Salina is a large salt mine near Dobromyl, Stary Sambir Raion, Lviv Oblast. Before the German-Soviet war, locals worked in these mines, producing salt for Halychyna (Galicia) and beyond.
Today, the mere mention of “Salina” evokes a sense of horror among the local population. Here, on June 22, 1941, the NKVD liquidated about 3,600 people - mostly intellectuals and young activists. There was not enough ammunition to kill all the individuals, so many were murdered by a hammer blow to the head and their bodies were thrown into the salt mine. The 100-metre pit was filled with human bodies. Local residents found 50 children among the dead.
Subsequently, soviet authorities built a sanatorium near the execution and burial area and also planned to construct... a dance floor. However, local residents rose up against the soviet officials and refused what they called the desecration of a memorial site.
June 1941 - Special Operations in Western Ukraine
June 1941 has tragic significance for Western Ukrainians. In one week, close to 22,000 people were brutally executed by the communist regime on the entire territory of Western Ukraine. When Hitler launched his armies against the Soviet Union, Moscow was faced with an enormous problem - what to do with thousands of prisoners, including so-called “enemies of the people”. The communist authorities were trapped and not able to evacuate the prisoners. Only one solution remained – operational and mass executions of all ideological enemies, including members of patriotic organizations, ordinary students, teachers, priests and businessmen – individuals that were considered dangerous to the Stalinist regime. Estimates of the death toll vary between locations. The approximate number of prisoners executed in Western Ukraine from June 22 to June 30, 1941: Lviv (three prisons) - 4,000; Drohobych – 1,000; Dobromyl – 3,600; Zolochiv – 749; Stryy – 1,101; Sambir – 1,200; Demyaniv Laz – 2,500; Chortkiv – 800; Ternopil – 1,000; Lutsk – 2,754; Dubno – 1,500 and Peremyshl (Przemyśl) – 1,000. In other cities, the number of victims is measured by hundreds.
The road to hell Salina is a silent memorial site testifying to the horrors of those days, and it is probably the least known to most Ukrainians.
As early as June 22, the first trucks with Polish and Ukrainian prisoners from Peremyshl (Przemyśl) arrived in the area. Mass executions began… What made the crime even more brutal was the fact that the victims were not executed by a firing squad, but their heads were smashed with sledgehammers used to crush rocks. The soviet troops lined up the men, who were bound with barbed wire, over the mine shaft. Then a NKVD soldier would deal a blow to the head and the victim would fall to the bottom of the shaft. Those who survived the blow would either drown in the salt or suffocate under consecutive layers of bodies. Only one man is known to have survived.
“In all my years of research, I’ve never seen such horror - throwing living, half-dead and dead people into a salt mine!” says Mariya Prokopets.
Testimonies
Liubomyra Bachara, a resident of the neighbouring village of Solianovatka, was eleven years old. She witnessed how the prisoners from Przemyśl were led to death.“Suddenly, there was a lot of noise in the village; we ran out and saw a column of prisoners… My mother ran into the house, grabbed a loaf of bread, shouting to us that the prisoners should eat something. The line of prisoners dragged out through the whole village; we couldn’t see the beginning or the end of the column. They looked miserable and totally exhausted. Mom ran up and gave one of the prisoners a piece of bread. The others stretched out their gaunt arms… Suddenly, a guard grabbed my mother’s shoulder and shouted: “What do you think you’re doing!?” Mama replied that she felt sorry for them and wanted to feed them. The guard got really mad, and pulled her into the line of prisoners. We started crying… Then, another guard approached and said: “Let go of the old lady! Can’t you see the little kids are crying!?” But, he refused and started pulling us into the line of prisoners. Finally, some other guards ran up and took mother out… and so we were all saved from a terrible death!”Liubomyra Bachara explained that the villagers had no idea where the prisoners were being taken. But, as they watched, the convoy turned and headed in the direction of the Salina salt mine. Another resident, Vasyl Fartushok, recalls some details of the convoy:
“What really sticks in my mind is a dignified elderly man in the last row of prisoners. He was wearing traditional Hutsul clothing... His trousers and woolen shirt were beautifully embroidered…”The locals were afraid to follow the convoy. Later, they heard a constant rumbling noise of engines as a putrid cadaverous stench filled the air. They could only guess what was happening, and why the engines had been turned on to drown out other noise.
“I remember those days clearly, when large trucks with tarpaulin covers rumbled through the villages towards Salina. We watched from the windows, and Dad shouted: “Don’t look! They’ll shoot you!” We continued watching anyway. Suddenly, I screamed with terror; a leg with a blood-stained shoe emerged from under the tarpaulin of the truck that had just passed our house!”The soviet authorities ordered the miners to stop all work in the mines so that there would be no direct witnesses to the mass burials. If anyone accidentally saw or witnessed these horrors, he was shot on the spot.
A 100-metre grave
The first Slovak reconnaissance teams arrived in Dobromyl with the German troops on June 27, 1941. When they learned about the Salina massacre from the villagers, they immediately began searching for the NKVD burial grounds.
“After the moskali (pejorative term for Russians-Ed) left our village, people began venturing from their houses. Suddenly, we see crowds of villagers running towards Salina. We follow them… But what I saw there is better left unsaid. In the garden, near the cherry trees, lay piles and piles of dirty clothes. There was blood everywhere... Someone went to look inside the church and suddenly, we heard an inhuman scream. We ran in that direction… And there, on the wall of the church we saw a crucified man…”According to eyewitnesses, the church floor was covered in dried blood. But, the worst was yet to come… when the mine was uncovered. The deep pit was full of bodies. The German Command ordered the Jews of all the neighbouring villages to dig up the bodies. Only 500 bodies were recovered. Due to the terrible stench and extreme heat, the German authorities finally ordered the villagers to cover the mine as quickly as possible.
“On July 3, I was ordered to stand guard at Salina, where the Bolsheviks had executed and buried people even before the war. The Germans drove the Jews from our village to the mine and forced them to pull the bodies from the shaft. It was frightening to watch. They pulled the bodies out with hooks and laid them in rows. The faces of the victims were eaten away by salt brine. I stood very close to the shaft, so I could see the bodies. I didn’t count how many bodies were removed that day, but I figured it was somewhere around 200-300. Then, they began pulling out body parts… pieces of human flesh. The stench was nauseating. Finally, the Germans ordered the workers to stop, poured some sort of substance into the mine and cemented the shaft opening.”Ivanna Kruk-Krasnevych, born in Dobromyl, recalls those horrible days:
“The Jews were forced to pull human remains from the mine and lay them in rows. People came from all around to identify friends and relatives. They dug a deep hole on the mountain and buried the bodies there. The exhumation continued for two whole weeks. When the hole was filled with bodies, young boys and girls arrived from nearby villages to work on filling the mine shaft with soil and erecting a grave.”500 bodies were reburied several hundred metres from the mine; a cross was placed on the mound.
