28.09.2025 > HIDDEN A white screen has been erected around the perimeter of prison #30 of Ukraine (formerly Janowska camp) where it faces Klepariv station. That in itself may seem unremarkable, until one walks by the courtyard area of Lontsky prison in the city which is also newly sealed off and guarded by armed soldiers. Prying eyes unwelcome.
The reason? Nothing about security, nothing about Russia, everything about covering up historical facts.
Expect Lontsky prison courtyard, a tragic Holocaust site of singular importance, to become a playground or new building any time soon.
03.08.2025 > HEIL BANDERA A Ukrainian soldier in front of the Stepan Bandera monument in Lviv. Nazi salute. It's where some Ukrainians gather on Stepan Bandera's birth date to honour OUN-B and UPA veterans. Before the 2020 pandemic, there was a Nazi concert on the same spot every year or so. Antisemites are heroes in Lviv.
31.07.2025 > FOOTBALL SHIRT "88" Lviv old town was brimful of joy yesterday afternoon, like life is perfect, no war, until three fans of local football team FC Karpaty Lviv rounded the corner from Valova street.
One of them had "squad number" 88 on the back of his shirt. NAZI DEBIL. If Ukrainians continue to give Putin reason to denazify Ukraine, he will bomb and kill Ukrainians. Get it? No one challenges such people, they are accepted, they are part of Lviv culture.
There was no opportunity to take a photo of the guy's shirt, but whenever I can capture these "88" morons and other Nazis in Lviv, they will end up here on LHRF.
30.07.2025 > TERRITORY OF PROPAGANDA Russian propaganda is much worse than Ukrainian propaganda? No, it isn't. It's the same.
When Ukrainians discuss the trauma of Russians killing their compatriots and bombing their homes, of course I can empathise with them. Facts are facts.
Several of my friends have been killed and many are soldiers, but when some soldiers wear Nazi symbols and next to no one in Ukraine bats an eyelid, the Russian propaganda machine will capitalize.
Then we have institutions such as "Territory of Terror", that go on record to state that Ukrainian complicity in the Lviv Holocaust is "Russian propaganda". Where are we heading?
This is valuable ammunition for Putin and it is erasing the mass murder of 160,000 people by Nazis, helped by thousands of Ukrainians. Bottom line.
Ukrainian propagandist Olha Honchar and her revisionist sidekick Yuliya Artymyshyn have permanently trashed their credibility outside Ukraine.
A naive interview with "DTF" has outed both of them as being at least partly responsible for intensifying Russian aggression.
Olha and Yuliya, employed by Territory of Terror, are handing Putin reasons (in his opinion, no one else's) to continue killing Ukrainian people by whitewashing Ukrainian complicity in The Holocaust.
The blood of their people is on their hands and now their stupidity has been published by Lviv Holocaust Research Foundation. It goes without saying that Territory of Terror is funded by Lviv City Council.
20.07.2025 > ROOT CAUSES Putin likes to talk about removing "root causes", the imaginary reasons that forced him to invade Ukraine.
The only root cause is his penchant for killing people who are not Russian and occupying smaller, apparently "weaker" countries that neighbour his own.
He definitely met his match with Ukraine, a sovereign country 28 times smaller than Russia, but stronger in every sense.
The main root cause according to Putin has been NATO's expansion eastwards, however, he caused it by antagonizing and threatening NATO for decades.
New NATO members Finland and Sweden are the newest members and they joined because of threats from Russia, so in reality, NATO's expansion is purely defensive.
Is it an excuse for Russia to invade Ukraine and threaten the Baltic states? No. NATO has never threatened Russia and never will.
Denazification. Clearly, Ukraine has a problem with this, especially in factions of the Armed Forces and in cities such as Lviv. Does it threaten Russia? No. However, it is absolutely unacceptable for the Ukrainian government to keep turning a blind eye on ultra-nationalism and Nazism in it's ranks.
We hope that now Ukraine is relying on Europe, the US and the UK to survive, such extreme views and those who advocate them, namely Ukrainian revisionists, and Ukrainian historians who invent convenient historical narratives to suit whoever pays them, will be silenced once and for all. (DH)
17.06.2025 > ZELENSKIY & ТЦК What is happening on the streets of Lviv and everywhere else in Ukraine? Civilians are terrified and in hiding from mobilization squads, four or five "men" per unmarked minivan.
They drive around looking for "evaders", operating under Zelenskiy's watch. He alone is responsible for the creeping fascism that is now defining Ukraine in 2025. Zelenskiy is Jewish, apparently. We want evidence of that.
