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Mezhyrych Jewish Cemetery

Cemetery Information

Country
Ukraine
Region
Zaporizhya
District
Pologovskiy
Settlement
Mezhyrych
Site address
The cemetery is located 400m outside of the North-eastern outskirts of the village. The cemetery is in the middle of the field. There is no road to it as they have been demolished.
GPS coordinates
47.60895, 36.41995
Perimeter length
357 мetres
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
The cemetery is not fenced, in places the Moat is visible.
Preservation condition
Unfenced Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The cemetery is abandoned, it is covered with dense seasonal vegetation. The Jewish cemetery is adjacent to the old municipal cemetery. It is difficult to get to the cemetery, since all the roads have been dug up and you need to drive through a ploughed field. Not far from this place is a Mass Grave, also in the field. There are many holes (foxes or hares) on the territory of the Jewish cemetery. Seasonal grass overgrowth is visible.
Number of existing gravestones
There are 2 gravestones. On the territory there are several gravestones and many stones that look like the remains of gravestones. There is one stone with Hebrew inscriptions. Many stones have sunken into the ground and may soon be lost.
Date of oldest tombstone
1934-5 (the only readable tombstone found by ESJF).
Date of newest tombstone
N/A
Urgency of erecting a fence
High
Land ownership
State
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. Given that the oldest preserved tombstone dates to the first half of the 20th century and that it is found marked on old maps from the 1870s, it can be assumed that it was established no later than the second half of the 19th century and was operating in the first half of the 20th century. It is marked on maps from the 1870s.

The Jewish agricultural colony in Mezhyrich (Ukr. Межиріч, Rus. Межирич) was established in 1846 by Jews from Vitebsk and Mogilev Governorates in present-day Belarus. The colony was officially referred to as Number 4, hence the Yiddish nickname Ferter Numer (פֿערטער נומער). The Jewish population was 540 in 1858, and 448 (82% of the total population). The community maintained a synagogue. The Soviet authorities created a collective farm in 1929. A Yiddish-language elementary school operated in the interwar period. After the Germans arrived in October 1941, the few Jews who remained in Mezhyrich were murdered.

It is not known when exactly the cemetery was founded. The only tombstone with a partly readable inscription probably dates to 1934 or 1935.

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