SHOAH
Delatyn, Dora, and Lanczyn

On June 22, 1941 the Germans attacked the Soviet Union. On that day Delatyn was bombed. The following day the Germans arrived in Delatyn on motorcycles. It was not until July 1, 1941 that Delatyn was occupied. The mass killings began in nearby Nadworna on October 6, 1941. On the 16th  Ernst Varchmin, Director of the Border Police Post in Tatarow, directed the 3rd company of Police Battalion 133 under Company Commander. Rehbein to collect and murder the Jews of Delatyn and Jaremcze in Wilchowets forest. Approximately 1,950 Jews are buried in 3 mass graves there. As for Lanczyn, the Jewish community was eradicated by the summer of 1942. The specific details of their fate remains unknown. On September 6, 1942 the Polish paper, Wiesci Polskie, of Budapest reported that the Prut River valley from Delatyn to Worochta was Judenrein. Finally in early 1943 the last Jews of Delatyn were sent to Stanislawow where they perished.

After the war, on May 6, 1968 Ernst Varchmin and others were tried in the Landgericht Munster (Higher District Court) for the mass, group, and individual shooting and deportations of thousands of Jews, Poles, and Ukrainians in Stanislau, Rohatyn, Kalucz, Nadworna, Delatyn, Tatarow, Worochta,  Jablonica, Dolina, Wyskow,  and Bukowina. Finally, on July 13, 1972, Ernst Varchmin was sentenced to life imprisonment by the Bundesgerichtshof  (the West German Federal Supreme Court).


The following lists are meant to facilitate finding Holocaust information about the families listed. Variant spellings are listed separately.

Yad Vashem Family Names for Delatyn, Dora, and Lanczyn

Delatyn A-I
Delatyn J-S
 Delatyn T-Z
 Dora
Lanczyn

If you find a family name you are searching for follow the link to the Yad Vashem website and search The Central Database of Shoah Victims' Names to access the original Pages of Testimony.

Family Names from the Auschwitz-Birkenau Death Books

If you find a family name you are searching for you can find more details at the Panstwowe Muzeum Auschwitz-Birkenau (Memorial and Museum Auschwitz-Birkenau) .

Family Names from the Documentation Center of Austrian Resistance

If you find a family name you are searching for you can find more details at the Dokumentationsarchiv des osterreichischen Widerstandes .

Other sources of information

Ghetto Fighters' House

The Ghetto Fighter's Museum  archives contain information on Delatyn. Follow the link and then go to the Archives. Then search for Delyatin. The archives include the testimony of the Glajch/Sztajn family. The museum is located in the Western Galilee, Israel on the Coast Highway between Akko and Nahariya.

Shoah Visual History Foundation

The Shoah Visual History Foundation archives contain testimonies of inidividuals born in Delatyn.

United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum has photos and information on the Gaenger/Petranker family. Search for Delyatin.

JewishGen Shoah Sources

List of Soviet citizens of Deliatyn shot by German-Fascist invaders,
from documents of a Soviet Commission for the investigation of military crimes 1944-4

Perform a Daitch-Mokotoff Soundex search of the Holocaust Database (a collection of 85 databases containing information about Holocaust victims and survivors) :
For finer control over the search go directly to

Yad Vashem Documents

Shoah Bibliography

  1. Apenszlak, Jacob. The Black Book of Polish Jewry : An Account of the Martyrdom Polish Jewry Under the Nazi Occupation. Roy Publishers: American Federation for Polish Jews, Inc; New York : 1943.
  2. Dabrowska, Danuta; Wein, Abraham; & Weiss, Aharon, eds. Pinkas Hakehillot (Encyclopedia of Jewish Communities) : Poland - Vol. 2 Eastern Galicia. Yad VaShem; Jerusalem : 1980. Pages 158 - 160.
  3. Eliach, Yaffa. Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust. Vintage Books; New York : 1982. Pages 10-13.
  4. Gotz, Aly. "Der Holocaust". Der Spiegel. Spiegel-Verlags. September 6, 1999.
  5. Lindwer, Willie. Return to My Shtetl Delatyn. (film). Ergo Media; Teaneck, NJ : 1991.
  6. de Mildt, D.W.  and C.F. Rüter. Die westdeutschen Strafverfahren wegen nationalsozialistischer Tötungsverbrechen 1945-1997. Eine systematische Verfahrensbeschreibung mit Karten und Registern. (The West German Criminal Procedures in Response to National Socialist Genocide Crimes 1945-1997. A systematic procedural account with maps and tables). Justiz und NS-Verbrechen Series.Stiftung zur wissenschaftlichen Erforschung nationalsozialistischer Verbrechen. (Foundation for Scientific Research of National-Socialist Crimes). University of Amsterdam. Amsterdam. 1998.
  7. Mokotoff, Gary. How to Document Victims and Locate Survivors of the Holocaust. Avotaynu; Bergenfeld, N.J.:1995.
  8. Mokotoff, Gary and Sallyann Sack. Where Once We Walked. Avotaynu; Bergenfeld, N.J.: 1991.
  9. Pohl, Dieter. "Hans Krueger and the Murder of the Jews in the Stanislawow Region (Galicia)". Yad Vashem Studies. Volume 26.
  10. Pohl, Dieter. Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941 - 1944. ( Nazi Persecution of Jews in East Galicia 1941 - 1944 ). Oldenbourg. Munich : 1997.
  11. Robinson, Jacob, ed. Guide to Unpublished Materials of the Holocaust Period. Jerusalem: Hebrew University. Institute of Contemporary Jewry, Yad Vashem,1970-1981.