Zelenskiy's thugs are paid by "The Ukraine Facility", a financial assistance programme set up by helpful foreigners in the European Union (EU). Ukrainian nationalists reject and revile foreigners as we are not part of their "One Ukraine for Ukrainians" (and no one else), even if our cash has kept all of them alive since 2022. Pity.
Additionally, foreign taxpayers pay the pensions of retired Ukrainians - that's just about ok. They also pay for modern weapons, training and ammunition to support Ukraine against Russia - absolutely ok.
That the European Union pays ТЦК to drag Ukrainian civilians out of their private homes and force them to the front is nothing less than obscene.
Many of these "new recruits" are injured or killed quickly, indeed, seasoned Ukrainian soldiers don't want them in their company citing lack of experience and willingness to fight for their country.
Here's a recent video of Zelenskiy's fascists at work. You may have read that Ukrainian politicians like to send their military-age male relatives to the US and Europe to keep them away from mobilization.
People ask about fascism and Nazism in Ukraine today, so what is the reality on the ground? In so far as how the bullies at ТЦК operate, Zelenskiy, a Jew, looks like the new Führer when we all thought it was Putin.
What is happening here in Ukraine is exactly the same as what is happening in Russia, ergo fear, panic, oppression, propaganda. There are correct ways to structure mobilization, dragging civilians out of their homes is definitely not one of them.
Let's go back to 1941 when Ukrainian nationalists dragged Jewish people out of their homes. Ukrainian fascists are doing the dragging in 2025. Where are we heading?
As a friend and confidante of all our far right and Nazi boot boys, also, sadly, the President of Ukraine, Zelenskiy and his begging bowl has carried Ukraine to the brink of extinction
His arrogant intransigence and acute lack of diplomatic acumen makes Lavrov, a sabre-rattling thug in a suit, look like Kissinger. We have reached zero-sum, tit for tat drone versus drone shenanigans is not war, it's cowardice. (DH)
05.06.2025 An acquaintance and veteran who cannot raise his left arm 90° due to an injury sustained while fighting Russian invaders said "it's ok, cos I can do this". He raised his other arm 45° and gave a Nazi salute. Wrong arm, right idea, as it were. (DH)
04.06.2025 No updates for a very long time. Why? War. (DH)
13.07.2022 At this point I have several friends who are either fighting in east Ukraine or preparing to fight in other regions, mainly north and north east. They are being shelled by artillery and dodging drones. They must live through dangerous situations day and night. (DH)
09.07.2022 > LVIV NAZIS? The atmosphere in Lviv city centre has changed. We have martial law. We have curfew. We have mobilization. Most people (not all) are helping in some way. Some don't care.
It was as expected as it was disturbing when, in one of the pubs I have been frequenting since 2016, "cheers" suddenly became "Glory to Nazis" (Слава нацистам).
The venue in question has always had the red and black UPA / OUN-B flag therein, like so many other places in Lviv. A man (former Azov battalion medic) sat on the table next to me proceeded to demand money for a new truck (been there, done that in 2014). I switched off and walked away.
Lviv is a hardline nationalist city with a violent past that peaked in the 1940s when Nazi occupiers and Ukrainian collaborators destroyed the lives of 160,000 people.
What we see now in 2022 is a completely understandable reaction against Russian aggression. The predictable effect of that is a resurgence of ethnic tensions - hatred of Soviets, mistrust of foreigners, and a return to the old days when Nazis were welcomed as "liberators" from Soviet oppression.
Azov leaders quietly removed the Black Sun symbol from their logo some time in March / April. Wise move, long overdue.
Symbolically, Merovingian origins aside, it has direct neo-Nazi connections. Black Sun tattoos are very common in Lviv, idem "88", Wolfsangel / Wolf's Hook, "Death's Head" Totenkopf and Iron Cross. I've lost count how many times i've seen the Black Sun on laptop backgrounds in our pubs, bars and cafes. Some say such symbols are no more than runic, that they are related to Vikings. So is Mickey Mouse.
When Nazi symbols become acceptable in society, there's a very serious problem, but is Ukraine really a hotbed of Nazism as Putin believes? Absolutely not. The vast majority of Ukrainians are as indifferent to Nazism as they are to The Holocaust on their land in the 1940s. With the benefit of hindsight, it would have been better had they rejected the former and respected the latter these last eight decades.
Swathes of Ukraine fought tooth and nail against Nazis in WW2. For the most part, that was not the case in and around Lviv.
