Lviv News

news from lviv - lviv holocaust tour and research

06.04.2026 > LINE UNDERNEATH More videos are emerging on all social platforms showing civilians defending themselves with knives as ТЦК / TCR TCK, titushky and the police continue to use excessive force. Shots have been fired. The focal point is Odesa, my focus is Lviv Holocaust so I am drawing a line underneath this developing story. I have drawn attention to parallels with the Lviv pogroms and roundups between 1941-1944. Please pay attention.

03.04.2026 > MURDER IN LVIV Timing is all. A ТЦК / TCR TCK draft enforcer was eliminated yesterday while I was updating here, about draft enforcers.

Introducing Mr. Oleg Avdeev, 52, former Winter Olympian who represented Ukraine in 1998 and 2002, qualified lawyer. He decided to become one of Zelenskiy's fascist balaclavas and beat up civilians. He won't be beating up anyone anymore.

Lviv Customs Officer Andriy Trush was with his brother when their car was stopped by belligerent balaclavas. Andriy's brother fled to avoid being beaten up. Andriy then took direct action to protect his sibling and stabbed Avdeev in the neck. Injury inconsistent with life.

Another look at the videos I uploaded yesterday explain why Andriy acted as he did, indeed, I shall continue uploading videoes to that post as some show civilians on the ground moments after being murdered by ТЦК / TCR TCK.

When the story broke yesterday afternoon, several thousand Lviv residents took to Telegram in support of the man who defended his son. Andriy faces the rest of his life behind bars but he and his son are already Heroes of Ukraine. The slaying of Avdeev predictable revenge for the dozens of civilians murdered by ТЦК / TCR TCK in the last 18 months. A 15 year old girl is in that number, murdered while defending her Dad.

More fascist balaclavas, titushky and police will be killed in Lviv unless they stop kidnapping, beating and killing civilians. Bondarenko was the first, now Avdeev. Who's next?

The Ministry of Defence has promised to change how mobilization is carried out. That will likely mean giving their fascist balaclavas carte blanche to be even more aggressive. Russia is no longer the only threat. Ukrainians versus Ukrainians, civil war, could come next.

Lviv is the most nationalist, far right-leaning, anti-Russian city in Ukraine by some distance, "antifa" the traditional enemy of many. Questions must be asked why hatred of fascist draft enforcers is so great here and increasing by the minute. Perhaps the people of Lviv never really understood what fascism means until now, when it is threatening to upend their lives.

Why is this relevant to Lviv Holocaust Research Foundation? Authoritarian structures in Western Ukraine have always used violence to achieve their goals. Ukrainians acting with impunity in the bad old days of UPA / OUN-B and present day period of mobilization is genetic.

02.04.2026 > ZELENSKIY & ТЦК II My 17.06.2025 post discussed "creeping fascism". Nine months down the line, fascism dictated by Zelenskiy has become as great a threat to democracy in Ukraine as Russia. Putin said he would "denazify" Ukraine. That comment rings true now as life in Ukraine for Ukrainian men between 25-60 will feel like life in Ukraine under The Third Reich.

Zelenskiy is Jewish. Why is he paying thousands of moronic thugs in balaclavas to terrify civilians? This happens in every town, city and village every day. The police and security services - most of whom are military evaders - aid and abet the violence. They do not serve the people of Ukraine, they serve the fascist regime of Zelenskiy. Half a dozen of my personal friends have been accosted on the streets of Lviv and led away into unmarked vans. Enough.

In this post I have added video clips that show civilian resistance against Zelenskiy's fascists and "titushky" - local enforcers paid by ТЦК, the police or local authorities. Probably all three. Civilians are the brave unspoken heroes of Ukraine - fearless, unarmed, silent soldiers.

Ukrainian society has been split into two parts: the people who love this country, and those in uniform who hate the people who love this country. If, God forbid, Russia occupied all of Ukraine, these are the "men" who would be the first to switch sides. It happened before in Western Ukraine (Soviet side to Nazi helpers, 1941).

Given that Ukraine has a mobilization problem (no one is willing anymore), Zelenskiy is under pressure to find ways to recruit over 25s into his military. There are respectful ways to go about this (without balaclavas). My opinion, and if taken heed of will defeat Russia in less than six months, is to change the mobilization age range from 25-60 to 21-55.

War with Russia is fast becoming unmanned, ergo digital skills that can be learned quickly should be priority. Should be. Instead, Zelenskiy continues to terrorize his own citizens by forcing them to the front with inadequate training and low pay (about £300 per month). They are killed or injured quickly.

Putin is a war criminal for what he has done to Ukraine and Kyiv has made it clear that Russia recruiting Ukrainians in occupied territories is a war cime. If they refuse, prison awaits. But what about Zelenskiy's war criminals "recruiting" Ukrainians in Ukraine? Is there a difference? No.

They are chased, maced, assaulted, humiliated, even shot. Their friends and relatives who try to rescue them get the same treatment.

Only a madman would fight for Ukraine now. The mantra has long since been "Ukraine fighting for democracy against Russia". How about fight the fascists at home first so we don't have to fight Russia? Watch the videos one by one to understand how Zelenskiy is destroying Ukraine.

You will see clear evidence of Ukrainian police, "security services" and ТЦК ("Territorial Center of Recruitment and Social Support") beating up and macing civilians, standing by and refusing to call for help while their victims are on the ground near death from stress, assaulting women and shooting at men. Vehicles are rammed, cyclists obstructed or run over, property damaged, homes broken into.

Many Ukrainian civilians have been murdered by Ukrainian police and their criminal associates who hunt in packs alongside professional killers ТЦК. For more information about recent murders and beatings, visit this page, it's the tip of the iceberg.

