1 Execution site(s)
Vasyl H., born in 1930: "The shooting of the Jews in the village lasted only one day. The Polish man, who last name was Vizhinski, accompanied each group to the execution site. He wasn’t armed. Every time there was another shooter. He was civilian. If one civilian refused to shoot at the last moment the Pole would tell him to sit down next to him and another civilian would arrive to replace him. Antsia, Shulko and their mother were shot by a civilian from Borivtsi. Before the war, he used to bury dead animals not far from the execution site." (Witness n°2334U, interviewed in Kyseliv, on October 26, 2017)
"On the night of June 29-30, 1941, as well as during the day on June 30, when the Red Army left Kiselevo, the German-Romanian troops and their auxiliaries, numbering 18 people, armed with guns, shot 46 civilians, men, women and children of all ages, 250 meters northeast of the village Kisselevo, about 200 meters from the site of animal remains pit. The Romanian gendarmes also arrested and tried innocent civilians. They arrested two men and sentenced them to 15 years of prison for being Bolsheviks just because they were evangelists and did not sign. 110 inhabitants of the village were taken to Romania or Germany." [Act n°5 drawn up by Soviet State Extraordinary Commission, on July 9, 1945; GARF 7021-79-76]
Kyseliv is a village located on the border of the Chernivtsi and Ivano-Frankivsk regions. It is located in the historical Bukovina region, 40 km (25mi) northwest of Chernivtsi. Between 1772 and 1918 Kyseliv was ruled by the Austrian states of the Habsburg monarchy, Austrian Empire, and finally the Austro-Hungarian empire. In the between two world wars, it was taken over by Poland. There is not much information about the Jewish community. According to local witnesses interviewed by Yahad - In Unum, several Jewish families lived in Kyseliv before the war. They were mainly involved in small scale trade and handicraft. The local community did not have a synagogue or cemetery. For important religious holidays or funerals, they would go to Zalishchyky, located 10 km (6mi) away. On the eve of the war, several dozen Jews remained in the village.
Kyseliv was occupied by Romanian forces in early July 1941. The village remained under Romanian occupation. Before Romanians occupied the zone, during the powerless state, a series of pogroms was organized against the local Jews. According to the Soviet archives and field research carried out by Yahad - In Unum in this area, on June 29-30, 1941, the Jews from Kyseliv were killed in a mass grave, located 250m outside the village close to the animal remains pit. The shootings were conducted by local civilians with the presence of another man with a Polish last name. Supposedly, some Jews from Kyseliv were taken to Babyn to be murdered there. After the shooting, Jewish houses and their belongings were looted.
Do you have additional information regarding a village that you would like to share with Yahad ?
Please contact us at contact@yahadinunum.org
or by calling Yahad – In Unum at +33 (0) 1 53 20 13 17