Marla Raucher Osborn, of the Rohatyn Jewish heritage project, reports on the recovery of dozens of fragments of Jewish gravestones that were used by the Nazis to pave the parking area of the Gestapo headquarters in Rohatyn, Ukraine.
She writes that about 80 fragments, many of them preserving ornate carved decoration, were excavated on November 3 and 4 from what is now a courtyard in Rohatyn used today as a parking area for the surrounding private apartments.
Dug up along the north perimeter of the courtyard, the stones were found buried approximately 25 centimeters below the compacted top soil of the courtyard. Present for the examination, translation, and photographing of the fragments was Rabbi Moshe Leib Kolesnik of nearby Ivano-Frankivsk.
“This open expanse encircled by pre-war buildings has long been suspected of containing a very large number of unrecovered Jewish headstones,” Marla tells JHE. “Numerous historical accounts tell of headstones used from end-to-end of the courtyard as pavement for parking Nazi vehicles.”
This is the latest in a series of discoveries — and recoveries — of matzevot in Rohatyn — and more are expected eventually to be found. Marla has been active with local people in efforts to identify Jewish headstones found around town and arrange for their return to one of Rohatyn’s two former Jewish cemeteries where a monument will be created. Both of the cemeteries were stripped of headstones under the World War II Nazi occupation.
Earlier this year, dozens of very large and fully intact Jewish headstones were recovered from a private vegetable garden bordering the courtyard. In summer 2012, headstone fragments were discovered and partially removed from a wall that formed the foundation of a small utility structure at the courtyard’s east vehicle entrance. That structure is expected to be dismantled and removed in the near future.
See prior JHE article on this topic
See more at the Rohatyn headstone project web site or Facebook page
See prior JHE article on this topic
See more at the Rohatyn headstone project web site or Facebook page
3 comments on “More Fragments of Matzevot Recovered in Rohatyn, Ukraine”
I am very happy to report that Alex Denysenko received a letter from Mr. Vorobets in Rohatyn reporting that the large pile of Jewish headstones recently recovered from the courtyard of former gestapo headquarters (today a private but communal car park for surrounding apartments) were collected and transported on November 24, 2014 to Rohatyn’s “old” Jewish cemetery.
This effort, which Mr. Voorbets coordinated and managed, involved employing (for a pre-agreed fee) 8 young Rohatyn men, tractor with trailer, and a truck with two drivers. The day’s event took 6 full truck-loads and was completed by the evening.
The titanic effort (to use Mr. Vorobets exact words) also included moving to the “old” Jewish cemetery the large pile of Jewish headstones that had been recovered earlier this year and collected together behind the private business located not far from the mass grave site at the north end of town.
Thank you Mr. Vorobets!
Totally unexpected…research, recovery, restoration. A stunning impact!