ТЦК / TCR TCK are more dangerous than Russian occupiers. It's worth noting that some Ukrainian soldier trolls have threatened to torture and kill ordinary civilians who oppose forced mobilization, also that such threats and murders are routinely ignored, even supported by the authorities.

When I moved to Lviv in 2013, Viktor Yanukovych was President of Ukraine. We had corruption, he was friendly with Putin, and life was good. No, it was amazing. Never been better. Since Zelenskiy was elected, corruption has skyrocketed and he has left Ukraine in tatters. Putin invading Ukraine just fuel on flames. It's time for a full circle reset, a regime change.

Keep in mind the fact that Zelenskiy has less diplomatic skills than your average infant, and for that reason alone he has extended war in Ukraine by several years with the blood of half a million dead on his hands.

"Join NATO!" (antagonize Putin), he bleated; "join the EU!" (antagonize Putin) he repeated, when most people in Ukraine don't want to be in NATO let alone the EU. Every Ukrainian wants independence of some sort, and if that means towing the line with Russia, so be it as the good life was under Viktor Yanukovych.

Most of the world trades with Russia openly or covertly in some way, including my country, Great Britain. Money is money and it's called reliance on natural resources, irrespective of where they may be located.

Most of the third world buys food from Ukraine, but Ukraine is corrupt to the core and human rights abuses are endemic. Problem? No. People need to eat and Ukraine gets paid. Money is money.

Zelenskiy has dragged a wonderful country through Hell and back with no end in sight. He must exercise due caution, common sense, patience and restraint, then prepare for the time when Ukraine will recover all temporarily occupied territories. Acting on the here and now is not always wise. (DH)

27.03.2026 > KING'S FOREST Yad Vashem is one of the most important resources out there. Thousands of eyewitness accounts that warn the world about genocide. Information about The Holocaust in Lviv on Yad Vashem helps us better understand how Nazi perpetrators and Ukrainian collaborators did their utmost to cover up genocide.

Only a few people who witnessed what happened in Lviv between 1941-1944 lived to tell the tale. Less than 1,000 of 160,000. The absolute vast majority were murdered. Their recollections on Yad Vashem are the foundation stones of life for all of us.

Yad Vashem's summary history of Jews in Lviv is a prequel to "Lwow Related Murder Sites". Most of them have been researched by LHRF and all are work in progress without end. Some need to be researched and are not yet part of LHRF, but they will be. These are two smaller prison buildings on Akademika Romana Kuchera and Zamarstyniv that have been repurposed, "Citadel Inn" (Stalag 328), Kortumowa Góra, and Kaiserwald.

Kaiserwald is north east of Lviv old town. A park with a pond, and a forest where mass shootings were carried out. Pits into which Jewish people had to walk before being shot or were thrown in are still there. Yad Vashem tells the story here and they write "According to one testimony, Jews from Lwów were shot also in the southern part of Kajserwald, at the sand quarries known as Piaskownia".

Interestingly, modern street Piskova leads to the southern reaches of Kaiserwald near Lychakivska, and we know that road as it was used to transport Jewish people to Lysynychi. Like Lysynychi and Kryvchytsi, Kaiserwald forest is a recreational space for outward bound enthusiasts who couldn't care less about the human remains and ashes underfoot.

26.03.2026 > 1941 is 2026 The saying goes that history repeats itself and my word is that true, especially here in Lviv. The tragic photograph of a teenage Jewish girl crawling on her knees, most likely having been dragged out of her home and forced towards Lontsky prison, has become iconic for all the wrong reasons.

The Ukrainian nationalist hero walking alongside her is clutching a cosh of some sort. I don't know if she was murdered in Lontsky prison or elsewhere in Lviv, but that was the fate of many Jewish people during the July, 1941 pogroms.

Lontsky prison today is in the SBU system, and while I fully support their impressive work against russian terrorists, the museum is an instrument of propaganda in so far as Lviv between 1941-1944 is concerned.

It glorifies OUN and has whitewashed all trace of Ukrainian complicity with Nazis and involvement in the pogroms. SBU (Security Service of Ukraine) employees use Lontsky prison courtyard, a major Holocaust site, as a car park.

Under various regimes, Lontksy was a feared place of terror and of torture. Nazis, Poles, Ukrainian nationalists, OUN, NKVD, KGB, SBU - all of them tormented and most of them murdered thousands of people. In Soviet times, Ukrainian "dissidents" were imprisoned at Lontsky.

Two days ago, on the afternoon of March 24th, Lviv was targeted by several russian drones, one of which crashed outside Lontsky prison on Stepan Bandera. Oh the irony. The exact location is telling.

A closer look at the Jewish girl shows us that she was on Kopernika where Stepan Bandera begins, precisely where russian drone parts disintegrated. The coincidence is truly remarkable.

Accuracy down to a few yards has been a very difficult task, but now it's clear thanks to photos of a downed russian drone. Did history repeat itself in this case? Not quite, but it does have a habit of sending us signs.

The Ukrainian nationalist on the right in this 1941 photo is standing where this man (black jacket and dark blue jeans) was photographed walking away from drone debris two days ago, in 2026. The gatherings in each photo, 85 years apart, are rather haunting.

Only the direction is different. The 1941 photo looks west towards Lviv railway station, while the 2026 photo looks east towards Citadel. (DH)

25.03.2026 > PETLIURA DAYS 1941 Hero who dedicated his life to freeing Ukraine from the Soviet yolk, fought for an independent Ukraine, and is honoured today as a cultural and historical icon of Ukraine. Symon Petliura also used or turned a blind eye on violence to achieve his ethnocentric goals, like all nationalist leaders.

Anyway, let's focus on photographs that may show us what "Petliura Days" looked like, commencing July 25th, ending about four days later. If you didn't already know, at least 2,000 Jewish people were slaughtered on the streets of Lviv during Petliura Days. The perpetrators? Ukrainians who were hell-bent on avenging his assassination in 1926.

