Sokilets Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Country
Ukraine
Region
Khmelnytskyy
District
Dunaivtsi
Settlement
Sokilets'
Site address
Located to the south-east from Sokilets' and to the south-west from Zahoryany villages. Go by the Polyova Street in the Zahoryany village till the Christian cemetery. Then turn left and in 20 meters turn right, procced by the dirt road for 270 meters into the wood. Go by this path till the agricultural fields. (There is ESJF plate hanging on the "entrance" but it is better to ask locals).
GPS coordinates
48.73625, 27.0823
Perimeter length
336 metres
Is the cemetery demolished
yes
Type and height of existing fence
No fence
Preservation condition
Unfenced Jewish cemetery
General site condition
The cemetery located in the wood thus heavily overgrown by trees and bushes. It is surrounded by ditch. There are signs of storm and flood with a lot of fallen trees and branches, many gravestones are half sanken in the dried mud.
Number of existing gravestones
About 300. Many gravestones are lying face down or partly buried into the ground. It should be lifted and cleared for exact dating.
Date of oldest tombstone
1807
Date of newest tombstone
1931
Urgency of erecting a fence
High
Land ownership
State
Preserved construction on site
Presumably, there are remnants of a beith-tahara on the site.
Drone surveys
Yes
Historical overview
The exact period of the cemetery’s establishment is unknown. The oldest preserved gravestone relates to the early 19th century so it can be assumed that the cemetery emerged during that period. First, it appears on Russian maps of 1879. Later it was marked on maps of the 1920s and 1939.
In 1765, 356 Jewish residents lived in Sokilets’. By 1987, this figure grew to 747 (27% of the total population). The Jewish population slightly decreased to 505 people in 1923. A Jewish council operated under the Soviets. The Wehrmacht troops occupied Sokilets’ in July 1941. On August 31, 380 Jews from Sokilets’ and Velykyy Zhvanchyk were executed.
