Lyubar, Ukraine

Information About Jewish Cemeteries in Lyubar

Editor's Note: There are two Jewish cemeteries and two mass grave sites in the Lyubar-Novaya Chartoria area. Only one cemetery has gravestones; most are illegible. By the end of this year, both mass graves will be marked with memorials.

The Protecting Memory Project, funded by a German government grant, has selected Lyubar to erect a memorial for the first time on the Ladiva Vilshyna Grove mass grave as well as placing an additional memorial at the already marked Peschanoye Tract (sand fields) mass grave. April 2018

        I. Mass Grave located at Peschanoye Tract (sand fields), 1.5 km to north from town center, left from road to                 Novaya Chartoria.

        Yahad in Unum 1941-1942 Lyubar execution facts and eyewitness testimony.
       
        More information on IAJGS International Jewish Cemetery Project.

        This mass grave location is rural (woods/forest), located on flat land, and isolated. It is reached by turning left off a         public road and crossing other public property (forest). The access is open to all. The mass grave is surrounded by         a continuous metal fence and marked with a memorial stone. The present owner of the mass grave property is the         municipality. The mass grave boundaries are larger now than 1939. The mass grave is rarely visited by local                     residents. Now there is occasional clearing or cleaning by individuals or authorities.

        There is a second memorial erected nearby which is surrounded by a fence and commemorates partisans who                 fought the Fascists. This is not a Jewish mass grave.

        II. Mass Grave located at Ladiva Vilshyna Grove

This unlandmarked Jewish mass grave was dug in 1941. The isolated rural (agricultural) flat land has no signs or   plaques in local language mentioning the Holocaust. Reached by crossing other public property, access is open to all. Municipality owns the mass burial property. Properties adjacent are river. Rarely, local residents visit site.          Occasionally, authorities clean or clear.

III. Jewish Cemetery

This cemetery was founded at the beginning of the 20th century and is used by the communities of Lyubar and       Novaya Chartoria. It does not have signs or markings. It is located in town but is not centrally located and definitely not visible from the road. Fragments of an old wall exist buried beneath overgrown brush are set back from the main road about 100 yards. The cemetery is active with last known Jewish burial in 1994. Fewer than 10 Jews remain in community. The isolated flat land is reached by turning directly off a public road and is open to all with no wall, fence, or gate. Tombstones date from the 20th century. 100-500 gravestones are in cemetery, with 20-100 gravestones in original locations. 75% of surviving stones are toppled or broken. The sandstone markers are rough stones or boulders. Some have portraits on stones and/or metal fences around graves. Inscriptions are in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Russian. Properties adjacent to the cemetery are commercial-industrial and agricultural. Private visitors rarely visit the cemetery. Uncontrolled access is a serious threat with horse and cattle droppings throughout. Local schoolchildren play on grounds. Weather erosion is a very serious threat (75%+ of stones are illegible due to erosion).In the 1960's the local government did some restoration work on the site. Certain graves have been damaged by overgrowth.

More information about this cemetery on IAJGS International Jewish Cemetery Project.
   
IV. Jewish Cemetery in Novaya Chartoria

The last known Hasidic burial was before 1941. The rural (agricultural) hillside by water has no sign or marker.       Reached by "other," access is open to all. No wall, fence, or gate surrounds. No stones are visible. Location of any removed stones is unknown. Rarely, local residents visit. There is no maintenance.

More information on IAJGS International Jewish Cemetery Project.       
               
According to Igor Vorona (December 27, 2008), My father was born in Novaya Chartoria in 1937. His grandfather Iosif (a cantor in the local synagogue) was buried in Novaya Chartoria cemetery in 1919. This cemetery was active until 1941. In November of 1941 all Jewish population of Novaya Chartoria was murdered by Ukrainian collaborators. The only three known survivors are my father, his mother (my grandmother), and his uncle.

Per my father’s memories, Novaya Chartoria Jewish Cemetery was still intact in 1957, when he left his ancestral place for University. Thou, there were no recent burials after WWII.

When my father visited Novaya Chartoria in 1987, he found no sign of the cemetery at all. He knew by the landscape that it was there, but there were no gravestones, no anything.

According to locals he was chatting with, all stones were used in construction, because since the 1960s, this cemetery was unattended. The last survivor of Novaya Chartoria’s massacre was my grandmother who left in 1961.