The marksman (seven bullets) was a complicated Bolshevik-leaning anarchist and military man called Sholem Schwarzbard who lost his entire family in the 1919 pogroms, all murdered by Petliura's thugs. Ukrainians named the second Lviv pogrom after their controversial hero.

There are dozens of photos online that shed light on the 1941 Lviv pogroms, but none of them are dated. There were two distinct pogrom events in July. The first was carried out on July 1st, the day after German occupiers entered Lviv. The second, "Petliura Days", began on July 25th. Which photos show which pogrom?

I uploaded 49 Lviv pogrom photos in 2025 and now it's important to know when they were taken. Early July or Petliura Days? When I can clarify, I will do so on the relevant page and make a note here.

It would seem that the photos of women being beaten on Rynok Square and forced to clean paving stones in front of Lviv Opera House were taken in early July, ergo the first pogrom. Those that show the "carnival crowds" on Kopernika, Doroshenka and Stepan Bandera seem to have been taken at the end of July, ergo Petliura Days.

The Ukrainian Government (Foreign Intelligence Service of Ukraine) has publically lionized Symon Petliura, while Yad Vashem recounts events during the Petliura Days with eyewitness evidence.

The 1919 pogroms took place during the Ukrainian War of Independence (1917–1921). "Soldiers" under the command of Symon Petliura (Ukrainian People's Army) murdered at least 15,000 Jewish people. With this in mind, the Ukrainian people would do very well to separate the definition of "Bolshevik" from "Jewish" with immediacy and permanently.

Keep reading about the rabbit hole of Ukrainian nationalists fighting for independence. Everyone outside russia and belarus wants an independent Ukraine, every country deserves independence, but at what cost and to whom? That question is as valid in 2026 as it was in 1919 and 1941. (DH)

20.03.2026 > ANTISEMITIC LVIV? Is it true that Ukrainians in Lviv are prone to bouts of Nazism, fascism, or even, i'll be damned... antisemitic? Let's have a look at some numbers. Here you are: one, two, three (two, translated). Pay attention to the emoji counts and make up your own mind.

First impressions would suggest that Lviv is not a hotbed of antisemitism, but on closer inspection there does seem to be several red (and black) flags flying. Many thanks to Telegram for the real-time insight (I don't believe Russian bots influenced the emoji counts). (DH)

19.03.2026 > FACTS? An acquaintance of mine joined me for a beer some days ago. He's read some LHRF news, and for that, I am appreciative. His views are Nazi-leaning and his great-grandfather was a member of OUN. Our conversation stalled when he stated that Poles were the ones who murdered thousands of Jews in the Lviv pogroms of June and July (PETLIURA days), 1941. Many Lviv people think the same.

The Ukrainian revisionist ranks out there in nowhereland like to pollute the internet from time to time with their confused content, here's one example: Ukrainian collaboration deniers. "League of Ukrainian Canadians", no less. Both I and other very well-informed researchers just read and report back. Simple.

What happens in Canada stays in Canada, it's better that way. I am in Lviv, I have absolute contol over curated content delivery, content that has been researched meticulously on the ground in Ukraine. What is published by cynical Holocaust revisionists in Maple Leaf land, irrelevant.

"Lucorg" has taken to regurgitating a significant quantity of propagandist effluent labelled "Project FACTS" in a tedious revisionist rant for the ages.

No one wants Russian influence anywhere near Ukraine, indeed, anywhere at all, but anyone who denies Ukrainian collaboration in Western Ukraine during The Holocaust and describes it as "Russian disinformation" is reading from the Russian / KGB / NKVD playbook. Denial, at all costs. Propaganda is king. I know that most domiciled Ukrainians and pro-Ukrainians based overseas are better than that. It's what most of us are fighting against. I hope.

Anyone who dares deny Ukrainian collaboration in Western Ukraine during The Holocaust trivializes mass shootings and the subsequent exhumation then burning of thousands of bodies. It happened. Without local help - not specifically OUN or UPA who periodically fought against Nazis - it would not have happened. FACT.

While most, not all of the actual shootings were carried out by occupiers, Ukrainians were complicit at every "logistical" level up to that point. Elements of what "Lucorg" has published about Ukrainian nationalists are correct, parts of it pure totalitarian propaganda. That's what Russia does best. (DH)

05.03.2026 > DAVID G VLOGGER A stateside vlogger found Lviv (applause). Let's have a look at his video about Lviv that includes some kind of enjoyment in Citadel Inn (Gastro Boutique Hotel), former Nazi concentration camp Stalag 328. I understand that most people don't read, let alone research, but influential vloggers shoulder some responsibility, or should. "David G" parks his posterior on lavish upholstery and proceeds to deliver a gushing virtual food tour, before commenting on beautiful views of Lviv from the ramparts. Applause. (DH)

02.03.2026 > THE CURIOUS CASE OF... Omelyan Kovch. The man was beatified by John Paul II of Poland on June 27th. 2001 in Lviv during the Pope's pastoral visit. Since then, he has been deified by Holocaust propagandists who write for UA Crisis ("Ukraine Crisis Media Center"), Ukrainian Jewish Encounter (a vocal coterie of confused revisionists based in Canada where Ukrainian collaborators fled en masse after The Holocaust), and dearly beloved Euromaidan Press, but what is the reality? Why in God's name is the street closest to Janowska named after Kovch? What did he do in Janowska or even Lviv? Let's look at the facts.

We know that Omelyan Kovch saved some Jewish people from a burning synagogue in Peremyshliany (1941), and he did help others in the small open ghetto there (1942). He prepared several hundred Aryan birth certificates for the greater good. He was held in Lontsky prison, Lviv for a while before being sent to Majdanek in Poland where he died in 1944. It is clear that he helped Jewish people and many gentiles in his lifetime, but not in Lviv and definitely not Janowska. Peremyshliany is a small town in Lviv region that is not particularly close to the city. Of course he was made a "Righteous Ukrainian" by the Jewish Council of Ukraine in 1999.

