11 September 2009
Work is now underway to process data collected during surveys of Jewish cemeteries and mass graves in eight Ukrainian regions.
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Carried out as part of the first year of a three-year FSU educational project to catalogue all of the Jewish cemeteries and mass graves in Ukraine and the Baltic states, surveys of 216 Jewish burial grounds have now been performed in eight of the Ukraine’s 25 regions. |
Participants, who are drawn from local youth groups and universities, carried out comprehensive surveys at each location, illustrated by detailed photographs, and gathered vital information on the areas’ Jewish life, history and culture. The data collected from these surveys is currently being updated to the Lo Tishkach Database (see the list of recently updated records on the homepage) and will shortly be presented in a series of publications providing an up-to-date record on the situation of Jewish burial grounds in Ukraine.
Many sites urgently in need of care were identified during the surveys, details of which are available here. Contact us at info@lo-tishkach.org to find out how to help save these sites.
Co-ordinated by the Lo Tishkach Foundation and supported by the Genesis Philanthropy Group, the project seeks to practically engage young Ukrainians with their culture and history, encourage reflection on the lessons of the Holocaust, develop values of volunteerism and civic responsibility and collect valuable information for the Foundation’s database.
The Jewish population of Ukraine stood at around 2 million before World War II, around 1.4 million of whom were killed during the Holocaust. The current Jewish population is estimated at between 100,000 and 300,000 people. Ukraine is thought to have up to 2,000 Jewish cemeteries and World War II Jewish mass graves.
