Delyatyn. The Jewish Past. Places of Memory of the Jewish Community

In every settlement, places of memory testify to how old its community is, when it was founded and how the history of the settlement is preserved. Delyatyn is a large town in the Subcarpathian region, known since 1370, and the first records of Jewish residents are documented in the mid-18th century. They were merchants and owners of mills and sawmills; they healed and taught, provided legal and notarial services, and also practised craft trades. According to the laws of Judaism, a Jewish cemetery is a place of rest for the dead.

Delyatyn, Ivano-Frankivsk region. Jewish cemetery

Jewish burials may not be moved or built over. Matzevahs are the stone slabs that a Jewish family set up in honour of the deceased. A gravestone is a symbol of the spiritual bond between parents and children, husband and wife. According to Jewish tradition, erecting a matzevah on a grave is considered a very important duty and allows one to move from the trauma of losing loved ones to peace and tranquillity. Rabbis advise setting up the gravestone as soon as possible. Matzevahs bear no photographs or sculptures, only inscriptions in the form of metaphors. The steles state the first and last name of the deceased, the dates of life, status, and sometimes the parents of the deceased. The earliest date established by researchers on a matzevah is 1400.

 

Delyatyn. Kirkut (Jewish cemetery)

After the Holocaust no Jewish population remained; the burial grounds fell into decay and no one tended the graves. For some reason people decided to use the sturdy gravestones for construction and paved roads with them. The local residents did not realise that they were violating the burial traditions and the peace of the deceased former residents of Delyatyn. Fragments of Jewish history can still be seen on the road on Pohribnych Street.

Delyatyn. Remnants of matzevahs under the bridge

About 1,000 matzevahs have survived to date, made of hewn stone or concrete. The memorial markers are set in dense parallel rows, with their front side facing south. The matzevahs bear epitaphs carved in Hebrew and symbolic bas-relief images that together tell what the person was like in life and preserve the memory of the buried.

 

In 2012 the kirkut was enclosed with a concrete fence, old trees and wild shrubs were cleared, and an unauthorised dump was removed.

 

According to statistics, in 1939 there were 2,550 Jews in Delyatyn, making up more than a quarter of the entire population. During the Second World War, in the course of punitive operations, more than 2,000 residents of Jewish nationality were executed by the Nazis. The Germans timed these bloody actions to the visit of one of the Nazi leaders to the Stanislaviv region. In the north-eastern part of Delyatyn lies the burial site of the town's residents, mostly Jews, shot in 1941–1943. On the night of 16 October 1941 the Gestapo surrounded the town and drove people out into the street to check their documents. The young were kept for work, while the older ones were led to the forest-covered Vilkhivtsi tract and shot beside dug pits. Witnesses of the mass murder recall that the German executioners had a crate of vodka and that they smoked and laughed. 514 Jews and 157 Ukrainians and Poles died then. According to Holocaust researcher O. Kruglov, the number of victims was far higher — 1,950 people. Civilians from the villages of the Yaremche area were also shot.

Delyatyn. Vilkhivtsi tract

In November–December 1943 the fascists gathered all the Jews on the town's main street and ordered them to pack their belongings and prepare, supposedly, for evacuation. The Nazis cruelly tormented the residents, beat them and forced them to dance, and opened fire. The living and the dead were taken by trucks to the tract.

Delyatyn. Vilkhivtsi tract

During this massacre 712 Jews and 95 Ukrainians and Poles died. Those who escaped the raid were taken to the prisons of Stanislaviv and Lviv. The Germans boasted of the slaughter and called the town and the valley of the Prut River 'free of Jews'. At the site of the civilians' execution a memorial sign was erected with an inscription in three languages — Ukrainian, English and Hebrew: 'On this place the majority of the Jews of Delyatyn were brutally murdered by the Nazis in 1941–1943. In memory of my grandmother Rivka Blyay-Herstengaber, my aunts and all the Jews of Delyatyn. Willy Lindwer, Holland, 1992.'

Delyatyn. Memorial sign at the site of the mass murder of civilians

The stone stele stands deep within the forest; beside it there is also a signpost with a plaque: 'Honour this place, consecrated by the blood of the residents of the Nadvirna area, murdered by the Nazis in 1941–1943.'

Delyatyn. Signpost at the site of the shootings of civilians

No Jewish community remains in Delyatyn, yet the town's residents remember the tragic events. At a crossroads a Christian chapel has been built, where believers can honour the memory of the dead.

Delyatyn. Chapel in the Vilkhivtsi tract

Sources used: 

'Register of Monuments of the Ivano-Frankivsk Region', book two, Delyatyn. 2015.

A. I. Mysiuk, 'Two Patches on the Asphalt'. 2025.