Memorial to the murdered Jews of Mariupol

Пам'ять вбитих євреїв Маріуполя

Two memorials in the industrial city of Mariupol and in its suburb Agrobaza commemorate the 9,000 Jews who were shot there in October 1941.

History

Mariupol, located on the shores of the Sea of Azov in south-east Ukraine was founded in 1789 and was given its name by Greek immigrants from Crimea. Jews settled in Mariupol – which developed into an industrial centre – from the middle of the 19th century onwards.
In 1939 the city had a Jewish population of 10,444, accounting for approximately 5% of the total population. On October 8, 1941 German troops occupied the city. Many Jews managed to flee eastwards beforehand. At the same time many Jewish refugees from western Ukraine were in the city. The German military administration organised a Ukrainian auxiliary police and a local municipal administration which actively took part in the persecution of Jews. In the first few days the occupiers enforced the marking of the Jews and murdered about 30 civilians, among them also Jews. Two days later they forced the Jews to register themselves. That way approximately 9,000 Jews were recorded. On October 18, 1941 under the pretext that they would be relocated they forced the Jewish population to hand over their valuables and to gather with provisions and clothing in the square in front of the University of Technology. They were kept prisoner for two days in barracks at the assembly point before the Germans and their local helpers took them by foot or car to the suburb of Agrobaza about 6 kilometres away. Under the command of Heinz Seetzen (1906-1945) who participated in the murders himself, the Sonderkommando (»special unit«) 10a and the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler shot the Jewish children, women and men in anti-tank trenches. On the following days another 1,000 Jews were shot on the same site. On October 31, 1941 the Einsatzgruppe (»mobile killing unit«) D declared the city to be »judenfrei« (free of Jews).

Agrobaza, undated, Site of shooting today, Agenstvo evreyskih novostey

Mariupol, 2014, Relief at the Techical University, Leonid Kiriiev

Victims

The data as to the number of victims range between 8,000 and 15,000. According to the report of the German local command dated October 29, 1941, 8,000 Jews were murdered on October 20 and 21. The official Soviet investigative commission stated the number to be 15,000.

Ukraine, the second-largest Republic in the European part of the former Soviet Union, was at the centre of the Second World War and the Holocaust. It is estimated that five to six million Ukrainians died during the war, including around 630,000 Jews. In mid-September 1939, following the Soviet occupation of eastern Poland in accordance with the Hitler-Stalin Pact – a secret German-Soviet agreement –, the south-east of Poland became part of the Soviet Ukraine. The oppression of the local population was now an everyday occurrence. In summer 1941, the German attack on the Soviet Union initially affected these very regions. Right from the start of the invasion the Jewish population was accused of supporting the Soviet powers and became the target of brutal attacks. These attacks were often the work of nationalist Ukrainians, who initially welcomed the advance of the Wehrmacht. German SS Einsatzgruppen and allied Rumanian units soon began to carry out mass shootings of Jews. The Babyn Yar ravine near Kiev, where German units and Ukrainian militia murdered over 33,700 Jews over two days in September 1941, has since become a global symbol of the genocide of Jews. The non-Jewish population was also a target for persecution. National Socialist racist ideology classed Ukrainians, as all »Slavs«, as »subhuman«. The occupiers looted the country, deported way over one million civilians to carry out forced labour and publicly executed hostages. By 1943 a partisan war against the Wehrmacht was raging along with the campaign of the nationalist »Ukrayinska Povstanska Armiya« (Ukrainian Rebel Army or UPA) against the Soviets and the Polish population in western Ukraine. The number of Poles to die in the process lies way over 100,000. From 1944 the Ukraine was again part of the Soviet Union and also encompassed former territories in eastern Poland. The UPA continued its campaign until the mid-1950s. The Soviet authorities deported around 300,000 Ukrainians to Siberia to counter the resistance. The Ukrainian culture of memory was aligned with the symbolic forms of remembrance found in the Soviet Union. Monumental sites of memory were constructed to celebrate the »victory« in the Great Patriotic War. It is only recently that victims have been remembered alongside the venerated heroes. In addition, a culture of memory centred on the campaign of the UPA has emerged in western Ukraine, with the UPA’s legacy being interpreted as a struggle for independence. Confrontation with anti-semitism and the collaboration with the German occupiers has only begun around 2000. With just a few exceptions, the mass shootings of Jews were ignored until the 1980s. It was not until 1991 that the government of independent Ukraine acknowledged Babyn Yar as a »symbol of Jewish martyrdom«. Long after gaining independence, Ukraine was still on the search for its national identity. The documentation of Soviet crimes – for example the state’s responsibility for the Great Famine (Holodomor) in 1922-23 that led to millions of deaths – has more significance in the establishment of a Ukrainian identity than learning about the Holocaust. Nevertheless, new memorial sites for the murdered Jews were established throughout the country, such as Drobitskiy Yar in Kharkiv or the Holocaust Museum in Odessa. On many mass grave sites new memorials were created, partially with German support. In Kiev, a new grand memorial site with global relevance was planned at Babyn Yar. These plans were put on hold with the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. What impact the current defensive war will have on Holocaust remembrance in the future remains to be seen.

Remembrance

Some Jews managed to escape their murder with the aid of the non-Jewish population. Some joined the partisans while others managed to cross the front line like Sarra Gleykh, who managed to escape from the mass grave. Her written account, put down after her escape is now stored in the archive of the Israeli memorial centre Yad Vashem.
Mariupol was liberated by the Red Army on September 10, 1943. In 1949 an obelisk was erected at the site of the mass shootings at Agrobaza, remembering the »Victims of Fascism«. It is not mentioned on the memorial that the victims were Jewish. After the collapse of the Soviet Union the Jewish community of Mariupol gathered information on the victims and the mass shootings and suggested the creation of two memorials. On May 8, 1996 a plaque with a relief was unveiled at the square in front of the Technical Universtity where the Jews had to gather prior to their shooting. Two years later a stone menorah was erected at the site of the mass shooting in Agrobaza. Engraved on the memorial is a quote from the Hebrew bible. In 2001 the Jewish community counted 1,800 members out of a total population of 510,835.
Due to its strategic location, Mariupol has been the target of several Russian attacks since 2014. In the course of the full-scale Russian war of aggression, the city was largely destroyed in spring 2022 and has been under Russian occupation since. The synagogue of the Jewish community was also destroyed in March 2022, presumably in a Russian missile attack.

Mariupol, undated, Historical view, public domain

Agrobaza, undated, Commemoration ceremony at the memorial »Menorah«, Mariupolskaya evreyskaya obshtshina

Open

The memorials are accessible at all times.

Contact

www.jewishmariupol.com.ua

jewishmariupol@gmail.com

+380 (0629)412 040

ul. Universitetska 7
87500 Mariupol

Agrobaza, undated, Memorial »Menorah«, Mariupolskaya evreyskaya obshtshina

Mariupol, undated, Old synagogue, public domain

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