Boryspol is a historic city located in Kiev region,Ukraine, center of Boryspol district. The city’s estimated population is 60,102 (as of 2013).

Boryspol became a part of Russia Empire in 1667, in XIX – beginning of XX century it was shtetl of Pereyaslav Yezd of Poltava Gubernia.

Boryspil was first mentioned in the XI century as ‘Lta’, when the son of Prince Vladimir, Boris, died at the river Alta. It is presumed that the modern name appeared during the XVI century, in honor of Saint Boris.

It is not known exactly when the Jewish population arrived in the city, although we know that the community suffered during the Khmelnitsky pogroms of the XVI century.

As in most places in Poltava province, the Jewish community in Boryspil re-appeared in the XIX century. Jacob Rubin wrote that his grandfather, Moshe Bernstein, served with General F. Trepova during the Crimean War and in one battle saved his life. When the General resigned, he appointed his rescuer to administer his mansion in Boryspil. At Moshe’s request, the General received the Tsar’s permission for Jews to settle in Boryspil. Around 60 people came to the city from Ovruch and formed a community.

On June 12, 1881, anti-Jewish riots took place in the city and were suppressed by force.

According to “The Provisional Regulations” of 1882 (forbidding Jews from buying and owning land in rural areas), in 1882-1903 the Jews were restricted in Boryspol.

According to the census of 1897, the city’s total population was 8,953 inhabitants – among them 1,094 Jews.

Zalman Shimon Zelikman (1870-?) was the rabbi of Boryspil in 1905.

Boryspol in the beginning of XX cenruty

For many years, the community had a cheder and a synagogue and by the beginning of the XX century there were two synagogues and Jewish cemetery in the city. The Jews lived in close contact with the Christian population, and were mainly engaged in trade.

According to older residents, in the center of Boryspil there were rows of Jewish shops including a dry goods store owned by Berk Ryabiy, a leather shop owned by Niesel Vinnik, a sewing workshop owned by Itsk Rabinovich and a shop owned by Gershk Rayshkin. In the city museum there is a postcard of 1912 featuring the central street of Boryspil and showing these and other shops.

Civil War

In 1918 pogrom occurred in  Bortspol.

On 25 August, 1919 a Jewish delegation took part in a pompous meeting of the Volunteer Army detachments, followed by a pogrom, which lasted for four days and resulted in ten deaths.

Between the Wars

In 1920-30s the Jews of Boryspil fought unsuccessfully to have a mikvah opened.  In 1926 a Jewish agricultural colony named “October”(64 members),was founded in the Krivoy Roh region by the Jews from Boryspol.

Holocaust

The German army entered Boryspol on 23 September, 1941.

Most Jews were evacuated or joined the Red Army. However, there were also some Jews in Boryspol, fleeing German atrocities in Kyiv.

All remaining Jews were gathered in the square. Twenty Jewish males were commandeered to remove the bodies which were scattered all over the town after a terrible German artillery barrage before the occupation.

For nearly one month the Jews were removing dead bodies. After that they and their families were gathered at the top of the existing landing strip of the Boryspol airport, where they were shot and buried. They still lie there, there was no re-burial.

Iliya Kalmanovich Sapozhnikov from Boryspol. Hew was perished in WWII

In autumn 1942 Boryspol became an administrative center of the Gebietskommissariat Boryspol of the Reichskommissariat, Ukraine.

In November – December 1941, 200 Jews, including the Jews from Boryspol and nearby villages, were murdered in the suburb of Boryspol (a silo pit on the collective farm called “Sickle and Hammer”). Ukrainian auxiliary police took part in the shooting.

Not far from Boryspol, on the way from Dudarkov to Bolshaya Staritsa,on 30 September, 1941, a group of 78 Jews (30 women, 18 men, 29 children) was set free by a partisan group under the command of Oranskiy Brovarskiy partisan squadron named after Volodymyr Lenin (the commander was H.N. Kuzmenko). The chairman of the collective farm “The Winner”, E.Y.Babych informed the squadron about the Jews being driven to the shooting. The liberated Jews joined the partisan squadron. In Staroe village in autumn 1941, two Jews were receiving medical treatment. They were able to join the Red Army.

Petr Yakovlevich Sapozhnikov from Boryspol. He was perished during WWII in Red Army

In his book “Prisoner”, Aaron Schneier says that at the end of September, 1941, a hospital train was encircled in the Boryspol district, and a prisoners of war camp was established there. The camp grew to accommodate 6,000 people. It was staffed by about 400-500 doctors and nurses. One day about 300 wounded Jews were selected and shot, and two weeks later about 150 Jewish medics were gathered in the yard. The next day they were driven out and shot outside of Boryspol. On 10 October, 1941 the commandant of the POW camp in Boryspol surrendered 357 Jews, including 78 wounded, pointed out by the camp doctor, and on 14 October of the same year he surrendered 752 Jews. All of them were shot.

Boryspil was liberated on September 23, 1943.

During the two years of occupation, 497 residents of the Boryspil district were killed.

Below you can find 2 lists of Jewish victims: civilians and Boryspol Jews which were drafted  in Red Army.

After the WWII

After the War some Jewish family returned from evacuation. Also many Jews from another places od USSR emigrated to Boryspol due to rapid city growth and new opportunities.

On 13 April, 2011 the builders digging a gas pipe trench in Boryspol found the remains of the shot soldiers.

There were many civilians among them, women as well; many of them had their hands tied, many were wounded, and several were finished off with a bullet to the head.

Exhumation process

It looked like a German filtration camp – there were communists, officers, and Jews in the trench. Others were driven to a concentration camp in Darnitsa.

Among the remains of 493 people, the following were identified: Bravner Hersh, Bortz Boris Mykhaylovich, Sholman Samuel Sazonovich, Grinshpun Myron Moiseevich, Pestunovich Judah Isayevich, Helman  Solomon Solomonovich, Sterin Zolman Grigorievich.  These remains were reburied with all due honors at the Knyshev cemetery.

In 1999 the Jewish population of Boryspol was about 40 people.

Head of local Jewish community is Mark Haimovich Videlgauz.

Geneology

Cemetery

The cemetery is located at the corner of Vatutina Steet and Botanicheskoy Street. It was destroyed in the 1960’s and there is no longer any visible trace at this site.
There is no visible trace of the cemetery at this site, which is now used for residential purposes.

Last gravestone from demolished Boryspol Jewish cemetry

A memorial from 1907 from the destroyed Jewish cemetery can be found in the courtyard of the Boryspol History Museum.

Holocaust mass grave

Places of shootings:

– Boryspol – December 1941 – about 400 local activists (among them several Jews) were killed in the silo pit on the collective farm “Boryspolskiy”; after the war, a memorial was erected, marking the grave.

Monument on the mass grave near collective farm “Boryspolskiy”

– Top of the landing strip of the Borispol airport
–  Ivankov village  – according to the “Book of Sorrow of Ukraine. Kyiv region “, vol.1, p.202, and the Ivankov museum director, Petro Fedorovich Zinchenko: on 20 September, 1941 outside the village the Nazis shot and buried almost 200 Jews in silo pit of a collective farm, they pulled out the Jews among the refugees, fleeing Kiev, and shot them. The place of atrocity is not marked, there is a private residence on the site.

Famous Jews from Boryspol

Abba Braslevskiy (1864 – ?) – a journalist (in Yiddish), from the middle 1880s  – In the United States, an editor of the newspaper “Yiddish Volkszeitung” and weekly. “Der Morgenstern”.

Yossef Zaritskiy (1891 – 1985, Israel) – a painter. Until 1914 he studied at the Kiyv Art College, then lived in Moscow. Since 1923, in Israel, where he was one of the founders of the first art exhibition (1923), a founder of the group  “The New Horizons”, significant for abstract lyrical trends in Israeli painting. The first Israeli artist who had a personal art exhibition in Amsterdam Museum (1959). The author of mountain landscapes, still lives (“Zichron Yaacov”cycles, 1939-40), “Iehiam” (kibbutz in northern Israel, 1954-55), “Amsterdam” (1954-55). National Artist of Israel (1959).

Yossef Zaritsky

Raphail Semenovich Pavlovskiy (1924, Boryspol – 1990, Kharkov), Hero of the Soviet Union (1945). Dr. jurid. Sciences, professor. In the army from 1942, at the front from 1943. Battery commander, lieutenant Pavlovskiy was awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union for his courage in battle during the forcing of the Oder. In 1946 he retires as a major of reserve. In 1950 he graduated from the Kharkov Law School. He remained a lecturer there, was awarded the Ukraine Republic State Award (1981) and four medals.

Raphail Pavlovskiy

Zakhariy Grigorievych Frenkel (Simeon Girshevich) (1869, Boryspol – 1970, Leningrad)-  a doctor, a politician and a public figure. An Academician of the Academy of Medical Sciences of the USSR (1945).

Zakhariy Frenkel

Rykun village is a part of Dymer, an urban-type settlement in  Kiev region, Ukraine. It was founded as a Jewish agricultural settlement in Kiev Uezd of Kiev province in 1853. Since the 1980s it has been the village of Dymer district, Kiev region.  The city’s estimated population is 275 (as of 2001).

Beginning

The origin of the village name is not known. A local historian from Dymer, Grigoriy Alekseenko reckons that Rykun is the surname of one of the first Jewish settlers who came there from Uman. This version was first suggested after a visit of an emigrant descendant from Uman, Jonathan J.Rikoon whose last name is similar to the village name.As a representative of American Heritage Commission, he visited the inauguration of the Holocaust memorial in Dymer in 2011.

In 1850 32 families resided in the village, 323 people (34 families) lived in Rykun in 1898. In 1917 there were 288people. Starting from 1941 the number of the inhabitants was decreasing, down to just 150.

Starting from 1853 in Dymer suburbs each colonist family was assigned 11 plots of land to use and was to be “compensated” in perpetuity for the use of their land. The state-owned land was not particularly productive and consisted of 16.2 acres (compared to 54-108 acres that were assigned to the first colonists in South Ukraine and Bessarabiya). The settlement farming was not profitable, and most Jewish colonists who were not good at agriculture rented the land plots out to the local peasants. Some Jews even left this farming settlement; most of those who stayed returned to their previous activities: handicraft, wood trading, food and goods resale.

In 1863 The Jewish colonist families numbered 236. 14 years later the total area of the state-owned land the colonists cultivated was 585.4 acres and the number of families who were engaged in farming was growing and reached almost 70% of all the inhabitants in 1898. The colonists grew rye, wheat and barley. There were also two brick kilns in the village where the Jews successfully produced brick and sold it to other villages and towns.

Jewish Pogroms

In the beginning of the XX century, frequent pogroms engulfed the South-Western territories of Russian Empire, and Rykun was not left behind. In November, 1905, 62 Jewish families suffered from the pogrom where the damage to the Jewish community reached 18,000 rubles. During another pogrom in 1919 four Jews were shot.

“…on the 16^th of September an armed wing headed by Struk entered Jewish settlement Rykun and demanded gold and silver from the Jews passing by. The soldiers slaughtered the Jews with slabs and whips. Four of them were shot to death.” (from “History of Pogrom Movement in Ukraine”, by I.Cherikov.)

 After Civil War

In 1929 a collective farm was organized in Rykun named after Sholem Aleichem, which employed 237 people in just one year and survived up to the beginning of the World War II in the Soviet Union in 1941. The first Young Communist in the settlement was a Jewish girl named Peisakhl (her last name is not known).

Bushes on the place of former Jewish collective farm

During the period between two wars, the World Wars I and II, most Jews left Rykun and moved to the bigger towns and cities in search of a better life.

Below there are the stories of some Jews from Rykun settlement:

Moisei Lasbin joined Red Army (Bolshevist Army) at the age of 15, survived World War II and held the rank of Colonel.

Yankel Nuhimovich Lisitsa (1871, Rykun – 1943, Kuibishev)

Tseitlin Samuil (Efimovich – son of Efim) – was born in 1894 in Rykun. He lived in Leningrad, worked as Head engineer of the laboratory for Leningrad telephone central offices. In May, 1937 NKVD and Prosecutor’s Office of the USSR arrested him, convicted and on the 15^th of December Tseitlin Samuil was executed. His name appeared in the list of the Great Purge of 1937.

Abraham Aronovich Lisistsa (1905, Rykun – 1975, Kiev)

Yelik Gershovich Levitas (1909-1969) – one of 7 Jews from Rykun who were called up to the front line in 1941 (the beginning year of the World War II in the USSR territory).

Holocaust

During the first three months of the war, approximately 50 Jews evacuated to the eastern parts of the USSR.

After Rykun was occupied by the Nazis, local police chiefs Vasiliy Pavlusenko, Timofeiy Marchenko, Yakov Dmitrenko made the list of the Jews who did not leave the village. All of them were driven together at 39, Gagarina street, where they were kept without food and water for 3 days guarded by German soldiers. Local Ukrainians remember 50 Jews gathered in one hut. Some locals tried to hand over food for them. Later, all the Jews were transported to Dymer and kept in a school basement. Then they were sent to Babiy Yar and shot to death there. Russian Jewish Encyclopedia states that 93 Jews from Rykun settlement were shot in 1941. The property of the shot Jews was stolen by the local Ukrainians.

In this building local Jews were kept 3 days without food and water in 1941.

The last remaining Jewish woman, who lived in Rykun in 2016, recalled only 6 names of those who were shot: Gesiya Mednikova; Fira Levitas and her two children Nunik and Betia; Motik Lasbin (his Ukrainian wife brought him to Gestapo herself).

Yad Vashem lists state 22 persons born in Rykun settlement, mostly those who left the village during 1914-1941 period.

Anatoliy Kuznetsov in his documentary novel “Babiy Yar” recalls hiding in Rykun during the war. He describes the place where the Jews from nearby Dymer were shot to death. That place was an unfinished air field.

“…….a kind-hearted woman named Goncharenko from Rykun village welcomed me at her place. That was how I got to the village again….

…….A long ditch was partly filled, partly washed out with spring tide. The Jews and others from nearby villages were shot in that ditch. Vasia took me to the place to show their local little Babiy Yar. The ditch looked like an ordinary one. The neighboring fields stretched to the horizon. We noticed something leaking out from the ground. That was a black, sticky, human foot in a corrupted boot. We ran away.

Behind the ditch there was an unfinished military airfield. The prisoners constructed it by the orders of the NKVD. That was a classified object and it was prohibited to come close to the airfield. Now the enormous airfield was dead. Long lines and complete concrete landing strips were stretching far away. Everywhere there were piles of chad and cement hard as stone; hand barrows, mattocks, spades were lying as if they were abandoned a few minutes ago. Everything looked as if the people disappeared like a shot….”

After WWII

When the village was liberated in 1943, the collective farm named after Sholem Aleichem was dissolved and never existed again.

After liberation most Jews who survived did not return to the village, because their houses were ruined or occupied by the locals.

Rukyn in 2016

According to the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia, only 10 Jews who evacuated came back to Rykun. In 2016 the names of 4 Jews who returned home were found. They are: Yevdokia and Yenta Talalai, Sonia Levitas (1915-1985) and Peisakhl Lasbin (1912-1998).

Yelik Levitas whose family was shot in 1941 returned from the front line and married his cousin’s widow Peisakhl Lasbin. They had two children after the war.

In 2016 just one old Jewish woman lived in Rykun….

Byshov is a historic town located in Makarov district of Kiev region. Byshovis located on the Lupa River, a tributary of the Irpen. The town’s estimated population is 2,773 (as of 2001).

Byshov became a part of Russia Empire in 1793, in XIX – beginning of XX century it was shtetl of Kiev Yezd of Kiev Gubernia.

The earliest source of data on the Byshiv Jewish community states that there were 142 Jews in the village in 1765. Population numbers peaked in 1864 at 780, and dropped to 597 by 1897 (17% of total population).

According to the Brockhaus-Efron Encyclopaedia, in the archives of the town owners in Pashkotz, a document has been preserved in which an Itsko Ozerovich proclaims his free will to swear loyalty in the synagogue.

In 1768, the Jews of Byshiv were victims of the Haidamak pogroms. In 1900 there was one synagogue in Byshiv.

I haven’t find much info about Byshev Jewish community and this article will consist of some photos only

Byshev entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913. 90% names are Jewish

Synagogue was on this place

On this place was Jewish cemetery. It was destroyed before WWII

Former market square (on the left side) which was surrounded by Jewish shops and former Jewish quarter (now it is Zhukova Str.)

Silver Shabbat cup which belonged to Byshev Jews

Part of Torah scroll in Byshev local museum. It was brought from village Vilne (12km from Byshov)

Torah with comments and Machzor for Rosh Hashanah in Byshev local museum

On this place 20 local Jews were killed by Sokolovskiy gang during pogrom in 1919

Remains of Torah scroll which belong to Byshev Jews

Jewish tombstone in the basement of farm’s storehouse which was build in 1930’s. It was standing on the grave of ” Sarah, daughter of cohen Levi-Yitskhok who died in 1910″

Jewish tombstone in the basement of farm’s storehouse which was build in 1930’s.

S.L. Deputat (on the left), who saved his Jewish neighbors during pogrom in 1919

Local Jewish woman Fira (on left) who was saved during pogrom by S.L. Deputat in 1919. Photo was made during her visit in Byshov after WWII

We know the names of 2 local Jews who were killed by Germans and members of local police:
-Tatyana Yakovlevna Konopatskaya (journalist)
– Jewish men with nickname Vilchek (tailor). His last words were: “Forgive me for all, I do nothing bad for you”

After the war few Jews returned in Byshov:
– Fanya Moiseevna Kerzhner (she was a Head of Education department)
– systers Roza and Katya Feldman
– Morgulis (he survived during the Holocaust and repatriated to Israel)

Systers Feldman died in 1970’s-1980’s. They were last Jews of Byshev….

Brovary is a city located in Chernigov region of northern Ukraine.  The city’s estimated population is 100,865 (as of 2016).

Brovary became a part of Russia Empire in 1667, in XIX – beginning of XX century it was shtetl of Oster Yezd of Chernigov Gubernia. It is approx. 51 km from Kozelets and in 28 km from Kiev.

Beginning

The Brockhaus-Efron Encyclopaedia notes that Brovary was a mansion settlement with a Cossack population of more than 10 per cent.

According to the law of May 14, 1840, Jews were not permitted to settle there; apparently, an 1845 attempt to do so failed. However, in Chapter 55 of the 1866 Respons by the Tzemach Tzedek Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the inhabitants of Brovary are mentioned with regards to a question on the suitability of cereals for Pesach.

Therefore, in 1866 (or even earlier, given that the Responsa was compiled over many years), it can be presumed that there was a Jewish community in Bravary with connections to the hasidic Habad dynasty

Under the 14 May 1840 decree, Jews were not allowed to settle in Brovary. Later the decree was overturned. In 1897 there were 888 Jews, making up over a quarter of all 3817 residents of Brovary. They had a prayer house and a Jewish cemetery. Jewish prayer houses were also located in Zavorychi and Semipolki villages (a village of Gogolev had its own prayer house and there was a rabbi called Liber Liberzon (1867–year of death unknown).

Brovary on the Pre-Revolution map, 1868

The Jews in Chernogov guberniya (pre-1917 administrative district) owned 1,144 pubs by 1882. To add to that, there was a great deal of unpatented pubs, outside of the police and excise officials records. By that time the pub in Brovary belonged to one Izhac Paliy who also owned the village post office.

The Jews in Brovary were mostly engaged in small-scale trade and medical services which contributed greatly to the town development. Thus, in 1898 a Jew named Shperling, a local merchant, set up a soft drinks manufacture in Brovary, a similar business founded in 1907-1908 by another merchant called Eistrakh. Another Jewish merchant A.V. Yaniskor built two, soap and leather producing factories in Brovary in 1904, and in 1907 a merchant called I.M. Iyerusalimskiy built an ironworks on the land he had rented. He also owned a steam powered mill. A bit earlier, in 1901-1902 a merchant Feigin opened an oil mill, another merchant David Volfovich Briker founded an enterprise which produced carriage grease. There was an insurance agency “Rossia” in Brovary also headed by a Jew named Abram Mendelevich Galperin. Brovary sawmill belonged to a Kligerman. The owners of other small-scale businesses were Sandal and Fereter.

In the very beginning of the XX century Yakov Moiseevich Berkovich applied to the local authorities to open a chemist’s in Brovary.

In 1913 a dentist’s was opened by a graduate of Medicine department at St. Vladimir University, Zelda Mendeleevna Rubinshtein.

The owner of the Brovary postal house was a merchant of the 2^nd guild, a hereditary honorary freeman, Abram Leibovich Ashkenazi (1846-1919) who was murdered by Denikin’s soldiers during the civil war of 1917-1922.

Cival War pogroms

During the period of the Revolution and the Civil War in Ukraine (1917-1922), a great deal of Jewish small traders and craftsmen went bankrupt as a result of their property having been confiscated, pogroms and endless pillaging by the militants. However, even more tragically, the whole existence of Jewish community in Ukraine was under threat: numerous pogroms occurred in Brovary and Gogolev.

On 23 March 1918 a detachment of haydamaks (members of an anti-Bolshevik Ukrainian cavalry of Hetman P.Skoropadskiy) entered Gogolev village, where broke into Jewish houses and shot two Jews. One of the murdered men – a representative of the local Jewish community B.Kaganov – was shot to death right in front of his mother, wife and six children. The haydamaks went on breaking into Jewish houses demanding vodka and money even at night.

In February 1919 Brovary Jews suffered from another pogrom, organized by the Directory (Ukrainian Government in 1918-1920).

In August 1919 the town suffered from the pogrom organized by Denikin’s military forces. The beginning of 1920 was marked by the pogrom instigated by Romashka, a Cossack chieftain.

In 1922 “The Jewish Tribune” newspaper in Paris published: “….the Jews from the provinces (particularly from Brovary) ran for dear life to Kiev….”. Various anti-Bolshevik military units and Cossack troops instigated pogroms against the Jewish population of Brovary.

Jewish property suffered greatly during the pogroms.

Before WWII

The Jewish population had decreased to 646 by 1923 and further to 526 by 1926. In 1928, the Jewish community of Brovary appealed to the Habad Admor, Yosef Itzchak Schneerson, to provide material assistance of the sum of 400 roubles for repairs to the mikvah.

In 1928 the Brovary Jewish community pleaded with J. I. Shneerson to provide welfare assistance in the amount of 400 rubles to repair the mikvah.

There was a synagogue in Brovary before the war. It was situated at the crossing point of three streets: I.Gonty (previously Vorovskiy Street), Lenina and Turgeneva streets. It was a circular two-story building. Before the war, the synagogue was turned into a cinema. During the occupation the Nazis even showed films there. When they burnt everything in the area three weeks after the invasion, they also burnt the synagogue to the ground.

The Jewish population of Brovary in 1939 was 485, five per cent of the total population.

Holocaust

The Great Patriotic War started in Brovary on 25 June 1941 when German bombers launched their airstrike over the Brovary airfield. In the end of September 1941 the town was occupied by the units of German 6^th Army.

Local Brovary Jews were herded together but then allowed to go back home. The Nazis said to them: “Take all your valuables; we are going to send you to Palestine”. The Jews believed, took their belongings, but they were sent to Babiy Yar instead. Witnesses saw some Jewish families sent to be executed: the Krupiak’s family (two sisters – one named Fenya, another sister’s name is not known), the Rosumovich, the Barylo, the Novoselskiy.

Righteous Among the Nations in Brovary and Brovary district:

In September 1941 in the outskirts of Trebukhov village German units destroyed two partisan detachments which arrived to the area from Kharkov. They consisted mostly of students. There were many Jews among those who were shot and their names are known.

in 1941, the Nazis set up two concentration camps for the Soviet prisoners of war in the area – one camp was in the village of Gogolev and contained between four and 40 thousand POWs; another one was located in  Brovary and housed about 18 thousand POWs.

Headquarter of Brovary concentration camp

The camp was located in the premises of the former labor colony. The Nazis tormented the Jews: they put them in stocks and forced them to walk. There were some witnesses who reported seeing semi-naked Jews walking along Kievskaya Street dressed in only in their underwear. They put their hands over the shoulders of those marching ahead so that nobody could see them naked. The others were dressed in coats. The number of the prisoners varied from 33 to 60 thousand according to different sources. Every day three carts loaded with corpses left Brovary. Dead bodies were buried in four places: in the antitank ditch (the Brovary Jews were shot there as some witnesses testified), in the clay mine and other places.

The Jewish POWs from Darnitsa camp were brought to the area of the local military administrative agency in Brovary – there was a sand pit over there (nowadays it is the area between Lenina and Gorkogo streets with a local school No3 and some apartment blocks built for the employees of “Geologorazvedka” administration). In 1942 people saw three mobile gas chambers bring the people who had already suffocated of gas. Their dead bodies were taken from the vans with hooks and thrown into the pit. So far the exact number of those people has not been established.

Approximate burial place of POWs from Darnitsa concentration camp

Yakov Polischuk recalls the Brovary concentration camp:

We were driven to the Brovary camp. Barbed wire, four machine-gun towers. Thousands of prisoners of war without food and water. We slept rough. First Nazi helpers–local police with white arm bands – appeared. They were mostly Ukrainians. One day the Nazis ordered all Jews, commissars and political officials to step forward. Those who did not obey were threatened to be shot there and then. Some prisoners stepped out unwillingly, and there were those they served at the front with, who were now Nazi sympathizers. These prisoners were executed outside of the camp fence. One of them said to me: “You must run”. That was my first escape of the three ones during the war.

By the end of 1941 over 2,000 Jews were shot in Brovary.

Red Army soldiers from Brovary perished in WWII:

Of the more than 2000 Jews who were killed in Brovary we know the names of only 34 civilians and 60 names of Jewish soldiers from Brovary and Brovary district which were killed during WWII. You can find 3 lists here, here and here (in Russian).

Doctor Isaac Feldman

A doctor named Issaac Lazarevich Feldman lived and worked in Brovary from 1904 – 1942. (He was murdered by the Nazis during the occupation).

Isaac Feldman was born in Kiev in 1874. Being a student of St Vladimir University, he was excluded from the University for his participation in the revolutionary movement. He still graduated and in 1904 Isaac Feldman started work in Brovary. A small ambulance station, where Isaac Lazarovich and his assistant treated their patients was the provider of medical service to the residents of over 20 villages.

Issaac Lazarevich Feldman (1874-1942)

Isaac Feldman went to work during the day as well as at nights as a local general practitioner, a surgeon, a gynecologist, a pediatrician, a nerve specialist. In 1911 Feldman bought a one acre plot of land where the district council, persuaded by the doctor, built a small hospital for 10 beds. He never charged the poor and frequently paid for their treatment.

In 1915 Feldman’s wife Yelizaveta Aaronivna died and two years later he married Maryna Maksimovna Stasyuk.

A decade later the hospital was extended to 25 beds; the ambulance station was re-built as a health center. During the Ukrainian famine of 1932-1933 Isaac Lazarovich not only treated the sick but supported the starving population.

As the time went on, Isaac Feldman’s son Leonid became an engineer and moved to Leningrad with his family.

On the 2^nd day of Great Patriotic War the Nazis bombed the Brovary air field. The wounded were taken to hospital and Isaac Feldman remained with them, refusing to be evacuated.

During the occupation period Feldman treated soldiers and officers who managed to escape from concentration camps, provided medical support to partisans, rescued lots of Brovary inhabitants from departure to Germany. One day it was suggested that Isaac Lazarovich should hide with a loyal family in Gogolev, but he refused to do so. While risking his life to save others, he contracted typhoid. Weakened by the disease, 68-year old doctor was arrested after a report to the Nazis. He left a note before leaving for his execution:

“Dear Brovarians, I am going to be taken away today. If I deserved to be betrayed, if you are able to give me your hand – please, do it. Please, protect my children. Love you. I.Feldman. 19.12.42.”

Memorial table to doctor Feldman on children’s polyclinic in Brovary

On the same day, 19 December 1942, doctor Feldman and his sister Olena Lazarivna Pavlova were executed in the local Gestapo yard.

Following the execution, Doctor Feldman and his sister were buried in the Jewish cemetery which was closed before the war: Isaac Feldman had bought a burial plot for his family long before. Their bodies were reburied in the town cemetery after Brovary was liberated.

Old monument on doctor’s grave

In July 1991 a memorial commemorating the doctor’s name was erected in front of a children’s clinic in Kirova Street where the first ambulance station where Isaac Feldman worked was located.

One of those who kept the memory of Isaac Feldman alive was Vladimir Rudeshko. He was brought up alongside with the doctor’s family and got along well with his son Leonid and granddaughter Tatiana Avrutina until they died. After that, he continued to correspond with the doctor’s great-granddaughter who is a doctor in St. Petersburg, and his great-grandson –Ph.D in Physics and Maths Yevgeniy Avrutin who lives with his family in England. Sadly, Vladimir Rudesko is no longer with us.

In 2004 a newly paved street in Brovary was named after Isaac Feldman.

The doctor’s great-grandson Yevgeniy Avrutin visited Brovary recently. He passed on Isaac Feldman’s belongings to the local historical museum: medical instruments, a surgeon’s chest, pen and ink, a moustache brush found in the place where the doctor was shot, his last note. These things are exhibited in the cabinet dedicated to this outstanding person.

New monument on grave of doctor Feldman

19 December 2016 will be the 74^th anniversary since the death of the humanitarian who was the father of health care service in Brovary. This article is another memorial to this selfless son of Brovary.

After the War

Local resident recalls:

I remember some Jews living in Brovary before and after the war. I went to school together with Yevgeniy Tsymerman whose family evacuated. The Brikers owned the roadside inn. One of the Jewish girls, called Golda sold sunflower seeds near Razvilka bus stop (a monument to Taras Shevchenko is there nowadays). Orlov’s family owned the lemonade factory. Pogrebinskiy Emmanuil was the editor of the local newspaper “Stahanovets” (“New Life”). Braginskaya was the village club director: she ran dancing and singing classes. Talisman Dosiy Semenovich was an accordion player; he was our music teacher at school. In Kievskaya Street at Razvilka lived Kaplinskiy who secretly run a mutual aid society. He was in evacuation. There was a dentist Ida Shrabshtein with her husband; a hairdresser Fainitskiy Mark with his wife Luba.

Officially Jewish community was created again only in 1990’s.

Famous Jews from Brovary

Leo Motzkin (1867, Brovary – 1933, Paris) was a Russian Zionist leader. A leader of the World Zionist Congress and numerous Jewish and Zionist organizations, Motzkin was a key organizer of the Jewish delegation to the 1919 Paris Peace Conference and one of the first Jewish leaders to organize opposition to the Nazi Party inGermany. After him
one of the suburbs in the city of Haifa  was named (Kiryat Motzkin).

Leo Motzkin (1867 – 1933)

Paul Lvovich Lazarev (born 1923), Major General of the Medical Service (1982) of USSR Police forces.

Paul Lvovich Lazarev

Brovary Jewish cemetery

The cemetery site is located on Kirova St, near the fire department building. There is no longer any visible trace of its existence. While there are no remaining gravestones or cemetery-related structures at this cemetery site.

Many of the Jewish graves found in the nearby municipal cemetery were moved there when the Jewish cemetery was demolished in the 192os.

Researchers of Lo-Tishkah project find a number of Jewish graves in the municipal cemetery opposite of the site of destroyed Jewish cemetery. However, there is no specific Jewish section. The stones are made of marble, granite and sandstone. The inscriptions are in Russian and Hebrew. The oldest tombstone dates from 1920, the newest from 1974.

Trypillya is a historic town located in Obukhov district of Kiev region. Trypillya is located on the Dnieper River. The town’s estimated population is 3,001 (as of 2006).

Trypillya became a part of Russia Empire in 1667, in XIX – beginning of XX century it was shtetl of Kiev Gubernia. 

