jewish cemeteries, synagogues, and mass grave sites in ukraine

‣ Odesa’s fifth mass grave is located at Chornomorska Road, southwest of the city. There
is no fence or wall around the site, which is frequently visited by Jewish tour groups and others,
but there is occasional clearing or cleaning by local authorities.
‣ In Ostroh (Rivnenska oblast), a mass grave is located across the Vilija River, in the
woods on the edge of the new town, where a memorial and monument are built.
‣ At Komarno (Lvivska oblast), the mass grave is in the midst of the woods on the edge of
town. One follows a dirt road through farm country, past the town dump, and a short way off,
immersed in thick trees, is the burial site. It has been fenced, but the gate is broken, and the site
itself is almost as overgrown as the surrounding forest. Additional information about mass
graves and often Holocaust related sites has been provided by survivors and genealogists.
‣ The Jewish cemetery in Horodenka (Ivano-Frankivska oblast) still exists, though many of
the gravestones were removed by the Germans and their local assistants and used to pave the
streets. The cemetery appears neglected, but the overgrown vegetation is controlled by grazing
animals. The surrounding stone wall is gone, but survivors in Israel are planning to have a fence
erected. There are two mass graves: one for women and one for men. There is a beautiful
memorial over one of the mass graves erected in the late 1990s with the financial support of
survivors in Israel. It has inscriptions in Hebrew and Ukrainian. The Hebrew plaque reads in
English as follows:
In memory of all the martyred victims of the Holocaust from Horodenka and
vicinity who were murdered by the Nazis and their collaborators during the
actions, in the labor camps, in the death camps, and by all other means during
the period of the Second World War, 1941-1945. 55
‣ Near Horodenka is Siemakowcze (Ivano-Frankivska oblast) on December 4, 1941 2,500
Jewish men, women, and children from Horodenka were murdered. On the mass grave, stands a
simple monument, erected some time ago, with the dedication “To the Victims of Fasism” in
Russian. This was the only inscription that the communist regime would allow. After the
demise of the U.S.S.R., a tablet was attached describing in more detail what was being
commemorated. In Hebrew, Ukrainian, English, and Yiddish it states: “Mass grave of 2,500
Jews - adults and children - from Horodenka and the vicinity who were murdered here by Nazis
on Dec. 4, 1941. May the memory of the Holocaust victims be blessed forever.”
‣ Also near Horodenka is a memorial in the cemetery of Tovste (Ternopilska oblast,
formerly Tlusty), where some of the remaining Jews from Horodenka were sent to die in a local
ghetto. The Hebrew inscription translated into English reads: “In memory of the martyrs of
Tlusty and surroundings who were annihilated by the Nazis in the years 1942-1943 and to
remember all the martyrs who are buried in this cemetery. Erected by the survivors from
Tlusty.”
55 This information comes from a detailed and moving account of a visit to Horodenka (formerly Gorodenka) by
Tosia Schneider, “Visiting Gorodenka, Fifty-three Years Later” at
http://shangrila.cs.ucdavis.edu:1234/heckman/gorodenka/. Ms. Schneider, born Szechter, spent her early life in
Horodenka. She is the only survivor of her family, having spent part of the Second World War in the ghettoes of
Horodenka, Tluste, and the labor camp at Lisowce. She moved to the U.S.A. in 1949.
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