Ukraine: Sobolivka Commemorates Holocaust Victims with Memorial Reconstruction

In a joint effort between the “Memory Network – Netzwerk erinnerung” organization and the collaborative work of architect Taras Savka and project coordinator Leonid Voloshin, a memorial honoring the victims of the Holocaust has been unveiled in Sobolivka.

The organization’s Facebook page announced that soon an information board detailing the history of Jews in Sobolivka, residing there since the 18th century, will be installed.

During the Nazi occupation, the local Jewish youth were sent for forced labor, where many perished from exhaustion or were brutally killed. The ghetto primarily housed elderly individuals and mothers with children. On May 27, 1942, the SD Sonderkommando, with support from local auxiliary police and a unit of the Hungarian battalion, gathered over 300 Jews in the market square, led them to a forest, and executed them.

In 1948, relatives of the victims erected a memorial at this location. In 1968, through the initiative of local villagers and the Jewish community, and with the support of a local sugar factory, the monument was renovated.

Photos depict the memorial in 2023, 2021, and in the 1950s in its original form.