Trypillya is approx. 50 km from Vinnitsya and in 280 km from Kiev.

Beginning

Historically, people settled in Trypillya because of a ford across the Dnieper river and a strategically important hill rising high above the river bank.

Written records of the Jews of Trypillya go back a long time. One of them an appeal on 21 July 1638 to the Kyiv magistrate court (Old Polish state lower courts handling the major offences in the Cossack Hetmanate within the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from 1434) by a Polish nobleman called Mykola Pronsky, a servant of the Trypillya castle owner Maksimilan Bzhozovsky. The appeal presented the details of a devastating pogrom instigated by a Cossack paramilitary unit consisting of 4,000 rebels on 6 July 1638. According to M. Pronsky, “Cossacks beat up and wounded many people living there, the local peasantry and Jews, and their property was completely destroyed”.

During Khmelnytsky Uprising (the Cossack-Polish War in 1648-1657 under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky) the Patriarch of Antioch Makarios and his son, Archdeacon Paul of Aleppo, invited by Russian tsar Alexis, were going to Moscow and made a 2-day stop in Trypillya. While staying at the Trypillya castle, Paul of Aleppo noted down the life of the local Jews and other Ukrainian Jews, “When we were in Moldavia, we asked a Jew escaped, called Yankel, what Khmetlnysky had done to the Jews from Poland”. The Jew answered that Khmelnytsky had started a pogrom against the Jews more savage than Vespasian.”

Site of former Tripillia castle

During the Khmelnytsky Uprising the Jews from Trypillya escaped to Tulchyn where the Cossacks murdered them alongside with all other Jews who were trying to find respite in the Tulchyn castle.

An anti-Semitic traveler from Syria Paul of Aleppo painted a terrifying picture of the life of Ukrainian Jews, mixing facts and gossip he collected from the Trypillya locals. This is what he wrote about the castle, “An enormous castle bulwarked with a double earthen wall and a moat stands on the top of a hill. Most houses have been abandoned; the Jews used to live here before, and now their beautiful houses and shops lie in ruins and the market places are devastated”.

On 11 September 1675 the Hetman of Left-bank Ukraine, Ivan Samoylovych, wrote to the tsar in Moscow that the Steward of Poland (Regimentarz) called G. Gulyanytsky devastated Trypillya, Staiky, Rzhyschiv, “pillaged non-Christian (Jewish) property and headed for Bila Tserkva area afterwards…”

During the Khmelnytsky Uprising and a drawn-out civil war that followed, the Jews left Trypillya. According to a statement concerning a Tatar invasion of Trypillya in 1695, the Tatars murdered all Jews alongside with the locals.

Written sources about the Jewish population of Trypillya appear again in the 20s of the XVIII century. At that time the Jewish traders in Trypillya were noted as maintaining a strong relationship with market centers and settlements as Kagarlyk, Boguslav, Germanivka, Bila Tserkva in Poland and Vasylkov in Russia.

Tripillia market square. Picture from local historian museum

The number of Jews living in Trypillya started to grow fast after the settlement was granted the privilege of holding own markets in 1834. The whole population of the town consisted of 829 state serfs (a separate social class in 18^th-19^th century Russia, considered personally free, although attached to the land) and just 37 Jews in 1847, with this number going up significantly to 363 Jews by 1863, and a header built 10 years before.

In 1866 Trypillya got the status of a volost (a part of provincial districts which were called uyezd in later Russian Empire) center. It included the villages of the former monastic Trypillya area: Khalep’ya, Verem’ya, Zhukivtsi, Dolyna, Krasne, Koziivka, Derev’yana, Scherbanivka, Zlodiivka (Ukrainka). Trypillya was not only a market town but also an administrative center where the Jewish community was mainly in charge of trade and industry and contributed greatly to the rapid development of the town’s economy in the second half of the XIX century. 738 Jews lived in Trypillya in 1887.

A Jewish family of Chornoyarovy, Lazar Pavlovych, with his son Vasyl owned the Trypillya ironworks and brickworks. A sawmill was owned by a first class merchant called Yona Danylovych Vaisberg.  Moreover, most mills, pubs, distilleries, furrieries in Trypillya and Trypillya area were owned by Jewish merchants. Jews worked as traders, millers, blacksmiths, teachers and doctors.

Street in former Jewish neighborhood

In the beginning of the XX century the head doctor of Trypillya clinic was Yakov Nusymovych Baraban; Tsylya Livshyts was in charge of the local chemist’s. Drapery in Trypillya and Vytachiv belonged to a Jewish merchant called Lemei Khenkelyovych Selsky. Yankel Peisakhovych Kagansky was a miller at the Trypillya water mill. The owner of the Trypillya shops and the Vytachiv brickworks was Avrum Volkovych Leviant. The market place in the center of the town was taken up by a variety of shops and stalls which belonged to over 80 Jewish families.

Trypillia entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913

Jewish traders were mostly in charge of permanent commerce in Trypillya when the town was holding market days in the XIX-beginning XX centuries. Thus, there were 22 grocery shops in the town which belonged to Vygdar Yoskovych Belsky, Tsivka Aronivna Vaisberg, Symon Srulyovych Goldovsky, Illya Saver’yanovych Goncharenko, Leizer Pynkhovych Dovgolevsky, Ester Abramivna Dovgolevska, Gnat Prokhorovych Druzenko, Gudlya Yudkivna Popilovych, Shlyoma Srulyovych Mirtsyn, Khana Mordkivna Mistechkina, Denys Maksymovych Mykolenko, Yosko Moshkovych Pavolotsky, Maksym Mykhailovych Petrychenko, Khana Mordkivna Pinsker, Leiba Avrumovych Piyavsky, Feiga Bentsivna Rubyn, Leya Yudkivna Sagalova, Shymon Pynkhasovych Trypilsky, Bents Yelevych Umansky, Volko Zelmanovych Sheveliev, Khasya Tsalivna Eidelman.

Etlya Leibivna Borodkina and Elya Meyerivna Golubchyk were engaged in fancy goods trading, Aron Avrumovych Berlend was selling gramophones.

The owners of ironmongeries were Akyva Yoskovych Pavolozky, Leiba Avrumovych Piyavsky, Volko Shlyomovych Polyachenko, Shlyoma Avrumovych Polyachenko, Benz Gershkovych Rubyn. Leizer Volkovych Brusylovsky and Shaya Leibovych P’yatygorsky were trading leather goods.

Nukhym Meilerovych Khodarkivsky owned a cereal shop; two butchers’ belonged to Mordko Yankelevych Babenko and Moisei Berkovych Beilyn; Gershko Srulyovych Lischiner and Syma Ruvymivna Sydener were trading in houseware; Gershko Yankelevych Akhmanytsky, Mar’yam Symkhivna Bilozerska, Benz Mendelyovych Pinsker, Srul Avrumovych Polovynchyk, Itsek Yankelevych-Moshkovych Kubchynsky, Avrum-Moisha Mykhelovych Staroselsky, Yankel Shymonovych Taran were engaged in flour trade; Avrum-Moisha Mykhelovych Staroselsky was a fish trader; Nakhman Yankelevych Grinberg and Avrum Sheft. Polyachenko were selling salt and tar; Benz Shmulyovych Kyryos was in charge of whole wheat trade.

Eight draperies belonged to Shmul-Leizer-Yankel Peisakhovych Aloi, Yosko Gershkovych Biletsky, Yankel Gdalyovych Bezzubov, Elya Izkivna, Srul Mordkovych Ovrutsky, Shyfra Bentsovych Rom, Duvym-Moshko-Moshkovych Statnykov, Khana Leibivna Fradlyn.

Timber warehouses were owned by Andri Stepanovych Beldiya, Mikhel Leibovych Burman, Berka Usherovych Vailya, Shneyer Berkovych Vaintrob, Khaim Asherovych Vaisberg, Mordko Berkovych Zeldys, Nison Kyvovych Kan, Davyd Stepanovych Kravchenko, Yakov Grygorovych Nosar, Slyoma Duvymovych Pypkin, Itsek Avrumovych Polovynchyk, Beniamin Leibovych P’yatygorsky.

Dnieper river near site of Trypillia castle

Jews participated in the political life of Trypillya and Trypillya area. An apostate called Mykola Danylovych Grinberg, who worked at a water mill and a farriery which he rented in Scherbanivka village, was the head of the Trypillya section of the Socialist Revolutionary Party.

Pogroms and end of community

Jewish pogroms in Trypilla first started during the Revolution in 1881-1882 and then again in 1905.

The pogroms of 1919 turned into an unending bloody massacre of horrifying ferocity, which started on 7 September 1919. At that time the town was occupied by the White Guard. Both the White Guard and local unaffiliated paramilitary units of Ataman Zeleniy detachments (the Zeleniy Ataman’s real name was Terpylo Danylo Ilkovych, an infamous commander of the Ukrainian peasant insurrection movement, 1886 – 1919) took part in the pogroms, lasting nearly a month. They pillaged and destroyed Jewish houses, shops and stalls; tortured and killed innocent Jewish women, children and the elderly. Surviving Jews left Trypillya and never returned after this horrifying ordeal, leaving this lively market town to turn into ordinary sleepy backwater.

In July 1919, a detachment of almost 100 Komsomol members (mostly Jews) from Podil were killed after leaving for Trypillia led by Mikhail Ratmansky (1900–1919) to fight the perpetrators of the pogroms (led by Ataman Zeleniy). A 24 metre-high memorial was placed at the site of their deaths on the bank of the Dnipro River in 1938 (architect Ivan Byaler, sculptors E.I. Belostotsky, G.L. Pivovarov, E. M. Friedman). During the Nazi occupation of Ukraine, the monument was destroyed. In 1956, at the same place, a new 26-meter obelisk of red granite with a five-pointed star in a wreath was erected (architect Byaler).

Monument to killed Komsomol members

A monument to Ataman Zeleniy, “fighter for the freedom of Ukraine”, was recently unveiled close to the Komsomol memorial. A museum devoted to those killed was recently transformed into the Regional Archaeological Museum.

Jewish neighborhood

Throughout centuries the Trypillya Jewry lived on the Zamkova Hill which is now a part of the local history museum. The town’s medieval architectural heritage was completely wiped out in post-war Soviet rebuilding program in the 50s and 60s of XX century. The Jewish quarter was partially flooded as a result of the Kaniv Reservoir Dam project on the Dnieper River in 1972.

In 2005 when an archeological excavation was carried out in Geroiv Trypillya Street, 5, the remains of three human skeletons, two adults and a child tied with a wire were found. They may have been the victims of the Civil War (1917-1922) pogroms.

PreRevolution building near the grave

Jewish cemetery

The cemetery was demolished during the collectivisation period in the 1920’s; an outpatient medical clinic and private houses were built in its place.

Genealogy

Numerous documents about history of disappeared Jewish community store in Kiev archives.

Kiev provincial construction and road commission – f. 41, 1849 – 1859, 3079 d. Among the materials on the construction, repair and reconstruction of buildings, there are papers on the synagogue in Trypillia.

Duma #3 1907: Voters List from Tripillya (Jewishgen):

KAGAN Ovsei Leib-Berkovich
KIRNOS Iios Shmulev
KUSTOVSKI Mikhail Maksimovich
MIRTSIN Srul Itskov
MIRTSIN Elya-Avrum Itskov

Documents in Kiev archiv

Documents in Kiev archiv

Dymer is a historic town located in Kiev region. The town’s estimated population is 5,817 (as of 2001).

Dymer became a part of Russia Empire in 1793, in XIX – beginning of XX century it was shtetl of Kiev Yezd of Kiev Gubernia.

Dymer is approx. 32 km from Kiev and in 93 km from Chernobyl.

Beginning

Over the course of several centuries several ethnic groups co-existed on the abundant soil of Dymer. The Jews lived in Dymer since the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth rule.

In the XIX – beginning of the XX centuries the Jews were mostly engaged in handicrafts and trade.

The Jewish population of Dymer was 273 in 1847.

According to the outstanding local historian Lavrentiy Pokhylevych, 1,773 Orthodox Christians of both genders and 624 Jews lived here in 1887.

From 1906 Itzkhak Klodnitskiy (1886 – ?) was the rabbi of Dymer.

Last old house in the former Jewish neighborhood of Dymer

By the end of XIX century the town had acquired a bleaching plant which belonged to Eil Aronovych Rubinshtein, and in 1912 a Jewish loans and savings society operated in Dymer.

Civil War pogroms

During the Russian Civil War in Ukraine (1917–1922) Dymer Jews suffered from endless pogroms.

In autumn 1917 an armed Jewish self-defence force had already been established.

In January 1918 a detachment of Jewish soldiers stopped a pogrom attempt. The autumn 1919 was marked with devastating pogroms when on 5 September the units of the Volunteer Army (an anti-Bolshevik army in South Russia during the Russian Civil War) instigated a pogrom where over 40 women were raped, and a Cossack detachment headed by Struk instigated another pogrom in November.

Dymer entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913

The following passage about Struk pogrom comes from a witness statement written by Moshka Iyosifovich Khabenskiy, a resident of Ivankov settlement, Kiev guberniya, Radomyslskiy uyezd , formerly a Dymer resident, on October, 29, 1919.

“On Thursday evening of 18 September, a cavalry detachment headed by Struk entered Dymer. The officer stayed at Hilel Rubinshtein’s house and demanded the Jews to bring him 18,000 of poultry, 1,000 cigarettes and 10,000 rubles. The poultry and cigarettes were delivered, but only 5,000 rubles were collected. Iyosiph Litvinov gave the money to the officer in charge of the detachment. The next day on the orders of Struk a settlement governor Pavluschenko sent for Khanon Koganovskiy to come to the volost (a small administrative subdivision in Eastern Europe).  I.T. Struk himself and a local clerk waited for him. Struk demanded Koganovskiy to collect 1,000 rubles from every Jewish house. Koganovskiy said that he was not an official to give orders, and he did not have any savings because he had lost his livelihood. Struk asked the clerk to give him a piece of paper, tore it in half, giving one half of it to Koganovskiy, and ordered to collect the money. He also added, “Tell them it is the Struk’s order and the money must be collected”. The Jews did not have this amount but they collected it by selling the boiler and other appliances from the Jewish communal bath-house to local peasants. In this way, the Jews collected 35,000 rubles and Khanon Koganovskiy brought the money to Struk. That day, on 19 September, I personally saw I.T. Struk in Dymer.

After Struk had received the money, his Cossacks entered the town and started looting Jewish houses and shops. They broke off doors and windows, smashed the furniture, and ransacked goods, furniture and other property from the houses and shops. They did not stop there and went on to rape and murder. Three Cossacks raped Itsko Dymerets’ wife at Zusya Koretskiy’s house.  There were more rapes of young women. These soldiers took away 3,000 rubles from Mordko Gershevich Leschinskiy and murdered him afterwards. Everything started at nearly 5 in the afternoon and continued to 10 at night. It was the eve of Yom Kippur. Although, the holiday was coming and it is the holiest day in the year which Jewish people spend fasting and praying in synagogues, none of the Jews dared to leave their houses to go to the synagogue; all were scared to death. The same evening at nearly 10 o’clock, Struk and his detachment left Dymer. That night someone set fire to the house of a Jewish woman called Ginda. The house burnt to the ground but local peasants put out the fire. The Jews did not leave their houses the whole Saturday. They went outside only on Sunday. Then they noticed Leschinskiy’s dead body surrounded by pigs. The body was taken to the cemetery but not buried, because soldiers frequently attacked Jews when they were burying the murdered. It was also discovered that two Jewish men and one Jewish woman from Rykun settlement had been killed together with Leschinskiy. One elderly Jew died of shock. The soldiers tortured other elderly people by cutting their beards off and beating them. Many Jews were injured.”

Another report written by Shlema Zayaruznyi, a Dymer inhabitant.

“On 20 September, in the evening, the soldiers of Struk’s detachment entered Dymer and broke into the Jewish houses ransacking them and setting them on fire. All Jews tried to escape and hide with some local peasants. Only the very old stayed at their houses and took the brunt of the pogrom; they were beaten and tortured, like, for instance, Morel Golubchik. Soldiers beat up Meyer Epelbeim savagely and insulted his faith by cutting a Christian cross on his hands. They also beat old Polonskiy. All of them are in hospital now. Jewish refugees from Ivankov could not find shelter at local peasants’ and many of them perished. A peasant who has just arrived says that the locals collected dead bodies of the murdered Jews away from the dogs. The soldiers suppressed any defensive attempts of the peasants who helped the Jews. They ordered all locals to leave the town so that they would not prevent their pillaging and raping. Nevertheless, the peasants managed to stop fires spreading to Jewish houses. Now Dymer looks like a dead town; the residents have run away and the houses have been left empty. The rest are starving. Soldiers carry on destroying houses by breaking doors and windows so that the inhabitants could not come back to their homes. No one dares to leave their houses. We urgently need help.”

Between the Wars

Number of Jewish population dropped significantly by 1923 when there were 145 Jews.

At the end of 1920s Dymer Jewish community petitioned J. I. Shneerson to provide welfare assistance to repair their mikvah.

Local synagogue was closed in 1929 and converted to club.

Photo of the Dymer synagogue from newspaper, 1929. Wooden building was disassembled after the WWII

The area where Dymer Jews were settled before the Nazi occupation was between Lenina and Kosareva streets and people called it “a Jewish neighborhood”.

25-30 Jewish families lived in Pekhovka street (the central street of the Jewish quarter) before the war.

Local historian G.Alekseenko about pre-War Jewish neighborhood in Dymer:

Gavrilov Mykola Petrovych, born in 1922, recall in 2000’s:

Many Jewish families lived in Dymer before the war. Most of them were older, but there were lots of young Jews. Their children studied at school, the adults worked for various organisations in the area. Some of them worked for a local collective farm, for example, Mikhel Dymerets was a carpenter and Yankel Rodynskyi worked as a blacksmith. Older Jews were engaged in small scale trade, making shoes and clothing. All Dymer Jews had their own houses. Yasha Ruvynskyi worked for a local newspaper called “Shlyakhom kolectyvnym” (“On the way of collective work”) and his wife Maria was a children’s doctor.

Just 153 lived in Dymer in 1939, constituting only 4% of all the town’s inhabitants.

Holocaust

During the very first days of occupation over 70 residents of Dymer were shot in the forest near the local hospital. They were Communists and Komsomol (Young Communist League) members, high-ranking officials and activists. There were Jews among the murdered.

Dymer Jews were ordered to bring their valuables, warm clothing, food, documents, and get assembled in local schook for the departure to Kyiv. The locals who had horse-drawn carts were obliged to take their Jewish neighbors to Babiy Yar.

Spevak Ryva Mykhailivna, born in 1925, recalled in 2001:

“We were 5 children in the family. Two brothers were called up to fight in 1941, they went missing. After the war there was only me, Ryva Dymerets and Gornopolska who survived. When the war started, my husband and I were evacuated to Kuibyshev where he was doing military service. Before we left, I said, “see you” to my parents but that was the last time I had seen them”. After Dymer was liberated, the woman living next door said that she had taken Ryva’s parents to Babi Yar. Her father Mikhel, weak from torture, died on the way there. On arriving the German soldiers took her mother Cherna. The neighbor herself could hardly refuse the order – the Germans did not want any witnesses to stay alive, but she convinced them she had been ordered to return to bring more Jews to Babi Yar.

Former Jewish neighborhood in Dymer

“One day in Kosareva street, the Nazis buried an elderly couple Perla and her husband Avrum leaving their heads out. The passers-by were ordered to spit on them, and the Germans beat those who did not obey with their rifles. By the end of 1941 all local Jews were exterminated, but another order was then issued, ordering to report all Ukrainians married to Jews, the children born in mixed marriages as well as the children with a Jewish grandparent. In 1942 two Ukrainian women with their children were shot next to the town concert hall (nowadays there is a dance hall built in 2001). One of them called Maria Mykhailivna Yanovska was the wife of the local headmaster, Volodymyr Fedorovych Yanovskiy who was Jewish; the other one was Fabrytska whose Jewish husband was fighting at the front”.

Marchenko (Dmytrenko) Maria Yakivna, born in 1929, remembers that the Jews were not shot in Rykun: nearly 25 Jewish men were taken to Kyiv and only one woman, a pharmacist, was taken to Dymer forest. Savenok Olga Mykolaivna, born in 1928, recalls when she found out that 3 Jews were shot in the airfield. Zhadobko Vasyl Yukhymovych, born in 1925, says that the mass execution was carried out at the airfield in the ditches dug for water supply pipes. He said, “Naked bodies of the people shot by the local collaborators were lying in the ditch. Another execution place was behind the Jewish cemetery, but there is nothing over there, the soil was ploughed.”

During the occupation the Jewish community of Dymer was totally destroyed, leaving no trace of Jewish presence in the area. The tragedy of Dymer Jewry would have gone completely unrecorded if Tetyana Sergiivna Neiman, an aspiring scientist and a high school student at Dymer High School No1, was not interested in the history of the community. She spent the year of 2001 studying Holocaust sources, collecting documents and photographs, meeting survivors and collecting witness reports. Her research was published under the title of “The Tragedy of the Dymer Jewish Community in the XX century”. Below there are several extracts from this work:

“My name is Gavrilov Mykola Petrovych. I was born in 1922 in Dymer in the family of a villager. I want to share the memories of my Jewish fellow villagers I lived alongside with before the war.

During the war many Jews evacuated….When Dymer was occupied by the Germans, they killed the Jews first. Elderly Jews and children were brought on the carts from Rykun settlement to the town. All Ruvynskyi family except Yasha, together with Cherna Dymerets, whose legs did not work, were ordered to get onto the carts in Dymer. Yasha’s wife Maria had a newly born baby. They all were taken to Kyiv and shot there.”

“My name is Mandro Galyna Ivanivna. I was born in 1915 and have lived in Dymer ever since. I also lived in the town during the war. All Jewish families had many children. Local collaborators were taking Jews somewhere. People said there was an irrigation system with a reservoir somewhere near Rykun, and the collaborators could throw still alive Jews into that reservoir. I remember that a Jewish woman who was working at a local hospital had a baby and went home. When she was going home, someone told her the Germans had already killed her husband. She asked Ivan Davydenko to hide her, and he let the woman in. A neighbor living next door betrayed that woman. Local collaborators together with the Germans took her away and shot. I don’t remember that Jewish woman’s name.”

“My name is Dudchenko Anastasia Gavrylivna. I was born in 1922. I’ve lived in Dymer all my life. During the war I stayed in Dymer working in the forest. I remember a Ukrainian family living in Katyuzhanskyi shlyakh (nowadays it’s Shevchenka street) who was hiding a Jewish boy. Dymer collaborators knew about the boy and betrayed him to the German. They took the boy away and shot him. The family whose last name I don’t remember didn’t suffer.”

After the War

Some Jewish families returned to Dymer after evacuation but community life didn’t revived.

Few Jewish families emmigrated from Dymer to USA in 1970’s.

Nearly 20 Jews lived in Dymer in 1989.

In September 2011 a memorial was erected in the Dymer Jewish cemetery. The inscription in Ukrainian, Hebrew and English says, “This memorial was erected to commemorate Dymer Jews massacred by the Nazis during Holocaust in September 1941”.

Opening of memorial in 2011

In 2010’s here lives only few fully assimilated descendants of last Dymer Jews…

Old Jewish cemetery

Cemetery was used by Jewish communities for few cemeteries and was destroyed in the first half of XX century.

New Jewish cemetery

Dymer Jewish cemetery was used by the residents of Dymer and the Jewish colony Rykun’. It was destroyed by local Ukrainians after World War II. According to the Cemetery Project of the International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies, the local executive authorities held restoration works on the cemetery in 1970; the metal grave plates with Russian inscriptions might have been placed then. According the same data, the last burial on this cemetery took place in 1969.

Plate on the fence of Jewish cemetery which was reconstructed in 2015 for the German’s cost

Jewish prayer house

All information about this building was provided by its current owner during my visit in 2016.

The building is located opposite the site of the main Dymer synagogue.

The exact date of the construction of the building is unknown but it can be assumed that it was built in the second half of XIX century. During the renovation of the building, the owner found a metal plate of Insurance society dating back to 1835.

Metal plate of Insurance society

The building was used by the Jewish community as a prayer house though it belonged to a rich person who lived in Kiev and visited Dymer only at weekends and performed the duties of the shochet. The Rabbi resided there permanently . The house was sold after the Revolution and transformed into an inn.

Rebuilded building of Jewish prayer house in Dymer, 2016

The building was significantly reconstructed in 2010’s but I managed to take a photo of several original walls and rooms.

The original door frame was taken away but I managed to cut out the part with a mezuzah trace.

Cutting Mezuzah’s trace from door’s remains of Jewish prayer house

Holocaust mass killing site

Most of local Jews were killed in Babiy Yar. But the last Jews who tried to hide and were found in 1941-1942 were killed on the western outskirts of the town on the site of former Chkalov aerodrome.

Genealogy

Additional sources of information on the Jewish community of Dymer can found in the Kiev State Archive:
– District courts of Kiev province – Kiev, f. 227, 1782 – 1872, 2708 d. – statistical data on the number of Jewish population in Dymer in the years 1797 and 1858.
– District police departments – Kiev, f. 1260, 1859 – 1912, 1944 d. – Data on the expenditure of taxes in Dymer.
– Kiev district executive committee of the Council of workers, peasants and Red Army soldiers – f. ?-112, 1922-1930, 8846 d. – materials on the seizure of Jewish colonists’ land by Dymer residents;
– District executive committees of the councils of workers, peasants and Red Army soldiers – Kiev, f. ?-126, 1923-1932, 87 d. – lists and forms of tally sheets of Jewish migrants; summary of the report «Soviet power and ethnic policy », presented in Yiddish by the authorized representative on registration of Jewish migrants in the town of Dymer A,N, Friedland.

According to the lists of Kiev region Duma electors in 1907, 36 Jewish Dymer residents were registered; their property was evaluated as being worth 300 roubles and above. Compared with other shtetls in the county, this number is small. The list included Blinder Nahman Meerovich, industrialist, whose property was estimated at 2000 roubles; Polonskiy Shimon Kelmanovich (2300 rub.); and Olevskiy Nuhim Haskelevich (1500 rub.). This list also includes the Kladnitskiy brothers, Boruh and Shimon. The local rabbi was supposedly the son of Boruh Kladnitskiy.

ANIEVSKIJ Man’ Usherovich (800 rub.)
BALTER Lejba Borukhovich (500 rub.)
BERDICHEVSKIJ Elia Aronovich (400 rub.)
BLINDER Motel’ Lejzerovich (800 rub.)
BLINDER Nakhman Meerovich (2000 rub.)
VARSHAVSKIJ Nakhman Alterovich (800 rub.)
VENTSEL’ Zalman Iontelevich (400 rub.)
GLIKIN Moshko Berkovich (400 rub.)
GOLIK Lejba Iosevich (400 rub.)
GOLUBCHIK Mordukh Lejbovich (300 rub.)
GONCHAR Bentsion Itskovich (400 rub.)
GORODETSKIJ Avrum Khaskelevich (400 rub.)
GUTGARTS Khaim-Gersh (300 rub.)
GUTKOVSKIJ Ovsej Berkovich (600 rub.)
DEKHTIAR Nukhim-Avrum Borukovich (400 rub.)
ZHOVNIRSKIJ Ivan Petrovich (1000 rub.)
ZASNOVSKIJ Zelik Iankelevich (300 rub.)
ZAYARUZNI Khaim Nisonov (300 rub.)
KLADNITSKI Borukh Shlimov (400 rub.)
KLADNITSKI Shimon Shulimovich (300 rub.)
TOLOKUNSKII Leiba Mendelevich (450 rub.)
TOLOKUNSKII Motel’ Bentsionovich (300 rub.)
TOLOKUNSKII Neiakh Moshkov (300 rub.)
TROVSKII Ovsyei Izrailevich (400 rub.)
KHAZAN Aron Nuta Merim Itzkovich (300 rub.)
KHALEMSKII Avrum Moshkovich (600 rub.)

Krasnoe became a part of Russia Empire in 1793, in XIX – beginning of XX century it was shtetl of Yampol Yezd of Podolia Gubernia.

Beginning

The Jewish community was first mentioned in the town of Krasnoe in 1605. The area where Krasnoe Jews settled was the older part of the town. During Khmelnytsky Uprising (the Cossack-Polish insurgency in 1648-1654 under the command of Hetman Bohdan Khmelnytsky) the Jewish population in Krasnoe was completely decimated by Khmelnytsky’s Cossack military units.

Some celebration in the main market square of Krasnoe in 1923

In the first half of the XVIII century, when a revival of the Jewish communities began in Bratslav area, Jewish colonists migrated from different areas to revive the community of Krasnoe. They gradually re-populated the center of the old town. Overcrowded, densely built dwellings of local Jews encircled the market square. The houses were built out of local timber and stone, with storage and workshop space on the ground and basement level. What was interesting is that the basements of the houses located on main trade streets were quite spacious and joined by means of underground passages. Some of these passages formed ‘underground streets’ leading into the remains of the old castle basements. Some houses had terraces where the owners could enjoy the sunshine on fine days. All houses had spacious Italianate or gable tiled roofs with an ornate fron door and a side service entrance.

In 1784 560 Jews lived in Krasnoe, including 323 residing in the town proper and the Jews from 30 surrounding villages, associated with the local Jewish community. Three years later this number went up to 596 Jews, with 328 living in Krasnoe.

In 1793 the town of Krasnoe and the surrounding area became part of the Russian Empire (1791 – 1917), forming a pale of Jewish settlement beyond which, under various tsar decrees, the Jews were prohibited to live; however, the day-to-day life of the community changed little.

The Jewish population in Krasnoe was growing fast, with 1,747 Jews recorded in 1847, according to the town archives. 49 years later this number went up to 2,599 Jews out of 2,844 residents of Krasnoe. There was a synagogue and a heder as well as four prayer houses which appeared in 1888. The same year the town was granted the privilege to hold own fairs, 26 per year. There were 60 Jewish shops and 140 craftsmen working in the town.

In 1880’s the Haskalah movement reached Krasnoe and the surrounding villages, most probably brought by a bookseller called Pinkhas. On market days, twice a week, he visited Shpykov’s place bringing the short stories by Shomer (Nakhum Meir Shaikevych), “A Boy from Poland” by Izkhac Ioel. Linetsky , the novels by Issac Mayer Dick alongside with religious books, ritual items, little things for children and various copper and brass trinkets. He loaned the books out to read under the condition that he would pick them up when he comes back. These books were mostly for women and children, but even some men, who were supposed to read only religious books, were discovering a ‘great world’ while reading the popular fiction delivered by Pinkhas.

Krasnoe entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913

In the beginning of the XX century Krasnoe had a state rabbi called Khaim-Ios’ Leizerovych Lidinzon. It was an official appointment approved by the government. A state rabbi represented Jewish communities in the state system and was responsible for the registration of marriages, births and deaths in the community.

The town administration in Krasnoe first headed by starosta [a settlement governor, an elected leader of a community in provincial areas of Russian Empire], called Doin Gamil’ Nus’-Zelmanovych (1904), then by Alter-El’ Mishpotman (1908). In 1908 Krasnoe town had its own Talmud Torah, a religious primary school for boys of lower class backgrounds.

Сivil War pogroms

The Jews suffered greatly from persecution during the Russian Civil War in Ukraine (1917-1922).

Between the wars

Jewish houses and shops looted and destroyed were rebuilt as well as schools and cultural venues. Numerous small trade workshops were founded with 112 small-scale producers working there: 59 shoe makers, 33 tailors, 15 tanners, 2 hoopers, 3 tinsmiths, as recorded in 1921.

There were two Jewish clubs in Krasnoe town: “Yevdrama (Jewish Drama)”, an amateur drama club, and “Kadima”, a self-education club. However, the official Soviet policy aimed to gradually erode Jewish national heritage. Many capable artisans lost their jobs forcing them alongside with other Jews to leave the province and move to bigger cities.