His Lviv connections? Sketchy. Janowska? None. To be blunt, they could name the street after me and it would be more relevant. Street renaming history is as follows: Winnica (1934-1944); Винниця (1944-2012); Омеляна Ковча (2012-). Some bright spark in Lviv renamed the street "Omelyana Kovcha" for reasons that can best be described as clutching at straws, getting any old Righteous Ukrainian on the map, right beside an abandoned mass execution site. To what end? To distract from clear evidence of cooperation between Ukrainian collaborators and Nazis in the immediate vicinity. (DH)

01.03.2026 > NEAR MISS A Russian combat drone was shot down near Lviv railway station on January 15th, it happens every month or so but this time the video went viral.

A snow clearer didn't bat an eyelid when drone parts exploded around her. She has since become an unwitting icon (and a meme). Everyone takes Russian combat drones seriously, but this became rather dramatic and somewhat silly. Think Carry On Regardess if you are British and over 50.

Burning metal missed the statue of Stepan Bandera by a few dozen metres. While many people were horrified, others whispered "near miss, better luck next time". I have nothing more to add.

Was Stepan Bandera a virulent antisemite? No, but he had his moments. Were his followers (OUN-B) virulent antisemites? For the most part, yes.

The Playground Twist came back, classic Ukrainian propaganda about Russia being hell-bent on wiping out children's playgrounds. Many playgrounds in Lviv have been built over or not far from destroyed Jewish heritage and mass execution sites, where hordes of local collaborators helped Nazis wipe out Jewish Lviv. (DH)

28.02.2026 > LVIV BRITISH SCHOOL I've lived in Lviv long enough to know about Lviv British School on Chuprynky, just simple details, I didn't know about their website until recently nor have I visited the school in person.

A routine Google search for "Lviv Holocaust" led me to their "Holocaust Remembrance Day" event page. "When a lot of people were killed and also saved", says the first girl in the video. Please pay due attention to the American accent, in a British school. The reality is that 160,000 people in Lviv and environs were killed, less than 1,000 survived. How many were really "saved" here?

2,700 Ukrainian citizens have been recognized as "Righteous Among the Nations" (Yad Vashem) for risking their lives to help Jewish people during The Holocaust. 1,900 were active in Lviv, Ternopil, and Ivano-Frankivsk where 300,000+ Ukrainian citizens collaborated with German occupiers, ergo for every helper there was 150 local collaborators.

We also know that for every German occupier in Western Ukraine during The Holocaust, at least 15 Ukrainian citizens helped them round up, illegally evict, ghettoize, murder, or deport to be murdered. A question for the "educator" who put that child in front of the camera to read from their script: please verify your sources then define "a lot".

The darkest, most unacceptable part is no mention of the mass execution sites in Lviv, only Babyn Yar in Kyiv. That isn't an oversight, it's disgraceful lack of local knowledge.

One must take into account the precondition of funding and grants, narratives that are a good fit for Ukraine today. Tow the line. The Lviv British School Holocaust Remembrance Day video clip has been downloaded and saved as is my wont. (DH)

26.02.2026 > MILLTOWN LVIV I lived on Dzherelna (Belgian Village) in 2019. The long since dismantled baths on that street were used for delousing Jewish people from Janowska before they were murdered. The walk from Lviv old town to my home in those days was half an hour, perhaps a little more. My go-to restaurant at the time was right on Chornovola (Peltewna between 1941-1944), the main track out of Lviv city centre heading north. Peltewna split the Jewish ghetto east / west under German-occupied Lviv. Many atrocities were carried out there.

As I recall, the sub-level restaurant was called The Black Bull. The area used to be German barracks for the Jewish ghetto. Many of the buildings that still stand today were Holocaust apparatus. Equipment storage, vehicles, vehicle maintenance, ammunition and accommodation. Those who lived and worked there controlled the Jewish ghetto. They guarded, they deported, and they murdered.

The reason why I frequented the establishment was to familiarize myself with every building and its function during The Holocaust. The perimeter walls from that time are unchanged, especially the one that runs along Khimichna to the north.

Almost directly opposite The Black Bull on the other side of Chornovola was some kind of quasi-wasteland, it being the former Jewish ghetto. There were foundation stones covering approximately 200 square metres, foundation stones of the original "hospital" in the Jewish ghetto. At some point, Milltown "builders" moved in and cleared the area.

What Milltown did is not unique, the destruction or dereliction of Holocaust history by Ukrainians in Lviv is standard procedure. When I walk past my old go-to haunt and look up at the people living well in Milltown condominium complex, I think about those who existed in the ghetto and that is all. (DH)

25.02.2026 > JEWISHGEN I have saved this page on the JewishGen website entitled "Extermination of the Lwow Jews" and converted it to PDF for reasons of presentation and preservation. Written by Dr. Filip Friedman in December, 1945 when he was in Łódź, it provides us with eyewitness information about events in Lviv and environs between 1941-1944. Filip, a Polish-Jewish historian, was a native of Lviv and he lived through the Lviv Holocaust. Original material owned and made available by JewishGen, Inc. and the Yizkor Book Project. (DH)

24.02.2026 > LYSYNYCHI LINE That the railway line was closed in 1943 under German occupation is a huge red flag. Next to no one left to kill. Aktion 1005 was happening or being prepared at the same time. I'll meet a Lviv railway historian and we'll pore over archives about the area to get precise dates, and, if possible, orders from occupational authorities that related to line usage. If transports of Jewish people from Pidzamche railway station to Lysynychi forest did happen, you'll read about it here first. (DH)

20.02.2026 > 2026 I've been checking everything on LHRF for the last month or so, making sure that what I write is how it should be, and it is. 2026 is the seventh year of my Holocaust research in Lviv and it will be particularly busy.

