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Bobrovyy Kut Old Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Ukraine
Region
Kherson
District
Velikoaleksandrovsky
Settlement
Bobrovyy Kut
Site address
The cemetery is located at the south of the village. From No.84 Zhovtnev Street walk 70m south, turn left, continue for 180m and then turn right (south) and walk 200m across the field. The cemetery is located behind an abandoned building.
GPS coordinates
47.09163, 32.94166
Perimeter length
330 мetres
Is the cemetery demolished
yes
Type and height of existing fence
The cemetery is not fenced, in some places a moat is visible.
Preservation condition
Demolished Jewish cemetery that has not been built over
General site condition
It is a field now. The territory is covered with seasonal vegetation. There are the remnants of broken stones around the site. A local older resident Anatoly Ivanovich (born in 1937), stated that the cemetery was demolished when the farms were being built, around the 1950s. They removed the fence at the cemetery and dismantled the tombstones. There is also an mass grave site in the territory of the village, which locals refer to as “the well”. Anatoly's wife, who is half Jewish, was the only one who survived the invasion of the German army. After the war, the returning Jews were buried somewhere in the common cemetery.
Number of existing gravestones
0. There is one stone that looks like a tombstone. The cemetery has been demolished, there are many broken stones lying around the territory, these stones may well be just building materials.
Date of oldest tombstone
N/A
Date of newest tombstone
N/A
Urgency of erecting a fence
High
Land ownership
Municipality
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. According to locals, the cemetery was demolished when the farms were being built, around the 1950s. It is marked on maps from the 1890s and 1941.

Bobrovyy Kut (Ukr. Бобровий Кут, Rus. Бобровый Кут, Yid. באָבראָווי־קוט) was founded as a Jewish agricultural colony in 1807. The original settlers came from Mogilev Governorate in present-day Belarus, and more Jewish settlers from different areas joined over the following decades. The population of the colony grew from 454 in 1810 to 1,469 in 1897, 1,248 of which were Jewish (85% of the total population). The community maintained a synagogue, 2 prayer houses, a school, a library, and a loan fund. During the Civil War of 1918–21, the colony was attacked in several pogroms, and the war was followed by famine. The colony survived thanks to aid from the ARA, the JDC, and other international organisations. A Yiddish-language school operated in the interwar period. The Soviet authorities closed the religious institutions in 1927, and a collective farm was created in 1929. The colony belonged to Kalinindorf Jewish National Raion. About 600 Jews lived in Bobrovyy Kut in 1936. Some were able to evacuate before the Germans arrived in August 1941. About 400 Jews remained and were murdered in September 1941 along with Jews from other communities.

It is not known when exactly the cemetery was founded. It is marked on maps from the 1890’s. According to local residents, the cemetery was demolished in the 1950’s.

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