Former market square of Krasnoe in 2015. Photograph by myshtetl.org

In the mid-1920s a Krasnoe section of the youth organization “Hehalutz”, a Jewish youth movement, trained young people in working on land in order to re-settle in Israel.

An orphanage for 30 Jewish boys and girls, whose parents were murdered during the civil war, was opened in Krasnoe in 1922. The Jewish school in the town was founded in 1918. The pupils were taught in Yiddish but the Soviet policy was to liquidate the Yiddish-based educational system and the school in Krasnoe was closed in 1938.

In 1924 the population of Krasnoe was 1,446, where 1,433 were Jewish, making it the only town in Podilska guberniya almost totally Jewish. A I Shoibman worked as an inspection officer of the public education department in Krasnyansky raion (an administrative unit) in 1923-1924. In the same 1924 there was a Jewish organization to eradicate illiteracy and a reading hall.

By the end of 1920s there was a Jewish collective farm “Der Shtern” (“Star” in Yiddish), headed by O M Prylutsky.

A Jewish town committee was founded in Krasnoe in 1925, later it was converted into the Jewish rural (village) council which existed until 1939.

Holocaust

The peaceful life of the Jewish community came to an end with the start of the war. Great unrest and anxiety spread among the Krasnoe Jews.

The Romanians, on the other hand, did not carry out mass executions. They implemented the “final solution to the Jewish question” in a different way. One autumn day all Jews living in the village were gathered again in the market square where the local Romanian authorities announced that a Jewish ghetto was to be found in Krasnoe. It was officially announced that the new rules were going to be introduced. Those who did not obey were threatened with arrest and shooting. Head of Judenrat became Nuhim Kohan.

Opening of memorial on the place of Jewish ghetto in 2015.

The village center was turned into a ghetto where all Krasnoe Jews had to resettle, with its own governor and his assistant selected from the ghetto residents. Later on only the craftsmen with their families stayed in the ghetto, while the rest of the Jews were taken to Tyvriv, a small town. By the time they were brought there, the execution of the Jewish population had already started in Tyvriv.

The number of the innocent people killed by the occupying army was 329 by 1 November. It was the time of terrible uncertainty and savage inhuman exploitation. People got used to constant fear of being killed. The Romanian governor of Krasnoe found out that the German commandant in Tyvriv was preparing to exterminate all Jews from the village. Alongside with the settlement governor, he did his best to overturn the execution. They reached the agreement that the Krasnoe Jews would go back to their village one by one or in groups.

The occupants used Transnistria Governorate, as the area allocated for the Jewish deportees from Bessarabia, Bukovyna and Nothern Moldova. Some of those Jews arrived to the ghetto in Krasnoe which had already been overcrowded. The deportees were different from the local Jews in every possible way, the way they looked and behaved, they were mostly very poor and uneducated. Almost every morning the ghetto residents wearing yellow arm bands were marched in columns to perform road repair works or work in the fields, to dig ditches and also to the Gnivan’ granite quarry, forced to work in any weather.

By spring 1942 some Jews were taken to the concentration camp in Skazyntsi where the prisoners from Mohyliv-Podil’sky and the surrounding villages were held. After the camp had been disbanded, the Jews from Krasnoe who survived together with some other inmates went back to their village. By 1 September 1943 the number of Jews returned to the ghetto of Krasnoe village was 282.

The local residents sympathized with the fate of the Jews and did everything they could to support them. Once the residents of the ghetto were threatened, local Ukrainians and Poles immediately offered them shelter.

The following is the memories of J. S. Rakhman, where he recalls the period when he escaped from the camp in Trykhaty.

“…..we walked from Zhmerinka to Kachanivka village, the one located near Krasnoe village where my father was. “Weak and exhausted, I was given shelter by an old local woman who gave me some borsch and a loaf of bread. Then my father and I moved to the nearest Shvachivka village where another woman, called Antosiya Lipa, a Polish one, hid us in her house. I remember her to be a wonderful selfless woman who had two sons, Martsyn and Vladziya. I became her third son doing my best in helping her around the house”.

Krasnoe in 1950’s. Photo from jewishgen.org

Although life was quite hard for the Jews living in Krasnoe, it was calm and quiet compared to the life in the areas occupied by the Germans. The Romanians even allowed for a synagogue to re-open. It often happened that the Jews escaped from the areas under the Nazi control found shelter in the ghetto of Krasnoe. When the arrests of the local partisans in Vinnytsya region started, one of the partisans called Valentyna Rudnytska, was hiding in the ghetto of Krasnoe. She was directed there by F M Gulyanytsky, professor of the Vinnitsya medical institute and the head of a local partisan organization of medical care workers. A Jew called Mykhailo Glikman actively supported the local partisan organization in Krasnoe.

In 1943 the Nazis in Krasnoe shot Borys Khaimovych Bogomolny for his links with the partisans. His nephew Igor Kogan, present day Head of all-Ukrainian association of Jewish prisoners of ghettos and the Nazi concentration camps, wrote about this in his book “Zhyvymi ostalis’ tolko my” (“There were only us who survived”), published in Kiev, 1999:

“My uncle, my mother’s brother called B.Kh.Bogomolny was a tall and very handsome man. My mum was always asking him to cover up and stay in but he would not listen. He did not know that all his family had been already shot in Babi Yar. I always loved to fall asleep lying next to him in bed. One night I woke up and saw a German soldier standing near our bed, and another one by the window. My uncle realized that they came to take him away. He said goodbye to us. The soldiers took him outside the village and ordered him to run. He started running but he was shot down. My grandfather was not allowed to bury my uncle but he did not obey and buried his son”.

Former Jewish house in Krasnoe. Photograph by myshtetl.org

There were the other members of the Jewish community executed alongside with B.Kh. Bogomolny. Their names are mentioned in the Book of Sorrow of Ukraine, Vinnytska region, part 2, 2002:
Beibel Moniya Favelyovych, born in Voroshylivka village in 1916 and killed in the ghetto of Krasnoe;
Gitis Berl Lypovych, born in 1886, a Jew, was executed by the enemies in 1942 and buried in Krasnoe village;
Gitis Meila, born in 1905, a Jew, was executed by the enemies in 1942 and buried in Krasnoe village;
Zeifman Betzion Gedaliyovych, born in Krasnoe in 1888, a Jew, was executed by the enemies in 1941;
Zeifman Betiya Moiseivna, born in 1912, a Jew, who lived in Krasnoe and worked as an accountant. She and her child were killed in the concentration camps and buried in Pechera village.
As some long-term inhabitants recalled, when the Red Army military units were retreating in July 1941, a local sales man called A.I. Pyrogivsky was shot dead.

On 17 March 1944 Krasnoe village was liberated from German occupation.

After liberation

After the war the life of the Krasnoe Jewish community changed drastically. More and more Jews were leaving for the cities and on to other countries. In 1948 the Jewish collective farm “Der Shtern” was closed because of the shortage of labor.

The town was gradually losing its fame of being called “Odessa Minor”, recalls Yiosyp Davydovych Livak, one of the last Jews living in Krasnoe.

Nowadays only four Jews remain in the village. Most locals had lots of good things to say about the Jews they had been living alongside with for many years.

Architecture

The area of traditional Jewish houses lost its medieval character a long time ago.

There are only few Jewish houses left since the time of the shtetl:
– a former tailoring studio which belonged to Yakiv Shtut, a furrier
– a derelict building which used to be owned by Gedelman, a railway worker, where there was a maternity clinic
– a traditional Jewish house with a terrace and a basement where a Ukrainian family currently lives
– a partially rebuilt house next to the local secondary school. In the middle of the former market place there is another derelict two-story brick building, which used to belong to a wealthy Jewish merchant.

Last Jewish house on former market square. Photograph by myshtetl.org in 2015

Jewish cemetery

Cemetery located in the south-east outskirts of the town in the area of “Shvachivka” on the left side of the road to the village of Nove Misto.

Photos were taken from myshtetl.org

Фастов (Russian), Хвастів – Khvastiv (Formerly), כוואסטוב ,חוואסטוב (Yiddish)

Fastov is a historic city located in Kiev region, center of Fastov district. Fastov is located on the Unava River, a tributary of the Irpen. The city’s estimated population is 47,284 (as of 2016).

Fastov became a part of Russia Empire in 1793, in XIX – beginning of XX century it was shtetl of Vasylkov Yezd of Kiev Gubernia.

Fastov is approx. 40 km from Belaya Tserkov and in 73 km from Kiev.

Beginning

While the first Jewish community was officially established in 1750, the first Jewish settlement in Fastiv can be traced back to the 17th century.

The middle of the XVIII century was marked with devastating pogroms for the Fastov jewish community that suffered greatly from Haidamaks, paramilitary Cossack bands. 1768 was the hardest year for the Jews living in the town.

In the 18th century the community was mentioned in connection with development of Hasidism; there is a legend that the Baal Shem Tov spent Shabbats in Fastiv. From 1772 to 1776, at the insistence of Rabbi Nahum from Chernobyl, the mentor of Fastov community was Rabbi Abraham ha-Malah, the son of Rabbi Dov Ber from Mezhirichi.

In 1782, Rabbi Israel Polotzker, one of the first students of Rabbi Dov Ber, was passing through Fastiv and died there. According to «Shivhey Besht», the Rabbi from Ostroh also died in Fastiv (supposedly Rabbi Abraham Meshullam Zalman, brother of rabbi Yaakov Emden).

Rabbi Gabai, head of “Ohelei Tzadikim” ogranisation, on the front of ohel of Rabbi Abraham ha-Malah during reconstruction in 2016, Fastov Jewish cemetery

The Jewish community of Fastov was large, at 2,694 Jews recorded in 1847.

Fastov entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913. Page 1

Fastov entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913. Page 2

50 years later this number went up to 5,595, according to the population census. Before 1910 there was a Talmud-Torah and Jewish schools for men and women.

An outstanding local historian of the XIX century L.Pokhylevych quoted a different number of Jews living in Fastiv in mid XIX century, 3,508.

According to the archives, in September 1905 the population of Fastiv was 21,137, where 12,848 were Orthodox Christian, 1,194 Roman Catholic and 7,095 Jewish.

According to an author from Fastiv Volodymyr Boroshenko, nearly 9,000 Jews were living in Fastiv in the beginning of the XX century, with this number dropping significantly by 1939, when according to the state census, there were 3,545 Jews.

Fastov market square, 1900’s

Most Jews lived in the center of town and in a neighboring Jewish settlement Kadlubytsya (nowadays a suburb of Fastiv) where there was a Jewish collective farm “Roiter poyer” which means “The Red Plowman”. The residents of Kadlubytsya and surrounding villages worked for this collective farm.

Marriage certificate of Bension Kipnis and Sarah-Basya Polyak signed by Fastov Rabbi Moshe-Meer Kligman, 1898

There are two Jewish districts in the city. The majority of Jewish houses are situated around the in Kuibysheva Street (former Remisnycha and Kyivska Streets), in Kalinina Street (former Chervona, Vasylkivska, Devyatogo Sichnya and Rybna Streets), in Soborna Street.; the Jewish school was located there (Kuibysheva 10; now the city elementary school is located in that building) and the choral synagogue (corner of Kuibyshev and Urnuk streets; now used as an administrative building).

Building of the synagogue in Fastov

Civil War

The years of the civil war were the hardest times for Fastiv Jews. According to the archives, over 500 Jews perished in just one week between 9 and 15 September 1919; their houses, shops and stalls were burnt down.

Funeral of bones which were find in different places after Denikin’s pogrom, September 1919

Rita Moyiseivna Kopyt recalls an awful story of a Jewish family called Zozulya.

“One day in September 1918 the mother Roza was making cherry jam when suddenly a young soldier from the army of Denikin [the White Guard general, responsible for wide spread pogroms, known as the White Terror – translator’s note] armed with a rifle appeared in their yard. He said, “Well, you’re making jam, aren’t you? We’ll come around tonight and have a taste”. Suddenly, he looked up and saw a 12-year old Srulik Zozulya’s daughter Esterka. At the time her father was not at home: he was hiding at a local priest’s place… Not paying attention to Roza’s pleading, the soldier savagely beat up Roza with his rifle and then raped her daughter Esterka, afterwards he also raped Roza….The mother was getting worse throughout autumn and winter. She never recovered and died quietly, leaving three children orphans. Esterka was lying there for three days hugging her dead mother. When the Jewish neighbors came to bury Roza, they could not pull Esterka’s hand off the dead body, it had bloated already. Roza’s body was wrapped in a blanket, put onto the sleigh and taken to the Jewish cemetery. Esterka was running after the sleigh barefoot – it was winter. A 34-year old Roza was buried quietly wrapped in a blanket, she had no coffin. Denikin’s soldiers were in charge and the Jews were afraid to leave their houses. Srulik Zozulya did not find his wife when he came home. His three children were hiding at the next door neighbor’s, called Ganna Svyrydchuk.”

Victims of Denikin’s pogrom. September 1919

Jewish families started to leave Fastiv and the neighboring villages such as Trylisy, Didivschina, Kozhanka, Polovetske. Those Jews who saved enough money and were young enough to emigrate moved to Europe and the USA.

In 1923, local JOINT employee send a report to USA headquarter and described result of devastating pogroms:

Fastov is situated at a large railway station. 60 verst’s distance from Kiev, awing to which it rapidly progressed with regard to its economic conditions and the number of its population. The Jewish population before the pogroms was 12,000 and now is 6,000, There ware 600 Jewish houses before the pogroms and now are 110.

Before the pogrom, Fastov was an important point with a comparatively all developed industry. In 1918, Fastov gave refuge to about 5,000 refugees from pogromized places of the Kiev Gubernia. The cruel pogrom committed by Denikin’s troops entirely destroyed the greater part of the Jewish population, of Fastov. The remaining Jaws fled to nearest points, mainly to Kiev. The Fastov pogrom is one of the most cruel pogroms in the Ukraine by its dimensions as wall as by cruelties committed at the time of it.

Mourning procession to the Jewish cemetery on the anniversary of the Denikin’s pogrom, Fastov

Tha number of person murdered was about 2000 Tha number of person wounded was about 500. There was also a great number of violated women. The number of houses destroyed and burnt dawn 400 The number of shops destroyed and burnt dawn 200 The number of persons dead of starvation and various epidemics which raged during the pogroms, is about 6,000 person, according to the information furnished by the Burying Association of Fastov. Thus, about one half of the total Jewish population of Fastov, amounting in all to 12,000, perished, the remaining population, which fled from Fastov during the pogroms, returning to their native place. At present there are in Fastov’: 800 widows, 160 orphans, 860 half-orphans and 200 invalids. read more

Symbolic monument to 600 victims of Denikin pogrom by 1919 on Fastov Jewish cemetery. Monument was erected in 2015 at the expense of member of local Jewish community Vladimir Boroshenko (1930-2015)

Between the Wars

At the very beginning of the Soviet rule the synagogues and the Jewish schools went on working, the Jewish newspapers and books were being published and distributed, the collective farm was still active. Everything was closed in late 30s and 40s: synagogues and schools were transformed into warehouses and army bases, some synagogues were expropriated by the state and turned into local police headquarters with detention cells.

The chief rabbi was sentenced to Solovki camps and the Jewish school was turned into the Russian “by public demand”.

Holocaust

During the World War II Fastiv was occupied between July 1941 and September 1943.

The arrests started from the first days of occupation. Some Jews were ordered to sweep the streets and dig potato fields. After the work was finished, some Jews were shot by the Nazis.

One day the local police took 30-35 women who worked on the potato field near the road to Didivschina, to the ditch dug out before. They started raping the women in front of other people. Afterwards they beat them to death with their rifles. Those women who were not killed were taken to the forest and shot there.

In August- September 1941 Wehrmacht executed 30 Jews at first and then 262 Jews between the ages of 12 and 60. According to the execution lists found in Fastiv the exact number of the Jews killed was 95.

In October 1941 surviving Jews were gathered in the building of an old bath-house in Gorkogo Street and in the former secondary school No2. They were taken to the places of mass executions not far from the school No4 in Komarova Street and another one in the Kadlubytsya area, which happened in late autumn 1941. The ditch the dead bodies were thrown into was not deep, and when frozen ground started melting in early spring, streams of human blood were flooding the fields. After the war was over, a memorial plaque to commemorate the execution of local Jews was erected there. The remains of the bodies were buried in the Jewish cemetery in Komsomolskaya Street, 38.

Another 27 Jews were shot by the local police not far from Kozhanka village. Sixteen Jews of Kadlubytsya were identified in the execution lists. So, by 12 October 1941 the total number of local Jews murdered had reached 700-800 people. There was a mass Jewish execution in the local powder depots in spring 1942.

Moisey Shlyak, soviet soldier, killed in action

The last execution of Fastiv Jews was recorded in summer 1943. This period was mentioned in the criminal records of the former local police collaborators. The number of people shot was not recorded. Some locals collaborated with the Nazis in mass killings of Jews. Their families’ members tried to stop them but unsuccessfully.

The total number of Jews executed in Fastiv and Fastiv area was about 1,000 people during the whole period of occupation.

Holocaust victims in Fastov:

Former Head of Fastiv Jewish community Ella Aronivna Sheinfein said, that it was a very trying period for the Jews during the Nazi occupation. A ghetto for the Jewish children, brought in from Fastiv and the area, was set up in the building of the secondary school No5. One autumn day a woman from Chervona village was passing by the school. She saw a 3-year old Jewish girl named Raya run out of the building (as she found out later, the girl’s surname was Brodska). When a policeman, guarding the ghetto, turned his back, the woman grabbed the girl and took her to her village where she had been hiding the child at her place until she was 7. The girl was given a Ukrainian name Galya so that the Germans could not guess that an ordinary Ukrainian family was bringing up a Jewish girl alongside their Ukrainian children. When Raya’s father came back home from the front, he tried to find his family but they all perished. The family of Kateryna Platonivna Savchenko was awarded the title of righteous gentiles by the state of Israel for rescuing a Jewish girl. The fate of other children from the ghetto was tragic: all of them were executed. The most horrifying was the death of the youngest children as their bodies were thrown into the air and shot as if they were shooting bait.

Symbolic monument to Holocaust victims on the Fastov Jewish cemetery. Monument was opened in 2010 for cost of Mike Polskiy from USA

That wasn’t the only case of Jewish children being rescued by Ukrainian families. A similar story happened in the family of Antonina Petrivna Sugak and her daughter Larysa Fedorivna Khrustalyova who saved another Jewish girl Tsylya Vainrub. The names of Maya Grygorivna Ostapenko, the Levischenki’s sister and brother, Tetyana and Petro could be included into the list of the righteous gentiles. These people helped to find the exact execution place near the Kozhanka’s sugar plant. The Levischenkis also hid a Jewish girl brought to their village by a stranger from Kyiv. The Kryvobok’s family hid their daughter-in-law who was Jewish and her child. Their cousin betrayed them to the Nazis. The Jewish mother with her child were taken to Vasylkiv village, shot and buried in a common grave.

List of Holocaust victims in Fastov (not full):

After the WWII

After the war ended many Fastiv Jews came back home to their houses which had been almost destroyed. Some of them were involved in the reconstruction work in the town. Lev Aronovytch Rabynovych was the director of the bakery, Ivan Ivanovych Abramsky was in charge of Fastiv electric distribution plant.

Throughout the post-war period all forms of Jewish national culture were progressively eroded.

Еhe Jewish community existed de-facto; there were underground minyans in the city. People collected money for community needs, including cemetery maintenance. Part of this money disappeared in the early 1990s during the financial reforms.

Rita Moyiseivna Kopyt living in Kuibysheva Street in Fastiv recalls:

“In this street there used to be 52 houses which belonged to the Jews. At the end of the street there was a synagogue that survived during the war. Nowadays there is a police headquarters and a local residents’ registration office at the place where the synagogue had been. It was constructed in 1898-1900. My grandfather built the synagogue and sang in it. He was a cantor. His younger sister Mime Ester who survived until 1972 remembered him singing beautifully, like a professional. I might have inherited my father’s ability to sing. I remember him singing while praying to God. However, the synagogue did not belong to the Jewish community after the war. The Jews prayed in the Jewish houses that had not been ruined during the war…In our street lived the Kopyts, the Koniks, the Rabynoviches, the Rybalskiys, the Tsypershteins, the Talskiys, the Rotmanskiys, the Koganovskiys and other Jewish families.”

Former Jewish school

Recently, there has been an active Jewish community in Fastiv registered in 1998, first headed by Ella Aronivna Sheinfain, then Svitlana Vasylivna Voloshska, and now by Zhanna Volochaeva. The Jewish Distribution Committee “Joint” which has its representative office in Kyiv provides the community with some financial support. Another organization “Hesed” helps the elderly Jews of Fastiv by distributing food boxes, clothes, medication, and sometimes home appliances such as fridges and TV sets under its “808” program. The community holds festivals, concerts; provides medical support in a Jewish resort in Rakytne.

In 2015, only 31 Jews lived in Fastov…

Jewish cemeteries

There are two Jewish cemeteries in Fastiv. The old cemetery stopped functioning in the 19th century and, after WWII, the land plot of this cemetery was earmarked for private construction by the decision of the local authorities. The exact location of this cemetery is unknown.

Rabbi Abraham ha-Malah was originally buried in Fastov Old Jewish cemetery and his remains were re-buried in the New cemetery when the former was dissolved. This re-burial is the subject of a local legend: after the cemetery plot was allocated for construction by the local authorities, the Rabbi’s tomb, the only one with a name on it, appeared in the garden of a local family. The family was constantly haunted by misfortunes, and so asked the Jewish community to move the grave to the New Cemetery. As soon as the re-burial took place, the problems stopped.

The second cemetery is located behind the property at Komsomolskaia Str., 38. In order to access the site, it is necessary to cross private land belonging to the Stetsky family, who have been the caretakers of the Jewish cemetery for several generations. The house is only occupied in summer.

The new Jewish cemetery on Komsomolskaya Street was established in the late 19th century. The cemetery was used by the Jewish residents of Fastiv, Kyiv, Kozhanka and Fastovets. During the occupation, the German occupiers (Zonderkommando 4A) used gravestones for construction.

There is also a mass grave located at the site, in which 500 people are buried.

In addition to the ohel there is also a caretaker’s residence at this cemetery.

Old genizah existed near ohel on this cemetery but it wasn’t restored in 2016 during ohel’s reconstruction.

Tombstones have inscriptions in Russian, Yiddish and Hebrew and 25-50% of them are broken and/or toppled. In addition to marble, granite and sandstone, some are made of iron. Tombstones are generally ‘tablet’ shaped, many have iron railings and most have portraits. The inscription on the oldest tombstone (dating from 1906) is as follows:

ציון לנפש עדינה
שרה בת ר’ דוד יצחק
[..]קתה נפטרה
[..ן]טבת [..] טבת
[תת]ומתה תרסו
תנצבה

Sign to the tender soul
Sarah, \ daughter of Reb David Yitzhak
[…], who died
[…] Tevet
[…] 5666
May her soul be bound up in the bond of life

Rabbi Abraham ha-Malah’s grave is protected by an ohel (see cemetery photographs). The inscription is as follows: “The sacred gravestone of the righteous admor Rabbi Abraham ha-Malah, son of the Holy Maggid, Rabbi Dov Ber from Mezhirich, let us be saved for his merits; deceased on Tishrey 12, 5537.” The gravestone/ohel was erected in 1999 by the «Dereh Tzadikim» company, Jerusalem. The old gravestone and inscription have not been preserved.

Holocaust mass grave

Grave locates in the city centre, towards the end of Budonnogo Street near the school.
More than 1000 Fastov Jews were killed and buried here.

Famous Jews from Fastov

Rabbi Abraham ha-Malah (1741-1777) is a known tzaddik, a son and disciple of Rabbi Dov Ber Mezhirichsky. Already at an early age, Rabbi Abraham led a selfless life; he lived as a hermit, and dedicated himself to the study of Kabbalah. His father suggested Rabbi Shneur Zalman as a friend for his son, who taught him Talmudic literature, and learned Kabbalah from Abraham in turn. A short time after the death of his father in 1772, Abraham began to preach in Fastiv, where he lived in strict seclusion, not communicating with anyone. Rabbi Abraham left behind a work called ‘Hesed le-Abraham’, published in 1851. In his composition, Abraham ha-Malah bitterly complains of the decline of Kabbalah, the brutal materialization of the teachings of Hasidism and the importance of a selfless, ascetic life. He did not mention either the Baal Shem Tov or his father in his work – a rare phenomenon in works of Hasidic literature of that time. Being a religious thinker a contemplator and a mystic, Rabbi Abraham could not become his father’s successor. He nevertheless had an enormous influence on Rabbi Zalman Shneur of Lyady and his Chabad teachings.

Iosef Gorodetskiy (1911, Fastov – 1994, Kiev), soviet cameraman.

Morduh Rybalskiy (1870, Fastov – 1938, Leningrad), soviet actor.

Iosef Tchaikovsky (1923, Fastov – 1945, Poznan). Hero of the Soviet Union who died during the liberation of Poznan.

Iosef Tchaikovsky (1923 – 1945)

Ephraim Sklyansky (1892, Fastov – 1925, New York) was a Soviet statesman, second person in Red Army after Leon Trosky during Russian Civil War. He joined the Bolsheviks during his years as a student in the medical faculty of Kiev University, from which he graduated in 1916; he was immediately drafted into the army, where he served as a doctor and became prominent in the clandestine military organizations of the Bolsheviks. At the time of the October Revolution he was a member of the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet; on meeting him in November, Leon Trotsky was so impressed with his “great creative élan combined with concentrated attention to detail” that he appointed him his deputy on the Revolutionary Military Council, where he served with distinction during the Russian Civil War (1918-1920) and helped improve the fighting condition of the Red Army—Trotsky called him the Carnot of the Russian Revolution. In 1924 his position as Trotsky’s deputy was taken over by Grigory Zinoviev’s ally Mikhail Frunze. Instead, he was made chairman of the Mossukno state textile trust, and the following May he left on a tour of Germany, France, and the United States to acquire technical information. On August 27, 1925 he died in a boating accident on Long Lake (New York) along with Isay Khurgin (ru), the first head of Amtorg Trading Corporation.

Ephraim Sklyansky (1892 – 1925)

Semen Burman (1908, Fastov – 1976, Kiev), soviet military hero, full cavalier (all 3 classes) of Order of Glory

We first appeared here about 500 years ago…

On the eve of the first world war around 400,000 of our ancestors lived in over 100 shtetls of Volyn Gubernia.

Most of Volyn shtetls are on this map

Nowograd Wolynsk, Zviagel, Zwiahl, Zwiahel (Polish), Zvihil, Zvil, Zvehil, זוויל ,זוועהיל, Zvhil (Yiddish), Новоград-Вол
9378 Jews according to 1897 census (55% of total population)

Ovruc, Ovrutch (Yiddish), Owrucz (Polish), Ovruch (Russian)
3445 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)
‎
Ostra, Ostraha, Ostre, Ostrog (Yiddish), Ostróg (Polish), Острог – Ostroh (Ukrainian)
9208 Jews according to 1897 census (62% of total population)

Rovne (Yiddish), Równe (Polish),Ровно – Rovno (Russian)
13780 Jews according to 1897 census (56% of total population)
‎
Starokonstantinov
9212 Jews according to 1897 census (56% of total population)

Новые Веледники – Novye Veledniki (Russian)
569 Jews according to 1897 census (50% of total population)

Demidovka
678 Jews according to 1897 census (100% of total population)

Khochyn (Хочин)
730 Jews according to 1897 census (98% of total population)

Ozdititch (Yiddish), Ozdziutycze (Polish), Озютичи – Oziutichi (Russian)
701 Jews according to 1897 census (100% of total population)

Kysylyn (Kiselik)
873 Jews according to 1897 census (98% of total population)

Visotzk (Yiddish), Wysock (Polish), Vysotsk (Russian)
880 Jews according to 1897 census (96% of total population)

Targowica (Polish), Truvitz (Yiddish), Torgovitsa (Russian)
891 Jews according to 1897 census (98% of total population)

Райгородок (Ukrainian), Райгородок – Raigorodok (Russian)
946 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)

Ragatchev, Ratchiv (Yiddish), Rohaczów (Polish), Rogachev (Russian)
1303 Jews according to 1897 census (94,% of total population)

Козин – Kozin (Russian), Козин – Kozyn (Ukrainian)
972 Jews according to 1897 census (53% of total population)

Грицев – Gritsev (Russian), Гриців (Ukrainian)
979 Jews according to 1897 census (97% of total population)

Jezierzany (Yiddish), Yezerzani (Polish), Ozeriany (Russian)
1013 Jews according to 1897 census (91% of total population)

Włodzimierzec (Polish), Владимирец – Vladimirets (Russian)
1024 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)

Михайлівка (Ukrainian), Михайловка – Mikhailovka (Russian)
1047 Jews according to 1897 census (87% of total population)

Емильчино – Emilchino (Russian), Ємільчине (Ukrainian)
1049 Jews according to 1897 census (42% of total population)

Rafałówka (Polish), Рафаловка – Rafalovka (Russian)
1054 Jews according to 1897 census (52% of total population)

Belozirka
1070 Jews according to 1897 census (37% of total population)

Vyshgorodok
1078 Jews according to 1897 census (50% of total population)

Kostopel, Kostopol (Polish), Костопіль (Ukrainian), Костополь – Kostopol (Russian)
1101 Jews according to 1897 census (65% of total population)

Varkovitchi (Yiddish), Warkowicze (Polish), Варковичи – Varkovichi (Russian)
1109 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)

Каменный Брод – Kamennyi Brod (Russian), Кам’яний Брід (Ukrainian)
1147 Jews according to 1897 census (65% of total population)

Puliny (Krasnoarmeisk)
1168 Jews according to 1897 census (43% of total population)

Lanovtsi
1174 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)

Mizoch
1175 Jews according to 1897 census (44% of total population)

Olevsk
1187 Jews according to 1897 census (57% of total population)

Kamień Koszyrski (Polish), Камень-Каширский – Kamen-Kashirskii (Russian), Камінь-Каширський (Ukrainian)
1189 Jews according to 1897 census (97% of total population)

Cосновое – Sosnovoe (Russian), Людвиполь, Ljudwipol, Luduipol
1210 Jews according to 1897 census (85% of total population)

Krasnostav
1222 Jews according to 1897 census (56% of total population)

Ivanopol (Yanushpol)
1251 Jews according to 1897 census (25% of total population)

Искорость – Iskorost’ (Russian), Коростень – Korosten (Russian), Коростень – Korosten’ (Ukrainian)
1266 Jews according to 1897 census (48% of total population)

Rogachev
1303 Jews according to 1897 census (94% of total population)

Городница – Gorodnitsa (Russian), Городниця (Ukrainian)
1310 Jews according to 1897 census (57% of total population)

Poritzk (Pavlovka)
1316 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)

Berezdov
1319 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)

Стара Котельня (Ukrainian), Старая Котельня – Staraia Kotelniia
1345 Jews according to 1897 census (42% of total population)

Pitcheyev, Pochayuv Stary, Potchayev, Pitshayev (Yiddish), Poczajów (Polish), Почаїв (Ukrainian)
1377 Jews according to 1897 census (72% of total population)

Belogor’e (before 1946 – Lyakhivtsi)
1384 Jews according to 1897 census (26% of total population)

Троянів-Troianiv (Ukrainian), Троянов – Troianov (Russian)
1469 Jews according to 1897 census (20% of total population)

Iampol (Romanian), Ямпіль (Ukrainian), Ямполь – Yampol (Russian)
1482 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)

Sofievka (Trochimbrod)
1580 Jews according to 1897 census (99% of total population)

