Ostrog - Commemoration of Jewish Victims

Most probably on August 4, 1991, a fenced-off monument shaped like a memorial stone was erected in the forest west of Ostróg. It bore a black marble plaque with the following Ukrainian inscription: "Here, in the years of the Great Patriotic War, Soviet civilians were brutally shot dead by the German-Fascist occupiers. Honor the memory of the victims!" An additional marble slab was placed at the foot of the monument. In 1995, this slab appears to have been renovated by a group of former residents of Ostróg living in Israel, the United States, and Canada. It now bears inscriptions in Yiddish and Ukrainian. The Ukrainian one reads: "Here, on August 4, 1941, 7,000 [sic] women, elderly individuals, and children were brutally executed solely because they were Jews. May your memory live on forever!" Apparently in the same year, a statue was erected near the monument. It depicts a Jewish man falling down, having been hit by a bullet. Since about 1991, an annual memorial service has been conducted at the site, with the participation of local residents, representatives of the local authorities, delegates from the adjoining Khmelnytskiy (formerly Kamenets-Podolskii) District, and Jews from Israel and all over the world. The attendees would light candles, recite prayers from holy books, say the Kaddish (the Jewish ritual sanctification prayer) for the victims, and lay wreaths on the monument. A fenced-off memorial was erected in the forest near the town of Netishin, most probably during the Soviet era. In August 1997, this memorial was altered, and a black marble slab, topped with a Star of David and bearing a relief of a menorah, was added to its center. Another black marble slab was placed at its foot. It bears three almost identical inscriptions in Hebrew, Yiddish, and Ukrainian. The Hebrew inscription reads: "At this site in 1941, some 2,500 children and youths, Jews from Ostra [Ostróg] and its vicinity, were brutally murdered by the Nazis. Their only sin was having been born Jewish. May their memory be blessed forever! [This monument was erected in] August 1997, [in the Hebrew month of] Menachem Av, 5757." In 1981, a monument to the community was erected at the cemetery in the city of Holon, Israel. A handful of soil from the mass graves in the Ostróg Forest was buried under this monument, which is topped with the relief of the Maharsha great synagogue in Ostróg. The Hebrew inscription upon the monument reads: "A monument to an ancient community, [dating from the Jewish year of] 4860 [until] 5702, 1100-1942. Ostra [Ostróg], the town of the Maharsha, in the Volhyn region, Poland. Which was annihilated during the Holocaust by the German Nazis and their accomplices, in the years 5701-5702, 1941-1942, in the course of three murder operations: The first murder operation [took place] on the 11 [of the Hebrew month of] Menachem Av, 5701; August 4, 1941; The second murder operation [took place] on the 9 [of the Hebrew month of] Elul, 5701; September 1, 1941 The liquidation of the town ghetto [took place] on the 4 [of the Hebrew month of] Marheshvan, 5702; October 15, 1942 The Remembrance Day [Yortsayt] is on the 14 [of the Hebrew month of] Elul. This monument was erected by descendants of [the community of] Ostra [Ostróg], Volhyn, living in Israel and the Diaspora." Additionally, a grove (signposted by a commemorative plaque) in memory of the Jews of Ostróg has been planted in the Forest of the Martyrs in the Jerusalem mountains; it was financed by former Jewish residents of Ostróg living in Israel and Argentina. Another plaque commemorating the Jewish victims of Ostróg has been installed at the Martef HaShoa (also known as the Chamber of the Holocaust) museum on Mount Zion in Jerusalem.