

Source: Wikimedia Commons.
The social, religious, economic, and cultural histories of the Jewish communities of Lviv have been well documented both before and after the Holocaust, and research and discussion continues today, so only a very brief outline is presented here. The Encyclopedia Shel Galuyot: Lwów (see the References/Sources section) describes the early communities as "suburban" (settled around the original city center in the Krakivska district) and "city" (settled adjacent to the new city center from the 14th century), as well as a Karaite community. Jewish traders visited and settled in and around Lviv from at least the start of the second millennium, and became subjects of the successive rulers of Kyivan Rus, Halych-Volhynia, the Kingdom of Poland, the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth, the Kingdom of Galicia under the Habsburg Monarchy, and the Second Polish Republic, to the start of World War II.
By the 16th century there were nearly a thousand Jews resident in Lviv, working as merchants and moneylenders as well as leaseholders and collectors of royal income from customs and tolls. Over time and as their population grew, Jews built numerous synagogues and other religious buildings, organized into self-governing communities, attended universities and entered the professions. In the late 19th century, the Jewish population grew rapidly, from about 31,000 in 1880 to 57,000 in 1910; before World War I, Jews made up more than 25% of the city's total population. The interwar period continued the trend of significant growth, beginning at around 77,000 in 1921 and reaching nearly 110,000 by 1939 – at the time, roughly one-third of the total population.
The Holocaust in Lviv was as intense as Jewish life had been there before the war. Tens of thousands of Jews fled German-occupied Poland from 1939 to 1941, only to join the earlier residents in their fate after Operation Barbarossa. Tens of thousands died in pogroms, in the huge ghetto, in the Janowska concentration camp, and especially at the Bełżec death camp. Only about 3,400 Jews, roughly 3% of the prewar population, registered in Lviv after German forces were driven out of the city in 1944.
Unlike in most cities and towns in western Ukraine, a small Jewish community continues and thrives in Lviv today, with an active synagogue, social and charitable organizations, and a small number of surviving prewar Jewish heritage sites. Volunteer organizations composed of Jewish and non-Jewish Ukrainian and foreign members work to uncover, protect, and preserve the heritage which remains in the city and surrounding areas.

Source: Przemyśl Archive and Gesher Galicia.
Although only a single Jewish cemetery remains in Lviv (in a somewhat damaged state), before World War II there were four major Jewish cemeteries within the boundaries of the city and its attached suburbs; these cemeteries are documented on historical maps and in modern resources.
The first or "old" Jewish cemetery of Lemberg/Lwów/Lviv was established west of the historic city center, on a tract of land which now lies behind the Jewish hospital on vul. Yakova Rappaporta; it is located at GPS 49.84599, 24.01769. The cemetery is truly ancient, one of the oldest recorded in Europe, with a first mention in records in 1414 CE though it was likely in service a century or more earlier. The cemetery expanded in stages over nearly 500 years until the space became quite large, around three hectares, and is clearly marked on many maps from the Austrian era, including both street maps and the cadastral map drawn from an 1849 land survey. When the cemetery closed officially in 1855 and burials began elsewhere, the old cemetery contained an estimated 25 to 30 thousand graves, many with ornate stone markers. In disuse after its closure, the cemetery fell into partial ruin during the following years, but restoration work was undertaken on the service buildings and hundreds of the headstones in the first decades of the 20th century.

The second or "new" Jewish cemetery of Lviv opened just days after the closure of the old cemetery in 1855 at a site northwest of the historic city center, GPS 49.85098, 24.00146 at the west end of vul. Zolota and near the large Christian cemetery known as "Yanivske". This cemetery also expanded at least twice with further land parcel purchases, and the growing wealth of the Jewish community enabled the construction of several religious (preburial) and administrative buildings near the cemetery entrance. Like the old cemetery, the new cemetery was also heavily destroyed under the German occupation of World War II: the preburial house was demolished, and thousands of grave markers were toppled, removed, and repurposed as building materials – most of the headstones recovered during the past decade from under streets and in walls in Lviv (discussed further below) likely originated from the new cemetery, as they carry dates from the first decades of the 20th century. The new cemetery also contains mass graves, where Jews executed in Lviv during the German occupation were buried. After the war, the survivors of Lviv's Jewish community began using the new cemetery again; walking the paths of the cemetery today shows many Soviet-style grave markers and grave fences.
Two suburban Jewish cemeteries were also established in Lviv. One was begun in 1872 in the Znesinnia district about two kilometers northeast of the historic city center at GPS 49.85431, 24.05220 according to ESJF and from historical maps, just north of the Lviv castle hill and Kaiserwald; the cemetery served Jewish residents of several districts ringing the old city to the north and west. The Znesinnia cemetery was destroyed during Soviet times and the land was repurposed for a transport depot; today the site is overbuilt with warehouses and industrial facilities. The other suburban cemetery was established around 1884 in the Kulparkiv neighborhood about three kilometers southwest of the historic city center at GPS 49.82062, 23.99455 according to ESJF (and from historical maps); this cemetery was also destroyed during or after the Holocaust and today a concrete products factory operates on the site.
Most of the tombstones taken from Lviv Jewish cemeteries during and after World War II remain under roads and buildings in the city; the precise location of the vast majority of those stones is unknown. From time to time, small or large numbers of displaced headstones and fragments are discovered during road or utility works, building demolition or reconstruction, or even openly in pavement in public squares or sidewalks. Often, passing citizens who notice unearthed headstones will contact Sasha Nazar of the Sholom Aleichem Society of Jewish Culture in Lviv (and a longtime leader of the Lviv Volunteer Center, or LVC), who then attempts to organize recovery and removal of the stones to the new Jewish cemetery in Lviv.
The largest recovery effort to date in Lviv took place in summer 2018, when well over a hundred largely intact Jewish headstones were extracted from under vul. Barvinok in a southwestern neighborhood of the city. Local residents of the street were aware from past utility work there that at least a few stones were underneath the asphalt, and in 2017 they contacted Nazar to inform him that some headstones and fragments had been removed by utility crews and placed at the side of the street; it was a few weeks before the LVC could arrange to remove the stones and transport them to the new Jewish cemetery.