Ukrainian nationalism and ethnocentrism is back with a vengeance due to the full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. Where this war takes us will define the forseeable future of Europe. (DH)
08.07.2022 > HOTEL NTON On Monday, April 18th, one of four missiles fired from either Russia or Belarus destroyed Автосервіс АвтоШанс, that's a garage to you and me. I assume the intention was to interrupt the flow of NATO weapons from Poland, a railway line to the border is close to what's left. Refugees were staying in Hotel Nton at the time.
Windows shattered and shards of metal covered Shevchenka street. Seven people were killed, tyre fitters, mechanics and office staff, some of whom were sat in the canteen drinking coffee. Eleven people were injured.
I stayed in Hotel Nton some years ago while researching the history of Janowska, it is adjacent to Omeliana Kovcha street where Prison #30 operates on the territory of the former hybrid work / transit / death camp. 100,000 people were either murdered there or deported to certain death from Klepariv station in the immediate area that surrounds "Автосервіс АвтоШанс".
What happened in Lviv matters. What happens in Lviv now matters too. Very few people here think about the 100,000 lives lost between 1941-1944 in their precious Shevchenkivskyi District (Шевченківський район). The events of April 18th. went viral within minutes. This is why Lviv Holocaust Research Foundation exists. (DH)
22.03.2022 > HYBRID FASCISM War is raging in Ukraine. Putin is demanding disarmament, no NATO and neutrality. The likelihood of Russia annexing our entire east and south is very high. At time of writing, civilians are being shot and their homes destroyed in the name of "liberating Ukraine from Nazis". I am not ruling out total occupation, deportations, and the absolute end of Ukraine as a democratic sovereign nation.
Contemporary Ukrainian nationalism and ethnocentrism present a serious problem in the context of Holocaust history, and in the eyes of Putin, they partly justify Russia's "Special Military Operation". In reality, the slaughter of Ukrainian civilians and the destruction of their homes is a war crime and Putin is a war criminal. The manifold complex reasons why he has gone to war against Ukraine and his maximalist ambitions have pushed the Doomsday Clock forward by more seconds than we care to remember.
In the beginning, Putin declared that he will "denazify" and "demilitarize" Ukraine - not his country and it never will be - to defend the illegal Donetsk and Luhansk "People's Republics" from terrorists (Ukrainians) and "protect" Russian speakers in Ukraine. This is an old tactic used by dictators to justify invading a neighbour.
Now that the conflict has escalated and his ground forces have been pushed back by the Ukrainian people, we wake up each morning to news of missile strikes on airports, energy infrastructure, military facilities, communication towers, schools, hospitals and homes. The future of Ukraine is in the balance and no one knows what to expect.
It is important to read Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands and Black Earth. Together, they illuminate this dark path taken by Putin.
Read what Putin wrote himself in July, 2021 about Russian and Ukrainian "unity". Listen to Jason Stanley about Putin, antisemitism, and White Christian Nationalism. This is a difficult and multi-layered topic that has it's roots in east European nationalism. One possible ending is final global conflict.
No one wants antisemitic, far right ultra-nationalist or neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine, but more than a few of them are very well established in our military and security services. This photo of President Zelenskiy with Azov and C14 leaders in a 2019 veterans meeting encapsulates the problem of modern Ukraine.
Now is the time for citizens of Ukraine to reject the Ukrainian nationalist ideology, its anachronistic, menacing symbologies, and move forward with courage.
This must happen, it will happen, when Putin's economy has been starved, when his rogue nation partners such as Iran, China, North Korea and India have been cut off from the civilized world, and when the rest of the world stops trading with Russia. May those who have died rest in peace. (DH)
24.02.2022 > WAR? An air alarm sounded this morning and we have been invaded by Russia. We've all been waiting for this moment and now it looks like the real deal. Expect updates. (DH)
07.01.2022 > INVENTED CONTINUITY Google will deliver reams of information about Lviv in a matter of seconds, including this website. It is critical to be able to retrieve the facts about state-sanctioned revisionism in Lviv since 1991.
In 2011, Delphine Bechtel wrote the most important study of modern Lviv ever penned. Please take your time to read "Ukrainian Lviv since 1991 - a city of selective memories", or even better, download the PDF version we have created and stored on our server in case the link goes offline. Such valuable work must be copied, saved and shared by everyone. Download PDF. (DH)
28.11.2021 > NATIONALIST NAZIS Lviv, June 30th, 1941. Scenes of unbridled joy. Women and a young girl carry flowers. Smiles, cheers, celebration. The Nazis have arrived in Lviv with two Ukrainian battalions, "Nachtigal" and "Roland", OUN-B, and Ukrainian militia.
