Kremenets
Photos by Henryk Hermanowicz
Donated by Iryna Danylyuk
The images on this page were donated to KDRG by Iryna Danylyuk in 2019.
Except where noted, the original photographs were taken by Polish photographer Henryk Hermanowicz, 1912-1992, who worked at the Kremenets Lyceum. Hermanowicz lived in Kremenets until autumn 1943. He took thousands of photos of Kremenets and the surrounding area, including a series on the liquidation of the Kremenets ghetto. Danylyuk later obtained the photos at auctions.
Here is some context for the photographs (from the accounts of survivors Betsalel Shvarts and Tova Teper-Kaplan in Pinkas Kremenits; Sefer Zikaron):
June-July 1941: The German army enters Kremenets, replacing the retreating Soviet army. The Gestapo arrives soon after. Shvarts estimates that there were then about 20,000 Jews in Kremenets, including refugees from Western Europe.
August 1941: The Gestapo burns the Great Synagogue.
Late January 1942: A ghetto is established: "extend[ing] in the west of the town near the Jewish cemetery up to Gogolevska Street, from there to Lyceum Street going up toward Sheroka Street, and from there eastward to the firehouse"; "Levinzon Street, Kravetska Street, and Gorna Street."
March 1942: The ghetto is closed off from the rest of the city. Shvarts estimates the ghetto population at 8,500.
10 August 1942: The Germans carry out a two-week-long aktion to annihilate the Jews of the ghetto in a former army camp in Bylokrynytsya, about 5 miles NE of Kremenets.
March 1944: The Soviet army arrives in Kremenets and liberates the city.
Holy Ark, Great Synagogue, Kremenets, 1922
Great Synagogue in Kremenets, before its destruction in 1941
Sheroka Street and the Great Synagogue, c. 1939 (front)
Sheroka Street and the Great Synagogue, c. 1939 (back)
Kremenets Great Synagogue from Sheroka Street,1939 (front)
Kremenets Great Synagogue from Sheroka Street, 1939 (back)
Jewish man cleaning a Ukrainian policeman's boots, near the Tkaczynski pharmacy on Sheroka Street, 1941 (front)
Jewish man cleaning a Ukrainian policeman's boots, near the Tkaczynski pharmacy on Sheroka Street, 1941 (back)
Ghetto area before liquidation, c. 1941-1942
Ghetto area after liquidation, 1942
Kremenets, c. 1942
Group of citizens with Gebietskommissar Fritz Müller, the SS regional commander in Kremenets, 1942 (front)
Group of citizens with Gebietskommissar Fritz Müller, the SS regional commander in Kremenets, 1942 (back)
Ghetto ruins, 1942
Ghetto ruins, 1942
Ghetto ruins, 1942
Burning of the ghetto after the liquidation of the inhabitants, 1942
Clearing of the ghetto ruins, 1942. The Kremenets Lyceum is in the background.
Sole surviving house from the Kremenets ghetto, 1942
Gebietskommissar Müller at the Basilian Cemetery, Kremenets, February 1943 (front)
Gebietskommissar Müller at the Basilian Cemetery, Kremenets, February 1943 (back)
Funeral for a German soldier, Kremenets, July 1943. Ruins of the ghetto at right.
Funeral for a German soldier, Kremenets, July 1943. Ruins of the ghetto at right.
The following photos donated by Danylyuk were not taken by Hermanowicz, who left Kremenets in autumn 1943.
Banner with the inscription "Stalin," 1950s. The former ghetto is in the background.
Construction of a restaurant on the ghetto area, behind monuments to Marx and Lenin, 1950s
