Country Report: Ukraine. ESJF surveys, analysis and educational events, 2018-2020
A high level of preservation of cemeteries on the Left Bank is also noticeable: Poltava 78%, Sumy 73%, Chernyhiv slightly less, 59%. Most likely, this is due to the fact that during WWII, a significant portion of the Jewish population managed to escape, returned to the region afterwards, meaning the cemeteries remained in use. Even if a cemetery was destroyed, post-war burials would take place on the site. The high level of preservation of Jewish cemeteries in the Chernivtsi region (a historical region of Bukovina and Northern Bessarabia) — 82% — is also most likely associated with the softer policy of the Romanian authorities during the Holocaust, which allowed a significant number of Jews to survive. About a third of the cemeteries in this region were used after WWII. On the other hand, in three regions the level of preservation is significantly lower than the average: Volyn (27%), Lviv (37%), and Kyiv (44%). This may be attributed to the way the Holocaust was instituted in the region. Labour camps for the Jewish population were largely created in the Lviv region, one of the activities of which was the demolition of Jewish cemeteries and the construction of roads and other facilities from their tombstones. It is possible that this also took place in the Volyn region. The mass demolition of cemeteries by the Soviet administration after the war in the Lviv and Kyiv regions can be explained by the proximity to large administrative centres (Kyiv and Lviv). The policy of expunging Jewish heritage may have been more strictly enforced in these central regions than the provincial ones.
30