On the same day, OUN-B and their leader, Yaroslav Stetsko, decided to become Prime Minister (of?) and claim Ukrainian statehood.
That fantasy was terminated immediately by the occupiers. Needless to say, Lviv still celebrates June 30th. Similar scenes played out in Reichskommissariat Ostland when Nazis arrived, the difference being that immediate widespread pogroms only occurred in Lviv.
VIEW PHOTO The uncovered truck in the foreground and those in the background may have transported Jewish people to mass execution sites in the coming days, weeks and months.
To the right of the first truck you will see the most important character in the scene, yet another Nazi Ukrainian bandit wearing a nationalist armband. One day later, Jewish people were beaten, raped and murdered on this very street. Naked women were on their hands and knees scrubbing cobblestones.
In 2021, young Ukrainian women flock to Rynok Square to add attraction to their Instagram. Their ignorance, arrogance, and good old fashioned narcissism is as baffling as it is disturbing.
Read more about Lviv on June 30th, 1941 here and pay particularly close attention to the penultimate paragraph. Lviv Center for Urban History has written "collaboration with the Nazis" and "a clearly noble goal" in the same sentence. (DH)
27.11.2021 > JOHN-PAUL HIMKA Listen to a recent interview (October 12th, 2021) with John-Paul. Steven Seegel asks the questions for New Books Network. John-Paul discusses some of the topics I write about here and introduces his latest book, "Ukrainian Nationalists and the Holocaust". (DH)
26.11.2021 > A WORD ABOUT THE PROJECT LHRF visitors ask about my motives and they are entitled to do so. While I am not Jewish, I have a responsibility to deliver the facts about Lviv during the Holocaust, rampant revisionism in modern Lviv, and the dangers of Ukrainian nationalism.
I had been reading Holocaust material for decades before moving to Ukraine and now, my basic website design skills (apologies in advance) and a rudimentary ability to write has, in some small way, given a voice to those who lived and were murdered in their city, now my city, Lviv. Whatever whoever thinks about Lviv Holocaust Research Foundation, it is undeniable historical record.
I buy books when I can, mostly e-books from Google Play Books to expand my knowledge of the Lviv Holocaust in the context of the Holocaust of Bullets. My current reading list is as follows, and I recommend that you read what I read. (DH)
East West Street
The Ratline
Masters of Death
Erased
The Shoah in Ukraine
Bloodlands
Black Earth
An Analysis of Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands
In the Sewers of Lvov
Holocaust and the Stars
Complicated Complicity
In Broad Daylight
The Holocaust by Bullets
The Paradox of Ukrainian Lviv
Smoke in the Sand
The Ravine
The Holocaust in the East
26.11.2021 > IN DARKNESS MOVIE The Polish film "In Darkness" recounts the survival story of a Jewish family and several other Jewish people in the sewers beneath Lviv. They were forced underground in 1943, shortly before the ghetto was liquidated.
Polish sewer worker Leopold Socha, Stefek Wróblewski, and "lookout" Jerzy Kowalów helped them find safety albeit in terrible conditions. They demanded money for their efforts such were occupational conditions at the time, but when the money ran out they did not stop helping.
"The Girl in the Green Sweater" (2008) recounts the same story told by the only living survivor, Krystyna Chiger, who was 8 years old in 1943. Remarkably, the director of In Darkness, Agnieszka Holland, did not know about the book.
In October it was reported internationally that Lviv "diggers" (treasure hunters, metal detecting types, explorers) had discovered "the last hiding place of Jews". Our diggers are well known, at least one pub is or was named after them and many more have relics of war nailed to the bar.
The reality is that many buildings in Lviv have not changed at all since the 1940s. Most have inner courtyards, basements, all manner of rooms and stairwells that were owned or occupied by the Jewish people of Lviv in 1941. These are still and shall forever be the last hiding places of Jews.
Continual chronicling of what happened in the sewers of Lviv during The Holocaust is not necessary - it has been done. There is no reason to laud anyone for finding one more survival space in Lviv because in reality, we have thousands of survival spaces hidden in plain sight. Ukrainian media channels were quick to pounce on this story to further their collective agenda of exonerating Ukrainian collaborators. Enough. (DH)
16.11.2021 > COLLABORATORS | VIEW PHOTO What do we have here? Maybe a Ukrainian auxiliary "policeman" (formerly "People's Militsiya")? Proud of his uniform (Soviet...), proud of his work (aiding and abetting genocide), proud of his blue and yellow Ukrainian armband with WEHRMACHT scrawled thereon.
