] innocent civilians of every nationality would be shot dead in the Tuczyn park on a daily basis. Some 1,000 [sic] people were tortured and shot dead [at this site]….
From the testimony of Pavel Shpitkovskyi, who was born in 1908 in Tuczyn and lived there during the German occupation:
…When the Germans had occupied our Tuczyn area…, from the first days they began to arrest Soviet activists and shoot them in the [town] park…. Over the following days, the shootings would be carried out on an almost daily basis, and all the victims of these shootings were buried in the park….
From the testimony of Rachel Zlotnik, who was born in 1907 in Tuczyn and lived there during the German occupation:
…Besides, many Jewish and Ukrainian residents [of Tuczyn] were killed and tortured to death in the park of the town of Tuczyn, and were buried there, [but] I can't tell you how many [murdered] people there were….
From the testimony of Zigizmund-Vladimir Okunyevskyi, who was born in 1909 and lived in Tuczyn during the German occupation:
…And on one occasion, when I came to Tuczyn from the city of Równe, I saw that Tuczyn was burning [i.e., the ghetto was burning during its liquidation], and I saw the German schutzmänner [i.e., the Ukrainian auxiliary policemen] catch the Jewish civilians, who were then taken to Tuczyn, to the [town] park. This happened during the night; I heard screams and the sounds of gunfire all through the night, until morning….
…And the next morning [after the partial liquidation of the ghetto], an order was issued by the German commandant [Richter, the Landwirte, the senior German official of the Tuczyn area], instructing those [Jews] who had fled to return to Tuczyn [and stating that] they wouldn't be killed – [to the contrary], they would be given work [and] bread. However, a few days later, when several hundred people had returned, [the Germans] carried out another pogrom, and this time some 200 [Jews] were killed…, while another group [of them were killed and buried] in the park. For the rest of the time [i.e., during the period after these murder operations], a methodical shooting action was carried out in the park, targeting those who had been caught [hiding]….