jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and mass grave sites in ukraine

Overall, there has been more effort in recent years to recognize the location of mass gravesites
and mark the places with monuments than there has been in caring for Jewish cemeteries. As in
the case of cemeteries already described, most of the work at mass gravesites is sponsored by
Jews from abroad – either individual survivors themselves marking the presumed graves of their
loved ones who did not escape the Holocaust, or by organizations of survivors or descendants of
towns, collectively commemorating the dead.
In 1995, funding from a former citizen of Odesa, who now lives in Israel, Yakov Maniovitch,
helped create the memorial complex for murdered Jews in Odesa. The memorial was built in the
center of the city on Prokhorovska Street. It includes a 250-meter walkway and a
commemorative obelisk. In Yalta in the Crimea, funds were being sought in the mid 1990s to
secure a mass gravesite that was increasingly being exposed by erosion and neglect. The site
contains remains of as many as 4,000 people executed in December 1941. It had been hidden
until heavy rains exposed hundreds of thousands of bones in 1994. 54
Following are several examples of mass graves identified in the survey. The information
concerning these sites is typical of the results found in the survey. Attempts were made to locate
the sites, and describe their overall condition, maintenance, and visibility. A complete list of all
mass graves visited is in Appendix IV.
‣ In Novo-Uman (Mykolaivska oblast), the mass grave is unprotected. It is known that
Hasidic Jews are buried there, but no data about the precise number of persons interred nor their
individual identities has been found. There are no signs marking the boundaries, and vegetation
around the graves grows freely. The grave has been vandalized within the past ten years, but the
municipality, which owns the site, has not erected a fence to protect it. The grave is currently
used for agricultural purposes: grazing and growing crops.
‣ In Nizhyn (Chernihivska oblast), there is no sign explicitly marking the mass grave but a
fence surrounds the site. It has protected the grave from vandalism. The grave itself is indicated
by a single gravestone that serves to commemorate all the victims. The site attracts occasional
visitors on organized tours. The municipality, which owns the site, has periodically sent
personnel to clean the site.
‣ Nemyriv (Vinnytska oblast) contains four mass graves. None is protected, but all are
marked by signs mentioning the Holocaust. Nazis murdered the residents of the Nemyriv ghetto
between 1942 and 1944. Organized individual tours, private visitors, and local residents
occasionally visit. The authorities occasionally clear and clean some of the graves and work to
maintain the tombstones. At one grave to the north of Nemyriv near a quarry, local Jews worked
every year between 1950 and 1980 to restore the stones that are present at the site. None of the
sites have been vandalized, but walls or fences do not protect them.
‣ In Andrushivka (Zhytomyrska oblast), there are two mass graves that have been well
maintained by local authorities. One is in the southeastern part of town, near the hospital. The
other is close to an important road – Andrushivka-Pavelky Road. Each is surrounded by a fence,
but neither has a gate. Each has a sign mentioning the Holocaust. Few people visit the sites, but
54 “Remains of Victims Exposed in Crimea,” JTA article published in American Jewish World, 83:3 (September 23,
1994).
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