In the coming weeks and months i'll be writing about the Milltown condominium complex that has built over swathes of the former Jewish ghetto; the drone shootdown over Lviv city centre that missed Mister Stepan Bandera by a matter of metres; how Glinianska trakt became a pivotal route for the transportation of Jewish people to the Lysynychi mass shooting site; "Holocaust Remembrance Day" at Lviv British School; the railway line at Lysynychi that connects somewhat haphazardly to Pidzamche station (Jewish ghetto) and closed in 1943 (when the ghetto was liquidated), and finally, my Omelyan Kovch oversight.

That the railway line at Lysynychi could have been significant Holocaust transportation apparatus has never been discussed before let alone researched. A potential groundbreaker for LHRF. (DH)

03.02.2026 > NAZI T-SHIRTS | Photo I | II | III "Hells Bells" sells Nazi-inspired shirts alongside bootleg Iron Maiden clothing. The Iron Cross is popular with Heavy Metal fans, just look at Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead.

The second and third photos (t-shirt, flag) are screenshots from the "Gank Your Style" website. The design is similar but this time the Ukrainian trident has replaced the Iron Cross.

The last time I saw this horror was in a Lviv pub between Christmas and New Year. The wearer was a Ukrainian man in his forties and he clasped my upper left arm instead of my hand (fascist greeting). I was wearing black. Perhaps he misinterpreted my colour of choice for the day.

More worringly, an acquaintance of mine who fights with Ukraine's 3rd. Assault Brigade greeted me in the same manner. 3rd. Assault is as far right as it gets and commands plenty of respect in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

This t-shirt from Range_Rocks (Instagram) includes the slogan "Ukrainian Nationalists Department". What, if anything, can we learn from this?

Many shady traders openly conjoin Nazi symbolism with Ukrainian symbols for profit. Of course I fully understand what's going on, they are capitalizing on people's natural reaction to what Russia is doing to Ukraine, but it's not acceptable. We don't need to lower ourselves to the level of Russians.

Most of these online stores describe the emblem as a "Roman eagle". Nice try. I lived in Rome for many years before moving to Ukraine and while there, CasaPound apart, not once did I notice any attempt to conjoin Nazism or fascism with ancient Rome, not even by those aesthetically right Lazio firms. Online store owners who go along with Ukrainian nationalism, be they Ukrainian citizens or not, have mastered using controversial Third Reich symbols to further their cause and profit.

The Parteiadler, meaning "Party Eagle" in German, served as the emblem of the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. This particular design featured a stylized eagle looking to the left (the viewer's right) over its shoulder, holding a swastika encircled by a wreath.

It is often mistaken for the Reichsadler, meaning "State Eagle" in German, which was adopted by the Nazi government as Germany's national emblem in 1935. Unlike the Parteiadler, the Reichsadler looked to the right (the viewer's left).

Both symbols are closely tied to Nazism and are either prohibited or restricted almost everywhere due to their association with Nazi-leaning groups and their ideologies. Not in Ukraine.

There are hundreds of Instagram accounts that sell such clothing. I have lost count of how many Nazi-leaning pins, patches and stickers are out there.

This is the fastest and most effective way to finally destroy the brittle reputation of Ukraine and the Ukrainian people. It's the ultimate fuel for Putin's propaganda machine. (DH)

02.01.2026 > ON THE EDGE The ravines around prison #30 today have not changed since 1942. Today, they rise and fall on mostly wooded terrain with no immediately clear evidence of the mass murder that happened there.

My Jewish companion and I walked through Janiv cemetery to the area where memorial masons carry out their work. It's a forsaken place that looks down on what used to be Janowska hybrid camp.

We noticed a clearing, a makeshift stool, and the remains of a small fire. Some warmth for someone. Discarded building materials and fly-tipping waste on an unsafe surface of soggy mud and sand made movement rather challenging.

This part of the ravines is the highest point around Janowska, and in the dozens of smaller but no less steep gullies that still surround it, at least 30,000 people were shot dead. I stood on the precipice and surveyed the grim scene in silence.

Then gunshots rang out from the "Shooting Stand" range nearby which visibly upset my companion, a Jewish woman and Holocaust expert.

The purpose of our walk was to find the spot where the photographer was standing. Look at this Google Maps screenshot - jagged lines bottom left corner indicate the prison wall; the square outline is where we stood and the circle outline could be where the victims stood before being shot and killed. Pay very close attention to the snaking sandy track in both images. I am getting closer, but i'm not quite there yet. (DH)

28.09.2025 > HIDDEN A new white screen dominates the perimeter of prison #30 of Ukraine (formerly Janowska hybrid camp) where it overlooks Klepariv station. That in itself may seem unremarkable, until one walks by the courtyard area of Lontsky prison in Lviv old town which is also newly sealed off and guarded by armed soldiers. Prying eyes unwelcome.

The reason? Nothing about security, nothing about threats from Russia, everything about covering up historical facts.

Expect Lontsky prison courtyard, a site of immense tragedy, to become a children's playground or new building any time soon. (DH)

03.08.2025 > HEIL BANDERA A Ukrainian soldier in front of the Stepan Bandera monument in Lviv. Nazi salute. It's where some, not all Ukrainians gather on Bandera's birth date to pay homage to 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. (DH)

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 Karpaty rounded the corner from Valova.

One of them had "squad number" 88 on the back of his shirt. NAZI DEBIL. If Ukrainians continue to give Putin reasons to denazify Ukraine, he will continue to kill Ukrainians. 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 Nazi tryouts in Lviv, they will end up here on LHRF. (DH)

30.07.2025 > TERRITORY OF PROPAGANDA Russian propaganda is worse than Ukrainian propaganda? Now there's a question.

