A scandal breaks out in Volyn due to the circus in place of Jewish cemetery
In the city of Kovel, Volyn region, an international scandal has broken out - foreign publications write that in the place of mass executions of the Holocaust victims the traveling circuses and menageries have given performances for decades. It was reported by ONLINE.UA that cited the story by TSN. As early as 40 years ago, a Jewish cemetery was located in the place of the circus. All that was left of him – “Matseva” – is a broken stella-tombstone. “The cemetery was very large, its territory was more than a hectare,” local historian Peter Wilczynski from Kovalclaims. Instead of the monument an abandoned house of the Palace of Culture rises. “Business on the bones is barbarism, blasphemy. These attractions are arranged here every year for over 10 years" - says local historian. It was here that in summer 1942 the Nazis carried out mass shootings of Jews. “According to various documents that we found in the archives, from 2.5 to 6 thousands of Jewish people were shot,” said Serhiy Shvardovskyy, the executive director of the progressive Jewish religious community of Volyn. It is primarily the Jewish community which opposed the circus on bones. In 1970, when the Soviet authorities began building a palace of culture in the site of a Jewish cemetery and trucks for several months removed human remains with soil the whole city rebelled. The Palace of Culture was built and the territory of the military unit was paved with tombstones. Now in its place there is wasteland, but at every step underfoot is the Star of David, a Hebrew epitaph. All these “Matsevas” were recently used for the pavement. Rescued from vandalism, for several years they have been stored in the open.