Luhyny (Luchuny)
1599 Jews according to 1897 census (63% of total population)

Мельница – Melnitsa (Russian), Мельниця (Ukrainian)
1599 Jews according to 1897 census (62% of total population)

Kunev
1661 Jews according to 1897 census (57% of total population)

Torysk (Yiddish), Trusk, Torysk, Turisk, Turzisk, Turzysk Przedmiesc (Alternative Name), Turzysk (Polish), Турийск – Turiisk (Russian), Турійськ (Ukrainian)
1713 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)

Lokache (Yiddish), Lokachi (Polish), Локачи – Lokachi (Russian), Локачі (Ukrainian)
1730 Jews according to 1897 census (75% of total population)

Ушомир (Ukrainian), Ушомир – Ushomir (Russian)
1754 Jews according to 1897 census (74% of total population)

Chernichov (Yiddish), Chernyakhov (Russian), Czerniachów (Polish), Tschernjachow (German), Черняхів (Ukrainian), Черняхов – Cherniakhov (Russian)
1774 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)

Аннополь – Annopol (Russian), Ганнопіль (Ukrainian)
1812 Jews according to 1897 census (82% of total population)

Bilogorodka
1846 Jews according to 1897 census (34% of total population)

Stefan, Szczepan, Stepań (Polish), Степань (Ukrainian), Степань – Stepan’ (Russian)
1854 Jews according to 1897 census (36% of total population)

Миропіль (Ukrainian), Мирополь – Miropol (Russian)
1912 Jews according to 1897 census (39% of total population)

Shimsk (Yiddish), Shomsk, Sums’ke, Szumsk (Polish), Шумск – Shumsk (Russian), Шумськ (Ukrainian)
1962 Jews according to 1897 census (87% of total population)

Baranovka (Russian), Baranówka (Polish), Баранівка (Ukrainian), Барановка – Baranovka (Russian)
1990 Jews according to 1897 census (95% of total population)

Khoroshiv (Goroshki)
2018 Jews according to 1897 census (63% of total population)

Kul’chyny
2031 Jews according to 1897 census (47% of total population)

Naroditch (Yiddish), Narodyci, Bolshie Narodichi, Narodycze (Polish), Narodichi (Russian)
2054 Jews according to 1897 census (45% of total population)

Великие Межиричи – Velikie Mezhirichi (Russian), Великі Межирічі (Ukrainian)
2107 Jews according to 1897 census (67% of total population)

Aleksandria (Yiddish), Aleksandriia (Dutch), Aleksandrija (Polish), Александрия – Aleksandriia (Russian), Олександрія – Oleksandriia (Ukrainian)
2154 Jews according to 1897 census (68% of total population)

Berezhnica (German), Berznitsa (Polish), Byel (Yiddish), Бережница – Berezhnitsa (Russian), Бережниця (Ukrainian)
2160 Jews according to 1897 census (73% of total population)

Ратне (Ukrainian), Ратно – Ratno (Russian)
3089 2219 Jews according to 1897 census (72% of total population)

Beresteczko (Polish), Berestetchka (Yiddish), Берестечко (Ukrainian), Берестечко – Berestechko (Russian)
2251 Jews according to 1897 census (45% of total population)

Lukov (Matzeev)
2337 Jews according to 1897 census (60% of total population)

Klevan (Yiddish), Klewań (Polish), Клевань – Klevan (Russian)
2432 Jews according to 1897 census (65% of total population)

Tuczyn (Polish), Tutchin-Krippe, Tutshin (Yiddish), Тучин – Tuchin (Russian)
2535 Jews according to 1897 census (68% of total population)

Kolk (German), Kolki (Yiddish), Kołki (Polish), Колки (Ukrainian), Колки – Kolki (Russian)
2537 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)

Krasilov
2563 Jews according to 1897 census (37% of total population)

Romanov
2599 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)

Olyka (Yiddish), Ołyka (Polish), Оли́ка (Ukrainian), Олыка – Olyka (Russian)
2606 Jews according to 1897 census (62% of total population)

Torczyn (Polish), Tortchin (Yiddish), Торчин (Ukrainian), Торчин – Torchin (Russian)
2629 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)

Sudyłków (Polish), Судилків (Ukrainian), Судилков – Sudilkov (Russian)
2712 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)

Staryy Ostropol (English), Старый Острополь-Staryi Ostropol (Russian)
2714 Jews according to 1897 census (36% of total population)

Kupel
2727 Jews according to 1897 census (63% of total population)

Bereźne (Polish), Brezhna (Yiddish), Березне (Ukrainian), Березно – Berezno (Russian)
2765 Jews according to 1897 census (68% of total population)

Dombrovitsya
2868 Jews according to 1897 census (48% of total population)

Teofipol
2914 Jews according to 1897 census (65% of total population)

Вишневец – Vishnevets (Russian), Вишнівець (Ukrainian)
2980 Jews according to 1897 census (71% of total population)

Roschyschtsche (German), Rozishtchov (Yiddish), Rożyszcze (Polish), Рожище (Ukrainian), Рожище – Rozhishche (Russian)
3169 Jews according to 1897 census (83% of total population)

Uściług (Polish), Ustila (Yiddish), Устилуг (Ukrainian), Устилуг – Ustilug (Russian)
3212 Jews according to 1897 census (89% of total population)

Волочиск – Volochisk (Russian), Волочиськ (Ukrainian)
3295 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)

Libivne (Yiddish), Lubomla, Zawalie (Alternative Name), Luboml (Polish), Любо́мль – Liuboml (Russian)
3297 Jews according to 1897 census (74% of total population)

Schepetowka (German), Shchepetovka, Schepetiwka, Szepietowka, Sepitivka, Szepetówka (Polish), Шепетівка (Ukrainian), Шепетовка – Shepetovka (Russian)
3880 Jews according to 1897 census (48% of total population)

Radzivilov
4322 Jews according to 1897 census (59% of total population)

Чуднів (Ukrainian), Чуднов – Chudnov (Russian)
4491 Jews according to 1897 census (80% of total population)

Korets
4608 Jews according to 1897 census (76% of total population)

Lieber Tov (Yiddish), Ljubar, Luber, Lubar (Polish), Любар (Ukrainian), Любар – Liubar (Russian)
6111 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)

Polonne, Polona (Yiddish), Połonne (Polish), Полонне (Ukrainian), Полонное – Polonnoe (Russian)
7910 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)

Словечне – Slovechne (Ukrainian), Словечно – Slovechno (Russian)
885 Jews according to 1897 census (56% of total population)

Sławuta (Polish), Slovita (Yiddish), Славута (Ukrainian), Славута – Slavuta (Russian)
8454 4891 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)

Schytomyr (German), Zhitomir (Yiddish), Żytomierz (Polish), Žytomyr, Žitomir, Shitomir, Jitomir, Житомир (Ukrainian), Житомир – Zhitomir (Russian)
30748 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)
‎
Vladimir-Volinskiy
5869 Jews according to 1897 census (59% of total population)

Dubna (Yiddish), Дубно (Ukrainian), Дубно – Dubno (Russian)
7108 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)
‎
Zaslav, Izyaslav (now)
5998 Jews according to 1897 census (47% of total population)

Kowel (Polish), Ковель (Ukrainian), Ко́вель – Kovel (Russian)
8521 Jews according to 1897 census (48% of total population)

Kremenits, Kremenec’, Kshemyenyets, Kremenitz (Yiddish), Krzemieniec (Polish), Кременец – Kremenets (Russian)
6538 Jews according to 1897 census (37% of total population)

Łućk (Polish), Luzk (German), Луцк – Lutsk (Russian), Луцьк (Ukrainian), לוצק (Yiddish)
9441 Jews according to 1897 census (59% of total population)
+Игнатовка 567 567 Jews according to 1897 census (100% of total population)
+ Веледники 569 Jews according to 1897 census (50% of total population)
+Демидовка 678 Jews according to 1897 census (100% of total population)
!!!Хочин (село) 730 Jews according to 1897 census (98% of total population)
!!!Киселик 873 Jews according to 1897 census (98% of total population)
+Высоцк 880 Jews according to 1897 census (96% of total population)
+Торговица 891 Jews according to 1897 census (98% of total population)
+Райгородок 946 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)
Рогачев 1303 Jews according to 1897 census (94,% of total population)
1303 (94,3%),
– already Корец Новый 951 Jews according to 1897 census (38% of total population)
+Козин 972 Jews according to 1897 census (53% of total population)
+Грицев 979 Jews according to 1897 census (97% of total population)
!!Озераны 1013 Jews according to 1897 census (91% of total population)
+Владимирец 1024 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)
!!!Михайловка 1047 Jews according to 1897 census (87% of total population)
!!Эмильчик 1049 Jews according to 1897 census (42% of total population)
+Рафаловка 1054 Jews according to 1897 census (52% of total population)
!!Белозорки 1070 Jews according to 1897 census (37% of total population)
+Вышгородок 1078 Jews according to 1897 census (50% of total population)
+Костополь 1101 Jews according to 1897 census (65% of total population)
+Варковичи 1109 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)
+Каменный Брод 1147 Jews according to 1897 census (65% of total population)
!!!Пулины 1168 Jews according to 1897 census (43% of total population)
!!!Лаповцы 1174 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)
+Мизочь 1175 Jews according to 1897 census (44% of total population)
+Олевск 1187 Jews according to 1897 census (57% of total population)
+Камень-Каширск 1189 Jews according to 1897 census (97% of total population)
!!!Людвиполь 1210 Jews according to 1897 census (85% of total population)
+ Красностав 1222 Jews according to 1897 census (56% of total population)
!!!Янушполь 1251 Jews according to 1897 census (25% of total population)
+Искорость 1266 Jews according to 1897 census (48% of total population)
!!Рогачев 1303 Jews according to 1897 census (94% of total population)
+ Городница 1310 Jews according to 1897 census (57% of total population)
!!!Порицк 1316 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)
+ Берездов 1319 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)
!!! Котельня Стар. 1345 Jews according to 1897 census (42% of total population)
+ Почаев 1377 Jews according to 1897 census (72% of total population)
+Ляховцы 1384 Jews according to 1897 census (26% of total population)
+ Троянов 1469 Jews according to 1897 census (20% of total population)

+ Ямполь 1482 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)
!!!! Софиевка 1580 Jews according to 1897 census (99% of total population)
+ Лучины 1599 Jews according to 1897 census (63% of total population)
!!! Мельница 1599 Jews according to 1897 census (62% of total population)
+Кунев 1661 Jews according to 1897 census (57% of total population)
+Турийск (з. гор.) 2938 1713 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)
+Локачи 1730 Jews according to 1897 census (75% of total population)
+Утомир 1754 Jews according to 1897 census (74% of total population)
+Черняхов 1774 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)
+Аннополь 1812 Jews according to 1897 census (82% of total population)
+Белогородка 1846 Jews according to 1897 census (34% of total population)
+Степань 1854 Jews according to 1897 census (36% of total population)
+Мирополь 1912 Jews according to 1897 census (39% of total population)
+Шумск 1962 Jews according to 1897 census (87% of total population)
+Барановка 1990 Jews according to 1897 census (95% of total population)
+Горошки 2018 Jews according to 1897 census (63% of total population)
+Кульчины 2031 Jews according to 1897 census (47% of total population)
+Народичи 2054 Jews according to 1897 census (45% of total population)
+Межирич 2107 Jews according to 1897 census (67% of total population)
+Александрия 2154 Jews according to 1897 census (68% of total population)
+ Бережница 2160 Jews according to 1897 census (73% of total population)
+Ратно 3089 2219 Jews according to 1897 census (72% of total population)
+ Берестечко 2251 Jews according to 1897 census (45% of total population)
+Мациов 2337 Jews according to 1897 census (60% of total population)
+Клевань 2432 Jews according to 1897 census (65% of total population)
+ Тучин 2535 Jews according to 1897 census (68% of total population)
+ Колки 2537 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)
+ Красилов 2563 Jews according to 1897 census (37% of total population)
+ Романов 2599 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)
+Олыка 2606 Jews according to 1897 census (62% of total population)
+ Торчин 2629 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)
+ Судилков 2712 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)
+ Острополь 2714 Jews according to 1897 census (36% of total population)
+ Купель 2727 Jews according to 1897 census (63% of total population)
+Березно 2765 Jews according to 1897 census (68% of total population)
+Домбровицы 2868 Jews according to 1897 census (48% of total population)
+Теофиполь 2914 Jews according to 1897 census (65% of total population)
+Вишневец Новый 2980 Jews according to 1897 census (71% of total population)
+Рожище 3169 Jews according to 1897 census (83% of total population)
+Устилуг 3212 Jews according to 1897 census (89% of total population)
+ Волочиск 3295 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)
+ Любомль 3297 Jews according to 1897 census (74% of total population)
+ Щепетовка 3880 Jews according to 1897 census (48% of total population)
+ Радзивиллов 4322 Jews according to 1897 census (59% of total population)
+Чуднов 4491 Jews according to 1897 census (80% of total population)
+Корец 4608 Jews according to 1897 census (76% of total population)
+Любар 6111 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)
+Полонное 16288 7910 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)
+Словечно 1570 885 Jews according to 1897 census (56% of total population)
+ Славута 8454 4891 Jews according to 1897 census (58% of total population)
‎+ Житомир 30748 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)
‎+ Влад.Вол. 5869 Jews according to 1897 census (59% of total population)
‎+ Дубно 7108 Jews according to 1897 census (49% of total population)
‎+ Заславль 5998 Jews according to 1897 census (47% of total population)
‎+ Ковель. 8521 Jews according to 1897 census (48% of total population)
‎+ Кремен. 6538 Jews according to 1897 census (37% of total population)
‎+ Луцк. 9441 Jews according to 1897 census (59% of total population)
‎ +Новогр.-В. 9378 Jews according to 1897 census (55% of total population)
‎+ Овруч 3445 Jews according to 1897 census (46% of total population)
‎+ Острог 9208 Jews according to 1897 census (62% of total population)
‎+ Ровно 13780 Jews according to 1897 census (56% of total population)
‎+ Старокон. 9212 Jews according to 1897 census (56% of total population)

Germanovka is a village located in Obuhov district of Kiev. Germanovka is located on the Krasna River. The city’s estimated population is 1,667 (as of 2001).

Before the Revolution it was a shtetl of Vasilkov yezd, Kiev guberniya.

Germanovka is approx. 62km south of Kiev.

Beginning

While it is thought that Germanovka’s first Jewish community was established in the 17th century and suffered under the Khmelnytskyi pogroms, there is no data available to confirm this. The Jewish community re-appeared in the middle of the XIX century when Germanovka became an important trading centre. A synagogue was built in 1849. In pinkos dating back to 1848, a pogrom of 1881 is recorded.

In 1864, the Jewish community of Germanovka numbered 442. In 1891, this number grew to 895. In 1897, the total population of Germanovka was 3,628, and there were 1,049 Jews among them. By 1900, there were 1,352 Jews in the town.

By 1900, there were 1,352 Jews in the town.

Between 1908 and 1913 the town had two synagogues, a Talmud-Torah and three cheders. Local resident A.N. Shafarenko said that there were three synagogues in the town at the beginning of the XX century:
– one of them was on the site of the present meat and milk market hall
– the second one was were the village hall now stands
– the third was situated near the cemetery on the territory of Shafarenko’s farmstead.

List of Germanovka entrepreneurs in 1913

According to local residents, the Jewish community lived in Zatserkva (beyond the Krasnaya River, on the peninsula). There was a line of Jewish shops from the Zatserkva bridge to the municipal grammar school. Altogether, there were 46 Jewish shops in the town. Only two of the buildings in which they were housed remain: the Patlakh family shop (now a gallery) and a drapery (the building across the street, 16 Shevchenko Street, currently the Museum of the Cossacks – in 2009 the museum featured an exhibition devoted to the Jews of Germanovka).

Only two of the buildings in which they were housed remain: the Patlakh family shop (now a gallery) and a drapery (the building across the street, 16 Shevchenko Street, currently the Museum of the Cossacks – in 2009 the museum featured an exhibition devoted to the Jews of Germanovka).

Jewish shop in the center of Germanovka. Now it is a museum

The basic occupation of the Jewish population in the XIX – XX centuries were crafts, petty trade and agency in merchant trade.

When public communication services started to appear in the provinces, the first post office was in Germanovka. It was called “The Post and Telegraph office” and, until 1912 it served Germanivka, Obukhivka, Trypillia, and Vasylivka. The nearest branches were only in Vasylkov, Kaharlyk and Bila-Tserkva.

Jewish shop of merchant Patlah. Now it is a painting gallary.

In Germanovka museum store handwritten remembrance about life in Germanovka which was written in 1960’s by former local resident and relay to beginning of XX century:

When when I became older, I saw the market square differently. It was always extremely lively. The square was surrounded by the houses of local Jews, their shops, two-storied wooden pubs. They sold beer on the ground floor and the owner’s family lived above. There was a whole row of such pubs. It was always noisy and lively around there.

The shops in Germanovka were not much different from the metropolitan ones. They were mostly brick with large windows and very well appointed. The traders were welcoming.

There was a great pharmacy in Germanovka, (it seems there was another one but I cannot quite recall). There was also the post office and the telegraph, and there might have been a telephone connection with the capital.

The Jewish community was somehow related to all these developments. It jump-started and actively promoted trade and improvements of the town. There was a market, and lively trading took place on the square near the church every Friday.

Main Jewish neighborhood was the peninsula in the center of photo

Eleven times per year on a Friday there was a noisy fair in Germanovka. Traders and buyers from all nearby villages came to the fair. The fair buzzed, yelled, laughed, sang, danced, drank beer and vodka, in a word, everybody had fun!

On the spot where there is a monument to war victims I can still remember the remains of a large stone building called “The Cellar Pub”

This building was half basement, one part of the basement was a large alcohol store, where they sold vodka to the whole neighborhood, and the other part was a pub where they poured vodka from the barrels into “quarts”.

The upper part of the building was a kind of a “hotel” and an inn and it was so big that more than a hundred drays could shelter there!

All the way from the bridge and up to the weir the whole of the central square was taken up with Jewish houses and shops. Many Jewish houses were so old that the ground level reached half way up the windows.

There were more than 2,000 Jewish inhabitants, who had their own administration, “The Tradesmen Guild” which was under the local authority control.

There were two large Jewish synagogues, called schools or prayer houses.

There was a well-appointed proper bathhouse and a large and well-organised Jewish cemetery (out on the ravines near the garden of the Shafarenkos).

There was also a good butchery. As all trade was in the Jewish hands…

According to local residents interviewed during an IAJGS project, the most important members of the Jewish community in Hermanivka were Yampolsky Avrum-Yos Duvidov, Yampolsky Haim-Moshe Gershkov, Rogovoy Haim-Yona Leybov, Yaffa Naftula, Arlihman Anna Yosevna, Borchenko Yoyna Mordkov, Koplovsky A.A. and Shtenberg S.M.

Record about official Germanovka Rabby in 1912

In 1886-1899, Efroim Volfman (1855-?) was a rabbi in Germanovka, since 1899 the rabbi was Itschak –Aydzhik Volfman (1878-1941).

Isaak-Aisek Volfman (1877/78 – 1941) , last Rabbi of shtetl Germanovka.

Civil War pogroms

During the Civil War the Jews of Germanovka suffered from gang raids. A terrible pogrom was instigated by the detachments of Ataman Zelenyi in 1919. On August 28th 1919, almost all Germanovka Jews were murdered in a pogrom started by the troops of the Volunteer Army.

On September 10th 1919, one more pogrom occurred. As a result, most Jews left Germanovka.

The account of eyewitness Iona Mordkov Borchenko is as follows:
“On August 28, a gang led by Dyakov arrived in the village. They went from house to house, stabbing men, women and chidldren without distinction. In many cases, they raped women and then killed them. The slaughter continued for four days. The number killed reached 120-150. Some Jewish houses were set on fire.”

At first, non-Jewish residents hid their Jewish acquaintances but then stopped doing so as a result of threats. The surviving Jews fled.
After the gang left, active units of the Volunteer Army entered the village; after that, the assaults on the village’s Jews continued.
Between September 15 and 18, according to the same report, Dyakov’s gang returned and Hermanivka’s remaining Jewish population, 250 people, was totally exterminated. Several dozen people who managed to flee were killed on the way; just one Jewish boy who was hidden by local residents survived. The victims of this pogrom (200 people in total according to A. Shafarenko) were buried in the Jewish cemetery (now in the centre of a potato field).

From handwritten remembrance about life in Germanovka which was written in 1960’s by former local resident:

Witness statement by Iona Mordkov Berchenko about pogrom on August 28th, 1919:

After the Civil War

Practically of all Hermanivka’s Jewish community members who survived the pogroms departed in 1920. In 1926, 26 Jews remained in the village.

In 1928, Germanovka became part of Obukhiv district and continues to exist as just an ordinary village, falling into further decline with each passing year.

Holocaust

There is no details about Holocaust in Germanovka. In WWII memory book of Kiev oblast was find only one Jewish name from Germanovka: blacksmith David Isaakovich Gezberg was killed near Tripolie in July 1, 1943.

After the War

Few Jews returned to Germanovka after the WWII. In 2016, there were lived only few fully assimilated descendants of last local Jews…
Pogrom on August 28th

Old Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery site locates in eastern edge of the village on Shevchenko street, in an area known as “Lushpivky”. The cemetery site is situated behind the house at no. 4 and is now a vegetable garden.

Site of old Jewish cemetery

The Jewish community of Hermanivka owned two cemeteries. The older one, established in 1849, was situated on the territory of A. N. Shafarenko’s farmstead. The chevra kadisha building was located close by (on the site of the present garage), as was a prayer house. According Mr. Shafarenko, the cemetery was very beautiful and well-kept, and was separated into sections. This cemetery was dissolved in 1900 and a new cemetery was established on adjacent farmland now owned by Nikolay Todosevich Sidorenko, separated from the old cemetery by a hill.

Two last gravestones of old Jewish cemetery

The cemetery land was given to A. Shafarenko’s grandfather and was turned into a vegetable garden. Six tombstones that were too heavy for removal remain at the site; two granite tablet-shaped stones dated 1910 and 1917 are still visible and are cordoned off, while the remaining four, two ‘boot’-shaped and two ‘trees of life’, are supposedly buried in the vegetable garden. Inscriptions are carved into the stone (inscribed) in Hebrew.

The only legible tombstone inscription reads as follows:

פ”נ
ר’ ברוך
בנציון בר מרדכי
ציפורים נ’ כח
טבת שנת ת’ר’ע’
תנצבה

Here lies
Reb Baruch Bentsion,
Son of Reb Mordehay Tsiporim. Died on 28 Tevet 5670.
May his soul be bound in the bond of life.

פייגה בת יעקב
יאמפאלסקי
נפ’ א’ ניסן ת’ר’ע’ז’ תנצבה

Feyga, daughter of Yaakov, Yampolskaya.
Died on 1 Nisan 5677.
May her soul be tied in the knot of life.

The cemetery is not demarcated, although the remains of a wall and a ditch give an indication of the boundaries. The 2 remaining visible tombstones, which are located in front of the house at no. 4, are cordoned off. There is currently no sign or plaque identifying the site. The permission of the owner of the land has been secured to erect one. The site is surrounded by private buildings and vegetable gardens.

Information was taken from Lo-Tishkah website.

New Jewish cemetery and mass grave

The unmarked mass grave is located on the eastern edge of the village on Shevchenko St. on site of former New Jewish cemetery. It is now used as a garden and an allotment.

Monument to pogrom victims near the site of New Jewish cemetery

The mass grave is undemarcated. It is located within a Jewish cemetery of which little visible trace remains; part of a wall and a ditch give an indication of the boundaries. There is currently no sign or plaque identifying the site, although the permission of the owner of the land has been secured to erect one. The site is surrounded by private buildings and vegetable gardens.

According to local residents, the 200 victims of a September 1919 pogrom led by Ataman Dyakov were buried here

Exact mass grave location:

Monument to pogrom victims:

Information was taken from Lo-Tishkah website.

Genealogy

According to the lists of Kiev region Duma electors in 1907, 40 Jewish Germanovka residents were registered; their property was evaluated as being worth 300 roubles and above.

BARATS Moshko Ios’ev
BORCHENKO Khaim Iojna Mordkovich
BRISKMAN Duvid Khaimov
BRISKMAN Ios’-Gersh Duvidov
BROJDA Shulim Gershkov
BRONFON Khaskel’ Srulevich
VOL’FMAN Ajzik Froimov
VOROB’EV Gersh Mordkov
ZHITOMIRSKIJ Berko Moshkov
ZHITOMIRSKIJ Moshko Berkov
ITKIS El Meerov
KAGANOVSKI Yankel Peisakhov
KANARSKY Trofim Ivanov
KISELENKO Leivi Azrilev
KOVLER Zelman Ovseiev
KOVNER Aron Berkov
KOZLOV Aron Yankel Shimkov
KOPPOLOVSKI Aron Aabov
KRAVCHENKO Ivan Dmitriev
KRAVCHENKO Nukhim Yankelev
LASKAVY Srul Shlemovich
LEIVICH Benyumin Duvidov
LISHCHINSKI Aron Mordkovich
MITINSKI Bentsion Itskov
MORDERER Avrum Meyerov
MORDERER Duvid Meyerov
OCHAKOVSKY Avrum Srulevich
OCHAKOVSKY Leyba Avrumovich
PATLAKH Aron Shmulev
PATLAKH Mordko Jukhimov
PATLAKH Fishel Shmulev
PINSKY Itsko Shayev
PIYEVSKY Moshko Azrilev
POKOTILO Meyer Khaimov
ROGOVOY Volko Khaimov
SPIVAK Nakhman Berkov
SPIVAK Yankel Ayzikovich
TARNOURSKII Srul Fishelev
TAFOPOL’SKII Borukh’ Mordko Yos’ev
KHANYURA Srul’ Vol’kov

Local historian Shafarenko find this list of Germanovka Jewish inhabitans in Kiev Archiv. It conaines 866 names. List dated back by Summer 1919 which was a few weeks before bloody pogrom.

Smotrich is a historic town located in Dunaevtsy district of Khmelnitskiy region.  The town’s estimated population is 2,087 (as of 2001).

During the time of Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795), Smotrich was a town in Podolsk voivodeship (it received the Magdeburg Charter in 1488).
Smotrich became a part of Russia Empire in 1795 , in XIX – beginning of XX century it was a shtetl of Kamenets Yezd of Podolia Gubernia.

Smotrich is approx. 32 km from Dunaevtsy and in 280 km from Kamenets-Podolskiy.

Beginning

By the beginning of 18th century there was a Jewish community in Smotrich. A large synagogue, noted for its beauty, was built there in the 18th century.

Smotrich in the middle of XIX century

In 1712, a Jewish community with a rabbi existed there. In 1765, there were 375 Jews in Smotrich and nearby villages.

According to the 1847 census, “Smotrich Jewish community” consisted of 1,274 people.

In 1863, the local authorities made an attempt to close one of the synagogues which they considered unnecessary.

The census of 1897 registered 4,399 inhabitants, 1,725 of them Jewish.

The majority of Jewish population was engaged in trade, generally, agricultural exports along the Austrian border, only about 30 kilometers north of Smotrich, or were artisans.

Smotrich entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913

There were nine synagogues for craftsmen and different Hassidic factions in Smotrich before the 1917 revolution. The main one was Bolshaya (Great) synagogue, a timber building at the time.

There were also heders (religious schools) for teaching children and yeshivas for older students, where all children were taught in the same room, with the heder run by Rabbi Moshe considered the best in town for the little ones. Older children attended Rabbi Vofsi’s heder.

Street of Smotrich in 1930. Photo by S. Taranushenko. Digital copy was taken from myshtetl.org

Civil War pogroms

During the Russian Civil war (1918-1924) the town was governed by interchanging forces of the Bolsheviks, the Polish, the White Guard and various Ukrainian and Russian militias.

The army of Ukrainian nationalist Symon Petlura remained in the collective memory of the Jewish people forever for the acts of terrible cruelty and atrocities perpetrated against the Jews.

During the Civil war there were short periods when the town was left without any recognised government, and local gangs formed with army deserters in possession of weapons filled the political vacuum and often carried out looting of Jewish households.

Street of Smotrich in 1930. Photo by S. Taranushenko. Digital copy was taken from myshtetl.org

On July 8, 1919 the Cossacks carried out a pogrom against the Jews of Smotrich.

By the time Smotrich was occupied by the Poles, several anti-Semitic incidents happened but there were no mass pogroms.

A Jewish self-defense unit was organized in the town and continued to exist even under the Soviet rule.

Between the Wars

In 1923, all town heders were closed and teaching in Hebrew was prohibited. However, some local Jews kept studying with the Torah tutors illegally until the middle of the 1920s.

In 1925, a cell of “Hashomer-HaZair” was established in Smotrich, which maintained a clandestine connection with its central branch in Kamenets-Podolskiy.

A magazine “Hashomer” was published monthly, with most members participating. Every newly published issue was read at the cell meeting in the woods in summer and at the members’ flats in winter. The membership of the organization reached 60 people; among them were Iosif Eistraich (the chair), Yakov Later, Chaim Kats, Bina Waisberg, ZusVoloh, Itschak Gruzman, all of whom were  later arrested.

Smotrich labor school around 1925

By the end of 1927, five people were arrested in the town, almost all the leaders of “Hashomer-Hatsair” and 33 Jewish pupils were expelled from school “for being members of the Zionist organization”.

“Hashomer” was reestablished illegally in 1929, when it included 12 members.

Under the Soviets a Jewish kolkhoz “Royte Fon” (“red banner” in Yiddish) was established. Jewish artisans and craftsmen worked in cooperatives. In 1939 the 1,075 Jews of Smotrich comprised 18.5 perecent of the total population.

Jewish house in Smotrich, 1930. Photo by S. Taranushenko. Digital copy was taken from myshtetl.org

In 1939, 1,075 Jews lived in Smotrich (18% of the population), with 1,227 in villages and former towns of Smotrich area.

Holocaust

The town was occupied by German troops on July 9^th 1941.

The Jews were ordered to wear yellow badges on their chests and backs and to perform forced labor. Apparently during the first days of the German occupation, about 40 Jews were murdered in the center of Smotrich. According to one testimony, in July or August 1941 about 20 Jews were shot to death at the Smotrich River. According to the same testimony, on September 1, 1941, 90 Jews, mainly women, children, and elderly people, were shot to death outside the town.  Four more Jews were shot at the Jewish cemetery the following day.

The approximately 700 remaining Jewish residents of Smotrich and its surroundings were taken to the Kamenets-Podolsk ghetto in July-August 1942 and were shot on August 11^th.

During the war eight Jews were hiding in a ravine nearby. The locals supplied them with food and never betrayed them to the Germans.

To Smotrich for P.I. Katsman: This letter was stored in Vienna museum since 1942 together with another 1185 letters captured by Germans in Soviet Union during invasion in 1941. Letters were transferred in Ukraine in 2006.

Smotrich was liberated by the Soviet troops on March 27^th 1944. During the Holocaust 670 Smotrich Jews perished. One list of Holocaust vistims exists in In Yad-Vashem and contain 141 names of family heads and number of person in family.

According to the information provided by the locals, in 2016 several unmarked Jewish Holocaust mass graves located at the Jewish cemetery.

After WWII

When the local Jews were expelled from their houses, many were taken over by the Ukrainian neighbors and a market square has now replaced the Jewish quarter.

After the war several Jewish families came back from evacuation but the community never fully revived.
Jew Vodovoz was a Head of local council after the war. He has daughter Dina. Also locals remind Lisa Ukhvel and Jew with surname Bedniy.

K

Last Jew of Smotrich was WWII veteran Grigoriy Zakharovich Zilberman, who emigrated to Israel to his daughter in 1990’s.