When was the photo taken? September 29th, 1942. Where? Babyn Yar, Kyiv. There are about 100 women and children in the scene, so what happened to them? They were abused, beaten, then shot dead by Germans, and, in isolated cases, by Ukrainian collaborators after being rounded up by Ukrainian Auxiliary Police. Complicity.
It is the only known colour photograph that proves, without any shadow of doubt, the connection between Ukrainian Auxiliary Police and Nazi occupiers. While it was not taken here in Lviv, it is very important to show how some Ukrainian collaborators looked in real life. If only we had colour photographs of the white armband killers running around Lviv in July 1941.
In 1941, most Ukrainian collaborators were plain clothes paramilitaries or wore Soviet uniforms without insignia. The two dozen grainy black and white photographs we have that show them wearing a white armband do not really help us with identification. The groups to which they belonged, however, have been confirmed: OUN-B, UPA, city scum, peasants. This photo is exceptional. At time of writing, no one has put a name to the face but we are confident this will come to pass.
Of course every family in Lviv has a relative who was a Ukrainian nationalist in the 1940s. Will they ever share what they know? Lviv is a city built on bones and the sad reality is that such secrets will never be revealed.
We shall continue to publish evidence of Ukrainian collaborators and complicity in the Holocaust of Bullets as a reaction against a largely ignorant population in denial, and the overt revisionist policy of Ukrainian authorities. (DH)
15.11.2021 > BABYN YAR Since 2019, possibly earlier, billionaire Russian oligarchs have stepped into the ring of Holocaust history in Ukraine by financing the Babyn Yar project. Who in Kyiv sanctioned the investment? Let's keep in mind the fact that we have at least 20,000 Ukrainian dead in Donbas since 2014, and that number will increase.
What happened at Babyn Yar in 1942 was mythologized by the Ukrainian SSR for half a century. Fast forward to present day and the tragedy has become another piece on Putin's chessboard.
It's his way of further damaging the already rocky reputation of a country that invites antisemitic nationalists, far right patriots, even neo-Nazis to the table, ergo working in government, city councils and the security services. Investment is one thing, stoking stories about local collaborations and complicity on the next big international Holocaust stage another.
Whatever is built to memorialize the victims of Babyn Yar and by whom will throw the spotlight once again on Ukrainians failing to respect the thousands of mass execution sites on their land.
Babyn Yar aside, these are now car parks, casinos, playgrouds, flea markets, rubbish dumps and strip clubs. Or just abandoned.
Ukrainians derive great pleasure from buying homes in new buildings close to or right on top of mass execution sites. Ukraine became independent in 1991, 30 years ago. For every 100 monuments honouring a Ukrainian nationalist "hero" erected since then, you'll be lucky to find a rosebed remembering the Holocaust dead. (DH)
12.11.2021 > SPACE OF SYNAGOGUES | VIEW PHOTO A few words about two visits to The Space of Synagogues, former site of The Golden Rose Synagogue in Lviv old town. I went there to photograph the information boards and to speak with people milling around.
The first youths I approached were drunk and standoffish. The second group, three girls, were not yet drunk but well on the way. I asked them if they knew where they were sitting.
None of them had ever heard of The Space of Synagogues, nor that it was a memorial space for people to learn about the destruction of Jewish people and culture in Lviv 80 years ago. One of them, living in Belgium but from Lviv, knew something about The Holocaust but she wasn't sure what it meant. All of them remarked that the place was calm and relaxing.
California academic and photo artist Jason Francisco captured the behaviour of young Ukrainians at The Space of Synagogues. What he wrote (in 2019) about them urinating on it is the worsening reality. Jason describes The Space of Synagogues as a "food court", a "public toilet", and he is correct.
This is how Lviv respects the dead, unless of course the dead are Ukrainian nationalists, in which case monuments are built, wreaths laid, and memorial marches held.
During an earlier visit (November 4th), I happened upon a tour guide with her client and informed them about this website. The tourist was fascinated, the Ukrainian guide agitated and fearful in my presence.
The guide proceeded to detail her Ashkenazi roots and I showed her photos I took of the Lysynychi Forest mass execution site where 100,000+ people were shot and killed. She had no idea where it was and retorted "you're a Russian propagandist".
