THE JULY 1941 LVIV POGROM: 17 original photos taken by German soldiers

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PLEASE NOTE: SOME IMAGES ARE GRAPHIC AND MAY BE DISTURBING. 

German troops entered Lviv at the end of June 1941, welcomed by Ukrainians as liberators from Soviet rule as the last detachments of the Russian army left the city. Two days of antisemitic barbarity ensued. On July 1, Ukrainians forced Jews to scrub the pavement in front of the opera house on hands and knees (first three photos).

I shared this photo with historian John-Paul Himka, who displayed it across two full pages of his 2009 book "Ukrainians, Jews and the Holocaust: Divergent Memories." His caption: "Lviv, circa 1 July 1941. Behind the opera house, Jews are made to clean the streets on their knees." The scene is actually near the front entrance.

On July 1 and 2, bodies of Ukrainians, Poles, Germans, and Jews were found in three former Soviet NKVD prisons in Lviv left behind by the retreating Russians. Local Ukrainians blamed the killings of their brethren on the Jews, and attacked them. These 14 photos -- some of which are quite graphic -- show the bodies, as well as German soldiers, local Ukrainians, and bloodied Jews.

In prison courtyard, Jews bloodied from beatings await their fate. The only photo in Himka's 2021 book "Ukrainian Nationalists and the Holocaust."