Konela

Koneła (Polish), Конела – Konela (Ukrainian, Russian)

Konela is a village located in Cherkassy region of central Ukraine, Konela belongs to Zhashkov district. The village’s estimated population is 601 (as of 2001).

Konela is approx. 20 km from Zhashkov, 5 km from Sokolovka and 44 km from Uman. In XIX – beginning of XX century Konela was a shtetl of Lipovets Yezd of Kiev Gubernia

A Jewish community existed in Konela from the beginning of the 19th century.

According to Pokhilevich (who is Pokhilevich?), in the mid-19th century, the population of Konela included 822 Orthodox Christians, 76 Roman Catholics, and 1,360 Jews. This contradicts with the data of the Russian Jewish Encyclopedia which states that in 1847, 445 Jews lived in Konela.

In the second half of the 19th century, there were two synagogues (1865). The key occupations of the Jews were crafts and trade.

In 1914, the Jews owned two pharmacies, two lumberyards, mills and nine stores.

The Jewish population in 1900 was 744 people (36,2%), in 1923 – 225.

At the beginning of the XX century, economic and political turmoil caused many Jews to leave Konela and emigrate to the United States. In America a Sokolifker–Kenaler Fraternal Association was established in 1923.

Konela panorana by Leon Vichylkovskiy, 1911

By the 1930s, there were about 100 Jews living in Konela.

The Jewish community of Konela was destroyed during the Holocaust. According to local residents, the sites of mass executions were as follows:
1. According to local resident Oleg Karpun, 70 Jews from Konela were shot and buried in mass grave located in the western outskirts of the village near the cattle cemetery ( on the right side of Zhashkov-Uman road)
2. The remainder of Konela’s Jewish population was executed at an unknown location in the winter of 1942.

Konela enterpreneurs list from Russian Empire Business Directories by 1913

I have found the names of only 5 Jewish men who were drafted into Red Army and were killed in action during the Second World War:
– Kuts Leibovich Berdichevskiy (1910 – 1943)
– Roina Shmilkovitch Belilovskiy (? – 1941)
– Itsko Bentsionovich Litichevskiy (1907-1942)
– Shevel Benevitch Lysnovskiy (1906-1943)
– Abraham Israileich Tylchinskiy (1913-1944)

During the occupation the Nazi’s destroyed Konela’s old wooden synagogue. According to local historian Oleg Karpun it was a 2-storey building.

Ukrainian peasant Philip Karpun (1884-1961) saved Konela Jewish girl Sheila Grabova (1924-1978).

In 1945, a local Jew, Peisa Shlemovich Ostrobrod (1924-1995), designed the memorial, a granite obelisk with a five-pointed star on top it. This monument was erected at the site of the mass execution.

Pesia was the last Jew remaining in the village…

River near Konela

After the war at each May, Konela’s Jews from different parts of USSR would gather at this monument to commemorate the victims. In the 1970’s-1980’s not many people attended this event so instead they gathered at Ostrobrod’s house.

Local historian Oleg Karpyn noticed three non-christian gravestones in Orthodox cemetery. He assumed that some Jewish families returned to Konela after WWII.

Geneology

The State Archive of Cherkasy oblast has few documents relasted to Konela:
– Bodies of social class government. Burgher councils of Kiev province. Zhashkivska, the city of Zhashkov, Tarascha County. F.846, 1909-1915, 15 c.
– Birth/Death/Marriage for 1851 (F.1163 Op.1 File.2)

Famous Jews from Konela

Sam Reed (real name – Samuel Pobiersky, 20.08.1906, Konela – 3.08.1999, Durham, North Carolina) – US trade unionist, political and civil rights leader.

Konela Jewish cemetery

The cemetery was destroyed during the Second World War. There was a Soviet military defensive line at the site and the territory was dug up with trenches. According to another version, there was a German anti-aircraft battery located at the site. Part of the cemetery was destroyed during road reconstruction in 1959.

In 1950’s local Ukrainian children used cemetery as footbal field.

All gravestones were stolen by local Ukrainians and used for different purposes.

Information taken from Lo-Tishkah website.

Holocaust mass graves

– Urochische “Konelskyi les” forest, 25m from the road around the forest. There is a memorial at the site.

Three graves at this place were discovered in 1964. There were killed Jews, communist, partisans and their families from 3 different districts of Cherkassy region.

– Western outskirts of the village, 50m from animal farms on the banks of Konelka river. There is a memorial at the site.

In 1945, Peisa Shlemkovich Ostrobrod erected a mound and put a granite obelisk with a five-pointed star on top. The Ostrobrod family have been taking care of the mass grave for many years. The memorial is a stone stele, decorated with a star on top. It is located on a hill and surrounded with an iron fence.

Local authorities tried to destroy this monument in 1960’s but Peisa Ostrobrod defend it.

The stele was taken from a Catholic cemetery, there is an inscription on the reverse side:

«Wincenty
Wierzchowski
zmail 1861 r Luty
Pokoy Jego Popelom
Przechodniu zmow
Zurawasza jego
Dusze”

Information taken from Lo-Tishkah.