"Holes have been dug. Some people search for metal objects. This can be objects from the war, non-ferrous metals or gold teeth and jewelery.
"Whatever they hope to find, it is totally unacceptable. Black archaeology is common in Ukraine. It is most disgusting in places of mass murder." Christian Herrmann
Janowska hybrid camp was located directly in front of Klepariv station, now it's the first slow down en route to our capital, Kyiv. The former camp is prison #30 of Ukraine and has been since 1952 (Lychakiv Correctional Colony #30, "Личаківська виправна колонія #30").
It is easy to walk or drive by Klepariv station and miss it. Between 1941 and November 1943, people detained in Janowska were deported from Klepariv to die in Bełżec on the other side of today's border with Poland.
With the exception of an inconspicuous memorial plaque that is inaccurate at best, ("About 500,000 Jews passed here in trains, from March 1942 till the beginning of 1943"), there are no other signs to remind us of the hellish ordeals that befell so many.
The entrance to the camp is a tram stop today, some 150 metres away from the station platform.
It is easy to imagine people being led to wagons because Ukrainian freight trains still pull historical rolling stock.
The accepted minimum number of people executed in Janowska camp and the sands ("piaski") is not less than 40,000.
The accepted minimum number of people deported from Janowska to Bełżec is not less than 65,000. I use these numbers here on my website.
My total of 160,000+ includes those who were murdered in Lysynychi forest and those who were murdered, committed suicide, or died of disease in the Lviv ghetto.
Actions that occurred shortly before, during, and in the aftermath of Jewish ghetto liquidation killed thousands more, therefore +/- 170,000 may become the accepted total in future.
Sonderaktion 1005 (the exuming and burning of bodies to destroy evidence) took hold in Janowska and elsewhere in Lviv from March 1943, making it difficult to confirm the number of Lviv Holocaust victims then as now. Read more at Death Camps.
People who were murdered in Janowska camp were not only Jewish. There were many Ukrainian and Polish victims too.
People from many countries suffered and died in Janowska, but the majority were Jews who lived in Lviv. It is very important to establish this fact.
I visit Janowska environs and the Klepariv station area. I examine old photographs from the 1940s and compare them with how these sites look today (+/- exactly the same).
I search for documentable material evidence where mass shootings took place, typically fragments of barbed wire but this can also be shell casings and other small objects that may relate to victims.
I will organize independent forensic soil analyses of the black earth behind Janowska to determine the precise locations where 30,000+ people were shot and killed.
Today, it is an overgrown abandoned space and very difficult (but not impossible) to reach. I have historical photographs of people running towards the sands from one side of Janowska before being executed, and I am getting closer to pinpointing the spot where the photographer stood.
My aim is to educate people who are not aware of the mass shootings at Janowska or who have been influenced by revisionists. There are many of the latter, especially in or from Lviv.
Structures similar to what has been built at Bełżec and Treblinka in Poland must be erected, the sands behind Janowska protected, and a memorial park planned. If not, property developers will move in.
Modern abuse and misuse of Black Earth in Ukraine for financial gain is increasing.
I am communicating with businesses that trade on or close to the execution grounds of Janowska. I ask the proprietors why they choose to work there.
The leading candidate is "Shooting Stand", popular with Ukrainian firearm fanatics. It is located near "piaski", where thousands of people were executed in mass shootings.
I am contacting the mentally detached people who have purchased an apartment in one of the new buildings close to Janowska, as well as those who have lived in the vicinity since Soviet times. New developments are springing up all around Klepariv station.
Those who live directly opposite prison #30 tend their flower gardens, they walk their kids and their canines up and down Tatabunarska, just steps away from rusty barbed-wire. This absurd reality must be seen at first hand.
Janowska, Klepariv then Bełżec was the end of the line for 100,000+ people between March 1942 and late June 1943.
In July 1944, Lviv was liberated by the Red Army. Genocide against innocent Jewish people stopped as there was no one left to murder. Half a century of Soviet rule followed. Holocaust history, suppressed.
Under harsh Soviet rule, there was no chance of Janowska being memorialized, totalitarian regimes do not acknowledge the dangers of totalitarianism. However, Ukraine has been fully independent since 1991 and the dearth of Holocaust memorials in Lviv since then is disturbing.
Before concluding, I must point out that in 2024, the street that runs alongside the east perimeter wall of Janowska was renamed, ("decommunized").
This is getting out of hand. No one likes modern Russia, but erasing Soviet place names has become inane and not everyone in Ukraine, even Western Ukraine, agrees with it. The act of burning books is what modern Ukraine has become best at.
Naturally, there is no reference to the mass murder of Jews by Nazis, helped by Ukrainian auxiliaries, in the patently contentious new street name, "Petra Franka" (Петра Франка). Let's call that a criminally missed opportunity.
Татарбунарська (1950-2024); Червенська (1944-1950); Czerwieńska (1934-1944). Naturally, LHRF will continue to use the proper, accepted name TATABUNARSKA. I oppose knee-jerk revisionism.
From 14.03.2026, news relating to Janowska camp will be posted here and linked from Lviv News. LHRF is the only website about The Holocaust in Lviv, Ukraine that is updated regularly.
Read more about how the transport infrastructure of Lviv facilitated genocide between 1941-1944:
Janowska Work Camp
Janowska Death Camp
Janowska Deportations
Holocaust Transport in Lviv
Forgotten or Ignored