Yaltushkiv Jewish Section

Cemetery Information

Country
Ukraine
Region
Vinnytsia
District
Barsky
Settlement
Yaltushkiv
Site address
Starting at 18 Sobornaya Street follow the dirt road for 50 metres. The Jewish section of the cemetery can be seen to the right of the road.
GPS coordinates
48.99049, 27.51937
Perimeter length
136 мetres
Is the cemetery demolished
no
Type and height of existing fence
No fence
Preservation condition
Jewish section
General site condition
The area is overgrown with seasonal vegetation. The most recent grave, a double grave containing burials from 1991 and 1994 is still looked after, as well as a grave from 1990.
Number of existing gravestones
22
Date of oldest tombstone
1946 (the earliest tombstone found by ESJF).
Date of newest tombstone
1994 (the latest tombstone found by ESJF).
Urgency of erecting a fence
Fence is not needed
Land ownership
Municipality
Preserved construction on site
No
Drone surveys
Yes

Historical overview

Given the oldest preserved tombstone is dated 1946, it can be inferred the Jewish section of the cemetery was already in use by the mid 20th century.

The town of Yaltushkiv was first mentioned în 1431. The Jewish community in Yaltushkiv numbered 192 in 1784. 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 early December 1883, Yaltushkiv’s Jews were attacked in a pogrom. In 1897, the Jews in Yaltushkiv comprised 1/3 of the population: 1238 of 3533. By 1913, there were two Jewish prayer houses.
After 1922, Yaltushkiv became a part of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic within the USSR.
In 1926, the Jewish population of Yaltushkiv was 1392. A Yiddish elementary school, of four grades, and a Jewish council (soviet) operated from the 1920s. Most Jews worked in factories (sugar, textiles, etc), in artisan cooperatives, and in a Jewish kolkhoz of 19 families. By 1939, there were 1212 Jewish residents.
In 1941, less than 100 Jews succeeded in fleeing to the East, and around 100 were drafted into the Red Army, with most remaining behind. Many Jews from Western Ukraine and Bessarabia stopped in Yaltushkiv on their way to the East.
The Germans arrived on the 15th of July 1941, establishing a ghetto and murdering a few hundred Jews between the 19th-20th August 1942. The young and skilled workers were used for slave labour and subsequently murdered. On October 15, 1942, 1194 Jews from Yaltushkiv and the surrounding area were executed in a second Aktion. About 30-50 Jews survived by fleeing to the Transnistria governorate.
In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Yaltushkiv became a part of the independent Ukraine.
After the war the few Jewish survivors used a section of the common cemetery. Today the section comprises 22 graves, dated within the period, 1946-1994.