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Lityn New Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Ukraine
Region
Vinnytsia
District
Lityn
Settlement
Lityn
Site address
Cemetery does not have an address. The cemetery is located to the right of Bohdana Khmel’nyts’koho Street.
GPS coordinates
49.33676, 28.06444
Perimeter length
641 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
The cemetery is unfenced but there is a gate. The cemetery is surrounded by a mound of earth and planted trees.
Preservation condition
Unfenced Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The cemetery is overgrown with dense seasonal vegetation. There is a mass grave on the site. There is a Holocaust memorial on the site. According to a local Jewish resident, there are many Jewish cemeteries in Lityn, but they were unable to provide any exact locations. Moreover, the local resident revealed funds for preserving the cemetery are provided by a Mr. Senya Schmidt of Philadelphia. There is no concrete evidence of any other Jewish cemeteries in Lityn; the city council has no knowledge of them and locals were unable to provide any substantive information on the subject.
Number of existing gravestones
130 (120 new tombstones and 10 older ones. It is likely more tombstones are hidden in the tall grass).
Date of oldest tombstone
1919 (the earliest tombstone found by ESJF).
Date of newest tombstone
2018 (the latest tombstone found by ESJF).
Urgency of erecting a fence
High
Land ownership
Municipality
Preserved construction on site
There is a Tziyun on the site
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

According to the Commission on the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, the cemetery was established in the latter half of the 19th century. It can be found marked on a map of Western Russia from the 1900s.

The community was established in the 18th century. In 1762, Jews owned 53 houses. In 1765, the Jewish population numbered 481 people, however it had halved by 1802, to 229 Jews. There were 22 Jewish merchants at that time. According to the census of 1847, there were 1804 Jewish residents. In 1851–1874 there was a state Jewish school and in 1867, there were 3 synagogues. According to the census of 1897, the Jewish population numbered 3874 people, which was 4.1% of the town.
In 1910, there were 6 synagogues, a Jewish school, a private school for men and a private school for women as well as two cemeteries. In 1910 there were 4,919 Jews, this number had halved in 1923 to 1,980 Jewish residents. On May 13-16 1919, the Jewish community survived a pogrom, in which 400 Jews were murdered, more than 4,000 Jews were harmed and the houses and shops were ruined and looted.
In the middle of the 19th century, Jews owned 2 mills, a tannery, a mead factory, a brewery, a cigarette factory and over 50 small shops. In 1926, there were 2487 Jews living in Lityn. By 1939 the Jewish population numbered 1410 Jews (27.76%).
Lityn was occupied on July 17th 1941. On August 20th, 56 young Jews were killed. In autumn Jews from Lityn and the surrounding area, and from Bessarabia and Bukovina were concentrated in the ghetto.
On December 19th, 1,986 Jews were murdered at the nearby army base.
In total in Lityn, 2,250 Jews were executed.

As of 2003, there was still a small Jewish population in Lityn.
David Solomonovich Berthier (Livshits), violinist and conductor, teacher, was born in 1882 in Lityn.

The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. According to the Commission on the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, the cemetery was established in the second half of the 19th century. The earliest gravestone found dates to 1919, the most recent dates to 2018. There are 120 newer and around 10 older gravestones. There is an ohel and a mass grave. The cemetery could not be found marked on old maps of the region. The cemetery is taken care of.

3D model
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