Now in village lives few fully assimilated descendant of local Jews from mixed marriages. Some of them are even Halakha Jews…

These photos of Smotrich streets were shooted by Ukrainian photographer Stefan Taranushenko in 1930 and published in 2011. Digital copies were taken from myshtetl.org

Smotrich synagogues

The exact date of the building remains unknown but in the 1920s a signature “Olexandr Zeyev, the son of rabbi Israel Kats, 1776” was discovered on frescos inside.

In the 1920s, the Bolshaya synagogue was studied by the ethnographic expedition from St.Petersburg.

Old wooden synagogue in Smotrych. Photo from myshtetl.org

The building is a typical wooden synagogue from Podolia region. The bulk of the building is almost square in plan, covered with a high combination roof. Two rectangular twin – windows were situated on the eastern, northern and southern side of the building. A wooden galleries were attached to the western and to northern sides of the building.

The bulk of the synagogue has a square plan. The construction of the vault consisted of the octagonal dome placing over a square room with pendentives and on a complicated vault construction.

These photos of Smotrich synagogue were shooted by Stefan Taranushenko in 1930 and published in 2011. Digital copies were taken from myshtetl.org

The local authorities attempted to destroy the synagogue in the early 1930s but the town inhabitants refused to do it. A local Jewish communist Velvl volunteered but he fell off the roof and died. Unfortunately, this synagogue was eventually demolished by the order of the authorities after the World War II.

Jewish cemetery

In 2016, cemetery was cleaned by members of local rehabilitation center.

Holocaust mass grave

Mass grave locates in the northern outskirts of the town. Modern monument was erected on the place of old Soviet in 2013 for the cost of Christian organisation from Norway.

According to the testimony, on September 1, 1941, 90 Jews, mainly women, children, and elderly people, were shot to death on this place.

Prayer near Smotrich Holocaust mass grave

Engraving on the monument

Novograd-Volynskiy, Novogradvolynsk, Novograd-Volynsk (Alternative Name), Zvihil, Zvil, Zvehil, זוויל ,זוועהיל, Zvhil (Yiddish), Новоград-Волинський (Ukrainian), נובוהרד-וולינסקי (Hebrew), Zwiahel (Polish)

Novograd-Volynskiy is a historic city located in Zhytomir region, center of Novograd-Volynskiy district.
Novograd-Volynskiy is located on the Sluch River, a tributary of the Goryn. The city’s estimated population is 56,155 (as of 2016).

Before 1925 it was a сenter of Novograd-Volynskiy yezd, Volyn guberniya.

City was mentioned first time in 1257 as Vozvyagel and was renamed to Novograd-Volynskiy after third Poland partition in 1795. Before 1795, city was named Zvyagel.

All information for this article was provided by local historian Leonid Kogan (koganzvil@yandex.com) who research Novograd-Volinskiy Jewish history for more than 20 years.

Leonid Kogan show a site of destroyed Old Jewish cemetery in Novograd-Volynskiy, 2016

Leonid translated into Russian memorial book “Zvil” (Novograd-Volynsk) which was published in Yiddish and in Hebrew in Israel, in 1962. You can download book here.

Beginning

First Jews in Zviagel are mentioned in the document from June 20^th 1488; King of Lithuania Kazimir Yagellon informs the local governor Onushko Kalenikovich on taxation on imported goods and a tavern belonging to three Jews from Lutsk in Zviagel.

In 1620, local Jewish people lived near the fortress in Rynkova street, where they owned 7 houses.

During the XVIII century, a large Jewish community was established.  According to the census, there were 400 Jews in 1765, 262 in 1784 and 281 in 1787.

According to some late XVIII century reports, there were 2,304 inhabitants in Zvil and 1,752 of them were Jewish. In about 1740, a Great synagogue was built in Shkolna street (now Sholom Aleichem str.), which became one of the most beautiful buildings of Zviagel.

Jews called their town “Zvil” in Yiddish and this name was used even after the town was renamed Novograd-Volynskiy. During the XIX century, the Jewish population grew from 3,096 people in 1834 to 9,378 in 1897 and reached on average 50-55% of the total population.

View of Novograd-Volynskiy from the river Sluch in 1814, lithography of John Thomas James

As seen on the 1798 plan of the town, Jewish houses and shops were located in a tight semicircle around the market square (the area of current Lesya Ukrainka square). They, in turn, were surrounded by Christian neighborhoods.

City plan, 1798

Jews played a noticeable role in local self-governing bodies. Thus, in 1816 they occupied the posts of one of the two mayors and two of the five council members of the town magistrate. In 1827-1828, the paving of the main street of the town – Koretskaya (now – Shevchenko str.) was funded by the Jewish community. The community representatives also were among the Town Council.

Zhitomirskaya Str. in Novograd-Volynskiy, around 1910

The main business of the Jewish population was trade and crafts. Grocery trade, textiles, dry goods, fish, kosher meat, wine, furniture, clothing, kitchenware, hardware, timber, books and stationery were sold in hundreds of shops, stalls and kiosks. In 1899, more than 1,500 Jews were engaged in trade and mediation, 116 were day laborers and 157 factory workers. In 1901, there were 1,157 Jewish artisans in the town, or 71.4% of the total number of small artisans. Jews were also prevalent among bakers, butchers, tailors, shoemakers, carpenters, blacksmiths, fabrics painters, barbers as well as hatters, glaziers, tinsmiths, tanners, upholsterers, chimney sweeps, bookbinders, goldsmiths and watchmakers. On the northern outskirts of the city (near the brewery) there was a special district of Jewish tanners, who had their own synagogue.

Great Synagogue in Novograd-Volynskiy, 1929

In the beginning of the XX century such streets as Bolshaya, Gutinskaya, Zhitomirskaya, Tamarovskaya, Varshavskaya, Troitskaya, Shkolnaya, NizhniayaMedovaya (or Kuznechnaya), Medovyi lane were populated almost exclusively by Jews. Most Jewish people engaged in minor trade and crafts did not have a stable income and led hand-to-mouth existence.  Due to extreme population density in such Jewish districts as “Nieder” (Nizhniaya Medovaya str.) and “Varshavnia” (Bolshaya and Malaya streets, Varshavskaya, Troitskaya), their living conditions were terrible. Rich Jews lived quite differently. They were the owners of several tanneries, brick factories, printing houses, inns and hotels, or merchants. In the centre of town at the crossroads of Koretskaya, Gutinskaya and Zhitomorskaya streets, two-storied stone-built houses of Marmer, Shtendel, Berul, Unik, Guralnik, Presman and Chatoriyskiy were easily noticed. The owner of a stagecoach office Unik bought a bus abroad and was the first one in the town who organized a new type of passenger transportations between Novograd-Volynskiy and Zhitomir in 1912.

Novograd-Volynskiy entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913, part 1

Novograd-Volynskiy entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913, part 2

Novograd-Volynskiy entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913, part 3

The majority of Novograd-Volynskiy Jews were Hasidic. The so called Zviagel dynasty of Hasidic rabbis existed here for a long time. Its founder was one of the sons of the famous maggid (preacher) Ichil-Michl from Zolochev – tsaddik Moyshe Goldman (1763-1830).

Reconstructed grave of Moyshe Goldman on destroyed Jewish cemetery

After his death, his son Ichil-Michl Goldman (1788-1854) became the next tzaddic and when the latter passed away, his son Mordche (1824-1900) was the third Zviagel tsaddik.

Graves of Ichil-Michl Goldman (right) and Mordke Goldman (left) in New Jewish cemetery

This line was continued by next tsaddik Shleyme Goldman (1869-1945). In 1925 he emigrated and settled in Palestine where new generations of Zviagel Hassids emerged. After the World War II his descendants founded Zviagel Yeshiva in the street named after tsaddik Shlyomke Goldman in Jerusalem.

Tsadik Shlyomke Goldman

In 1889 there was 1 synagogue and 23 Jewish prayer houses in town. The majority of Jewish temples were located in Shkolnaya street (in the XVIII- first half of the XX centuries they were called “Jewish schools” in Russian/Ukrainian). The Jews called this street “Shil-gas”, i.e. street of synagogues. The names of prayer houses were derived either from professional activity of the parishioners (shoemakers, tailors, blacksmiths, butchers, tanners), or places, where Hasidic spiritual leaders lived (Chernobylskiy, Makarovskiy, Korostyshevskiy, Turiyskiy, Olykskiy, Stolinskiy). Prayer houses were in the houses of Rabbis Yegoshe, Shlyomke Goldman and his brother Michele. The Synagogue choir was very popular among the citizens (including Christians), it was directed by a khazan (a synagogue cantor). The choir often performed in a civil club at the meetings of noble people. The community maintained Jewish hospital “Bikor Holim” and an almshouse for 30 people, 2 baths, and a Jewish affordable soup kitchen at a night shelter. There were charity organizations helping the poor and the sick, a society helping poor Jewish women in labor and a society supporting poor craftsmen.

Building of former Chernobyl synagogue, 2016. Synagogue was closed in 1929 and turned in pioneer club.

In the beginning of the 1850’s, a new Jewish cemetery was opened.

In the XIX century, the main form of teaching Jewish children (boys by 13 years old) was a primary religious school, heder; in 1850, there were 22 heders in the town. Teenagers and young boys were improving their knowledge of the Torah and Talmud in bes-medreshes – prayer houses, where they studied religious literature on their own or with the help of mentors when they had free time.

In 1896, a religious school Talmud-Torah was opened (in 1899 there were 130 students) and in 1901 yeshiva “Or-Torah” was founded, about 300 students studied there for several years.

Rabbi Ioel Sorin, Head of Novograd-Volynskiy litvish yeshiva “Or-Torah” in 1901-1920

Under the influence of educational ideas, in 1850 a state Jewish school of the 1^st degree appeared (in 1863 it catered for 20 boys). In the beginning of the XX century private schools appeared. In 1906, it was a Jewish school for girls of the 3^rd degree (there were 48 girls in 1915) and in 1914, there was a mixed Jewish school of the 3^rd degree (15 boys and 11 girls studied there in 1915). A new Talmud-Torah was also created in 1912. It was an improved Jewish school with teaching in Hebrew under the direction of Y.Y.Vol. Besides, 120 Jewish children (from the total number of 420) attended a district school.

Sobornaya Str.,

In the beginning of the XX century a considerable part of Jewish youth took an active part in social movements. The most popular were the organizations of Zionists, the Socialist-Revolutionaries and the Bunt. The last one was responsible for a mass political demonstration, which caused a spate of arrests on October, 19.

Civil War pogroms

During the first pogrom on January 19, 1918, about 250 Jewish shops and stalls were looted. A wave of pogroms and a typhus epidemic in 1919 led to a large number of deaths among the local Jews. Some of them left the area. As a result, Jewish population halved: from 11,119 people (52.2% of the total number of inhabitants) in 1913 down to 6,063 (47.2%) in 1922.

Information about Civil War pogroms was taken from JDC report by Mr. Segal.

Until 1917 the city had not suffered from any military occupations or coup.
The population lived i n comparatively favorable ciroumstances. The majority of Jews traded i n grain and butter, which were exported abroad. There were about 1500 workers employed in the factorie s of the metal and leather industries . There was also a number of tailoring and shoemaking workshops, each of which employed 15 to 20 workers.

In July 1917, on a Friday afternoon, the 27th infantry regiment passed through
the city . Part of them remained in the city barracks . The res t as well as the cavalry were stationed in the villages. The reactionary, nationalisti elements of the town, at once began a Ukrainizing and anti-Jewish agitation in the army.
In the end of 1917 Zvihil was not more than 120 versts from the front. The
Russian army, which began to dissolve even before the conclusion of peace, was now running away from the front in masses. The ignorant and enraged soldiers not feeling any authority over them, fell upon the cities and towns and robbed whatever they could. There were also single cases of murders. The soldiers were assisted in this by the peasants of the neighboring villages , who shared with them the booty.

Rabbi Yankel-Srul Korf (~1883-1952). He was spiritual Rabbi of Novograd-Volynskiy between 1907 and 1921

– The first pogrom

On Januray 19 and 20, 1918 there was the first pogrom in Zvihil. It started
on Friday the 19th in the morning. A great mass of soldiers , followed by as till greater band of peasants holding sacks and baskets in their hands and from store to store. The soldiers are breaking into the stores, from a line of the peasants and distribute among them the wares.
The militia commander Bakov had not done a thing to stop the pogrom. He ordered the militia men to shoot, but secretly he entrusted them to shoot in the air. This encouraged the hulligans and the pogrom went on undisturbed.

– Later events

A little later, in the bginning of February, the German army entered Zvihil
in its march through Ukraine. With the help of the Germans number of Jews succeeded in getting back from the hooligans part of the articles robbed away by the letter. But the by far greater part of the Jews were afraid to point out the robbers and pogrom makers, even when they could get back their belongings.
In May 1918 the Germans deposed the Ataman Petlura and made Hetman Skaropadsky head of Ukrain. He was practically nothing more than a servant of the German reactionary clique.

With the outbreak of the German revolution in November 1918, the rule of Skoropadsky ends. Authority over Ukrain is again assured by Petlura. Zvihil was entered by Petlura’s army on December 9, 1918. Until that time everything was comparatively quiet in Ukraine. In January 1919 great struggles began between the Bolsheviks and the “Petlurovitsi”.

– The Bolsheviks in Zvihil

From April 22 on the situation changed radically . On that day the Bolshevist
force that was stationed in Zhitomir occupied Zvihil . They at once founded a revolutionary committee and took into it a few Jews. The antagonism between the Jews and the Ukrainians was growing. The Boisheviks were a very small number and had with them an insignificant military force. On Sunday, July 6 ,when the Christian population was assembled in the church, the Revolutionary Committee was notified that an agitation is being carried on in the church against the Bolshevist authorities. As a measure of defense the Bolshevist army surrounded the church and shot into it, thereby dispersing the crowd assembled in it.

Varshavskaya street after the fire. From memorial book “Zvil”

-Second pogrom

On the following day, i. e. on July 7 a band of 3000 organized peasants of the surrounding villages, armed with sticks , attacked the Revolutionary Committee, took away all its money and killed 15 Bolsheviks and men of the army. The other Bolsheviks escaped, and the city remained without any authority. At the same night hooligans began to search the houses for “Jewish Bolsheviks” and thus the terrible pogrom began.

A great number of Jews were dragged beyond the city to the bank of the river Slutsch. They were told to dig a ditch 15 by 20 archin. Then the murderers undressed them naked, chopped off their arms and threw them alive into the grave.
Their were terrible screams during this slaughter. In one instance a father was compelled to chop off the arms of his son; in another, a son was made to do the same thing to his father. About 500 Jews perished in this way. The author of this account Menashe Segal, stood all night naked waiting for his turn , to be killed.
About 2 o’clock a command came to let the ramining Jews live , only keeping them under arrest. Not all the rebels heeded this command, yet many Jews were thus saved among them Menashe Segal. The leader of this band of insurgents was a certain Pogorelov, a former Czarist lieutenant-colonel.

On July 9, Pogorelov stopped the pogrom in Zvihil, but demanded of the Jews
50 horses and a great quantity of salt and sugar. The Jews delivered to him whatever they succeeded in collecting . Besides the Jews who were killed during the 3 days July 8,9 and 10th, beyond the town, a great number of others were killed in their houses, after these had been thoroughly pillaged. Many of these who escaped perished later in the villages and surrounding towns.

Great and Turiysk Synagogues after the fire, 1919. From memorial book “Zvil”

– Sad episode

There was in the town a certain Mendel Kitai-Baba, an outcast who served in the CheKa (bolshevik’s secret police). The Petlurovtsy demanded that the Jews themselves should find and kill him. The Jews found the outcast somewhere in a garret and had to kill him with their own hands in the court of the synagogue.

People walk through ruins of destroyed homes and buildings 1920. Photo from JDC archive

– Contributions imposed upon the Jews
On July 9 Pogorelov stopped the pogrom in Zvihil, but demanded of the Jews 50 horses and a great quantity of salt and sugar. The Jews delivered to him whatever they succeeded in collecting. Besides the Jews who were killed during the 3 days July 8,9, and 10th, beyond the town, a great number of others were killed in their houses, after these had been thoroughly pillaged. Many of these who escaped perished later in the villages and surrounding towns.

– The Bolshevikis in the city. The bloody events in Kameny Brod

Complete order was restored in the city on Thursday, July 10, when an armored train arrived from Zhitomir carrying a detachment of Bolshevikis. Pogorelov captured 1.5 million of Soviet Roubles and fled from the town. But at the station, Сhudnov men of the Bolshevikis army identified and killed him. This fact however did not prevent the insurgents of the surrounding towns and villages from continuing their hooligan work. Thus, on July 17, they issued a decree to kill all the male population of the town Kameny Brod, to the number of 127.

Ruins of old Jewish house in former Jewish neighborhood “Nider”, 2016

– Pogrom Agitation
On July 16 there came from Zhitomir to Zvihil a force of two to three hundred Bolsheviks. The remaining Jewish population feeling that the Bolsheviks might have to leave the town very soon, because of their small number, and wishing to avoid further massacres on the part of the insurgents, have formed a common secret committee together with the Christian population of Zvihil. The object of this committee was to see that no more bloodshed occurred. The Jews appealed to the Bolshevist authorities many times not to kill the pogrom makers. Nevertheless, a strong agitation was carried on in the town against the Jews. First they demanded that no Jews be allowed to fill public offices. Later they advocated the extermination of all the Jews under 30 years of age. The agitation cost the Jews of Zvihil about 100 victims. The situation became more uncertain. After the execution of Pogorelov the leadership of the insurgents was taken over by another outcast Stoyanovsky, a former bookkeeper in the local Loan fund. The subsequent massacres were all carried out in accordance with his orders.
The band of insurgents which hitherto had its quarters on the other side of the city , now crossed the river and went to the village Chizhovka, about 10 versts from Zvihil.
On July 25 there arrived in Zvihil a larger number of Red Army men. The city gradually came to itself, but it was its fate to live through the horrible event very soon.

Group of Zvihil zionists before emmigration to Eretz-Israel in Rovno, 1920. From memorial book “Zvil”

– The Bolsheviks left. A delegation to the insurgents.
On August 17, the Bolshevist military forces left Zvihil. The city temporarily remained without any authority. The Jews then sent a delegation to Stoyanovsky’s band. The delegationconsistedd of Dr. Volsky, the priest, Alexander Kutchinsky and the pharmacist Ludwig Machan. The delegation requested that no pogrom be made. Stoyanovsky there upon replied that he will not leave a single Jew alive . As soon as the delegation left Stoyanovsky’s quarters and the Bolsheviks left the town a band of hulligans crossed the river, set fire to a number of houses on the bank, plundered them, killed men, violated women. The center of the town, however,
they did not enter.

– The “Petlurovtsy” from Eastern Galicia. Contributions
On August 16, a larger force of “Petlurovtsy” came to the city from Shepetovka. They were from Eastern Galicia in a peaceful way they demanded the following to be given them in the course of 2-3 hours; 100,000 roubles, 25 poods of salt, as much sugar and 100 poods of bread. The Jews started negotiations. They pointed out the fact that the city has for over a month been torn away from the village ,
and that they could not even feed theirs elves. Many children are dying from hunger, adults are giving away their costliest clothes for bread. After long negotiations the Jews succeeded in carrying through the ransom of a large sum of money about 10-15 poods of salt and some sugar, which the Jews collected among themselves.

Zionist conference in Novograd-Volynskiy, 1917. From memorial book “Zvil”

– The fire
On August 19 Stoyanovsky with his band came to Zvihil. The Jews greeted them with music. On the other side of the river the Bolsheviks were yet quartered. Upon hearing what was going on in the Jewish quarter, they fired from cannons, several explosive gas bombs, which caused a great fire.
There was at that time a strong wind, and the fire raged for about 6 haurs. About 3000, or three quarters of all Jewish houses, over 1000 stores, several drug stores and 26 synagogues burned down. The great majority of the Jewish population remained naked barefoot and without shelter. People began to flee panic-stricken.
The “Petlurovtsy” still remaining in the town helped extinguish the fire very energetically. Dr. Tchernobilsky and Mr.Segal  succeeded in letting the Bolsheviks know what havoc their bombs wrought. The Bolsheviks then sent for the sufferers; 900,000 roubles, 50 poods of salt, 6000 arshin of cloth, a larger amount of sugar and 300 boxes of glass. For a few days it was comparatively quiet in the town.

House of owner of the leather factory Itzik Faigengolts

– Zvihil without authority. Jews flee . Murders and robberies on the way
On August 23, the “Petlurovtsy” went to Polonnoye. Stoyanovsky’s band left also. The city remained without authority. From the other side of the river, from Lubchitsa and Zhadkovka, bands of peasants would come and kill and rob the shelterless Jews. Every day there would be 5 or 6 men killed , and there was no one to bury them. Part of the Jews escaped via the village Yarun (10-12 versts from Zvihil) to Koretz. On the way many of them were robbed and killed.

House of owner of glass factory Duvidl Mezhiritskiy

– Pogrom. 28 old men killed
On August 26, a band of peasants entered the city, led on by a former excise collector Kotchergin. They fell upon the remaining poor shelterless Jews, who had been unable to escape . They dragged out 47 men of send-ruined houses and killed them.
Even in the home for the aged, where there were 40 inmates, they killed 23 old men.
According to the story of a half-mad woman Etele, the hooligans choked with an “Etz-Chayim” an old Jew who sat over a Gemora. While killin g a Jew the hooligans would shout “Here you have a commune’. After the pogrom the remaining Jews half
naked and hungry, saved their lives by fleeing from the town.

After Civil War

In the 1920-1930s, there were significant changes in the demographics of the Jewish population. The number of traders decreased and at the same time the proportion of intellectuals and industrial workers rose sharply. Small artisans united into collectives called “artels”.

Last year of Hebrew school of Note Shnaiderman in Novograd-Volynskiy, 1921. From memorial book “Zvil”

The proportion of Jews in the local government was significant.

In 1921, a Jewish Soviet 7 year school No. 5 was created in the town with its life-long principal L.A. Pasternak. In 1939, by the decision of the authorities, it was transformed into a Ukrainian school. In 1927, the Russian Soviet school No. 1 became Jewish and remained such until the beginning of the World War II. All teaching in these schools was in Yiddish. Many Jewish children also studied in Ukrainian and Russian schools.

In the Great Synagogue after restoration, on Hoshana Rabbah, October 1922. From memorial book “Zvil”

By January 1, 1930 661 members of Jewish religious communities out of the total 6,750 Jews of the town were officially registered, with 18 synagogues and prayer houses. A massive attack on the religious community that began in 1929 ended in the mid-30s with closing of all synagogues and prayer houses.

Rabbi Haim-Shaul Bruk (1894-1965), founder of illegal Chabad yeshiva in Novograd-Volynskiy

In 1929, it was created illegal Chabad Yeshiva in Novograd-Volynskiy. More details are available in Russian here.

In the fight against Judaism, members of Komsomol and of the Communist party played a major role. For maintaining a Jewish religious school, last Rabbi of Zvyahel Gedale-Moyshe Goldman, the son of Zviagel tsaddik Shlyomke Goldman was sentenced to 7 years of Siberian camps.

In 1939 in Novograd-Volynsk there were 6,839 Jews (28.82%).

Holocaust

Soon after the beginning of German occupation in Novograd-Volynskiy the Jews who stayed in the city were temporarily moved to Shchors street at the Sluch river (former Jewish district “Nider”). Torture and abuse, which the Nazis turned into a mass spectacle, became common.

Empty Jewish neighborhood “Nider” after mass shooting of local Jews in 1941, photo by German soldier Fritz Heinze (1904-1958)

During the first „Jewish action“ on July 28-30, 1941 some hundred people were killed by the 1st SS brigade.

In August 1941 the operational detachment No. 5 shot 161 “Jews, communists and robbers”. A maintenance platoon of the 1st motorized SS brigade that came to the city on September 12, 1941 shot 319 Jews, held in prison.

Jews in Novograd-Volynskiy which were closed in greenhouse and killed on next day, 1941

There are also testimonies about the participation of a platoon of the Secret Field Police in mass murders of Jews in Novograd-Volynskiy.

According to a document of the city commission that investigated Nazi crimes, there were killed 750-800 Jews,chiefly women and children, in last days of August 1941, and othere 1500-1600 Jews in August and September 1941.

Most Jews were shot in the north-eastern outskirts of the city, in a former regimental shooting range in Gertsen street. In the mass grave behind the House of officers (Levanevskiy street), a burial place of women and children was discovered. Other Jews were killed and buried with non-Jews on a ground of the former machine-tractor station, in the garden of the former house of invalids (both in Chekhov street) and near the former prison (Volia street).

Public execution during German occupation in January 1943 in Novograd-Volynskiy

According to some testimonies, survived Jews from Baranovskiy district were brought to Novograd-Volynskiy and put into the plank barracks of the former factory, surrounded by barbed wire.

The prisoners of this camp worked as loaders at the railway station. Some of them survived until the winter of the 1942-1943. The total number of  Jews who became Holocaust victims in Novograd-Volyskiy is estimated at 2,500-3,000. Nearly 350 local Jews died in active military service.

Opening of memorial on the Holocaust mass grave in October 7, 1996:

After WWII

During the first post-war years, small monuments bearing the Star of David and inscriptions in Russian and Hebrew were erected at the local peoples’ expense to commemorate the victims of mass shootings. However, in the 1970s five-pointed stars and inscriptions in Russian replaced them, saying that the “Soviet citizens” were killed there. In 1993 and 1996 new memorials appeared above mass graves in the area near Gertsen str. and behind the House of Officers, the latter bearing Jewish symbols. After the liberation, about 3,000 Jews came back to the town from evacuation and from the front. In 1959, the Jewish population was 3,300 people (12% of the population). In the 1950-60s, most Jews lived in Sholom Aleichem str., Luxemburg R. str., Shchor str., Oktiabrskaya str., K. Marks str., Yanovskiy str. and  Furmanov str. At the time sounds of Yiddish were often heard in the streets, in the old market place and in the shops. There were many Jews among doctors, teachers, tradesmen, tailors, and photographers. In the early 70s, the workforce of the central barber shop was nearly 2/3 Jewish. A lot of Jewish people worked at the local machine building plant, furniture factory, food processing plant, many workshops. The director of the cinema F. Uris was awarded a noble title of “The Honored worker of Ukrainian culture”. The barber Y.Shteinberg became The Honored Service Worker of Ukraine”.

Former Jewish neighborhood Varshavnya. New houses were built on the basement of Jewish buildings but they still very close to each other.

In 1945 after a long break, the Jewish religious community was recreated in the town; officially it was registered on April 10, 1946. There were about 200-300 people in it on August 1, 1949; the rabbi was Elia-Zeydel Chaimovich Rozenshtein. The prayers took place in the house in Troitska street, 24. Circumcisions were conducted in secret. Livestock and poultry slaughter was done by several shoyhets (ritual cutters). Traditional Jewish funerals took place at the Jewish cemetery.

Fanya Dorfman (1927-1999) is standing on the front of his house in former Jewish neighborhood Varshavnya (now Furmanova Street), 1997

On July 7, in accordance with the decision, banning religious communities from owning prayer houses, the local court of law ruled to invalidate the property contract by the Jewish community and transferred the ownership to the City Council Fund. On July 30, 1960, the town authorities decided to give this building to the local department of education in order to create a kindergarten there. The local press started a powerful propaganda campaign against Judaism and heads of the community. After that  the Jewish community existed illegal.

There was the synagogue after the WWII

On July 30, 1960, at the meeting of the town authorities, they decided to give this building to the local department of education to create a kindergarten there. With the purpose of discrediting the heads of the community, the local press started a powerful propaganda campaign, trying to discourage the children with religious parents from going to prayer services. Soon the community had to go underground. People prayed on Mondays, Thursdays and Saturdays and also on holidays in private flats and houses; in the 1960’s illegal services were at 5 Oktiabrskaya str., and in the 1970’s-1980’s at 3 Komsomolskaya str. The Torah and prayers were read by hazzan (cantor). The community consisted of mostly elderly men. The police often interrupted prayers and imposed a fine on home owners for illegal services. In the 80s, the authorities stopped persecuting the community but refused to legalize it.

Jewish WWII-veterans of medical service. From left to right: Polina Kletser (nurse, died in San Francisco), Vera Borisovna Vinokur (doctor, died in Israel), Lubov Mihailovna Rudina (doctor, died in the USA), Klavdiya Zusevna Lys (doctor, died in the USA, provided this photo to Ilya Levitas), Riva Markovna Bender (emmigrated to Israel), Sofiya Ignatievna Krupovich (pharmacist, died in Ukraine), Novograd-Volynskiy, 1975

According to the census in 1979, 2,274 Jews lived in town (4.7% of the total number). The census of 1989 witnessed a decrease in Jewish population. Among 1,648 local Jews (2.9%) only 257 called Yiddish their native language. Despite considerable amount of Jews living in the town, until the end of the 80s any form of national movement was prohibited. In May 1992, the Jewish religious community was officially legalized again. On June 27 of the same year at the founding conference of the local Jews a society of Jewish culture “Vozrozhdeniye” was created. In several months, the town authorities provided two rooms at 25, Lenin str to the Jewish community: one for the prayer room and the second for the cultural center. In September 1993, the Jewish Sunday School was opened. There were Hebrew courses for adults.

On May 20, 1994 the first concert of Jewish Drama Society took place where a local pop group “Zvil” performed. The latter successfully toured in many cities of Ukraine and participated in various festivals. A remarkable event for our town was a Ukrainian festival of Jewish pop art “Berezneva menorah” in March 1997. Its participants were warmly greeted by local people.

The care for lonely and ill people is provided by the Jewish care service created in 1995. Free dinners are organized for struggling Jews. Religious holidays are celebrated. Collective visits to Jewish mass graves of the town and its district became traditional on the Victory Day. On Sundays, the club of Jewish culture fans “Bagegn” has its meetings. Despite the rebirth of national culture, the number of local Jews has decreased as the result of mass emigration and the predominance of the elderly, and by the summer 2001, only 200 people were registered.

Hasidim of the community “Zvihil” from Israel are visiting the synagogue in Novograd-Volynskiy, 2001

In 2007, 8 Jewish gravestones were found in Rokossovskogo Street and returned to Jewish cemetery.

Famous Jews from Novograd-Volynsk

In Novograd-Volynskiy the writer Mordechay Zeyev Feyerberg (1874-1899) was born, who created his works in Hebrew. On July 27, 2001, a ceremony of opening a memorial plaque took place. It was mounted on the front of the building of the former Chernobyl synagogue, where the future writer used to study. Later was found his gravestone on the Jewish cemetery.

Memorial plaque to Mordechay Zeyev Feyerberg

It is also a birthplace of famous historian, journalist and translator Shmul Tsvi Zetser (1876-1962), journalist  and publisher Avrum Ludvipol (1866-1921), major-general of engineering troops  Ivan Brynzov /Isaac Shmulson/ (1901-1953).

Isaac Naumovich Shmulzon (1901-1953)

Here lived an educator, a journalist and a literary critic Yakov Iosif Vol (1870-1944), such public figures as Shmuel Aba Penn (1864-1923) and Avrum Cheskis (1879-1935).

Yakov Iosif Vol (1870-1944)

In the summer 1920 a famous Soviet Jewish writer Isaac Babel visited Novograd-Volynskiy and described later our town in his three stories. The former resident of Novograd-Volynskiy, journalist and writer Yosif Feldman (1905-1984) left the memories about the native town in the first decades of the XXth century.

