Fastiv Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
CEMETERY HISTORY: The date of the oldest known gravestone is 1906, and the last burial took place in 2008. During World War II, the Nazis removed gravestones from the cemetery to use as the foundations of the local Gestapo headquarters.
There were originally two Jewish cemeteries in Fastiv. The old cemetery stopped functioning in the 19th century and, after WWII, was earmarked for private construction by the local authorities. The exact location of this cemetery is unknown.
HISTORY OF THE JEWISH COMMUNITY: Exact time of Jewish community emergence in Fastiv is unknown. The town suffered during Khmelnitsky uprise in 1648-49, and Jewish community of that time, if any, could be destroyed. Jews form Fastiv are mentioned in the documents of 1700. From 1772 to 1776 the mentor of the Fastiv community was Avraam Malakh, the son of Rabbi Dov Ber from Mezhirich. In 1782, Rabbi Israel Polotzker, one of Rabbi Dov Ber’s first students, was passing through Fastiv and died there. The Fastiv community suffered during the Haidamak pogroms in 1750, 1752 and 1768, and also later under the 1918-20 Denikin pogroms. The Jewish population of Fastiv numbered 2,694 in 1847 and had grown to 5,595 by 1897. In addition to the Jewish district within the city, the second Jewish area in Fastiv was the agricultural settlement of Kadlubitsa. Kadlubitsa suffered during the Denikin pogroms of 1918-19; after the pogroms, the JDC helped the community to rebuild their houses. During collectivization, the Jewish collective farm ‘Roiter Poyer’ (Red Ploughman) was situated in Kadlubitsa. During the German occupation, most of the adult Jewish population of Fastiv was removed to Bila Tserkva; a special ghetto was constructed for children. The residents of Kadlubitsa suburb were slaughtered in the forest on the outskirts of Fastiv, as were the population of the children’s ghetto and Jewish refugees from Zhytomyr. Some of the remains were reburied in the Jewish cemetery after the war. The Jewish community existed de facto after the war; there were underground minyanim in the city and people collected money for community needs, including cemetery maintenance. In 1998 the Jewish community was re-registered.