Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
Jewish Cemetery CEMETERY
(vul Lenina) Levi Yitzhak's mausoleum is in Berdychiv's eerie, overgrown Jewish Ce-
metery. While the mausoleum itself has been looked after, several-hundred odd boot-
shaped tombstones lie hideously askew and virtually hidden by weeds, neglected almost
to the point of disbelief. Many tombstones, etched with barely legible Hebrew inscrip-
tions, lie flat on the ground. The graves predate the Nazis by at least several decades, but
it was the Nazis who sealed the cemetery's fate by leaving no Jews behind to care for it.
A walk through the cemetery is moving and awe-inspiring. The effect is magnified by
the solitude of the place. Despite its sorry state, it has fared better than the many Jewish
cemeteries in Ukraine that have been buried and lost forever. It is thus a symbol of defi-
ance and a powerful, important and rare reminder of the country's rich pre-Holocaust
Jewish past.
The cemetery is about 15 minutes' walk north of Berdychiv's town centre just beyond
where a set of train lines cross the main road to Zhytomyr. The entrance is across from a
petrol station.
Berdychiv Castle MONASTERY
(Soborna pl) The impressive brick-walled complex hogging the horizon as you approach
Berdychiv from Khmelnytsky is widely known as the castle (krepost), but it's actually a
17th-century Carmelite monastery. The fortress-like defensive walls and towers were
built in the late 18th century. Sadly, it's not open to the public.
St Barbara Church CHURCH
(vul Karalipnika) Berdychiv has links to two great 19th-century literary figures: Joseph
Conrad was born in Berdychiv (1857), and Honoré de Balzac (of all people) was married
to Polish noblewoman Ewelina Hańska (1850) in this rose-tinted neoclassical church.
Look out for the brass plaque celebrating the latter event.
BERDYCHIV'S KILLING FIELDS
Those who are interested can try to hunt down the two mass burial sites that lie
outside the town. The first one is about 3km west of the Berdychiv Castle monas-
tery complex on the Khmelnytsky Hwy. A memorial on the right side of the highway
commemorates the 18,640 'Soviet citizens' killed here in September 1941 - like all
Soviet Holocaust monuments it makes no mention of Jews. The actual burial site,
marked by a plaque with Hebrew writing, is hidden under a clump of low-lying trees
about 150m into the cow pasture behind the Soviet plaque. A second burial site,
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