Tovste’s Jewish Cemetery
There is a large Jewish cemetery on the outskirts of town,
on the north side of the public road leading to Lisivtsi.
Surrounded by agricultural land, it is located on an elevated
hillside just in front of the modern Catholic cemetery. The
grounds are relatively well maintained and are mostly free
of undergrowth and other vegetation. Apparently restoration
work was carried out in 1980-1990, and the grounds continue
to be tended by the municipal authorities or local residents
whose goats kept the vegetation under control. This compares
favourably with the old Catholic cemetery, which is not maintained
at all and has been totally overgrown with shrubbery and trees.
A survey carried out by Yuriy Isaakovich
Hodorkovskiy in April 1996 reported that the cemetery
was established in the seventeenth century and was used
by the local Hasidic (Chortkovskaya) community. No other
towns or villages traditionally used this particular cemetery.
Although Isaakovich indicates that the last known Jewish
burial occurred in 1940, a Zalishchyky resident was said
to have been buried there in recent years, effectively
prolonging the operational status of the cemetery. (Apparently,
there is a regulation in Ukraine whereby a cemetery may
be closed if there has been no burial within the past
50 years.) |
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Incidentally, as reported elsewhere in the account of Ba’al
Shem Tov, the gravestone of the Besht’s mother (pictured
below) was observed in the cemetery until at least April 1944.
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In his survey, Hodorkovskiy reports:
“Stones are datable from 18th to 20th century.
The cemetery has tombstones with traces of painting
on their surfaces …. There are 101-500 stones,
most in [their] original location. Between 50% - 75%
of the surviving stones are toppled or broken, whether
or not in their original location. Locations of any
stones that have been removed [are] not known.”
Today, many of the tombstones are no longer completely
upright – many are tilted over at odd angles –
but their inscriptions are still plainly visible.
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One finds near the cemetery entrance a memorial to victims of the atrocities
perpetrated in Tovste by the Nazis and their collaborators
between 1942-1943. The inscription on the monument,
written in Hebrew, reads:
“In memory of the martyrs of Tluste and surroundings
who were annihilated by the Nazis in the years 1942-1943
and to remember all the martyrs who are buried in this
cemetery. Erected by the survivors from Tluste.”
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As reported in the Jewish history section and in the account
of Baruch Milch,
found elsewhere on this website, it is estimated that between
2,000 and 3,000 Jews were murdered at this location on 27 May
1943. They were rounded up in the market square and then led
in groups of 100 at a time to the cemetery, where they were
shot and buried in mass graves.
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Aerial photographs taken by German reconnaissance
aircraft in June 1944 confirm this atrocity.
The Jewish cemetery is situated in the upper right
hand corner of this photograph. In the enlargement (viewed
by clicking on the image), one observes row upon row
of densely packed tombstones. |
Amidst the main grave area containing 25 or so rows of tombstones,
there is a large circular clearing towards the road where
one can make out the outline of two rectangular shapes. Further
in from the road, to the northeast, there is another circular
clearing surrounding what appears to be single, large rectangular
shape. It is believed that these shapes represent the mass
graves of the victims of the May 1943 massacre.
The aerial photography also confirms the
point made by Isaakovitch, above, regarding the removal
of tombstones. A majority of the formerly densely packed
tombstones are no longer there today; indeed, one can
see the broken remnants of some of them in the margins
of the cemetery. Clearly, as Isaakovitch reports in his
1996 survey, the cemetery was vandalised during the war
and apparently in its aftermath, though not in recent
times. It is speculated that many of the tombstones were
removed after the end of war for use in road and building
construction. |
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I returned to the Jewish cemetery in October 2006 to investigate
the feasibility of photographing the tombstones and having
the inscriptions transcribed and translated from Hebrew into
English. I estimated then that there were about 400 (+/- 100)
tombstones left in the cemetery, of which at least half have
fully or partially legible inscriptions. I took 'test' photographs
of about 40 individual tombstones, whose inscriptions ranged
from 'very clear' to 'difficult to read'; and Sara Mages kindly
volunteered to transcribe these samples.
UPDATE (2018):
I’m pleased to report that in 2014, the Jewish Galicia
& Bukovina Organisation undertook a major effort to photograph,
document and map the entire Jewish cemetery of Tluste.
Click: Jewish
Cemetery - Tombstones for more details of my initial efforts
to document the cemetery, and links to the subsequent follow-up
work done by the Jewish Galicia & Bukovina Organisation.
UPDATE (2022):
Under the ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative, the
old Jewish cemetery of Tluste has been protected by an impressive
new wall and fence, completed in late 2019. Photographs can
be viewed here.
It should be noted, however, that the perimeter of the new
wall does not encompass one of the mass graves that lies outside
of the traditional boundary of the cemetery, as shown above.
This exercise was part of a large project to comprehensively
map and survey hundreds of Jewish cemetery sites across seven
countries in Central and Eastern Europe: https://www.esjf-surveys.org/surveys/.
Details of the ESJF survey conducted in Tovste can
be found here.
Surveys were also carried out in other localities around
Tovste. Some of these former sites have been overbuilt and
no tombstones remain. Others contain numerous tombstones,
but are overgrown and are in need of major remedial measures
such as permanent fencing and/or clearing of overgrowth.
Quick links to ESJF surveys conducted at other cemetery sites
in the vicinity of Tovste:
Borshchiv
(Borszczów) - old Jewish Cemetery: overbuilt
Borshchiv
(Borszczów) - new Jewish Cemetery: overbuilt
Chortkiv
(Czortków) - old Jewish Cemetery: overbuilt
Chortkiv
(Czortków) - new Jewish Cemetery: fenced
Chortkiv
(Czortków) - Jewish Cemetery: town outskirts; overgrown;
also tombstone remnants
Kasperivtsi
(Kasperowce) - Jewish Cemetery: overgrown
Korolivka
(Karolówka) Jewish Cemetery: slightly overgrown;
(not Korolivka village near Tovste)
Ozeryany
(Jezierzany) - old Jewish Cemetery: overgrown
Ozeryany
(Jezierzany) - new Jewish Cemetery: overgrown
Ulashkivtsi
(Ulaszkowce) - old Jewish Cemetery: overbuilt
Ulashkivtsi
(Ulaszkowce) - new Jewish Cemetery: severely overgrown
Ustechko
(Uscieczko) - Jewish Cemetery: demolished, but tombstone
remnants
Yahilnytsya
(Jagielnica) - Jewish Cemetery: fenced
Zaleszczyki
- Jewish Cemetery: partly demolished, but tombstone remnants
See also the excellent case study of the Jewish Cemetery
in Tovste (Tluste) in "A Guide to Jewish Cemetery
Preservation in Western Ukraine": https://jewishheritageguide.net/en/case-studies/cs02
Sources:
International Jewish Cemetery Project: https://iajgscemetery.org/eastern-europe/ukraine/tolstoye;
last accessed on 27 February 2022.
German Flown Aerial Photography, NWDNC-373-GXPRINTS, 1939-1945.
National Archives at College Park, Maryland.
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