Ukrainian city agrees to stop using Jewish headstones as pavement
The city of Lviv in Ukraine agreed to remove Jewish
headstones currently used as pavement.
The grave markers, from cemeteries destroyed by the Nazis
during their occupation of Ukraine in the 1940s, will be moved to the only
cemetery that was not destroyed during the Holocaust, according to Sprirt24, a
Netherlands-based news agency.
The Soviet Red Army, which moved in on the heels of the
retreating Nazi army, used the headstones as pavement, according to Meylakh
Sheykhet, Ukraine’s representative in the Union of Councils for Jews in the
former Soviet Union, who has lobbied for the headstones' removal for years.
He told Spririt24 that the local market was built by the
Soviet authorities in 1947 from Jewish headstones, which were placed
horizontally and covered with asphalt.
Viktor Zaharchuk, a local resident, showed the Spirit24
film crew some headstones with Hebrew writings that were directly placed on the
ground as pavement.
The city was considering several designs for a monument
at Lviv’s the only remaining Jewish cemetery, Spirit24 reported, though it is
unclear whether that monument would incorporate the headstones after they are
removed.
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