Gorodishche

 The cemetery (photographs by Arthur Abramson) is abandoned and in disrepair. The holocaust memorial fails to mention that the victims were Jewish. These are things that can and should be corrected. If you are interested in pursuing this please contact me. 

The Pokross family immigrated from Gorodishche, which is in the Cherkassy District in the Ukraine. At the time our family left, Gorodishche was in the Kiev Gubernia(Province). In Yiddish the town is called Gorodish(pronounced gore oh deesh). Since there is no G in Ukrainian, it would be pronounced Horodish in Ukrainian. According to the Encylcopedia of Jewish Life before and during the Holocaust, Jews numbers 3124 out of 14641 in 1897 and 570 in 1939. Here are some maps.

During the Russian Civil war, 1919-21, the Ukraine was ravaged by pogroms that killed hundreds of thousands of Jews. These pogroms are poorly documented becasue of the difficulty of conducting research during Communist rule. Gorodishche was affected, and I found the following chilling reference to the massacres there, which were the subject of a poem by the Yiddish poet Peretz Markesh, who was murdered by Stalin:

"The cataclysmic nature of this pogrom wave was widely recognised in the Jewish world at the time and its impact on Jewish collective consciousness would have been much greater had it not been eclipsed by the even more appalling horrors of the Holocaust. It is the subject, for instance, of a savage and moving poem by the expressionist Yiddish poet, Peretz Markish, entitled The Mound. Dedicated to those killed ‘In a mound in Gorodishche’, in an blasphemous parody of earlier laments, he ‘shaped the victims into a mound of rotting corpses so that this mound might vie with all the sacred mounds of the past: Ararat, Moriah, Sinai and Golgotha.’1 In a horrific picture of how the catastrophe was perceived by one sensitive individual, he concludes:

It’s a milky night like moon flesh set in a pitcher. O, black cats, don’t be afraid of my restless tapping- I will utter the sacred mound’s decree: It flings the Ten Commandments back at Mount Sinai Its thirsty mouth, a swill of grief that seethes With black marrow, fumes like a glowing crater Hey, markets and mountains, I call you to oath with my song. The Mound spatters Mount Sinai’s commandments with blood. Two birds circle its mouth; they speak ; they conjure. From on high, they wind its tongue like a blazing scroll And place on its brow a crown of frothing stars. Ah Mount Sinai! In the upturned bowl of the sky, lick blue mud, Humbly, humbly as a cat licks up its midnight prayers. 

Into your face, the Sovereign Mound spits back the Ten Commandments. "

The town was occupied by the Germans on August 1, 1942 and the Jews from Gorodishche and it's surroundings, mostly elderly women and children were executed besides freshly dug pits. 

So what remains? David Pokross Sr. told me that when he visited the Soviet Union and expressed a desire to find out, he was told nothing, and was unable to arrange a visit. But something does remain. Here is information about the condition of the Jewish cemetery in 1995:

"GORODISHCHE: US Commission No. UA23100101/ may be buried at Berezno or Sudilkov

Alternate name: Gorodishtch (Yiddish), Gorodishtche (German) and Horodyszcze (Hungarian). Gorodishche is located in Chercasskaya at 49º17 31º27, 170 km from Kiev and 107 km from Uman. The cemetery is located at north. Present town population is 25,001-100,000 with 11-100 Jews.

Town officials: Town Executive Council of Goridko Anatoliy Ivanovich [Phone: (04734) 22569].

Local officials: Town Executive Council of Goridko Anatoliy Ivanovich [Phone: (04734) 22569]. Town Soviet of Jewish Culture - Kamenetskiy Mihail Abramovich [Phone: (04734) 22488].

The earliest known Jewish community was 18th century. 1939 Jewish population (census) was 1194. Effected Jewish Community: 1678 Koliivschina, 1919 Civil War and 1941 World War I. The Jewish cemetery was established in 18th century with last known Hasidic Jewish burial in 1955. No other towns or villages used this unlandmarked cemetery. The isolated urban flat land with no sign or marker. Reached by turning directly off a public road, access is open to all. No wall, fence, or gate surrounds site. 21 to 100 common tombstones, none in original location and between 50%-75% toppled or broken, from 18th to 19th century. Stones removed were incorporated into roads or structures. The cemetery contains unmarked mass graves. The municipality owns the property now used for agriculture (crops or animal grazing), storage and waste dumping. Adjacent properties are residential. The cemetery boundaries are smaller now than 1939 because of new roads or highways. Visitors (Jewish or non-Jewish) and local residents visit rarely. The cemetery was vandalized during World War II and frequently in the last 10 years. There is no maintenance. Within the limits of the cemetery are no structures. Very serious threat: uncontrolled access, pollution and vandalism.

Turman Bella of Chercass, Homenko st., 16, apt.66 [Phone: (0472) 631272] visited site and completed survey on 15/10/1995. Interviewed were Kamenetskiy Mihail Abramovich of Kamenets Podolskiy on 15/10/1995." source jewishgen cemetery project.