On March 20, 1942, more than 3000 Jewish Rohatyners were murdered and buried at the mass grave south of Rohatyn’s city center.
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The Jewish memorial at the south mass grave site this week. Source: Iryna Nebesna.
Marking this sad anniversary in our absence and on behalf of all Jewish Rohatyn descendants was one of our dearest Ukrainian friends: Iryna Nebesna, a journalist from Ternopil whom Jay and I have known and have worked with at Jewish burial sites across western Ukraine including Rohatyn, Lviv, and Sokal, and who last year on March 20th joined us in prayer at this site; she is also a collaborative partner with us and others in a new headstone recovery and documentation database project covering Lviv, Rohatyn, Sokal, Dobromyl, and Zbarazh.
Ira’s phonetic text of the Hebrew prayer as she prepared to read. Source: Iryna Nebesna.
El Malei Rachamim (אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים), a prayer for the souls of the departed innocents, was read by Ira in Hebrew. Our dear friend stood in silent witness to the memory of those killed and buried there – young and old, men, women, and small children – under circumstances impossible to imagine.
The Soviet memorial at the south mass grave site this week. Source: Iryna Nebesna.
Although Jay and I could not be with Ira, having left Ukraine late last year due to the war, we hope to see her this coming summer when we return to visit. We are also proud that before we left Ukraine to return to California last year, Rohatyn Jewish Heritage, in partnership with ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative in Kyiv designed and installed a new trilingual information sign at the south mass grave site to tell the story of the place and about the Jewish community that died there.
For those of us with family in the common grave at this remote site, Ira’s presence this week hopefully brings solace and some comfort in knowing that these Jewish victims are not forgotten. Baruch Dayan HaEmet. Вічна пам’ять.