Outside the village of Kalynivka in northern Ukraine, a memorial commemorates the Roma who were murdered there in 1943.
Kalynivka, 2019, Inauguration of the memorial to the murdered Roma, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Kalynivka, 2019, General view of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Besides Jews, the National Socialists also persecuted Sinti and Roma for racist reasons. Even in the occupied Soviet Union, the Roma were the target of the National Socialist policy of extermination. They persecuted both sedentary Roma and nomads, often whole groups were murdered together at once.
The village of Kalynivka in the north of Ukraine was formerly called Holyshi. The region was conquered by the German Wehrmacht in summer 1941. In 1943, German troops murdered 32 Roma on the outskirts of the village, in a settlement called Batseve Hutor. The Roma were locked into a barn, which was subsequently set on fire. Anyone who tried to escape was shot. The region around Holyshi was the scene of partisan warfare. In the course of German »retaliation measures« the village was attacked twice, on July 20, and August 8, 1943. Up to 92 inhabitants of the village were murdered. Also 14 inhabitants of Batseve Hutor were murdered.
The village of Kalynivka in the north of Ukraine was formerly called Holyshi. The region was conquered by the German Wehrmacht in summer 1941. In 1943, German troops murdered 32 Roma on the outskirts of the village, in a settlement called Batseve Hutor. The Roma were locked into a barn, which was subsequently set on fire. Anyone who tried to escape was shot. The region around Holyshi was the scene of partisan warfare. In the course of German »retaliation measures« the village was attacked twice, on July 20, and August 8, 1943. Up to 92 inhabitants of the village were murdered. Also 14 inhabitants of Batseve Hutor were murdered.
Kalynivka, 2019, Inauguration of the memorial to the murdered Roma, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Kalynivka, 2019, General view of the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
In today's Kalynivka, then called Holyshi, members of a German unit murdered 32 Roma – children, women and men – in a barn. Their names are unknown.
Kalynivka, 2019, The memorial to the murdered Roma at the outskirts of the village, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Kalynivka, 2019, Information stele and memorial stone, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
After the liberation of the area, a Soviet commission of inquiry investigated in Holyshi. It collected the names of 35 murdered inhabitants of the destroyed village. It also found that 32 Roma were murdered near Batseve Hutor. The murdered Roma were buried on the spot. After the war a small wooden cross was erected in their memory. In the following decades the grave was overgrown with plants. Since 2016 the former Holyshi has been called Kalynivka. As part of the »Protecting Memory« project, which is based at the Berlin office of the Foundation Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, a new memorial was erected on this site and officially inaugurated in the summer of 2019. An information stele informs on the background.
Kalynivka, 2019, Information stele and memorial stone, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
Kalynivka, 2019, Inauguration of the memorial to the murdered Roma, Stiftung Denkmal, Anna Voitenko
- Name
- Місце пам’яті вбитим ромам на околиці с. Калинівк
- Web
- https://www.erinnerungbewahren.de/kalynivka/
- info@erinnerung-bewahren.de