The photograph shows an abandoned street in the former Lviv ghetto. It was destroyed by grenades in June, 1943 when the ghetto was liquidated. Most other buildings nearby, however, are the same now as in 1941.
The former Lviv ghetto area has survived, unlike the people who had to exist there from November, 1941 to June, 1943.
It is not "protected" by UNESCO. Ukrainian life just carries on there, property developers and vandals the only risks.
One can walk through the same streets today where fear and trepidation reigned for 20 extreme months. Conditions were impossible and sanitation poor, movement in and out of the ghetto controlled by work permits.
Random killings kept everyone in a state of panic. "Actions", meaning round ups, mass shootings and deportations to mass execution sites in Lviv, Bełżec, Auschwitz (May, 1943) and Sobibór (June, 1943) left almost no one alive.
On or close to December 15th, 1941, a selection took place near the bridge on Peltewna (Chornovola today). 5,000+ Jewish people were murdered on the spot or elsewhere in Lviv.
Three months later, in March 1942, a decision was made to take action against "anti-social elements". 15,000 women, children, the frail and the elderly became the first "transport" to Bełżec death camp. Operation Reinhard.
At the end of June 1942, 2,000 people were sent to Janowska across the city. 1,880 were shot and 120 selected to work.
In August 1942, the "Great Action" took place. Able-bodied men were selected for labour, approximately 50,000 others murdered in Bełżec.
Ghetto liquidation resulted in the deaths of 3,000+ people. 7,000+ more were transported to Janowska and shot. Many committed suicide.
Manhunts led by Ukrainians continued regardless. I write "manhunt" but it's a misnomer. Women and children were also caught and killed.
Those who survived life in the Lviv ghetto toiled in workshops and factories that supported the front. Their "freedom" (forced labour) did not last long.
When Soviet liberators arrived on July 26th. 1944, less than 800 of the 160,000+ Jewish people who resided in Lviv before June, 1941 were still alive. Antisemitism is common here and very few, if any lessons have been learned since then.
Russia's unprovoked brazen invasion of Ukraine in 2022 namechecked the term "denazification". It raised uncomfortable questions about why Lviv and Western Ukraine continues to brazenly venerate it's "heroes" (Nazi collaborators).
That property developers have swarmed all over the former Lviv ghetto area in the name of profit is alarming.
Given that Lviv has a large number of IT workers who are first time buyers on the property ladder, I understand that demand for homes is high.
However, what I do not understand nor accept is why said developers are building supermarkets and apartment blocks over spaces where thousands of people were murdered.
Why is local government permitting such activities? Why are said young "educated" IT workers ignoring the history of their city and their people? All of this equates to ideological regression, a return to the Ukrainian nationalist, Nazi past of Lviv.
State-sanctioned, authorized, legalized Holocaust revisionism masquerading as "the development of urbanistic infrastructure" is an accurate description of what is happening.
There is another, less polite term for this policy. It describes hard-line Ukrainian nationalists scheming behind closed doors.
Flagrant attempts to diminish Holocaust history by the arrogant and ignorant of Lviv are doomed, they will not succeed. The conscientious amongst us will continue to reveal the truth. As Lviv locals, it is our responsibility.
Property development in the districts of Pidzamche and Zamarstyniv is destruction of evidence. This is the modern Lviv Holocaust.
I have challenged builders face to face but cannot prevent them from earning a living. I can, however, develop this website into a de facto resource and repository to exert plenty of influence.
It is important to clarify that not every street and building in the former Lviv ghetto has gone. Many remain and will still be here 100 years from now.
We have yet to reach the Kraków Podgórze ghetto scenario (two ghetto walls remain), or worse still, that in Warsaw where just one part of one ghetto wall remains.
Lviv old town is not all Ukrainian, most of it is European. In this way, "L'viv - the Ensemble of the Historic Centre" is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The former Jewish ghetto areas of Pidzamche and Zamarstyniv have not been recognized by UNESCO, but perhaps this will change in future.
From 14.03.2026, news relating to Lviv ghetto will be posted here and linked from Lviv News. LHRF is the only website about The Holocaust in Lviv, Ukraine that is updated regularly.