When Ukrainians discuss the trauma of Russians killing their compatriots and bombing their homes, of course I can empathise with them. I live here.

Several of my friends have been killed and many more mobilized. In wartime we're all soldiers, but when some soldiers wear Nazi symbols and no one in Ukraine bats an eyelid, the Russian propaganda machine will capitalize.

Then we have controversial institutions such as "Territory of Terror", that go on record to state that Ukrainian complicity in the Lviv pogroms and what happened here thereafter is "Russian propaganda". Where are we heading?

This is invaluable ammunition for Putin. It erases genocide committed by Nazis, helped by thousands of Ukrainians. Bottom line.

Ukrainian propagandists Olha Honchar and Yuliya Artymyshyn have destroyed their credibility outside Ukraine. They will be remembered as apologists.

A ridiculous interview with "DTF" has outed both of them as being partly responsible for intensifying Russian aggression.

Olha and Yuliya, employed by Territory of Terror, are inciting Putin to continue killing Ukrainians by whitewashing Ukrainian complicity.

The blood of their people is on their hands and now their brazen arrogance has been published here. It goes without saying that their institution is funded by Lviv City Council. (DH)

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 sick penchant for killing people who are not Russian, and occupying smaller, apparently "weaker" countries that neighbour his own deranged backwater.

He has 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 joined because of direct 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? Of course not. 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 unacceptable for the government to keep turning a blind eye on ultra-nationalism and Nazism in it's ranks.

I hope that now Ukraine is relying on Europe, the US and the UK to survive, such extreme views and those who advocate them will be silenced. I refer to Ukrainian revisionists and Ukrainian historians who invent convenient narratives to suit whoever pays them. (DH)

17.06.2025 > ZELENSKIY & ТЦК What is happening on the streets of Lviv and elsewhere in Ukraine? Civilians are in hiding from mobilization squads, four or five "men" per unmarked minivan.

They joyride around hunting "evaders", Zelenskiy's new rule. He alone is responsible for the creeping fascism that is now defining Ukraine.

His bandits are paid by "The Ukraine Facility", a financial assistance programme set up by helpful foreigners. 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 most of them alive since 2022.

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 EU pays ТЦК to drag Ukrainian civilians out of their homes and force them to the front line is nothing less than obscene.

Many of these "new recruits" are injured or killed quickly, indeed, seasoned Ukrainian soldiers don't want them anywhere near the front line citing lack of experience and no appetite to fight.

Here's recent video evidence of Zelenskiy's fascists terrorizing a civilian. You may already know that Ukrainian politicians like to send their military-age male relatives abroad to keep them away from forced 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 looks like the new Führer, never mind Putin.

What is happening with mobilization in Ukraine is exactly the same as what is happening over there in Russia if not worse, i.e. fear and panic. There are correct ways to mobilize people. Dragging civilians out of their homes is not one of them.

Let's go back to 1941 when Ukrainian nationalists decided to drag Jewish people out of their homes. Ukrainian fascists are doing the dragging in 2025. Where are we heading?

As a friend and confidant of Ukraine's far right and Nazi boot boys, Zelenskiy and his begging bowl has carried Ukraine to the brink of extinction

05.06.2025 > PASHA 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 > THREE YEARS... No updates for a very long time. Why? War. (DH)

13.07.2022 > FIGHTING FRIENDS At this point I have friends who are either fighting in east Ukraine or preparing to fight elsewhere. 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 for many years, "cheers" suddenly became "Glory to Nazis" (Слава нацистам).

The venue in question has always had a 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 thousands of Ukrainian collaborators destroyed the lives of 160,000 people.

What we see today is a completely understandable reaction against unprovoked Russian aggression. The predictable effect of that is a resurgence of ethnic tensions, ergo hatred of Soviets, mistrust of foreigners, and a return to the old days when Nazis were seen as "liberators" from Soviet oppression.

Azov leaders have quietly removed the Black Sun symbol from their logo. Wise move, long overdue.

Merovingian origins aside, the symbol has direct neo-Nazi connections (Wewelsburg mosaic). Black Sun tattoos are rather common in Lviv, idem "88", Wolfsangel / Wolf's Hook, "Death's Head" Totenkopf and the Iron Cross. I've lost count of how many times i've seen the Black Sun symbol on laptop backgrounds in Lviv 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 there's a serious problem, but is Ukraine really a breeding ground for neo-Nazis as Putin claims? Absolutely not. Ukrainians are as indifferent to Nazism as they are to the genocide 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 as a direct result of the full scale Russian invasion of Ukraine. How far this war goes will define the forseeable future of Europe. (DH)

08.07.2022 > HOTEL NTON On Monday, April 18th, one of several 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 neighbouring Hotel Nton at the time.

Hotel windows shattered and metal shards littered Shevchenka. Over at the garage, seven people were killed. Tyre fitters, mechanics and office staff, some of whom were sat in the canteen drinking coffee. Eleven were injured.

I booked a poky room in Hotel Nton some years ago to research the history of Janowska hybrid camp at first hand. It sits beside Omeliana Kovcha 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 Shevchenkivskyi District (Шевченківський район). The events of April 18th. went viral within minutes. This is exactly why LHRF exists. (DH)

22.03.2022 > HYBRID FASCISM War has enveloped Ukraine. Putin is demanding disarmament, no NATO and neutrality. The likelihood of Russians annexing east and south Ukraine is 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 end of Ukraine as a sovereign nation.

Ukrainian nationalism is problematic in the context of Holocaust history, and in the eyes of Putin, it partly justifies Russia's deranged "Special Military Operation". In reality, the slaughter of Ukrainian civilians and the destruction of their homes is a war crime. Putin is a war criminal as Hitler was a war criminal. The manifold complex reasons why he has invaded Ukraine and his maximalist ambitions have pushed the dreaded Doomsday Clock forward by more seconds than we care to remember.

