Monument to the Victims of the Koriukivka Tragedy
On 1–2 March 1943 the Nazis killed 6,700 inhabitants of Koriukivka — the largest punitive action in Europe.
On 1–2 and 9 March 1943 a Nazi punitive detachment — Wehrmacht rear units, soldiers of the 105th Hungarian Light Division, auxiliary police and Sonderkommando 4a — on the orders of Bruno Franz Bayer, chief of staff of the 399th Main Field Command in Konotop, destroyed Koriukivka in reprisal for partisan actions. According to the act of the Chernihiv Regional Commission of 17 December 1943, 6,700 people were killed on 1 and 2 March; only 1,893 have been identified by name; 1,290 buildings were burned, ten brick ones survived. By number of victims Koriukivka exceeds Khatyn 45 times over, Lidice 41 times and Oradour 12 times: it is the largest settlement in Europe completely destroyed in a punitive operation. In the town centre, on the site of the restaurant where about 500 people died on 1 March, a bronze composition was raised in 1977, renamed in November 2023 the "Monument to the Victims of the Koriukivka Tragedy"; in the Hai tract a memorial to the exterminated civilian population of Ukraine has been under construction since 2013.
The monument in the town centre is open-air. Koriukivka is a border community under drone attacks: visit only with the alerts in mind. The Koriukivka History Museum is at 8 Zarichna Street.