Holocaust mass graves

There are 5 Holocaust mass graves in Novograd-Volynskiy:
– in Levanevskogo Street, north-eastern part of the city on the right bank of the river Sluch in the park of Partisan Glory (near garrison House of officers)
The place of execution of the Jewish population: approx. 750 people (mainly women and children) in August 1941

Monument on the mass grave in Levanevskogo Street

– in Gertsen Street, the north-eastern part of the city near confectionery factory (before the war it was shooting range of local Cavalry Regiment). The place of execution of the Jewish population of 3200 people (according to other documents – 1500-1600 people) in August-September 1941

Monument on the mass grave near former shooting range

– in Voly Str.,52 in south-eastern part of the city, beyond the western wall of the former prison.
Place of mass executions of civilians (mostly Jews) and prisoners of war. There were killed approx. 7200 people.

Monument near former prison

– in Chekhov Str., 4, the south-western part of the city, on the territory of the dermatological department of local hospital (the former nursing home garden). In the end of July – early August 1941, there were killed approx. 200 person (Jews and Communists).

Monument near the hospital

– on Chekhov Str.,5 in south-western part of the city, in the former territory of MTS. In the end of July – early August 1941, there were killed approx. 800 person (Jewish and Communists)

Monument on Chekhova Str., 5

Old Jewish cemetery

The cemetery was situated  in Kotsiubinskiy street, in the northern part of the town and founded in the XVII-XVIII century. For the first time it wasmentioned on the map by 1798. In 1831,  founder of Zvyahel Hasidim dynasty Rabbi Moyshe Goldman was buried here. The cemetery was closed in the second half of the XIX century and its destruction was started in the 1920’s. Its size was around 50m x 100m.

In the 1930-1940s, the authorities gaveover the ground to town dwellers for the building of housing. Thus, the tomb of tzaddik Rabbi Moyshe Goldman was demolished; it was the place where religious Jews used to congregate.

In 2011, on the grave of tzaddik Rabbi Moyshe was build an ohel with a small table in Hebrew. In 2016, we discovered that the table was destroyed.

Ohel on the grave of Moyshe Goldman (1763? -1831)

Last Jewish gravestone with unreadable Hebrew letters disappeared from this area in 2015.

New Jewish cemetery

The cemetery was founded in the 1850s on the western outskirts of Novograd-Volynsky is situated and is still in use.
Here are graves of tsadiks from Zvyahel dynasty Ichil-Michl and Mordke Goldman, the grave of Hebrew writer M.Z. Feyerberg and some mass graves of the Jews who were killed outside of the town.

Cemetery was seriously damaged during a WWII because of Soviet-German battle in July 1941. Also Germans used  gravestones for road paving during occupation.

In 2016, it was erected a stone wall around the cemetery for donations of former Jewish residents of Novograd Volynskiy from Israel, USAand other countries; the municipality paved here pathways to the graves of the tsadikim and Feyerberg.

Korsun’ (Russian), Korsuń Szewczenkowski (Polish), Korsun-Schewtschenkiwskyj (German), Korsun’-Shevchenkovskiy – Корсунь-Шевченковский (Russian), Корсунь-Шевченківський (Ukrainian)

Korsun-Shevchenkovskiy (Korsun until 1944) is a town since 1938, a district center in Cherkassy region.

It was founded by the Grand Prince of Kiev Yaroslav the Wise in 1032. In 1584, Korsun received the Magdeburg Charter. In the XVI-XVIII centuries it was a part of Kiev Voivodship in Rzeczpospolita (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795). In 1793 Korsun became part of the Russian Empire.

In the XIX – early XX century Korsun was a shtetl in the Kanev Yesd, Kiev province.

Klavdiya Kolesnikova, the founder of Korsun Jewish museum who provided all information for this article

There were two more towns with large Jewish communities in the Korsun area – Shenderovka and Steblev

Beginning

The Jews would settle in Korsun in the beginning of the XVII century.

In 1622, Lublin Tribunal made a decision to send to “exile” those Jews of Korsun who didn’t obey the verdict of the Kiev court, following the case between them and the Korsun elder Yan Danilovich. This court decision was the first known written evidence of the Jewish community in Korsun, largely destroyed in the khmelnytsky uprising in mid-XVII century.

View of Korsun, 1782. Jewish cemetery is on the left side.

L. Polikhevich in his “Tales of the Inhabited Areas of the Kiev Province” says that in 1702, when Korsun Cossack leaders S. Samus and S. Paliy were captured, local Jews and Catholics were “slaughtered “.

In 1734, the haidamaks (pro-Ukrainian (Cossack) paramilitary gangs in the XVIII century) killed 27 Jews in Korsun. In 1737, only one Jew remained in Korsun.

In 1838-1843, Srul Pokras was the leader of Korsun kahal and Mendel Golinskiy and Ariy Leyba Barskiy were tax collectors. In 1849-1851, Nusin Volko Seliskiy and later Barskiy  took over the tax collection.

During the XIX-early XX centuries local Jews owned brick and sugar plants, breweries, hulling mills and flour mills, cinemas, print shops, mineral water production companies and weaving mills. In the early XX century there were nine water mills in Korsun and eight of them were rented out by the Jews.

Leyah Spector with children in Korsun, 1913

In 1907-1909, two local Jews Eli Ostrovskiy and Berko Maystrovskiy built two hulling mills, powered by an oil engine. In 1913, a brewery belonged to Mene Raychman, mead factories belonged to Duvid Moskalenskiy and Nechame Khriplivets.

This tray is a gift to Russian doctor Ivan Opanasovich Bondarev from Korsun Jewish community, 1898

In 1900, Korsun tradesman Volko Itskovich Pokras owned “a weaving establishment” where 20 Jews worked and in 1913, Mindla Tevelevna Kanelskaya had a weaving workshop. Brothers Mordka and Volka Pavolotskiy owned a printing press and a bookshop and a stationer’s as well. One of the first cinemas in the town was founded by Nison

In 1913, a brewery belonged to Mene Raychman, mead factories belonged to Duvid Moskalenskiy and Nechame Khriplivets. In 1900, Korsun tradesman Volko Itskovich Pokras owned “a weaving establishment” where 20 Jews worked and in 1913, Mindla Tevelevna Kanelskaya had a weaving workshop. Brothers Mordka and Volka Pavolotskiy owned a printing press and a bookshop and a stationer’s as well. One of the first cinemas in the town was founded by Nison Cherkes.

Most Jews was engaged in trade and crafts. In 1896, there were 20 Jewish merchant houses and 105 shops in Korsun. Small shop owners traded on their own,more affluent ones such as the merchant of the second guild from Kanev Leyba Pokras, Aron Zolotov, Khuna Tartakovskiy, Nakhman Slivnik and others, hired sales staff. Nearly 70 craftsmen, such as cobblers, tailors, watchmakers and tinkers, worked in small workshops.

In 1865, there were two synagogues in Korsun, with the number rising to five in 1896, and a Jewish bathhouse, in 1900 – three synagogues, in 1924 – two synagogues (the communities associated with them were called “Balakhovskiy Kloyz” and “Synagogue”). One Torah scroll was preserved to this day, it might have belonged to one of these synagogues and now it is stored in the funds of Korsun-Shevchenkovskiy State Historical and Cultural Reserve.

There is some fragmentary data about Korsun official rabbis. In 1854, it was Fayvel Ostrovskiy, with Moshko Umanskiy a gabai, and Yankel  Umanskiy a kloyz gabai. In 1856-1862, Itsko Portnoy was a rabbi, in 1900-1909 – Moshko Mordkovich, who established a Jewish library in the town and wanted to start a Jewish school, in 1913-1914 doctor Berko Shmulevich Pinskiy took his place.

Among other Korsun rabbis there was Azriel Dov Galevi (?-1872), the author of the books “Pri Dea” (1861) and “Shemen-la-Maor” (1871), he was called rab Alter Korsiner. His son Iyeguda Leyb Galevi became a rabbi after him.

In 1854-1914, rabbi Tsvi Girsh Shlez (1834(?)-1914) lived in Korsun, he was buried at the local Jewish cemetery. In the 1880s, he founded a yeshiva at the local synagogue and it became the most famous yeshiva in Ukraine. More than 150 students from all over Ukraine, Russia and even from Lithuania studied there, the future Minister of Education and Culture of Israel Ben-Tsion Dinur, famous New-York rabbi Nissan Telushkin and many others were among its students.

There were four grades in yeshiva, the teachers were rabbis David, Duvidl, Avrum Steinberg, and Tsvi Girsh Shlez. Rabbi Tsvi Girsh Shlez was famous for his books, written in Korsun and approved by the chief rabbis at the time; the most important one is “Niflaot MiTorat Hashem Itbarakh” (“The Wonders of the G-d’s Blessed Torah”).

In 1881, while looking for a job, Sholem Aleichem, a well-known Yiddish author, visited Korsun several times. Here he met a future teacher, a literary critic, a publicist and a social activist Shimen Dobin who used to live in the town at that time.

In 1910, there was a Talmud-Torah, four private Jewish specialized schools, a separate Jewish department at the public two-year college in Korsun.

Moses Kopitnikov, member of RSDRP Korsun branch since 1905.

Civil War pogroms

In 1918-1920, during the Russian Civil War many Jews became victims of the pogroms, instigated by the Germans, Petliura and Denikin gangs and the Red Army soldiers. On March 1

On March 1, 1918 Petliura’s detachment of the Ukrainians led by Kirichenko appeared in Korsun. Having proclaimed himself “The Central Rada Commissioner”, he disarmed the town’s self-defense battalion and threatened to “put all Jews to the knife”, if a contribution from every Jewish household is not paid.

Then the German occupation of Korsun began. The peasants revolted against it and after long and persistent fights the Germans had to leave Korsun for some time. It happened in early July 1918. When the Germans returned, they thought the Jews were the main instigators of the rebellion and gave shelter to the rebels. The Germans entered the town in an armored car and fired right into a group of Jews congregating at the market. Some of them were killed, some were wounded and maimed.

Korsun Jewish self-defence unit, 1919

However, it was the Denikin gangs that instigated the most horrific atrocities. On August 24 1919, Bolsheviks left Korsun. It was known at the time that eight or ten kilometers away from the Zavadovka junction a special forces detachment Terskiy Brigade was stationed. A delegation of four Christians and three Jews went there to greet the brigade and ask them to move into the town. On August 25 a small detachment enters Korsun. It was warmly greeted by both Russian and Jewish communities, with the rabbi at the head. The Denikin forces organized a mass rally where they announced that the peaceful inhabitants of Korsun may live in peace as there would not be any violence. When the next day, August 26, the local Bolsheviks captured the town for a few hours again,  the two Jewish members of the delegation paid with their lives for sympathizing the Volunteer army. Their names were Sheinbloom and Slavutskiy, the third one managed to escape. On the same day the Bolsheviks were pushed out by the special forces brigade and from that moment on mass pogroms and massacres began. The rabbi who greeted the arrival of the Denikin detachments, died as a result of terrible torture, literally torn to pieces. The Volunteers detachment was stationed in Korsun for about four months, from August till December 1919. Their rule was marked by numerous atrocities, rape and slaughter of the local Jews as well as looting and arson.

On the 11-19 May 1920, the Red Army soldiers of the 391 Tarashchansky regiment instigated a pogrom, affecting over 500 Jewish families.

During 1919-1920 there were seven pogroms in Korsun, 75 people were murdered, 65 wounded, and 600 people died as a result of disease, starvation and hypothermia.

These 4 Jewish Korsun girls were members of Soviet anti-gang unit and were burned alive by Tsvetkovskiy’s bandits near village Kidanivka, Boguslav district.

In 1918-1921, there was a Jewish self-defense unit in Korsun. After the Denikin pogrom in August 1919 it was turned into an anti-gang unit. It was formed and armed with the permission of the local authorities.

Korsun Jewish self-defence unit, 1920

At different times it was headed by Kh. Reznichenko, Petrushanskiy, Avrum Maystrovskiy, the chief of staff was Isaak Kitaygorodskiy, and the soldiers were Ovsey Kozlov, brothers Aron and Shlema Litrovnik, Moisey and Zelik Ocheretiany, Srul Ziserman, Moisey Zaslavskiy, Rozenfeld, Feldman and many others.

Members of Korsun Jewish self-defence:

After the Revolution

During the 1920s, there was a department of Jewish Section in Korsun.

In 1925-1926, a village council was founded in Korsun, it was bilingual – Ukrainian and Yiddish, and in 1927 it was transformed into the council for the Jewish ethnic minority, Headed by Moisey Ocheretiany and Ovsey Kozlov in the 1920s-1930s. The board members were Y.M. Radinovskiy, P.Y. and M.B. Ostrovskiy , and A.B. Gabinskaya.

Korsun village council in 1936: among them Jewish are Ovsei Lvovich Kozlov (head), Y.M.Radinovskiy, P.Y.Ostrovskiy, M.B. Ostrovskiy, A.B. Gabinskaya

In 1923, Ovsey Markovskiy, Aron Ostrovskiy, Itsyk Chudnovskiy, Mordko Beliaskiy and Aron Kogosov founded a Jewish Agricultural Collective “The Jewish Farmer”. In 1929, it was turned into a Jewish collective farm “Yevpachar” (short for “The Jewish Farmer”). It was headed by Kagalovskiy, Meyer Ostrovskiy and Abram Solop.

In the 1920s, two synagogues were opened in Korsun, they were called “Balakhovskiy Kloyz” (or “Old kloyz”) and there also was a prayer house “Synagogue”, the locals called it “balmalukheshe shul” that meant “the synagogue for small traders”. The community board at “Kloyz” consisted of Mordko Belinskiy, Berko Levitch, Oves Spivak, and Leyba Kovarskiy. There were 43 people in it. The Community “Prayer House “Synagogue” was founded in May 1923, Berko Maystrovskiy was the chairman of the board and the list of co-founders included 20 people. In 1928, Korsun Jewish labor conference not affiliated to any political parties demanded the dismantling of the semi-ruined building of the old synagogue in order to use the material for building a school. In 1931, both synagogues were closed “at the request of the workers”. A Young Pioneer club found home in one of the synagogues and the other housed a kindergarten.

Lesson of political literacy to Korsun Jewish housewives: teachers are heads of Korsun village council Iosef Kaminskiy and Volodya Masterovoy ( 2 men in the center). Second row – 1) Eva Leibovna Samorodnitskaya (Seliskaya), 8) Golda Kashvina (Golberg). Third row – 2) Hava Avigdorovna Kashvina (Maltarnavska), 5) Rosa Belobrova, 1930’s

In 1928, Korsun Jewish labor conference not affiliated to any political parties demanded the dismantling of the semi-ruined building of the old synagogue in order to use the material for building a school. In 1931, both synagogues were closed “at the request of the workers”. A Young Pioneer club found home in one of the synagogues and the other housed a kindergarten.

In 1924-1938, there was a working Jewish school. At first it was a four year school and was opened on October 1 1924 in the former Orthodox Christian priest’s house on Academician Zakharenko Street. In the early 1930s it became a seven year school and moved to a new two-storied building in Shevchenko street (the old building of the current gymnasium), which was built on the donations of the local Jewish community.

The 7th grade of Korsun Jewish school: director David Tuchinskiy and pupils (from left to right) Grigoriy Zelikov, Isser Kagan, Yacob Dubinin, Vera Faershtein, Lusya Medvinskaya, Zeidl Polinskiy and Usher Musikant, 1936

The lessons were in Yiddish. Its students were taught not only the usual subjects but also the Jewish language and Literature. The school principal was a teacher of the Jewish language and Literature Yankel Kleyman, followed by David Tuchinskiy, the teacher of Physics. The teachers were Pyrl Ovodenko, I.Pravdin, R.S.Sigalova. Nina Georgiyevna Bantos and Mikhail Alekseyevich Kolyakov taught the Ukainian language and Literature, Polina Isaakovna Leshchinskaya taught Chemistry and the Russian language, Beyla Dlugach – the Russian language and Literature, Yefim Vishnevskiy – Mathematics. The teachers Sophiya Moiseyevna Romanovskaya, Perelman, Moiseyev, Sinayevich worked with junior forms. There was a drama club at school, with  Roza Kashvina in charge of it. Former students can still remember the performance of «Motl the Cantor’s Son» after the novel by Sholem Aleichem.

Nina Georgiyevna Bantos and Mikhail Alekseyevich Kolyakov taught the Ukainian language and Literature, Polina Isaakovna Leshchinskaya taught Chemistry and the Russian language, Beyla Dlugach – the Russian language and Literature, Yefim Vishnevskiy – Mathematics. The teachers Sophiya Moiseyevna Romanovskaya, Perelman, Moiseyev, Sinayevich worked with junior forms. There was a drama club at school, with  Roza Kashvina in charge of it. Former students can still remember the performance of «Motl the Cantor’s Son» after the novel by Sholem Aleichem.

Holocaust

On July 30, 1941 Korsun was occupied by the Wehrmacht divisions.

At first the Jews were separated in a kind of ghetto in Remeslennaya Street (now Z.Kosmodemyanskaya street).

Former Jewish ghetto during WWII

In September 1941,  226 Korsun Jews were shot by the Ukrainian police in Kushchayevka ravine, and 543 Jews from Korsun and Kanev suffered the same fate in November.

Since the autumn of 1941 till the spring 1942 more than 1,000 Jews, mostly women, older people and children, were shot in the same ravine and in the allotments behind the house in Shevchenko street, 8.

Photos of Holocaust vicitims which were collected by Klavdiya Kolesnikova in 1990’s-2ooo’s:

Whole families were murdered, such as the Atkaches, Bazilevskiys, Boguslavskiys, Vodas, Grinbergs, Golbergs, Druz, Kogosovs, Kozlovs, Litvinskiys, Leshchinskiys, Magitskiys, Melnikovs, Moskalenskiys, Ostrovskiys, Pochtarevs, Slezovs, Spivaks, Reznikovs, Ruvinskiys, Petrushanskiys, Tabachnikovs, Feldmans, Khinchins, Chudnovskiys, and many others (we have a list containing 125 names).

List of Korsun Jews who served in Soviet army and were killed in action:

Photos of perished soldiers which were collected by Klavdiya Kolesnikova in 1990’s-2ooo’s:

Several instances of the local Ukrainians saving Jews are known.

Tamara Kuznetsova (second from the right) who was saved together with his Jewish mother, brother and sister by Klavdiya Zaitseva (second from the left)

Jewish WWII veterans from Korsun:

In 1946-1948, the remains of the victims from the Kushchayevka ravine were reburied in two common graves  at the Jewish cemetery by the order of the Head of Municipal Economy Abram Borisovich Zhytnitskiy, whose son perished there.

Abram Borisovich Zhytnitskiy

After the WWII

In the late 1940s, those Korsun Jews who managed to survive, came back to their native town and gradually started to restore the Jewish life.

They wanted to show respect to the memory of the victims of the Nazis from the Kushchayevka ravine, buried in two common graves at the Jewish cemetery. In November 1948, the meeting of the local Jews took place and Meyer Bentsionovich Ostrovskiy proposed that the Jews collect money for the memorial. By March 1948 89 people had donated 2,550 rubles. However, the authorities refused to allow a Jewish memorial so that they are not singled out as the only victims of Nazism, which is why the district council ordered to give this money to the state. Later, a memorial plaque was installed to mark the common graves and in 1991, a memorial appeared funded by the Jewish cultural community and the local authorities.

Holocaust memorial and new part of Korsun Jewish cemetery, 2016

In January 1953, an anonymous letter informing about a Zionist organization headed by Gufeld, Fishbein and Ostrovskiy set up in Korsun-Shevchenkovskiy was sent to the Ukrainian Department of the Soviet secret police. Among the “crimes” of the Korsun Zionists was the collection of funds to build a memorial and also to send a representative to the former Head of Israel Mission in Moscow – Golda Meyer. The fact that all secondary and high schools teachers of the Russian and Ukrainian languages were Jewish was also mentioned. The inspection that followed discovered that only the money collection for the memorial was true.

Jewish blacksmiths in Korsun: Samul Shmidman, Zalman Ocheretyaniy and Vasyl Pshono, 1950’s

In 1965, a 95-year-old lawyer from Korsun Petr Abramovich Ulitskiy sent a letter to the newspaper «Izvestiya». It was an open letter in 20 pages to the author of the anti-Semitic book «Judaism Without Embellishments» T.Kichko, denouncing its anti-Semitic premise because he couldn’t not keep quiet when lies were told about his people. It wasn’t published but it became known to the local people. Ulitskiy gave a copy of this letter to Natan Iosifovich Shapiro, the activist of the movement against anti-Semitism in Kiev, who kept it for 20 years, and in 2000, it was published in his book «We’ve had enough of contempt» by S.L. Averbukh.

Handwritten Jewish calendar by Leib-Peisah Petrushanskiy, 1968

In the 1950s-1980s, a clandestine Jewish community with a “secret minyan» existed in Korsun. It included Lev Yankelevich Brodskiy, Nakhl Gershkovich Rasgkovskiy, Leyb-Peysakh Kopelevich petrushanskiy, Avner Iosifovich Rozhanskiy, Chaim Lvovich Selisskiy, Aron Itskovich Druz, Berl Lvovich Kozlov, Bentsion Gershkovich Ostrovskiy, David Ovseyevich Moskalenskiy, Rachmil Litovskiy, Shimon Kagan, Yefim Gleyzerman. They gathered secretly in the apartments of N.Rashkovskiy, L.Petrushanskiy or L.Brodskiy.

L.Brodskiy held the position of the chair and the treasurer of the community for a long time. They had all religious ritual accessories like tallit, kippahs, tefillins, a prayer book, and a real Torah in a blue velvet cover. They celebrated Shabbat and tried to follow the laws of kashrut. They celebrated all Jewish holidays. Some handwritten Jewish calendars by L. Petrushanskiy survived.

On this paper, Leib-Peisah Petrushanskiy wrote count of Korsun Jewish population from 1945 till 1990. In 1990, there were lived 143 Halakha Jews

The rites of britt-milah (circumcision) and bar-mitzvahs were last held in Korsun in the 1950s with the help of a rabbi invited from Kiev. Some Jewish wedding traditions were followed. The Chuppa was not set but a sort of Ktubah was made, glasses were smashed in the memory of the demolition of the Temple of Jerusalem and special blessings were told. Jewish burial rites were followed – the tailor Boris Belobrov made a “kytl” (a burial garment), tallit and tefillin were placed into the coffin, special prayers were read at the cemetery, women were buried in one row, men in the other. The cemetery was always in good order, some people tidied it up on Sundays, collected money to make improvements. They collected tzdokah and helped those in need, supported them by buying winter fuel, paid burial costs and even bought them houses (this is how a house for Itsik Teplitskiy was purchased).

First Shabat in Korsun which was conducted by participants of Peace Marсh Sally and Alan Grach, 1988

In independent Ukraine

On 25 March 1990, a society of Jewish Culture was established in the town, a Jewish community since 1995. Among the founders were Viktor Zveigbaum, Petr Rashkovskiy, Boris Petrushanskiy, Klavdiya Kolrsnikova, Maya Medovaya, Yefim Diskin, Petr Fishbein, Leonid Kolesnikov, Mikhail Albin, and Tsal Groysman.

The first board of Korsun Society of Jewish Culture: Boris Petrushanskiy, Maya Medovaya, Peter Fishbein, Victor Tsvaigbaum (Chairman) and his son Eugene, Leonid Kolesnikov, Efim Diskin, Peter Rashkovskiy, Klavdiya Kolesnikova, 1990

Since 1995 Korsun-Shevchenkovskiy Jewish community is headed by Ts. N. Groysman. In 1990, the community opened a Jewish library and founded a choir “Lechaim”.

In 1993, the Regional Association of Jewish Organizations of Small Towns of Ukraine with the center in Korsun-Shevchenkovskiy was established. It is headed by its president P.N. Rashkovskiy. From 1994 till 2014 a regional Sunday Jewish school was open.

A Jewish regional newspaper “Hope” has been published since 1994. Since 2000, various clubs, festivals, seminars and conferences have been held by the community. In 2003, a regional museum of Jewish history “We come from a shtetl” opened its doors.

Famous Jews from Korsun

The following people were born here: a writer, teacher, scholar, and popularizer of Jewish history Moisey Iosifovich Bazilevskiy (1840-1902),  painter Abram Borisovich Kozlov (1878-1933) and his brother sculptor Benedict Borisovich Kozlov (1888-1945), who belonged to the Paris school; an essayist, a literary and film critic Yefim Semionovich Dobin (1901-1977); a politician, a historian, a journalist, a literary critic and a folklorist Abram Davidovich Yuditskiy (1886-1943); a scientist and a designer of artillery systems and rocket and space technology, USSR State Prize winner Mikhail Tsyrulnikov (1907-1990); a philosopher, historian, ethnographer, scientific consultant of “The Brief Jewish Encyclopedia” Pinkhas Chaimovich Samorodnitskiy (1930); Ph.D., chief technologist of magnesium production in the “Enterprises of the Dead Sea” in Israel,Yefim Alexandrovich Kitaygorodskiy.

Korsun Jewish cemetery

Cemetery was founded in XVIII century and still in use. The local Jewish community is responsible for cemetery maintenance.

Old part of the cemetery:

In 2015, new fence was build for cost of German charity foundation.

New section of Korsun Jewish cemetery

Date Of The Oldest Known Gravestone: 1830.

Ківшовата – Kivshovata (Ukrainian), Ковшеватое – Kovshevatoe (Russian)

Kovshevatoe is a historic village located in Kiev region of central Ukraine. The village’s estimated population is 2,400 (as of 2001).

In XIX – beginning of XX century it was shtetl of Tarasha Yezd of Kiev Gubernia. 

Beginning

The village was founded in the 1560s by a Polish noble called Chernysh. The first official written evidence dates from the 31^st of May 1571 when King Sigismund Augustus confirmed the property rights for “the village Chernyshky called Kovshovatitse” to a boyar (Slav nobility)Tymofiy Tyshkovych from Bila Tserkva.

It was a part of Rzeczpospolita (the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795) until the XVIII century when in 1793 it became a part of the Russian Empire.

During the war of liberation headed by Bohdan Khmelnitskiy Kivshovate passed from one owner to another several times.

We can assume that the Jewish community at that time was completely destroyed.

During the XVIII century the Jewish population of the village was growing steadily. According to the regular census of the Jewish population conducted to collect taxes more effectively, the following figures were recorded: 1765 – 47 Jews, 1775 – 91 Jews, 1778 – 86 Jews, 1784 – 166 Jews, 1788 – 117 Jews.

In 1763, Jews paid a hearth tax of 300 zloty from each household. There was a Kivshovate kahal (a Jewish community council), including the Jews not only from Kivshovate but also from a number of nearby villages (Lukyanivka, Stanyshivka, Dubivka, berezianka, Antonivka, Zakutyntsi, Luka, Sich, Stepka, Kyslivka, Buda, Kruti Horby, Synytsia). According to the 1784 census, there were 238 Jews in the kahal. Jewish households were also recorded outside Kivshovate, in Luts (18), Sich(14), Berezianka (six), Kyslivka and Buda(seven). The synagogue in Kysvshovate was built approximately in the middle of the XVIII century.

Kovshevatoe in the beginning of XX century

The surname Koshevatsky appears in later documents, denoting the Jews from this area. Thus, Mordko Gershkovich Koshevatsky was the resident of Bila Tserkva and the names of David Koshevatsky and Sura Koshevatska are found among those who were murdered in the village of Medvyn. There are four Koshevatskys in the telephone register of Kyiv.

There is an archive record of quarantine and an enforced blockade of all movements out of Kivshovate in 1778 as a result of some epidemic. A scheduled census of the Jewish population was canceled because of it. When the quarantine was over, it was confirmed that a number of Jews had died.

The famous Jewish writer Sholom Aleichem used to visit Kivshovate in 1877-1880 when he worked as a teacher for the rich Jewish tenant Avimelech  (Elimelech) Loyev in his “Sophiyivka” estate near Brane Pole (now Sophiyivka, Bohuslavskyy district).

In 1865, there were two synagogues in Kivshovate. In the XIX – early XX centuries, the main occupation of the Jewish population was craft, small and medium trade.

Some Kivshovate inhabitants were referred to as commoners, or lower middle class. The social status was passed from parents to children and only those whose assets did not exceed 500 rubles were classed as such.  In Kivshovate this meant mostly Jews and Poles. This social category had its own council with an elected head.

Kovshevatoe entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913

In the early XX century, Mykola Antonovych Pozharnitskyy was elected the head of the common council, Yakiv Liudvihovych Voytovskyy and Yankel Beniovych Shepetovskyy were recorded as its members and in 1913 Berko Berkovych Kravchenko became its head, with Petro Fedorovych Slavinskyy as a clerk. Another name of a village elder in Kivshovate is recorded– Yosyp Yakovyna (1885).

In 1914, the Jews from Kivshovate owned a mill, a drugstore, and 37 stalls including 20 groceries, seven shops selling manufactured goods.

Civil War

During the early twentieth century turmoil (1917-1921), the power in Kivshovate changed hands several times. 27 changes were reported in Tarashcha, a nearby village, and it is likely that Kivshovate faced the same fate.

V Sergiyenko in his book “Pogroms in Ukraine: 1914-1920” published the following report from 1920 on the Jewish pogroms in Kovshevate:

“Kovshevate had suffered several attacks since the revolution began. The attacks on the heads and the backs of the Jews by the squads of Grebenko, Zeliony, Denikin and other various rebel groups under different guises, such as Tsvetkovskiy, Marusia, grigoryevtsy and others. The property of the Jews who live in Kashevate and the area was often destroyed or burnt down. It would happen several times. There were about 70 destroyed buildings burnt by the bandits. To add to the outrageous atrocities committed by the gangs, the Jews also suffered raids by a local Tsvetkovskiy’s gang night and day. 30 people were killed. During pogroms 63 people were killed, 42 wounded, and 50 raped mostly by the Zeleny and Grebenka gang members.

After all that, the remaining Jews had to run without any means of livelihood, without clothes and barefoot, and they are living in unsanitary conditions in Boguslav now. They are sharing small rooms with seven or eight people in basements and synagogues.”

A Jewish self-defense unit of 20 people was organized by the villagers during the revolution. It was trying to resist the pogrom-makers. One of its members was Favel Gershovich who died in one of the fights.

Between the Wars

In the 1920s, the Jewish tradesmen were organized into a cooperative.

Pogroms and a difficult economic situation in the village forced some Jews to leave Kovshovate and move to other towns.

In the 1920s, the synagogue was still open in Kovshevate. In 1926, there were 311 Jews in the village.

In 1928, a Jewish collective farm “Der Emes” was founded which later became part of a larger Ukrainian-Jewish collective farm “Lenin”. 30 Jewish families settled in the village by the end of the 1930s.

In the 1920s, a Jewish school was founded in the village, only to close in the 1930s.

In 1927, the Department of Land Use for the Working Jews (“OZET”) was opened which supported the program of organized resettlement of Jews to the Kherson province to work on land.

Nobody knows how many Jews left Kovshovate for the steppes in the south in this period but approximately 90 Jewish families left Tarashcha at the time.

Leonid Maliar (1925-2013), a native of Kovshevate, the participant of WWII remembers:

“My father Shaya Itskovich Maliar (1891-1944) was an artisan before the revolution and as people say he was a jack-of-all-trades, a blacksmith, a saddler, a ropemaker. He fought in the First World War and even got the George’s cross. In 1916, he was captured by the Austrians. There he managed to graduate from the Yeshiva so he became an educated person. Since he had a good natural singing voice, he was appointed to be a cantor in Kivshovate synagogue. My father held my bar-mitzvah in 1938. The solemn ritual was kept in secret from the authorities otherwise I could have been expelled from the school.”

Shaya Itskovich Maliar (1891-1944)

The last synagogue was closed in 1932 and the building was destroyed.

Shaya Maliar hid all religious accessories, scrolls and books at home. Then all Jews from Kivshovate gathered for prayers at the Maliars’ place.

They baked matzos together and distributed it among the Jewish families.