At first, Putin informed anyone listening that his military will "denazify" and "demilitarize" Ukraine. Then, in some way, "defend" two unrecognized "People's Republics" (Donetsk and Luhansk) from terrorists (Ukrainian people) to "protect" Russian speakers in Ukraine. This is a predictable and mind-numbingly retarded tactic used by idiotic dictators to justify invading a neighbour.

Now that the conflict has escalated and his ground forces have been repulsed by the Ukrainian people, I wake up each morning to reports of missile strikes on airports, railway lines, critical 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 singularly important to read Timothy Snyder's Bloodlands and Black Earth. They illuminate this dark path taken by Putin.

Read what Putin wrote in July, 2021 about non-existent Russo-Ukrainian "unity". Listen to Jason Stanley discussing Putin, antisemitism and White Christian Nationalism. This is a difficult topic that has profound roots in neo-Nazi-leaning Ukrainian nationalism. One possible ending is global conflict.

No one normal wants antisemitic, neo-Nazi groups in Ukraine, but more than a few of them are very well established in Ukrainian military and security services. A photo on this page of Zelenskiy with Azov and C14 leaders in a 2019 veterans meeting encapsulates the problem of modern Ukraine.

It's about time the citizens of Ukraine, specifically in Lviv and Western Ukraine, rejected anachronistic nationalism and associated menacing symbologies. Look where all of that has landed us.

This must happen and it will happen, as will Putin's criminal war-fuelling energy economy collapse. His "strategic partners", namely the terrorist states of Belarus, Iran and North Korea, with China, Cuba, Venezuela, South Africa and India following closely behind will be cut off from the civilized world. The rest of the world will eventually terminate all trade agreements with Russia. (DH)

24.02.2022 > WAR? I woke up quite early in Hotel Dolinskiy after an evening in Buffalo Pub watching Manchester United. I wanted to read about Elanga's equalizer but on the BBC website I saw reports of missile strikes across Ukraine. Football took a back seat. Seconds later, the air alarm sounded. Russia has invaded Ukraine and we've all been waiting for this moment. Now it looks like the real deal. Expect updates. (DH)

07.01.2022 > INVENTED CONTINUITY A search query about Lviv will deliver information in seconds. It is critical for one to be able to read the truth about state-sanctioned revisionism in Lviv since 1991.

Delphine Bechtel wrote about Lviv in 2011. Please take your time to read "Ukrainian Lviv since 1991 - a city of selective memories", or better, download the PDF in case the link is unpublished. Such valuable work must be shared. Download PDF. (DH)

28.11.2021 > NATIONALIST NAZIS 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 inebriated Ukrainian militia.

On the same day, an OUN-B leader called Yaroslav Stetsko decided to become "Prime Minister" and he claim Ukrainian statehood.

That ludricous fantasy was terminated immediately by the German occupiers who had lebensraum in mind. It will come as no surprise that Lviv still celebrates June 30th. Similar celebrations played out elsewhere in Reichskommissariat Ostland when Nazis arrived, the difference being that immediate pogroms only occurred in Lviv.

The uncovered truck in the foreground and those we can see 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 filmed scrubbing cobblestones.

In 2021, young Ukrainian women flock to Rynok Square to add attraction to their Instagram. Their ignorance, arrogance and narcissism as baffling as it is disturbing.

Read more about Lviv on June 30th, 1941 here and pay particularly close attention to the penultimate paragraph. Some scholar at Lviv Center for Urban History has written "collaboration with the Nazis" and "a noble goal" in the same sentence. (DH)

27.11.2021 > JOHN-PAUL HIMKA Listen to a recent podcast with John-Paul. Steven Seegel hosts the interview. 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 am educated, therefore I have a responsibility to deliver the facts about what happened in Lviv during The Holocaust, state-sanctioned revisionism in modern Lviv, and the dangers of Ukrainian nationalism.

I had been reading Holocaust material for decades before moving to Lviv, Ukraine. My basic website design skills 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 the facts I publish here, it is undeniable historical record.

I invest in books about The Holocaust in Lviv and environs when I can. My current reading list 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" tells the survival story of a Jewish family and others in the sewers beneath Lviv. They were forced underground in 1943, just before the ghetto was liquidated.

Polish sewage inspector Leopold "Poldek" Socha, Stefek Wróblewski and Jerzy Kowalów helped them find "safety"; shared space with rats and worms for 14 months. The Poles demanded compensation but when the money ran out, they did not stop helping.

"The Girl in the Green Sweater" (2008) recounts the same story told by Krystyna Chiger who was 8 years old in 1943. 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". Lviv 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 old town have not changed since the 1940s. Most have inner courtyards, 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 beneath Lviv during The Holocaust is not necessary, it has been done. There is no reason to laud anyone for finding another survival space in Lviv because there are a great many survival spaces hidden in plain sight. Ukrainians were quick to pounce on this story to further their narrative of exonerating Ukrainian collaborators. Enough. (DH)

16.11.2021 > COLLABORATORS | Photo What do we have here? Perhaps 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, what happened to them? They were shot dead by Germans, and, in isolated cases, by local collaborators after being rounded up by Ukrainian Auxiliary Police. Complicity.

It is the only known colour photograph that proves the connection between Ukrainian Auxiliary Police and Nazi occupiers. While it was not taken here in Lviv, it is important to show how some Ukrainian collaborators looked in real life. If only I 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 garb without insignia. The grainy black and white photographs I have that show them wearing a white armband do not really help with identification but the groups to which they belonged have been confirmed: OUN-B, UPA, city scum, peasants. This photograph is truly exceptional. At time of writing, no one has put a name to the face but someone will.

