Kamin-Kashyrskyy Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. It is estimated that the cemetery was established in the late 19th century. Given it appears on Russian maps from 1907 it can be assumed the cemetery already existed during that period. The oldest preserved tombstone is dated to the early 20th century.
The presence of a Jewish community in Kamin’-Kashyrs’kyy was first recorded in the mid 16th century. By 1897, this population had risen to 1,189 (98% of the total population). The community consisted of Trysk and Kobrin hasids. By the beginning of 20th century, an illegal department of Zionist-socialists had been set up in the town. During WWI, Jewish refugees from the southern regions of Volyn’ arrived in Kamin’-Kashyrs’kyy. In September 1915, the retreating Russian army destroyed the town. The Jews were forced to flee to the nearby forests. Their self-defence group, set up in 1918, helped prevent two pogrom attempts. Nevertheless 120 Jews were murdered in 1920. During the 1920s and 1930s, the town housed a Tarbut school (teaching in Yiddish from 1939), a Talmud Tora, and a library. A department of the national Jewish bank also operated in the city during this period. From the 1930s, antisemitism led to attacks on the stores owned by Jews. Nazis troops arrived on August 2, 1941. In May 1942 a ghetto was set up in which 3,000 Jews from Kamin’-Kashyrs’kyy and the surrounding villages were confined. On August 10, 1942, 1,700 Jews were murdered in the Jewish cemetery. More than 600 Jewish workers remained in the ghetto until November 2, 1942. Around 400 attempted to escape, but only 100 survived, joining the partisans. In July 1992, a monument of black granite was installed on the former ghetto site. In the same year, two more monuments were set up on the sites of mass executions.