For the first time since the Covid 19 pandemic, Jay and I could not be in Rohatyn to mark the anniversary of the wartime killings at the “vodokanal” north mass grave.
Ця сторінка також доступна українською.
Denis and Sasha during the reading of El Malei Rachamim at the site today. Photo by Wito Nadaszkiewicz © RJH.
In our place and on behalf of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage and Rohatyn Jewish descendants worldwide, Lviv friends Wito Nadaszkiewicz, Sasha Nazar, and Denis “Benya” of the Scholem Aleichem Cultural Center bore witness at the north memorial site, marking 82 years since the murder of more than 3000 Jewish victims from Rohatyn and the surrounding region, including Burshtyn, Khodoriv, and Bukachivtsi. Both Wito and Sasha have been present with us at this sad site many times before: as Lviv lawyer and now CEO for Rohatyn Jewish Heritage, Wito last joined us there in 2023, and Sasha, cultural heritage activist and head of the Lviv Volunteer Center and Scholem Aleichem Cultural Center located within Lviv’s historic Jakub Glanzer synagogue, joined us in 2023 at Rohatyn’s south mass grave memorial site.
Visiting the old Jewish cemetery in Rohatyn during the day.
Photo by Wito Nadaszkiewicz © RJH.
During this week’s solemn visit, candles were lit at the memorial and Sasha read El Malei Rachamim (אֵל מָלֵא רַחֲמִים), a prayer for the souls of the departed innocents, recalling the horrible events in Rohatyn leading to the final liquidation of the wartime ghetto and destruction of the city’s Jewish community: a series of organized executions and burials at this north mass grave site starting on June 6, 1943 and continuing for two to three days according to Jewish and Ukrainian memoirs and testimonies.
The new Jewish cemetery as seen during the visit today.
Photo by Wito Nadaszkiewicz © RJH.
Although Jay and I could not be present this time, having left Ukraine last October due to the ongoing Russian war, we are immensely grateful that Wito, Sasha, and Denis were able to go, and by their presence unite us all in the memory of our Jewish families, the victims. Baruch Dayan HaEmet.
We especially wish to extend a thank-you to Denis who has been serving in the Ukrainian army on the front line, recently returned home to Lviv. Thank you for your service, Denis.
Reading the trilingual information sign at the site. Photo by Wito Nadaszkiewicz © RJH.
Rohatyn Jewish Heritage is proud to have designed and installed trilingual signage in 2024 at this historic site of memory, a collaborative effort with our friends and colleagues at ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative in Kyiv, and despite the ongoing war and all its challenges.