In the morning of August 27, 1941, some Jews from nearby localities and from certain areas of Urycz were rounded up by Ukrainian auxiliary policemen in the local meadow, near a small stream. The Jews were told that they had to attend a meeting at the residence of Shlomo Nordlicht, up on the hill, where the question of their employment would be discussed. Several hours later, a Security Police and SD murder squad, under the command of SS-Sonderführer Pieter Menten, arrived in Urycz. (Before the war, Menten, a wealthy Dutch landowner and businessman, had lived in Eastern Galicia, where he developed a deep grudge against a prominent neighboring Jewish family over a business dispute; after the outbreak of war, Menten returned to Eastern Galicia as an SS officer, and he committed numerous war crimes against the local Jews. After the war, he became a successful art collector and businessman. In 1976, legal proceedings were initiated against Menten in the Netherlands, and in 1980 he was sentenced to ten years in jail for war crimes. He was later released, and died in 1987). Menten ordered the chief of the Ukrainian Auxiliary Police to assemble all the Jewish residents of the village in a single place. More than 200 people were herded together. They were then led under armed guard up the hill, to Nordlicht's house. The Jews were locked up in three rooms of the house, and were held there for several hours, waiting for a huge pit to be dug by the Ukrainians. According to some testimonies, the Ukrainians had initially ordered the Jews to dig their own grave, but the latter refused. After the pit had been dug, the Jews, mostly women with small children, were taken out of the house, having deposited their valuables and other items on a table near the house doors. They were then led downhill in groups, under a heavy guard of Ukrainian policemen, to a nearby field that was also owned by the Nordlicht family. Upon reaching the murder site, the Jews were shot with machine guns by several SS men, under the command of Pieter Menten. The shooting lasted for several hours, until nightfall. After the shooting, the Ukrainians failed to completely cover the mass grave, and the layer of soil over it was washed out after heavy rain. According to a testimony, some Jewish men from the nearby village of Schodnica were ordered to cover the mass grave again. Over the following days, the items left in the Jewish apartments and houses were publicly sold off, to prevent the abandoned property from falling into the hands of local pillagers.

More information: Yad Vashem