I thought it better to thank her for her time instead of breaking her legs on the spot to permanently end her guiding career, then wondered if pseudo-intellectualism really is as rampant in Lviv as I was told to expect when I first arrived in 2013.
Lviv locals are terrified of anyone who is knowledgeable about the Lviv Holocaust. Guilt is a five letter word.
It is of the essence to note that the term "Holocaust" is used just once on the two information boards. This is Lviv City Council policy and it closely follows the revisionist Ukrainian historical narrative they pursue to contain the Jewish cultural legacy of Lviv. No mention of the fact that thousands of Ukrainian collaborators were directly responsible for facilitating the brutal deaths of 160,000+ people in and near Lviv between 1941-1944.
Furthermore, it is a disgrace that in this photo we can read "involving members of the newly established Ukrainian militia to guard the perimeter".
In the real world, they orchestrated and participated in the murders of thousands of Jewish people in the same area a short while before the synagogue was desecrated.
Whoever wrote those words implies that they were guardians of some sort. Of course no attempt has been made to restore the older, now partly illegible plaque.
Let's look at the level of respect accorded Holocaust victims by those who frequent The Space of Synagogues.
We have a new swastika and new graffiti, also here. A Lviv artist has added the word "WHO?" to the masterpiece. Good question. If you look very closely, you'll see "SS" and two Celtic crosses to the left of the swastika on the lighter stone.
What we write about Ukraine in the context of the Holocaust is of critical importance to everyone with an opinion about this country. (DH)
18.09.2021 > GATHERING EVIDENCE Did your relatives live in Lviv between 1941-1944? Do you have heirlooms such as diaries, notes, maps, sketches or photographs that relate to the arrival of German forces on June 30th, 1941 and events in Lviv immediately thereafter?
If the answer is yes, please contact us in confidence. It is imperative to document what happened above and beyond what has already been published here. Thank you. (DH)
13.08.2021 > KRYVA LYPA Some new photos of Kryva Lypa passage have been added to the Lviv Pogroms page, one of which shows a Ukrainian bandit assaulting a Jewish man hours before the evictions, rapes and mass murders began.
Kryva Lypa passage in 2021 is ground zero for the youth of Lviv. Nationalist violence still kicks off there from time to time and a guy was killed on Kryva Lypa some years ago. Local football fans, "Banderstadt", plus very early Azov imports battled Antifa fans of Malmö FF on Kryva Lypa in November, 2015.
Do any of them know about the history of Kryva Lypa in 1941? Doubtful. I asked the same to half a dozen Ukrainians who work there in the bars. Mental blank. They were not revisionists, more rather simpletons. Blissfully ignorant, Lviv-style.
However, the fact that so many Jewish lives were destroyed in Lviv or deported from Lviv to be murdered by Nazis, helped by our local collaborators, has an unbroken connection with everyone in Lviv today. To educate them is singularly important.
Holocaust education in Ukraine is out of syllabus which beggars belief but is very real. Individual tutors can teach Holocaust history if they so wish, but the institutions that employ them do not acknowledge it as being significant nor part of the required Ukrainian collective memory. (DH)
04.08.2021 > JANOWSKA 2021 Simple railings spotted in Lviv city centre. This black and white photo shows the gate of Janowska camp c. 1942. The colour photo is of Knyazya Yaroslava Osmomysla Square, the black and white photo shows the same spot in the 1930s. (DH)
04.08.2021 > LVIV THEN AND NOW Comparative photos are insightful. Many photos of the Lviv pogroms need work. Every location in these photos will be identified by LHRF and every photo colourised then published here and / or on our Lviv Pogroms page.
VIEW PHOTO #1 | VIEW PHOTO #2 The first photo is undated but was most probably taken on July 1st, 1941. The second photo of the same location was taken by me on July 21st, 2021.
The plaster bust of Lenin may have been dragged out of the rear of the opera house or carried around from in front. The Jewish man being assaulted may have been employed in the building and known to many. The steps do not extend as far now as they did in 1941.
VIEW PHOTO #1 | VIEW PHOTO #2 While the interpretation of the colourised boy's face in photo #1 is perhaps inaccurate to a certain extent, we do feel that the interpretation of the lady's face in photo #2 is very sadly the reality.
There is no doubt that the boy was approximately 12 years old in 1941, the impression of youth is clear. What beggars belief is that if he lived until at least 40 (to 1969) and had children of his own at about that age, they will be just 50 to 55 years old today (as I am), perhaps living very well here in Lviv, or where you live. That is how close the Holocaust is to you, us, everyone. (DH)
