Stryzhavka Old Jewish Cemetery
Cemetery Information
Historical overview
According to Commission on the Preservation of Jewish Heritage, the Jewish cemetery was established in the 18th century and the last burial took place in the 1940s. The tombstones were stolen from the site to allow for the construction of cellars. In the 1960s, the cemetery was used for vegetable gardens.
Stryzhavka is believed to be founded in 1552 under the name Strizovka. From 1569 the region belonged to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. Jews appear to have lived in Stryzhavka from the first half of the 18th century. In 1765, there were 272 Jewish residents.
In 1793, after the Second partition of Poland, it came under the control of the Russian Empire, and became a part of the Podolia Governorate (Podolskaya Gubernia). In 1897 the town’s Jews comprised 36% of the total population: 795 of 2203. At that time there was a synagogue and two Jewish prayer houses. Most of Stryzhavka’s Jews were small-scale merchants or artisans.
The Jews of Stryzhavka suffered greatly during the revolutionary years and civil war in Russia. 8 Jews were murdered and Jewish houses were looted in a pogrom in the town in June 1918. Many Jews left Stryzhavka about this time.
After 1922, Stryzhavka became a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR. Jews, especially younger ones, left Stryzhavka in the early Soviet period in search of educational and vocational opportunities. In 1926, 413 Jews lived in Stryzhavka, comprising almost 16% of the total population. In the 1920s and 1930s there was a Yiddish school in the town. Jews, along with the others, were affected by the Holodomor in 1932-33.
The Germans occupied Stryzhavka on July 19, 1941. Starting in December 1941 Jewish skilled workers from Stryzhavka were used for the forced slavery labor in the construction of Hitler’s “Werewolf” headquarters, with Stryzhavka itself becoming the center of the “Werewolf” compound. On January 10-12 1942, all 239 Jews who were still alive, were shot to death by an Einsatzgruppe.
In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Stryzhavka became a part of the independent Ukraine.
The old Jewish cemetery of Stryzhavka, once situated at the bank of Pivdennyi Buh river, was established in the 18th century. It was demolished around the 1960s and is today used for private vegetable gardens.