On the 24^th of March 1930, a public meeting took place in the village, dedicated to the start of the harvesting season. The photo of the meeting was taken by the photographer from Tarashcha M.Yurovskiy, which was published by the “The Banner of Communism” newspaper on March 25^th 1967.

Public meeting in the Kovshevatoe, 1930

Stalinist purges of the 1930s did not pass by the Jews from Kovshevate: the collective farm foreman Yankel Volfovich Spektor (born in 1914) was arrested and sentenced to four years of camps.

In the neighboring village of Luka, the chief engineer at the local sugar factory Karasyk was declared a saboteur and an enemy of the people, and the director of that factory was charged with “liberal indulging the saboteur Karasyk”.

Among the victims of the state-organized famine of 1932-1933, there are two Jewish names, Ashot Shliomovna Aptekar (1922-1933) and Itsko Yonovich Maliar (1858-1932), the latter refused to eat non-kosher food and died of starvation.

The last heder was closed by the authorities in Kovshevate in the mid-1930s.

Holocaust

At the start of the war many Jews were called up to fight with the Soviet Army, and young men born in 1925 or later were evacuated miles away from the front line.

The last minyan in Koshevate took place at the house of Shaya Maliar in July 1941. Shaya Maliar called for a prayer meeting of all local Jews on 25 June 1941 to consider their future actions.

Leonid Maliar remembers the meeting:

“In our prayers we all asked the Lord to protect and save Jews. After the prayer we started to talk about what to do. As old people do in the shtetls, they began recalling the previous war when the Germans did not touch Jews. The collective farm issued dray carts [to move the belongings] but most Jews decided to stay”.

In July 1941, the head doctor of the Kivshovate hospital Vasyl Ivanovych Danilin and his Jewish wife Fayina Solomonivna Hryshko, were shot.

In September 1941, 48 Jews were ordered to gather in the field as if ready to collect the harvest. The local Polizei Ukrainian Nazi collaborators led the column of people to the outskirts of Kivshovate where pit had been already dug. The Polizei proceeded to murder the Jews. One German officer watched the execution. According to the eyewitnesses account, there was a bottle of vodka in front of the officer during the killing.

Monument on the Holocaust mass grave in Kovshevatoe, 2016

Local Jews were shot by the SS division “Operational Detachment Five”. The SS Colonel Shults was in command and the SS Lieutenant Jung was in charge of the shootings in the Tarashcha district. The houses of murdered Jews were later looted by the locals.

The last Jew who was shot in Kovshevatoye was Pinia Kagan, the only Jew in the village who had married a Ukrainian woman before the war. When the war began he was taken to the Soviet Army, escaped the encirclement and returned home. He remained in hiding for a long time but he was discovered and betrayed to the police by his former colleague turned informer Leontiy Yasinovy. He was sentenced to ten years in prison after the war. Yasinovy served his time and then went back to live in the village.

List of Holocaust victims in Kovshevatoe

The Jews of Kovshevate who died at the front:

1. Blinder Shai Avramovych, 1920-1942
2. Gubenko Davyd Solomonovych, 1921-1944
3. Zaslavskyy Boruch, (?)
4. Zaslavskyy Yefym Hryhorovych, 1925-1945
5. Zaslavskyy … Name and dates are unknown
6. Zaslavskyy Matviy Sruliovych, 1923-1944
7. Kahan Davyd Petrovych, 1913-1944, sen.lieutenant
8. Kahan Hedal Isakovych, 1921-1941
9. Kahan Chaim Faveliovych, 1921-1944
10. Podolskyy Volko Sruliovych, 1914(?)-1941
11. Podolskyy Usher Sruliovych, 1924-1944
12. Podolskyy Moysha Sruliovych, (?), a.k.a. Monyk
13. Spektor Shlomo, (?)
14. Sandler Ayzyk Matviyovych, (?)
15. Kravets Mychayil, (?)
16. Tryliser Volodymyr Petrovych, 1925-1945
17. Chalyy Matviy, (?)
18. Chalyy Beniamin Matviyovych. (?)
19. Shechtman Moysha Meyerovych, (?)

The Jews of Kovshevate who survived the war and returned to the village (most of them have passed away since):

1. Blinder Volodymyr Avramovych, disabled, worked at the aircraft plant after the war. Died in Kyiv.
2. Zamanskyy Mychaylo Serhiyovych, became an officer, was wounded, served as a mortar sub-unit commander, worked in Kyiv. Now lives in Israel.
3. Kahan Oleksandr Isakovych – served in the Navy, captain second rank, was wounded. Lives in Israel.
4. Kahan Avram Faveliovych – lives in Israel.
5. Levit Iosif Velvylovych – lives in Rokytne, Kyiv region.
6. Lemberskyy Solomon – was wounded. He lived and died in Boguslav, Kyiv region.
7. Mazurytska Rayisa lvivna – was in the Army communication service. Lives in Kyiv.
8. Maliarov Leonid Shayovych – a political worker, lieutenant colonel, chairs the veteran organization in Maykop, Republic of Adygeya in Russia.

Leonid Maliar (1925-2013) with his wife

9. Lomazov Semen Avramovych – served in aviation, worked as a coach driver and a mechanic after the war. Lives in Israel.
10. Mezhybovskyy Borys Beniaminovych – served in a military communication service during the war. Lives in Israel.

Mezhybovskyy Borys Beniaminovych, 1943

11. Mezhybovskyy Hryhoriy Biniaminovych – remained in the army until retirement. He died in Kyiv.
12. Mezhybovskyy Kyva Beniaminovych – had been working for a furniture company in Kyiv. Now working in the same capacity in the US.
13. Putiyevskyy Dmytro Faliovych – after the war worked as a reported for regional newspapers and broadcaster all his life in the Kyiv region.
14. Putiyevskyy Hryhoriy Faliovych – was wounded at the front. He died in the USA.
15. Putiyevskyy Oleksandr Faliovych – was a worker at the aircraft plant after the war. He moved to the USA.
16. Serebriakov Leonid Borysovych –joined up in July 1941. South-Western front, rifle division 301. Survived the disastrous first years of the Soviet Army retreat, was captured and escaped from four German death camps. After the war worked as a reported and editor in regional newspapers. Has a disability as a result of his war wounds. Published five books of humor and satire, with hundreds of publications in the media. Lives in Kherson.

Leonid Serebriakov

17. Stanislavskyy Ayzyk – after the war he lived and worked in the public procurement in Kharkiv. He died in Kharkiv.

After the war

After the war those Jews who managed to survive came back to the village, such as the local barber Solomon Lemberskiy who stayed and worked in Kivshovate for some time before moving to Boguslav with his wife.

Man Shepetovskiy worked at the farm shop. Petr Triliser , Kagan (a turner in the collective farm), and Grigoriy Smilianskiy used to live in the village with their families as well.

There were about 20-30 Jews in the village after the war.

Shops in the center of Kovshevatoe, 2016

The names of those who had suffered from the Holocaust were collected by the local History teacher Pavlo Prochorovich Yasenov (? -2002) in Koshevate in the 1960s. A handwritten list of 58 names had been kept by the village council for more than 50 years before it was published in the book of the local historian V.I. Sergiyenko in 2011.

Older Jews, survivors of the Holocaust passed away and younger people moved to other towns and countries.

According to the unconfirmed data, there are about 15 Jewish families left who live outside Koshevate in different countries. Eight families live in Israel, two in the USA, three in Ukraine, one in Russia and so on.

Kovshevatoe Jews in Kiev, 1980’s

The last Jew in Kovshevate died in the 2010s .

Jewish cemetery

Cemetery was located in the north-western outskirts of the village, 800 meters form the edge of the village along the road to Tarascha, on the right-hand side. There is no remaining trace of the cemetery.

Cemetery was destroyed during the war. Gravestones were used to pave the road. In 1950’s, site of the cemetery started to use as an agricultural field.

Approximate site of Kovshevatoe Jewish cemetery

Rzyszczów (Polish), Ржищев – Rzhishchev (Russian), Ржищів – Rzhyschiv (Ukrainian), אורזישטשב , אורזיטשוב (Yiddish)

Rzhyshchev is a town in Kiev district of central Ukraine. The town’s estimated population is 7,519 (as of 2015).

In XIX – beginning of XX century it was shtetl of Kiev Yezd of Kiev Gubernia.

Rzhyshchev is 78 km south-east of Kiev.

Beginning

The Jewish population in Rzhyshchev may have existed at the time of Rzeczpospolita (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795) before the Khmelnitsky uprising but confirmed accounts exist from much later times. Thus, in 1740, 40 Jews lived here.
Later, when the Kyiv region became part of the Russian Empire in the 1790s, Rzhyshchev was included in the Pale of Settlement where Russian Jews were allowed to settle.

In 1896 there was a Ravinskaya (Rabbi) street in Rzhyshchiv, where one could see the house which belonged to the great rabbi Mendel Avrum Yosakov.

Also, four prayer schools named after the guilds which set them up, such as the rabbinical, the hatters’ school, the newly built school and the stone-built school. There was a new Jewish school (Zhuravskiy’s school) in Shyroka street. The Shoychet School was in Novobudovy St. 1 and the artisans’ school was in Kamyana St.

In 1898, a Jewish prayer school of Yosyf Brodskyy opens and in 1906, a school “Beys-Yosyf” starts functioning in the street that leads to the Dnieper river on Karl Tritshel’s land near the sugar plant. The building of this school still exists.

In 1869, a synagogue was erected. It was supposed to be wooden at first but when the construction began the Jewish community obtained the permission to build a stone synagogue. According to the documents from 1889, there was a brick synagogue in Rzhyshchiv.

In 1852, there was a synagogue and a Jewish cemetery in Rzhyshchiv. In 1873, there were four synagogues in the town. In the late XX century, Moyshe Rapoport was a rabbi in Rzhyshchiv. His son Betsalel (1851-?) became a rabbi in Rzhyshchiv after his father’s death in the early XX century. In the 1890s-1910s Simkha Mordukhovich Shokhor was the government-approved rabbi of Rzhyshchiv.

View of PreRevolution Rzhyshchev

Sholom Rabinovich (also known as Sholom Aleichem, a famous Jewish writer) started out as a young home tutor in Rzhyshchiv, which fact is commemorated by a plaque on the local library, installed in 2009.

Local faced a fierce competition, and Sholom Rabinovich as a young newcomer was not welcome. He had vicious rumours spread about him, making it impossible for him to continue with his work. When the academic year ended, Sholom went back to Pereyaslav and swore a solemn oath never to tutor in small towns again.

Later Sholom Aleichem’s sister Broche, Rayzman by marriage, lived in Rzhyshchiv, where she tragically died in 1912, crushed to death in an unstable cellar.

PreRevolution hospital building

According to “The list of settlements in the Kyiv province” from 1900, 6,513 Jews and 11,016 Orthodox Christians lived in Rzhyshchiv. The main occupation of the ordinary Jewish people was crafts and trade. After the largest employers in town Schweisgut’s sugar beet refinery and the machine building plant, Yudka Naftulov -Tsybulsky‘s iron foundry and mechanical plant came second in size. In 1902, it employed 66 workers. Jewish entrepreneurs owned a large amount of shops, hotels, inns, barbers’, printing companies and more than ten lumberyards, such as Bentsion Chornobylsky’s soap factory, Shmul Ulytskyy’s saw mill and many others. This commercial activity promoted the development of the local industry and improved the prospects for many people.

Rzhyshchev marketplace, 1910’s

The Jewish community established a so called “basket tax” (a special tax on the consumption of ritual food), which funded community programs, such as shelters for the poor and orphans, etc.

A Jewish primary school for boys and a private Jewish girls’ school opened in Rzhyshchiv. There was a Jewish loan and mutual aid society, with the Jewish population in Rzhyshchiv exceeding ten thousand people by 1910.

In 1910, there is evidence of a Jewish school in the town. Rzhyschiv’s Jewish community was not only large but also rich, as confirmed by the list of Kiev Oblast’s Jewish merchants and manufacturers compiled by Kiev City Duma in 1907. It features 150 surnames belonging to inhabitants of Rzhyschiv, 47 of which owned real estate to the value of 1,000 roubles and more, including the Lishchinsky family (brothers Herman Yoskovich and Mendel Yoskovich, Mendel Gershko’s son) that owned real estate amounting to 8,200 roubles; Podraysky Vigdor Nisonov (real estate valued at 5,000 roubles); the Polissky manufacturing family (Gersh Aron Avrum Polissky’s real estate was valued at 4,200 roubles); Skidelsky El Duvid Yankelev (4,000 roubles); and manufacturer Movsha Leybovich Gohbarg (2,700 roubles).

Rzhyshchev entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913, part 1

Rzhyshchev entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913, part 2

In 1910, 11 synagogues were opened in Rzhyshchiv.

In 1914, the society of the assistance to the poor and sick Jews was founded.

Before the Socialist Revolution of 1917, Rzhyshchev occupied an important position among other trade towns of the Kiev province, especially in grain exports along the Dnieper to Lithuania.

Rzhyschiv tzaddikim

The enviable economic situation may have encouraged tzaddikim from the Ostrog dynasty to take up residence in Rzhyschiv. The first admor of Rzhyshchev (Urzhyshchev in the Hasidic tradition) was Rabbi Moshe Mendl of Urzhyshchev, the son of Rabbi Pinkhas of Ostrog. He was brought up in the house of ‘the Shpoler Zeyde’; in 1802, he took the place of the town’s Hasidic leader and founded a dynasty that existed until the Holocaust.

Piece of Torah in Rzhyshchev museum, 2016

Little is known about his son, Rabbi Yosef of Urzhyshchev, who inherited his father’s place. Rabbi Yaakov Yosef’s sons lived during the dynasty’s heyday.

The first, Rabbi Avraam Mendl of Urzhyshchev (? – 1910) was one of very few admors who openly supported the Zionist movement. His impassioned letter in support of the Hibat Zion movement was published in the Shivat Zion collection, and it is said that he sang Hatikva with tears in his eyes at the wedding of one of his grandsons.

The second son, Rabbi Elyakim Gets of Urzhyshchev-Kozin (? – 1894), at first took his father’s place but then ceded this to his brother and moved to Kozyn. He wrote ‘Imrey Emet’, published in Berdichev; its title’s gematria is equal to the gematria of the author and his father’s names.

Site of PreRevolution market square in Rzhyshchev

Rabbi Avraam Mendl of Urzhyshchev had three sons. Rabbi Isaya Mendl of Urzhyshchev became the Urzhyshchev admor after his father’s death in 1910. He was an outstanding scientist, and was also renowned for his generosity. Rabbi Isaya was killed during one of the pogroms of the spring of 1919. His place was taken by Rabbi Avraam’s second son, Rabbi Yaakov Yosef Mendl of Urzhyshchev, who was the Urzhyshchev admor from 1919. Nothing is known about the third brother, Rabbi David, but his son, Rabbi Moshe Mendl of Urzhyshchev-Kiev was the Urzhyshchev admor in Kiev. He died in the Holocaust.

Building of Jewish school in Rzhyshchev, 2016

The son of Rabbi Elyakim Gets of Urzhyshchev-Kozin, Rabbi Yaakov-Yosef of Kozin, took his father’s place in Kozyn and moved to Bohuslav from there. His fate under Soviet government is not known.

In 1864, a conflict between the Hasids of Rzhyshchev’s admor and the followers of the other tzaddikim arose. The other tzaddikim had come to Rzhyshchev to collect donations: “it is clear that”, David Asaf writes, “the invader was showered with stones and nearly killed.” There were many other disagreements, and the Rzhyshchev tzaddik was even accused of counterfeiting.

Civil War

The following is the report on the aftermath of the civil war pogroms in the area, produced in 1920 and kept in the Kiev Archive:

Just like other Jewish towns, Rzhyshchev suffered many disastrous pogroms during last three years. The pogroms took place in different times and were the result of different events. To make it clearer, let us subdivide them into the following categories:

1. Three raids by the gangs of Zeleny in the spring and summer of 1919, 20 people murdered, several wounded and numerous instances of looting.

2. The Denikin period, considered by many a “respite” after the Zeleny pogroms. Only two poor souls perished. There was also looting and rape at that time.

3. Different petty gangs including a local one which operated in Rzhyshchev occasionally and was particularly ruthless in winter, resulting in 25 people killed and lots of looting and rapes.

4. The pogroms which took place during the time of the Polish invasion exceeded the previous ones both in cruelty and the number of victims. The Polish entered Rzhyshchev in the early April. A Petliura commander was the head of Rzhyshchev authority. A local gang and several people from nearby villages, who had seized their activity for a while, re-emerged. Local Jews spent two weeks in fear of death any minute. The day of May 14 was etched into the collective memory of the local Jews as it ended in the death of 14 Jews. In total 35 people died, not including the injured and the victims of looting, making the total reach 82. Furthermore, approximately 200 people died from other complications, caused by such intense anxiety.

Old Jewish shops in Rzhyshchev market

Jews left the town, considering that to stay in Rzhyshchev would be too dangerous. Most moved to Boguslav, as the nearest safe place.

150 Jewish families escaped to Boguslav from Rzhyshchev. Jewish self-defense units were set up in Rzhyshchev before the Soviet rule was established and survived for several years. In 1922, 30 people were members.

Between the Wars

On Saturday July 20, 1922, at 12 am, three motor boats left Rzhyshchev heading for Kiev. Having travelled for several kilometers, one of the boats stopped in the middle of the river for some reason. Then another boat with gang members approached them, robbed and killed all Jewish passengers, 21 people in total, eight women among them. The gangsters killed one of the non-Jewish passengers who tried to defend a Jewish woman. There was one Christian pilgrim among the passengers, who rebuked the criminals for their vile actions. They hit him on the head with a shovel, causing a severe injury. The dead bodies were thrown into the river.

Five names of the victims of this attack were uncovered in 2001 when the criminal case of the gang leader who had organized this attack was found. They are Krakovich, Liova Narodetskiy, Yasha Benyaminovich Belskiy, Izia Leybovich Lukashevskiy and David Leybovich Lukashevskiy.

Photo of Rzhyshchev Jewish theater in 1929 in Rzhyshchev museum

In the 1920-30s, the synagogue in Rzhyshchev was closed, most Jews moved to big cities.

Holocaust

On August 21, 1941 Rzhyshchev was occupied by German troops. Some Jews had evacuated or had been conscripted into the army. In autumn 1941, the Jews who remained in Rzhyshchev were murdered.

Grave of local Jews and other civilians in Rzhyshchev, 2016

The exact number of victims is unknown but we can assume that it is about 100 people.

Mass grave in Rzhyshchev during investigation of Nazi crimes, 1944

After the War

After 1945 some Jews returned to Rzhyshchev. However, no more precise information could be found.

In 1989, some Jews were still living in Rzhyshchev.

In 2016, there were no people identifying as Jewish in Rzhyshchev…

Famous Jews from Rzhyshchev

Lamed Shapiro (Levi Iyehoshua; 1878, Rzhyshchev – 1948, Los Angeles), a Jewish author, writing in Yiddish. He received a traditional Jewish education and taught himself Russian, among other things. He wrote poetry in Russian, Yiddish and Hebrew.

Lamed Shapiro

Among those who were born in Rzhyshchev, there was rabbi Meyer-Volf Rapoport; in the 1920s – 30s, he was a rabbi in Kyiv, later disappeared in the Stalinist purges. A writer and an anti-fascist resistance fighter in France Mychaylo Shmushkevych (1913-2002) was also from Rzhyshchev. Chasyl Chaimovych Tabachnilkov (born 1913) produced a touching description of his native town Rzhyshchiv in the 1920s in his book “A Schtetl by the Dnieper” (1966).

Aron Israilevich Dashevskiy (1904, Rzhyshchev – 1999), a Soviet ophthalmologist.

Israil-Ber Rizberg (1858, Rzhyshchev – after 1920), a poet, an essayist and a teacher. In 1892, he opened a heder in Pereyaslav where the students studied Hebrew. In 1914-1917, he worked as a teacher at the Pereyaslav commercial college, in 1917-1920 –at a Jewish school. He published his poetry and essays in various Jewish periodicals, he was also published in the “Yiddish Volksblat”. In 1891, he published a collection of poems “America, Argentina or Palestine” in Odessa. Some Rizberg’s poems were put into music and became folk songs. Rizberg is the author of a large number of Hebrew textbooks, a collection of reading texts in Jewish History (1890), and many others.

Avrom Radutskiy (1868, Rzhyshchev – 1928, New York), a poet and an essayist. Moved to Britain in 1890 where his poems were first published in one of London’s  Jewish newspapers. In 1896 moved to the US where he published his poems and essays in the US and British Jewish periodicals (“Vorverts”, “Veker” and others).

Jewish cemetery

The cemetery is situated on a cliff above the Dnieper River, on the northern outskirts of the town. Take Menzhinsky Street (the so-called Linden Alley) up to the cliff and then the path to the left along the cliff edge for 50m.

VIew from Rzhyshchev Jewish cemetery

There is no remaining trace of the cemetery other than two partially-hidden gravestones. The cemetery site is used for agricultural purposes including vegetable gardens.

Two surviving tombstones lie at the very edge of the cliff, one tablet-shaped, one ‘boot’-shaped. Apparently a third fell from the cliff. The remaining tombstones are damaged. The Hebrew inscription on one of the stones is still legible and reads as follows (the other is lying face down and cannot be read):

פ”נ
האישה הצנועה
מרים בת ר’
אליעזר דוד
אשת ר’ מענדל
לישתשינסקי
שנפט’ ב’ אייר
שנת ת’ר’ע’ו’
– 10 מאי 1916 –
תנצבה

(Trans. Here lies a modest woman, Miryam, daughter of Reb Eliezer David, wife of Reb Mendl Lishchinsky, who died on 2 Iyyar 5676 – May 10, 1916 – may her soul be bound in the bond of life).

Ruins of Jewish cemetery in Rzhyshchev, 1960’s

Россава (Russian), Росава (Ukrainian)

Rosava is a village in Mironovskiy district, Kiev region. In the 16th – 18th centuries, it was a part of Rechpospolita (Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (1569–1795). In 1793 Rosava became part of the Russian Empire.

In the XIX – early XX centuries, the shtetl Rosava was in Kanev district, Kiev region. 

There are seven documents concerning Jews of Rosava on Wikimedia.org, supplied by an unknown user. It was a main source of information for this article.

Beginning

We don’t know when Jews appear in Rosava…

A synagogue in Rosava was opened in 1815 and existed till its closing in 1864.

In 1864, there were about 59 Jewish houses in Rosava. 400 Jews lived in them.

In 1866, the synagogue where the followers of tsaddik Duvidl Tverskoy used to pray was closed.

There wasn’t any synagogue in the town so they had to attend the synagogue in Boguslav.  That’s why in the same year Jews asked for the permission to open a synagogue in Eli Kozlov’s house.

During my visit to Rosava in 2016 there was only one object left which reminded of the Jewish history of the shtetl. It was the old mill on the river which belonged to Gershko Tsap.

In 1879, a Rosava widow Reyzia Yoskova (married name Sendlerova) presented her house to the community. The second synagogue “Kloyz” was opened there.

In 1880, the Jews from Rosava applied for the reconstruction of the old synagogue at their own expense. The names of Leya Volkov Ruvinskiy and Khun Tsap are mentioned in the case. There are also the lists of 16, 18, 36, 12, 26 Jews. The Jewish school that was situated near the synagogue is also in this case.

In the late 19th century, there were about 90 Jewish houses in the shtetl.

In 1900, more than 1,000 Jews lived in Rosava, in 1910 there were about 1,300 of them. In 1890, Jews owned more than ten stalls.

In 1907, Rosava Jews asked the authorities for the permission to start a Talmud Torah paid for by the box taxe (2,000 roubles). The whole archive document is available here. In the correspondence there are the names of doctor Kiva Chaim-Leybov Margulis, Leyzor-Volf Berkov Levit, Iosef Abov Beliavskiy. Their application was rejected so the Jews applied again in 1909.  There is a document with the names and signatures of 36 community members in the case.  It is unknown whether the permission was received or not.

Rosava entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913

In 1912, a Jewish savings and loan association was functioning.  In 1914, local Jews owned the pharmacy storeroom, the mill, 27 stalls including 12 groceries, all five factories, two small shops. Both cattle-dealers and a doctor in Rosava were Jewish.

There were two synagogues “Old Beys-Midrash” and “Kloyz” in Rosava.

The copy of the archive case concerning the elder of the synagogue “Old Beys-Midrash” 1912-1913 is available at Wikimedia.org. The name of the previous elder Idel-Leyb Gurtovyy (the second guild trader) and the list of 130 synagogue members was documented in this case.

Pogroms

On the 11th-12th of February 1919, there was a pogrom in Rosava. This pogrom was organized by the Directory detachments. As a result, a lot of people were killed and wounded. In February 1919, three pogroms took place in the shtetl. There were several attacks instigated by different gangs with isolated incidents of murders and mutilation. They took place between March 1919 and till the arrival of the Volunteer Army in Rosava.

In August 1919, a six weeks long pogrom took place in Rosava. It was organized by the detachments of the Volunteer Army and resulted in many casualties (more than 60 people). The village was completely destroyed. Those Jews who had survived (about 1,000 people) moved to Boguslav. More than 150 people died because of the epidemics and hunger during 1919 and 1920.

List of 71 pogrom victims in Rosava:

There is no information available about the Jewish population of the village after 1920.

After the WWII, head of local school was Faina Vladimirovna Braver but she moved to Rosava from some another place.

The Jewish cemetery was destroyed in the 1950s.

Site of destroyed Rosava Jewish cemetery

Gorodische – Городище (Russian), Gorodish, Horodishtch (Yiddish), Horodische – Городище (Ukrainian), Horodyshche, Horodysce, Gorodisce, Gorodyszcze (Alternative Name)

Horodyshche is a historic town located in Cherkassy region, center of Horodyshche district. Horodyshche is located on the Vilshanka River, a tributary of the Dnieper. The city’s estimated population is 14,480 (as of 2011).

Before Revolution, Horodyshche was a shtetl of Cherkassy County, Kiev Gubernia.

Beginning

There is no exact information when Jews first settled around the area of modern Horodyshche. However, they must have already lived there during the popular uprising of the Ukrainian peasants when Haydamaks murdered a lot of Polish gentry and Jews.

The proportion of Jews among the population of our region increased significantly in the XIX century. More can be found in the archived documents and pre-1917 census and reports.

In 1900, there were three synagogues and one Talmud-Torah in Horodyshche.

Horodyshche entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913, part 1

Horodyshche entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913, part 2

In 1910, a Jewish hospital was established in the town. It had six beds and was financed from the box taxes. The hospital also provided free health care to the Jewish poor. In 1912, it was awarded the status of a district hospital. It included a pharmacy and a pharmacy storeroom. Now the building houses the regional military committee but the sign “The Jewish hospital” is visible.

Sign “The Jewish hospital” on the building of military committee, 2009

Volodymyr Сhos provided a short but interesting description of the Jewish way of life here: “The Jews lived in a tightly-built, segregated community, the houses very close to each other. The courtyards were small and frequently shared among several families. They had no gardens or land for cultivation. The interior furnishing depended on its owner’s occupation. Their houses were not at all spacious or very clean, with some exceptions. Despite the fact that Jewish houses were poor and unkempt, there weren’t any thatched roofs.”

Nearly 3,500 Jews (800 families) lived in Horodyshche before the First World War.

The Civil War

In May 1919, during the Grigoryev pogrom L. Kagan, Tregub, R. Sosonovskaya, E. Dienerstein were killed, and all Jewish stores were looted. The pogrom instigators were local teachers and the students of the local high school and the agricultural college. Not only did they instigate the pogroms, they were also active participants of ensued looting and murders. In total, seven people were killed and three wounded, one of them fatally.135 houses were damaged with the total cost estimated at three million rubles.

Recognition of pogrom victims in Horodyshche

Rogovoy, a member of the Boguslav self-defense unit, describes the pogrom in Horodyshche in September 1920 in terrible detail. It was organized by ataman Golyi. “As a result of bandits’ efforts, there are up to 500 killed, 250 wounded, and several women raped. The wild fury of the roaring crowd didn’t spare even babies. There are mutilated dead bodies in town because the victims were not shot but slaughtered with knives and cudgels. All local hospitals are filled with women raped, many of them fatally.

Pogrom victims in Horodyshche

Only on Monday a part of the Boguslav unit supported by the Red Army entered Horodishche and managed to put a stop to the massacre. Only faced with the machine gun fire from the armored vehicle, which arrived from the Tsvetkov direction, the bandits finally decided to flee. Many people, already lined up to be murdered, were pulled out to safety from under the mass of the dead bodies. Heaps of young women’s bodies are lying in the streets of the town, their stomachs bayoneted as they were raped. When moving dead bodies, people find mothers still clutching their slaughtered babies.

Horodyshche Jewish self-defence unit

There was a body of an old man, his penis cut off and stuffed into his mouth. At the moment the town looks like a cemetery, all Jewish houses looted, the town covered in down from ripped pillows and mattresses. Some people went mad. A lot of orphans remained. The photos of the violence that took place in the town are attached. They were made by the chief of Boguslav security, his assistant and some guards who first entered the town. They caught 15 bandits, the wife of the bandit Golyy was among them.”

Horodyshche Jewish self-defence near local synagogue, beginning of 1920’s

Between the wars

As a result of terrible pogroms the Jewish population of Horodyshche shrunk significantly. Most refugees had no wish to return to the place of unimaginable violence inflicted on their people.

We do not have the exact data, but in the 1920s the Jewish population fell to 500-1,000 people.

In the 1920s the Soviet authorities began their policy of Jewish resettlement. The Ukrainian society of land management of working Jews (OZET) was in favor of it. Many Jews moved to Crimea, Zaporizhia, Kryvyy Rih and to Birobidzhan, the Soviet Jewish Autonomy in Siberia. One of the 19 branches functioning branches of OZET was in Horodyshche, in Cherkassy region.

Begelfer family in Horodyshche, 1922

In 1939, 510 Jews (four per cent of the total population) lived in Horodyshche.

Holocaust

The town was occupied by the German troops in early August 1941. 60% of the pre-war Jewish population was under the German control. In summer and autumn 1941, the town was under the German military commandant’s authority. Locals volunteered to work for the council and the auxiliary Ukrainian police. The head of the Ukrainian police was Nosarev, Zhuk was his deputy. In December 1941, the town came under the German Civil Administration control. Horodyshche became a part of Smela county (Gebiet) of Kiev regional commissariat (Gebietcommissariat) of the Reich commissariat in Ukraine.

Soon after the occupation of the town, the council followed the orders of the German military commandant’s office. It organized the registration of all Jews, enforced the wearing of the armband and deployed Jewish workers in road maintenance, buildings restoration etc. The Jewish ghetto was established in the autumn of 1941. The Jews were prohibited to leave its boundaries or trade with the Ukrainians, soon leading to starvation in the ghetto. The ghetto was finally destroyed on the 29^th of March 1942, when all local Jews alongside with nearly 300 Jews from nearby villages were driven out to the courtyard of the Horodyshche police station. At dawn of the next day they were shot in the ravine near the natural boundary of Sadstantsyya. According to some other sources, the ghetto was destroyed on the fourth of April 1942. The Jews were shot by the Ukrainian police and German gendarmerie.

Holocaust mass grave near village Mliyiv

Mychaylo Lavrentiyovych Kravchenko, PhD (Biology) (1925-2006), a native of the village of Mliyiv, remembered the details of the shooting. His memories were published in Rivne in 1994. ”Near the yard of the collective farm, a 50 meter long trench was dug. They explained to the local population that it was going to be a training ground, a firing range. Two Maxims [Maxim machine guns – translator’s note] were set on the opposite side and aimed. When the wagon train with the Jews approached, the carts turned into the yard. The people were lined up on the road and led away without any explanations. They saw the trench, when they walked 50 meters. They began to panic. The machine gun started firing. Every fifth bullet was explosive. The people started to run away but they were faced by the submachine guns. The people tried to run to the hill as it was the only way to freedom… But even the machine guns still reached them there.”

