From Urban Legend to Documented Fact: The History and Memory of the Jewish Ghetto and the Holocaust in Kherson

In this new EHRI Document Blogpost, Yurii Kaparulin traces the history of the Kherson ghetto and the mass murders, as well as the investigation of the crimes after the liberation. It also describes the efforts made in recent years to document and commemorate the victims of the Nazi regime in Kherson.

Kherson is a large city in southern Ukraine and the regional center of the Kherson region. After the Germans occupied the city in August 1941, they established a Jewish ghetto in the city. Yet, eighty years later this very real story has become an urban legend of sorts. Even a few years ago, when Yurii was telling people about the ghetto, he heard in response that “it was all a fabrication and there was no ghetto.” Indeed, there are almost no witnesses left in the city who could tell you where the ghetto was. Very few can tell when and how the Nazis created the ghetto or how they destroyed it. Few are left to tell the stories of the people who were there were or their fates. That’s why it was important to research this topic and bring it back into the public discourse.

Read the Blogpost

Image: A Soviet monument at the site of the shooting of Jews. Yurii Kaparulin