Most Ukrainians from Lviv today had a relative who was a Ukrainian nationalist in Lviv in the 1940s. Will they ever share what they know? Lviv is a city built on bones and the likelihood is that such secrets will never be revealed.

I shall continue to publish evidence of Ukrainian complicity in The Holocaust of Bullets as a reaction against an ignorant population in repudiation and the revisionist policy of Ukrainian authorities. (DH)

15.11.2021 > BABYN YAR Since 2019, most likely earlier, billionaire Russian oligarchs have stepped into the spotlight of Ukrainian Holocaust history by financing the Babyn Yar project, at least in part. Who agreed to this? Let's keep in mind the fact that at least 20,000 Ukrainian people have been killed in Donbas since 2014, and that number will increase.

Events at Babyn Yar in 1942 were mythologized by the Ukrainian SSR for half a century. Fast forward to present day and the tragedy has become a piece on Putin's chessboard.

It's another way for him to further damage the increasingly unsteady reputation of an unbalanced country that invites antisemites, far right patriots and neo-Nazi fanboys to the table i.e. working in government, city councils and the security services. Investment is one thing, stoking facts about local collaborations and widespread complicity on the next big international Holocaust stage another.

Whatever is built at Babyn Yar and whoever pays for it will cast long shadows on Ukrainians failing to respect the Holocaust dead on their land.

Babyn Yar aside, Holocaust mass execution sites in Ukraine, particulary Western Ukraine, are now car parks, casinos, playgrouds, flea markets, rubbish dumps and strip clubs. Or just abandoned.

Ukrainians don't mind buying apartments in new buildings close to or right on top of mass execution sites. Their country became independent in 1991. For every 100 monuments erected since then that honour a Ukrainian nationalist, you'll be fortunate to find a rosebed remembering The Holocaust dead. (DH)

12.11.2021 > SPACE OF SYNAGOGUES | Photo A few words about two visits to The Space of Synagogues, former site of The Golden Rose Synagogue (1582) in Lviv old town. I wanted to look at the information boards and speak with people milling around.

I approached several youths but they were drunk, uninterested and rather standoffish. A group of girls nearby were not yet drunk but well on the way. I asked them if they knew where they were sitting.

None of them knew that The Space of Synagogues was a memorial space for visitors 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 was unsure about what it meant. All remarked that the space was calm and relaxing.

Californian academic, essayist and photo journalist Jason Francisco captured how some people behave at The Space of Synagogues. What he wrote (2019) about them urinating on it is the worsening reality. He described The Space of Synagogues as a "food court", a "public toilet", and he is correct.

This has been trending in Lviv for decades. There is no respect for Jewish people who were murdered in the Lviv Holocaust. Ukrainian nationalists, however, are accorded garish monuments where wreaths are laid and memorial ceremonies held.

During an earlier visit (November 4th), I happened upon a Ukrainian tour guide leading a solo traveller. I informed them about this website. The tourist was fascinated, the guide agitated in my presence.

The Ukrainian told me about her Ashkenazi roots. I showed her my photographs of the mass execution site at Lysynychi where 100,000+ people were shot and killed. She had no idea where it was and called me a Russian propagandist.

I thought it better to thank her for her time instead of stripping her naked, throwing her into a pit and shooting her. Is pseudo-intellectualism in Lviv as rampant as I was told to expect when I first arrived in 2013? Seems so.

Lviv locals are suspicious of foreigners who are well informed about the Lviv Holocaust. If they cross my path they will get face value facts. Guilt is a five letter word.

It is important 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 narrative they swear by to suppress the Jewish cultural legacy of Lviv. No mention of the fact that thousands of local collaborators facilitated the mass murder of 160,000+ people in and near Lviv between 1941-1944.

Whoever wrote this is a liar: "involving members of the newly established Ukrainian militia to guard the perimeter". A disgrace.

In reality, they orchestrated and participated in the murders of many Jewish people in the area around the synagogues before they were desecrated.

Back to the information board, those words imply they were guardians of some sort. No attempt has been made to restore the older, now partly illegible plaque.

Let's look a little more closely at the disrespect accorded Holocaust victims by those who frequent The Space of Synagogues.

There is a new swastika and new graffiti, also here. A Lviv artist has added the word "WHAT?" to the masterpiece. Good question. If you scrutinize, you'll see "SS" and two Celtic crosses to the left of the swastika on the lighter stone.

What I 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 > EVIDENCE Did your relatives live in Lviv between 1941-1944? Do you have heirlooms such as diaries, 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 do not hesitate to contact me. It is vital 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 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 youths and occasionally, crime. Nationalist violence still kicks off there from time to time. A guy was killed on Kryva Lypa some years ago. Local football lads ("Banderstadt") plus a handful of Azov imports battled Malmö FF antifa on Kryva Lypa in November, 2015. The bloodstains are still visible.

Do any of them know about the history of Kryva Lypa passage? In 1941? Doubtful. I asked the same to half a dozen Ukrainians I know in passing who work there. Nothing. Not revisionists, more rather simpletons. Blissfully ignorant, Lviv-style.

However, the fact that so many Jewish lives were destroyed in or deported from Lviv to be murdered by Nazis, supported by 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 the reality. Individual tutors can teach Holocaust history if they so wish, but the "institutions" where they educate do not acknowledge it as being significant nor part of the mandatory Ukrainian collective memory. (DH)

04.08.2021 > JANOWSKA 2021 Nondescript? railings spotted in Lviv. This black and white photo shows the entrance to 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. There are many photos of the Lviv pogroms and it's important to get information about all of them. I will try to identify where they were taken, colourise them, then publish here and / or on my Lviv Pogroms page.

Photo I | II 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, 80 years later.

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.

Photo I | II While the colourised rendering of the boy's face in photo #1 is perhaps flawed to a certain extent, I 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, me, everyone. (DH)