Only one Jew, called Gergel, survived the shooting.

The murder of the Jewish population was done by the order of the German chief of Horodyshche gendarmerie lieutenant Oster with the active participation and guidance from the head of the Ukrainian police Nosarev, agricultural commandant Feldman, interpreter Lange, the deputy chief Zhuk and also ordinary policemen Tihenko, Bondar, and others. Moreover, the policemen of the entire Horodyshche district together with German extermination units took active part in the shooting as well.

R. Zaslavskaya was a member of the resistance movement in Horodyshche. She was executed.

On the seventh of March 1944, the Horodyshche commission of investigation of the Nazi war crimes during the temporary occupation uncovered the pit with the corpses and examined it. The detailed report is kept in Cherkassy archive.

List of Horodyshche Jews who served in Soviet army and were killed in action:

After the WWII

After the War, few Jewish families returned to Horodyshche – Kamenetskiy, Roytman, Valednitskiy and some others.

The older members of the community still remembered where the buildings of former Jewish stores and workshops were on the square of Peace in the center of the town.

In 1968, the center was totally rebuilt and all old Jewish houses were demolished.

Reconstruction of the center of Horodyshche, 1968. Big white house belonged to merchant Saltanov.

The unofficial head of the Jewish community was Moisey Velednitskyy.

In the early 1980s, the USSR tried to extradite Mykola Zhuk who lived in the USA. He was born in the village Dyrdyn, worked as a deputy police chief during the German occupation. He took an active part in the destruction of the Jewish population of Horodyshche. In 1943, he escaped with the Germans and after the war he lived in the USA.

He did not take his family with him, and in the 1960s he began sending them parcels from Philadelphia, US on behalf of Mykola Shchuka. At the official request of the KGB, in the early 1980s, the American Jewish prosecutors and lawyers came to the USSR and directly to Horodyshche and Mliyiv as well. Gergel, the only survivor of the shooting, was questioned by the Americans. He did not confirm the fact that Zhuk took part in the shooting personally and as for his rescue he explained: “I escaped through the bushes. I ran out of them right towards Mykola Zhuk. He could have killed me but instead he turned away. So I kept running.” The USA refused to extradite Mykola Zhuk.

With the fall of the Soviet Union, mass migration of Jews to Israel, Germany and the USA began, which marked the end of the Jewish community of Horodyshche.

Jewish community was created again in 1994. First chairman was Mikhail Kamenetskiy (emmigrated to Germany). But most of Jews emmigrated to another countries.

In 1995, 15 Jews stayed here and in 2016 there were about ten people.

Archive

These are the originals of the 1846-1862 registers in the archive of Cherkassy region.

Holocaust mass grave

The grave is located one and a half kilometer away from Horodyshche near the village Mliyev. A reinforced concrete memorial was put here in 1945.

In the 60s, the elected chairman of the community Moisey Veletnitskiy collected the money and had a fence made. The members of the Jewish community moved a granite slab from the top of the grave of the local Jewish Community Leader from the early 1900s monument and placed it on the existing Soviet memorial.

The Holocaust monument base is made of metal, perhaps the whole thing.  It originally had a star on it,  five pointed. The whole thing is not in good shape and probably should be replaced.

Famous people

Yefim Yakovlevich Sokolov (1905, Horodyshche – 1999), a famous Soviet specialist in the energy field.

Dovid-Ber Slutskiy (1877, Horodyshche, Cherkassy district, Kiev province. – 1955), a writer, an interpreter. He made his debut in literature with the essays in Hebrew in 1903. In 1948, he was arrested in Stalinist purges and died in prison hospital.

Dovid-Ber Slutskiy

Lev Robertovich Gonor (Ravumovich) (1906, Horodyshche – 1969, Moscow), General-Major of the Engineer Corps.

Iosif Leshchinskiy (Khmurner) (1884, Horodyshche – 1935, Poland), an essayist, a public figure. He studies in a heder and some yeshivas till the age of 14. He joined the Zionist movement in Odessa in 1899. In 1903, he came to Warsaw where he gave private lessons, became a popular activist of Zionist movement, one of the theorists of territorialism in the Jewish working movement. In 1905-1910, he lived in Vilno then in Kiev. He studied in Sorbonne. In 1912, he came back to Russia. In 1914-1915, he accompanied Jewish refugees. In 1917, he was a representative of the party “Fareynikte” in Kiev Central Council, he also took part in the organization of the “Cultural League”.

Yakov Leshchinskiy (1876, Horodyshche, Cherkassy district, Kiev province – 1966, Jerusalem), a sociologist, an economist, a Zionist, and a public figure.

Cemetery

The biggest part of the old Jewish cemetery was destroyed after the war. There is a bus station and a gas station in its place now. Several dozens gravestones remained on the surviving part of the cemetery.

Among the surnames, there are Furman, Shternberg, Arhangorodskiy, Zhavotovskiy, Brodskiy, Boguslavskaya, Shpolianskaya and others. Some surnames have been touched up with white paint, which shows that they had been visited by the relatives.

Inscription on the oldest gravestone:
פ”נ
אש חשוב ו[נ]כבד
ר יצחק אהרן
בן דוב הלוי
אקם
מארליוועץ
נ” ב” אדר ב תרנד
תנצבה

Here buried
Is an important and respected man
Reb Yitshak Aaron
Son of David Halevi
Akem
From [the village] Orlovets
Died on Adar Bet 2, 5654.
May his soul be bound in the bond of life.

Inscription on the most recent gravestone:
פ”נ
אשה חשובה
רבקה בת שלמה
אשת ה” אברהם
פסטאווסקי
נפ אד רח אלול
תר – תנצבה – צח
Р.С. Фастовская
Ум. 1937
Here buried
Is an important woman
Rivka, daughter of Shlomo
Wife of Abraham
Fastovskaya
Died on Elul 1, 5698,
May her soul be bound in the bond of life.

In 2009, a small monument in memory of the Holocaust victims was placed on the surviving part of the old Jewish cemetery.
Inscription on the monument:
“To the men, women, elderly and children
Who were brutally killed
During the fascist occupation
Only because they were Jewish.
This must not happen again.
Eternal memory to the dead.”

After the war, the plot of land at the city cemetery was given to Jews.

Information was taken from Lo-Tishkah web site.

Boyarka is a town located in Lisyanka district of Cherkassy region of central Ukraine. Boyarka is located on the Gniliy Tikich River, a tributary of the South Bug. The town’s estimated population is 654 (as of 2009).

Before the Revolution it was a shtetl of Zvenigorodka yezd, Kiev guberniya.

Boyarka is approx. 32 km from Korsun and in 160 km from Kiev.

Beginning

The first evidence of the Jewish community of Boyarka, dating back to the early XVII century, was found in the Kiev Regional Archive. In 1625, three Jewish families were mentioned in the tax records of Boyarka town.

According to the census of 1765, 13 Jewish families were resident in Boyarka. In 1768, as a result of the Haydamaks’ uprising, the number of Jews was down to seven families. Others must have moved to safer locations. The Jewish community in Boyarka underwent a boost in the XIX century.

In 1837, a European community was formed with Kagan Leyba the chairman, Avraam Skliarskyy the treasurer and Chaim Sokolov the rabbi. In 1847, 497 Jews lived in Boyarka. In 1863, the Boyarka Jewish community constructed a synagogue, now housing the local House of Culture.

In 1877-1879, the famous Yiddish author Shalom-Aleichem used to attend the synagogue in Boyarka every Saturday. He worked as a teacher in the family of a Jewish tenant Elimelekh Loyev in the neighboring village of Sofiyka.

In the early XX century, Boyarka boasted two synagogues, one for the Litvaks (Lithuanian Jews) and another one for Hassidic Jews. Contemporaries would recall that while the parents were praying, their children were engaged in gang warfare, involving fighting and boxing matches between the communities. In 1898, seven Jewish businessmen were officially registered in Boyarka. Four of them, Titelchuk, Belopolski, Eisenberg, and Sokol, were food manufactures, one of them, Neymark, was a winemaker, and two of them, Titelchuk and Neymark, were engaged in trade.

Monument to Shalom-Aleichem in village of Sofiyka (11 kilometers from Boyarka)

Beyt Lazarov, a professor at the University of San-Diego, USA, provided a list of 62 Jews from Boyarka, Zvenigorod district who voted in the elections to the Parliament (Duma) in 1906.

The materials concerning the lawsuit of 1908 against Yankel Moshkovich Stavyskyy, a Boyarka resident, by his neighbors Skhariy Sokol Kisil Golodayl, Nukhum Sokol, Ruvin Zeyger, Ruful Yablochnik, and Itsik Svirtsik are still preserved at the Kiev Regional Archive, where they challenged Stavyskyy from building a gas-powered mill on the right bank of the river Hnylyy Tikych as it would be too noisy and disturb the neighbors. The court granted Y.M. Stavyskyy permission to build the mill but it had to be constructed as far as possible from the residents’ houses and Yankel had to pay 11 rubles and 25 kopeks of State Court Tax. This lawsuit engendered such animosity between the families that, according to D Borowitz, their descendants in the US are still engaged in constant mutual litigation.

Boyarka entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913

In 1914, 2,054 Jews were resident lived in the Boyarka district, which was 14 % of its total population, with over 800 Jews residing in Boyarka. The accounting books of the Boyarka District Council from 1916-1917 are kept by the local museum. The names of Leyb Pokhorovskiy, Volko Fastovskiy, Sobol Gershl, Yankel Olshanskyy, A.Kagan, Gavriela Dobrovolska, Malka Kagan, Sava Kagan, Mendel Hershkovych Sigalov, Golberg Srul, Avraam Laviter, Iday Galperin, Khavva Yaklovska, Sava Baklovskyy, Radion Sinitskyy, Sh. Frimen, Yankel Braverman, Shifra Pokhorovska, Khana Kagan, Gdal Alpere, Yakiv Leyb Braverman, Leyba Bilopolska are found in the records.

Civil War pogroms

In 1917, the first victim of Jewish pogroms was recorded. Nekhama Prokhorovskyy was murdered on his way to Poberezhka village. In June 1918, two dead bodies of Samuel Sokol and Idal Rzhavskyy were found in the forest near Boyarka. A paramilitary unit swept through the shtetl and looted some Jewish stores. Luckily there were no victims. The first significant Jewish pogrom was carried out by the Red Army detachment of Popov-Kozakov on the 15^th of June 1919. The Hassidic Jews of Boyarka were mostly targeted. The Jews were herded into the synagogue and ordered to hand over their money and gold. After that, they were led to Semenivka village, where they were forced into the river Hnylyy Tikych. Those who didn’t drown were shot or murdered, with 87 people dying on that day. According to the sole survivor, A Golbert, who later moved to the US, the murdering mob were shouting “Where is your God?”

Former market square and site of 2 synagogues (Hasidic and Litvish) in Boyarka

Here are some names of those who perished: Yud Belopolskyy, Aaron Dubov, Avrum Sinitskyy, Ishiy Sokol, Danisa Sokol, Luzer Podkaminskyy, Yankel Krupnik, Smikha Shubinskiy, Gershko Prokhorovskiy, Volko Postovetskiy, Gershon Grinfeld, Shloma Rakhlis, Gershm Dyvinokiy.

On the 8^th of September 1919, the Directory (the first Ukrainian Parliament) government sent its representative Ivan Derevenskiy to Boyarka to investigate the pogroms. The population was so frightened that only 14 people agreed to testify. The findings of the investigation can be found at the Kiev Regional Archive now.

I.Derevenskiy says: “In August 1919, a group of soldiers entered Boyarka. Eight people from the Denikin’s Volunteers army started to demand money from a single Jewish woman at her own house. As this was happening, the woman’s daughter said: “You are not soldiers, you are bandits”, for which she was killed. The bandits also burgled some other households. On the 24^th of August 1919, a unit of 20 Denikin’s soldiers entered Boyarka and stopped near the “New Market”. They surrounded Jewish shops and ordered everyone to keep away. The following morning the soldiers started looting the shops, taking the loot to the square and piling it up. Then they forced all Jews to congregate on the central square threatening them with death. Poor Jews were led to the headquarters, the building of the local council. The soldiers demanded money and gold from the Jews, torturing and killing many. Then, most Jews were taken to the nearby forest and murdered there. This pogrom lasted for two days, Sunday and Monday, until the commandant arrived and put a stop to the atrocities. During the pogrom many Jews, particularly children, survived rescued by Ukrainian families. They also interceded on behalf of the family of a rich Jew called Bruzhenitskiy. Here is a story of Chaya Misonshnik’s family. The soldiers offered Chaya to baptise her daughters Berel and Semia and save their lives. She refused and the whole family was murdered by the soldiers.

Village Board. Many Jews were killed in the front of this building by Denikin’s soldiers. Building was destroyed after WWII.

The third and the most terrible Jewish pogrom in Boyarka was instigated by the soldiers of D. Kvitkovskiy’s detachment in the spring of 1920.

Here is how Aaron Golberg describes this pogrom. “Every Jew they could find was killed. The streets run with Jewish blood. Two heroes must be remembered. Mendel Ruben Gerts and Leyba Kuzhner, the sons of rabbi David Kuzhner, came to the synagogue to defend the Torah. When this day was finally over, the remaining Jews gathered to bury the dead. Everyone dug a pit for their relatives. All bodies were buried within a week. The Boyarka shtetl, which survived for 300 years, was now no more. 118 people were killed during this pogrom. The commander of Kvitkovsky detachment Levko Khimich took an active part in the pogrom. He used to be a vet in Boyarka.

Last Jewish house in Boyarka. It was a drugstore before Revolution

About 800 Jews were recorded in Boyarka in 1917, 180 people died before the pogrom by the end of 1919. In 1920, 118 Jews were murdered.

The Jews started to leave the shtetl and move to big cities or abroad.

Some Boyarka Jews moved to New York before the 1917 revolution and settled there. A New York resident Benjamin Balantsov, who had a family in Boyarka, collected the invitation letters for the emigrants and travelled to the border of Romania, where he passed the letters to Boyarka. Thus, about 100 families emigrated to the USA. We can imagine how distressing that journey was from the words of the travellers, Yosyp Stoviskyy and Yonia Sokil.

Between the Wars

In 1923, the Jewish community of Boyarka had only 106 people. But most Jews emmigrated from Boyarka to big cities

After the revolution various members of the Jewish community of Boyarka worked in agriculture. Avram Davydovych Bliumen was working as a shop assistant at the local farm shop, Gershko Movin was a blacksmith, Pavlo Zhabyanskyy was the head of the post office, his other relatives worked in education, Tula Gedal was an accountant.

Pupils of 7th grade of Boyarka school, 1929. In second row (sitting) from left to right: №6 – Sergey Shleider In third row (on the ground) from left to right: №3 Rivka Staviskaya, №4 Mariya Sigalova

The emigrants from Boyarka formed the mutual assistance society in the USA in 1923. A section of the Elmant cemetery in New York was obtained where people from Boyarka were buried. In 2013, rabbi Natan Borovits buried the last Jewish female immigrant who was born in Boyarka and died at the age of 102.

More information about activity of Boyerker Benevolent Society and many family photos can be found on kehilalinks.jewishgen.org as a list of pogrom victims also.

Holocaust

Village was occupied by Germans in July 1941. We don’t have information about the number of Jewish population which wasn’t evacuated but can estimate it as 20-30 person.

These names and information were collected by local teacher Mikola Demchuk in 1990’s.

The Gershov family lost the wife Liza and daughters Danika and Lesia. Sak Kanivskyy’s, Tula Gedal’s, Arsen Kyzym’s families suffered as well. Pavlo Zhabyanskyy (the head of the post office) and his daughter Yivha were taken under escort to the village Medvyn where they were shot. Avram Blumin, Oleksiy Antonovych Bratko, Aron Dubovyi (born in 1925) with his family members Saya (born in 1927), Gulia, Elyniy, Tsipa and Khayka, and Gershek Levin (the blacksmith of the collective farm) were shot by the Nazis and buried in Medvyn village.

Salata Palazhka and her daughter were hiding Musiy Hranovskyy.

Milia Bezik, Harik Bezik, Erik Bezik were hidden by Priska Razizhovska and her children Kateryna and Hanna. They said to their neighbors that those were their relatives from Moscow and that they couldn’t return home because of the war.

Site of destroyed Jewish cemetery. It is a sand quarry now

O.A. Bratko’s Jewish wife was found by the policeman O.Polishchuk. While she was being led through the village, Oleksiy Antonovych’s brother gave a newborn daughter of his brother to the policemen with the words: “Take her away, who needs this Jew?!” Oleksiy Antonovych Bratko came back from the war with his legs amputated and found that none of his family survived. He was unable to forgive his brother. They lived in the same village without ever saying a word to each other, and when his brother died, Oleksiy Antonovych did not attend the funeral…

The family of the Soviet officer Avram Davydovych Blumin was subject to particular violence and humiliation by the Nazis. Klavdiya Blumin and her children were hiding in Poradivka village at the house of Petro Andriyovych Dobrovolskyy. They were found by the policemen. One of them, O. Kalenychenko was especially violent. In a fit of rage, he grabbed the little boy by his legs and hit him against the doorpost. The family was shot outside the village near the silo pit. All those who had been shot were reburied in the local cemetery after the war.

Many burials of Boyarka Jews are still unknown. The old residents tell us about the cellar in a former farm outside the village which was the place the collaborators shot many Jews.

Unconfirmed Holocaust execution site. Before the WWII it was inhabited part of village but due to population decrease it was abandoned and transferred to agricultural area.

After the War

Boyarka residents remember Avram Davydovych who came to the graves of his wife and children, and how he tried to prosecute the policeman Serhiy Kovbasenko.

Some Jews returned from evacuation and Red Army but we haven’t find exact names.

Currently several completely assimilated descendants of Boyarka Jews reside in the village…

US citizen Jeremy Borovitz was an English teacher in local school from 2010-2012.  He was raised in Paramus, NJ, the son of a Reform rabbi and a lawyer for the Jewish Theological Seminary. He got a BA in Public Policy from the University of Michigan in 2009, and joined the Peace Corps.

Olshana is a town in Gorodishche district, Cherkassy region. The town’s estimated population is 3,256 (as of 2011).

It was established around 1598 and has been a part of the Russian Empire since 1793. In the XIX  – early XX centuries,  it was a shtetl in the Zvenigorodka district, Kiev gubernia.

Beginning

In 1847, the Jewish community consisted of 689 people, and in 1897 – 1233 (20%).

In 1867, a synagogue was functioning in Olshana. Eliezer-Leyb Shapiro (1858-?) was the rabbi in Olshana since 1892.

Crafts and trade were the main occupations of the Jewish population in the 19th – early 20th centuries. In 1914, Jews owned a drugstore and forty-five stalls in Olshana, including all eleven groceries and three small wares shops.

By 1900, 1,953 (11%) Jews lived in Vilshana district. In 1914, Chaim-Gersh Mordkovich Labskir and Chaim-Yudko Moshkovich Dukhovnyy were the members of the peasant council.

There were two synagogues in Olshana.

Civil War

The Jewish community suffered during the Russian Civil War. In April 1919, ataman Zelenyy’s band organized a pogrom in Olshana.

Olshana in the beginning of XX century.

In JDC documents by 1923 mentioned Olshana Jewish self defence unit. Also mentioned active members  Hirsh Etinzon and Leizer Borishansky.

In USA, Oshana’s emmigrant create Olshaner Progressive Association.

Olshana entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913

Between the Wars

In the 1920s, Bentsion Yankelevich Kozarovitski was the local shochet, Aron Davidovich Tubelskiy was the rabbi, and Pinia Meyerovich Miropolskiy was the cantor in the shtetl.

In 1925, the natives of Olshana founded Jewish agricultural organizations (Kolkozhes) “On a new way” which consisted of ninety-two people, “A new way” sixty people, and “Renewed life” seventy three people in Kherson district.

In the 1920s-1930s, the majority of Jews left Olshana.

In the 1920s, a Jewish school was formed in the village. Lev Iosifovich Umanskiy was one of its teachers.

Both synagogues were closed in 1923. Afterwards, the first one was used as a club and the second one became a warehouse.

All the Jewish men were mostly artisans, blacksmiths, cobblers, and barbers. All lived very modestly. Every family had three to five children. Parents paid much attention to their children, they kept an eye on their learning and after the graduation always tried to send children for further study.

Holocaust

When the war began, a lot of families had managed to evacuate but those who failed to get to the left bank of the Dnieper were surrounded and had to come back. The Germans organized the police out of the local Ukrainians. They hung a poster “Jews and dogs aren’t allowed to appear in the streets”.

Ruins of Jewish house in the center of town

Below are some surnames of those who were in occupation:
– Umanskiy family. Lev Iosifovich with his wife Bronia and children Nina, Asia, Illya, and Aron. Only Nina and Asia survived
– Komarnitskiy family. David (an invalid from the First World War), with his wife Rachel, and daughters Mania and Nina. Only Nina survived
– Fishel Kaminskiy with his wife and adopted son Grigoriy Basovskiy

Former activists, party members and Jews (seven people totally) were shot the first in the village. Lev Umanskiy and L. Soyfer were among them.

Monument on the grave of first seven German’s victims. Among them were Lev Umanskiy and L. Soyfer

In October 1941, the policemen gathered all Jewish men of thirteen and older near the village council. They said they were sent to work. In the evening they were driven in some unknown destination and shot. The place of shooting is still unrevealed.

The rest of the Jews , about one hundred women and children, were gathered in ghetto.

The ghetto consisted of four neighboring houses. Everybody brought all they could from their own homes. The Jews were forbidden to communicate with the local population. Approximately 100 people were huddled together under the control of the Ukrainian policemen.  Every morning the Jews were counted. They were made to wear yellow bands on the right arm with a Star of David sewed on them. Young prisoners were led to work.

K

On the 5th of May 1942, the policemen took the people out of the houses and led them to the square near the school. The drays for little children and old men were already there. All the Jews were taken to the prison in Zvenigorodka.

Next morning the prisoners who were capable of working were sent to the labor camp in Nemorozh village. However, the majority stayed in Zvenigorodka and were shot together with the local Jews in June 1942. 45 Jews from Olshana were among them.

Olshana Jews lived as one family in the camp. The amount of the Jews in the labor camp in Nemorozh decreased from several hundred to fifty people in May 1943. It was the result of unbearable living conditions and permanent shootings.

Rachel Olshanskaya died in the camp.

Ukrainian Sofya Kostritsa had been hiding Jew Naum and his mother (her surname is unknown) in Olshana during the whole war.

Olshana was freed by the Soviet Army on the 5th of February 1944.

Only thirteen Olshana Jews survived in occupation. Those were Asia Umanskaya (1924-2007), Tatyana Shnayder (Pipkina), Roza and Raya Geshektor (Fridman, lives in Israel), Mania Bronevitskaya, Vera Galperina, Basia (Polina) Chudnovskaya (emigrated to the USA), Fulka Olshanskiy with daughter Nina, Dora Nirenberg (Lerner) (1896-1985) with daughters Busia (1928-1995) and Sarah, Nina Blinder (Komarnitskaya) (born in 1927) and her sister Mania Levin (born in 1924).

After the WIII

After the war several Jewish families lived in the village.

Before the War, the Jewish population lived mainly in Kalaberdin Street. After the war the teachers who were sent to work in the local school settled the abandoned houses.

The house belonged to David Chaim –Aronovich Gomberg (shot by the Germans). In 1897, his twins Berko and Munish were born. They disappeared during the WWII.

K

Lev Pipkin came back to the village from the front as an invalid and died in 1981.

Sarah Khaskilivna Nerenberg (1926-2009) was an English teacher in the local school. She emigrated to Israel together with her children.

In 1965, book “Life and Destruction of Olshan” (Chayieha Vechurbana Shel Olshan – Leben un Umkum fon Olshan) – A memorial (Yizkor) book of the anihiliated Jewish community of Vilshana was published in Tel-Aviv by Meir Sheli.

Local residents remember the lonely Jewish woman who died in the 1970s, her surname is unknown.

Zinaida (Zarah) Emmanuilovna Shikhman (1913-1995) repatriated to Israel in 1979 from Olshana after many years of refusals.

The last Jew in the village was Oleg Krupa, Sarah Nerenberg’s son, who emigrated to Israel in 1993.

Olshana Jewish cemetery

Only two gravestones are preserved in the Jewish cemetery. It is impossible to read what is written on them. In the late 1980s, the Jews came there and cleaned cemetery.

Last gravestones of Olshana Jewish cemetery

Inscription on the oldest tombstone:

פנ
אשה חשבה
אסתר מרים
בת ר אליעזר
שמואל (sic) אשת ה”
דאנסקאי
יד תשרי תרעט
תנצבה

Here buried
Is a respected woman
Esther Miriam,
Daughter of rabbi Eliezer
Wife of rabbi Shmuel Donskoy
Tishrey 14, 5679
Let her soul be bound in the bond of life.

Khorol is a town in Poltava region, the centre of Khorol district. Its population is 14,643 according to the 2001 census.

In the early XX century it was a center of Khorol uyezd (district), Poltava province.

Beginning

Jews probably first settled in Khorol at the beginning of the XVII century but in 1648 during the Chmelnitsky uprising the local Jewish community was apparently annihilated.

Jews settled in Khorol againl in the early XIX century.

Map of Khorol from the middle of XIX century

According to archival data, in 1800, 44 Jewish peasants lived in the town. The revision in 1847 showed that there was a “Khorol Jewish Society” containing 78 people in the region.

According to the 1897 census, more than 173,000 residents lived in the region. Among them there were about four thousand Jews including 2,056 Jews from Khorol (25% of the total population).

In 1910, there were four Jewish colleges in Khorol, one private mens college, two private women and a co-educational one.

Two synagogues were functioning in the town. These buildings haven’t been preserved.

The Jews of Khorol constituted a typical community of Chabad ?asidim, described by B. Dinur, a native of Khorol, in his memoirs Be-Olam she-Shaka (1958). Dinur’s grandfather, Abraham Madeyevski, was Rabbi of Khorol in the second half of the XIX century.

Boguslavskiy family in Khorol, 1908 centropa.org

In October 1905 a pogrom occurred.

Many of Khorol’s Jews were mentioned in 1901-1916 business calendars of Poltava province:

In the 1900’s the headmen of the synagogues at different times were Gersh Avramovich Khotimskiy, Iosif Aronovich Shteingart, Grigoriy Samuilovich Leybovich. The rabbis were Kiva Yankel Mont, Iosif Avramovich Suponitskiy, Isaak Fishelevich Malkin. The headmen of a prayer house were Abel Zakharovich Mikhlin, David Moiseyevich Yerusalimskiy. The rabbis were Veniamin Moiseyevich Braginskiy, Leyzer Zaturenskiy.

Boguslavskiy was a ritual slaughterer at the local synagogue.

A Jewish mens college was founded by Pinkhus Ulitskiy, Simon Levin and Aron Auchleipter were the teachers (“melameds”).

A Jewish women college was founded by Feyga Pavolotska, she was a teacher as well.

Khorol entrepreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1903

In 1911, Shmul Leybov Gurariy, Korklinskiy, and Moisey Abramovich Madiyevskiy were the rabbis.

Rozaliya Yakovlevna Mont, Sheyna Zelmanovna Goldinova (Khotimskaya) were the midwives. Shmul Moiseyevich Levin owned the drugstores. Nison Fridman was the owner of a private library, where people could rent a book. Khatskel Berkov Yevseyev and Malka Leybovna-Itskovna Shukhet were the photographers in Khorol. Lipa Malkin owned the only hotel in the town. Iosif Shapsovich Epshtein was a doctor. Sarah Yankelevna and Esther Yankelevna Mont were midwives.

Shmerk Leyzerovich Zaturenskiy, Shelia Davydovna Khaykina, Avraam-Itsko Israilevich Tsonarovskiy had the printing houses. David Gershkovich Khotinskiy and Motel Veniaminovich Braginskiy were the insurers.

Zakhar Rogachevskiy owned a windmill in Khorol, he inherited it from his father. David Akselrod was a pharmacist in Khorol; later he owned a drug store.

Jews constituted the major part of the population. Basically, the inhabitants of Khorol were craftsmen and farmers. All tailors and shoemakers in Khorol were Jews. Jews also ran small stores where they sold food products, clothing and shoes, etc

Khorol before Russian Revolution

After Revolution

In 1919 another pogrom was organized by soldiers of General Denikin.

From memories of Rozalia Akselrod:

Bandits robbed, raped, beat and murdered Jews around Khorol, but none of them came to shtetl. There was a fighting squad that included Jews and young people of other nationalities and they didn’t allow one single bandit to come to town.

I couldn’t find much information concerning Jews of Khorol in the period between the wars.

In 1926 the Jewish population numbered 2,089 (19.7%), but dropped to 701 (6.4% of the total population) in 1939.

Holocaust

On the 13th of September 1941, Khorol was occupied. In late October 1941, the nazi commandant ordered all the Jews to collect their valuable things, warm clothes, and products for two days and gather in a market square to be evacuated to Lubny. 460 people came to the square and were shot by the second division of the 45th reserve police battalion in the ravine outside the town. On the 15th of May 1942, Sonderkommando detachment “Plath” shot about 50 Jewish artisans and about 450 Jewish captives who were selected from the prisoners of war.

All the children were taken aside and poisoned by smearing an unknown substance under their noses.

The extermination of Jews took place in the concentration camps. A notorious concentration camp operated out of Khorol, it was called “Khorol pit” (Dulag #160). Approximately 90 thousand prisoners of war and civilians including Jews died there. The occupants treated Jews the worst. All who looked like a Jew were stained with paint, a star was drawn on their backs, their faces were covered with minium, and heads with tar. They were tortured to death.

Built on the grounds of what used to be a brick factory, the Khorol camp had only one barracks; it was half-rotten and rested on posts that were leaning to one side. It was the only shelter from the autumn rains and storms. Only a few of the sixty thousand prisoners managed to cram in there. The rest had no barracks. In the barracks people stood pressed tightly against each other. They were gasping from the stench and the vapors and were drenched with sweat.

Memorial on the Holocaust mass grave, Khorol

There was a group of female POWS in the camp. Only seven or eight of them had survived by the spring 1942. In the summer 1942, they all were shot for hiding a Jewish woman.

The town was liberated by the Red Army on September 19, 1943.

After WWII

After the war the following Jewish families returned to the town: the Slavutskiys, the Yurovskiys, the Senderovs, the Kapilsons, the Vitkans, the Glushkovskiys and others. However, the life of the community hasn’t revived because of anti-Semitism.

Memorial was erected on the Holocaust mass grave in 1980’s only.

In the 1990’s, about 20 people left for Israel and Germany.

In 2016, approximately ten Jews lived here.

Famous Jews from Khorol

Aryeh (Arie) Dvoretzky (1916, Khorol  – 2008, Israel) was a Russian-born Israeli mathematician, the winner of the 1973 Israel Prize in Mathematics. He is best known for his work in functional analysis, statistics and probability.

Ben-Zion Dinur (born Ben-Zion Dinaburg; 1884, Khorol – 1973, Israel) was a Zionist activist, educator, historian and Israeli politician. He left a momories about Khorol and few shtetls of Poltava region which will be used for articled of this page

Old Jewish cemetery

The Jewish cemetery was established in the XIX century and was located in the southern outskirts of the town, which is named «Zyiar’e» in Lermontova Street. The cemetery is under houses and gardens.

After Wold War II, all tombstones were removed so only one common tombstone remains. Location of any removed tombstones is unknown.

Jewish section in general cemetery

The cemetery is located on the western outskirts of the town in Lenina Street. It forms the Jewish section of a general cemetery.