jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and mass grave sites in ukraine

IV.4
Holocaust Execution and Mass Burial Sites
Throughout Ukraine, many Holocaust sites are marked and cared for – a continuation of a policy
from Soviet times that designated memory to “victims and martyrs of Fascism.” Until recently,
most of these marked sites made no mention of the Jewish identity of the victims
commemorated. Most famously, this was the case at Babyn Yar, the killing site of Kyiv’s Jews,
not far from the city limits, but it was also true elsewhere throughout all the former Soviet
Union.
In Lutsk, for example, the mass gravesite of thousands of Jews killed in that city between August
20 and September 3, 1942 bore only a stone marker that did not identify the victims as Jews. In
July 1990, however, Soviet officials allowed the dedication of a new memorial at this site. Three
thousand people attended the ceremony. The new granite and marble monument commemorates,
in Yiddish and Ukrainian, the 25,658 people of “Jewish nationality” killed on that spot. The new
monument was paid for by the Government of Ukraine, except for a cast-iron fence surrounding
the gravesite that was funded by the New York-based Federation of Volhynia Jews. In all,
thirty-eight gravesite renovations were planned in Volhynia - under the direction of the Volhynia
Museum in Lutsk. 49
Most mass burial sites in Ukraine, however, remain poorly marked and uncared for. Without
prompt action, the knowledge of many of these places will disappear as the generation that
suffered the horrors of the Holocaust passes.
The need to recognize and commemorate these places is in the hearts of survivors and relatives
of those murdered. One example stands for many. In 1999, Chaim Fischman made a pilgrimage
to Tsybulivka (Vinnytska oblast), where he had survived the freezing winter of 1941-42 herded
with other Jews “like cattle … Many … died, either from frost, starvation, typhoid fever, or other
illness. I was fortunate enough to survive that winter, but my father was not …”.
Fischman’s father was buried in a mass grave with thousands (perhaps as many as 5,000) people
who perished that winter. On his return in 1999, Fischman found little changed in the
impoverished, rural area. “The main field which holds the remains of the thousands of martyrs,
including my father’s final resting place, is now being used for cattle grazing, without any
fencing or marking to indicate its holy status.” 50
In the fall of 2000, work to build a fence around the mass burial place was underway in
cooperation with Rabbi Tsirkus from Vinnytsia.
In the village of Brailiv near Vinnytsia, a wall enclosing a mass grave and a commemorative
monument for the 3,000 Jews killed and buried on this site was erected by survivors shortly after
the end of the Second World War. This is a case where an early effort was made to mark a site
of shame for future generations. However, the original monument decayed. As a result, a new
effort restored the monument, at which time additional plaques were added, identifying as many
as possible of the murdered individuals. This new monument was sponsored by the
49 See Toby Axelrod, “Soviets Dedicate Memorial to Jews,” The Jewish Week (July 27, 1990).
50 Letter from Chaim Fischman to then Commission Chairman Michael Lewan, December 9, 1999.
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