Source: RJH.



Smaller recoveries are also organized occasionally in response to reports of single loose stones, or stones embedded in surfaces around the city of Lviv. The heritage activists associated with the Sholom Aleichem Society of Jewish Culture in Lviv and other groups anticipate that additional large groups of Jewish headstones will surface in the future, e.g. from the as-yet unexplored block of vul. Barvinok.



Working from the photographs, transcription of the epitaphs in Hebrew and subsequent translation into Ukrainian was done by Tetiana Fedoriv, with assistance from Sasha Nazar and technical support by Vasyl Yuzyshyn. Translation from Hebrew and Ukrainian to English was done by Jay Osborn and Marla Raucher Osborn. Image and text data entry and verification was done by Vasyl Yuzyshyn with support from Jay Osborn.
Not all of the displaced headstones and fragments recovered in Lviv have been documented, and of course only a small fraction of the thousands of headstones displaced during and after WWII have been recovered at all. Fortunately, updates, corrections, and additions to this section of the database can be made at any time.
-
Wikipedia:
Lviv (English)
Lviv (Ukrainian)
- Category: Jewish cemeteries in Lviv; image collection on Wikimedia Commons
- Lviv, Ukraine, on the website of JewishGen KehilaLinks
- The Encyclopaedia of the Jewish Diaspora, Poland Series: Lwów Volume (1956) (Encyclopedia Shel Galuyot: Lwów), English text only of the Yizkor Book in the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project
- List of Lwow Holocaust Victims (undated), personal compilation by Peretz Zohar of the Lviv Landmanshaften in Israel, English translation by Eva Florsheim, in the JewishGen Yizkor Book Project
- L'viv (Levov) Memorial Book (1956); edited by N. M. Gelber, image copy in the Yiddish Book Center Digital Collections
- Lviv Interactive, an interactive historical map of the city of Lviv, presented on the website of the Center for Urban History; includes the thematic studies Lviv Cemeteries and Jewish City: History of the Community in Lviv as well as a detailed histories of the old Jewish cemetery on vul. Rappaporta and the new Jewish cemetery on vul. Zolota
- Urban Media Archive, a collection of digital images, video and films, oral histories, maps, and other items, presented on the website of the Center for Urban History
- Digital Storytelling, a multimedia publication format focusing on a broad variety of historical topics in and around Lviv, presented on the website of the Center for Urban History; includes the virtual walking tours Jewish Lviv: 100 Addresses – Map of Borys Orach; Past, Present and Memory: Rediscovering Jewish Lviv; and Сity of (un)memory along the Holocaust sites in Lviv
- The Bezalel Narkiss Index of Jewish Art, a digital database project of the Center for Jewish Art at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem; a search on "Lviv cemetery" results in image and drawing collections for the Jewish cemeteries in Lviv city and others in the Lviv oblast
- Єврейська архітектурна спадщина Львова (Jewish architectural heritage of Lviv); Юрій Бірюльов, Видавництво Старого Лева, 2022
- Rozwiązanie kwestii żydowskiej w Dystrykcie Galicja (the "Katzmann Report"); Instytut Pamieci Narodowej (IPN); prepared by Andrzej Żbikowski; Warszawa, 2001. Includes a complete photographed image copy of the original report, plus a Polish translation, plus critical analysis in Polish language; English translation as document L-18 in Nazi Conspiracy and Aggression, Volume VII; Office of United States Chief Counsel for Prosecution of Axis Criminality; U.S. Department of State, U.S. War office, and International Military Trials – Nürnberg; U.S. Government Printing Office, 1946, p.755~770; sourced from U.S. Library of Congress
- Lviv Oblast: Identified Jewish Cemeteries, on the website to Jewish Cemetery Preservation in Western Ukraine
- Lviv Old Jewish Cemetery on Shpytalna Street, cemetery survey and description on the website of ESJF (European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative)
- Lviv Yanivske Jewish Cemetery, cemetery survey and description on the website of ESJF (European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative)
- Lviv New Jewish Cemetery on Kulparkiv, cemetery survey and description on the website of ESJF (European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative)
- Lviv New Jewish Cemetery on Znesinnya, cemetery survey and description on the website of ESJF (European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative)
- Lwow, Lviv, cemeteries and mass graves description on the database of the International Jewish Cemetery Project
- Lvov » Yanovskoye, photos/names/dates database of standing headstones in the Yanivske Jewish cemetery in Lviv, on the website of Mitzvat Emet (Chesed Shel Emet)
- Lemberg (Lwów) Cadastral Map 1849/1853, on the website of Gesher Galicia
- Street Maps and General City Plans: Lemberg (Lwów, Lviv) – collection of more than 15 plans and maps of Lviv dating from 1844 to 1941, all of which show one or more Jewish cemeteries, on the website of Gesher Galicia
- Lwów, in the Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933-1945, Volume II: Part A, pages 802~805, by the USHMM (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum); also: Eastern Galicia Region (Distrikt Galizien), pages 744~749
- Nationalsozialistische Judenverfolgung in Ostgalizien 1941-1944: Organisation und Durchführung eines staatlichen Massenverbrechens (National Socialist persecution of Jews in Eastern Galicia 1941-1944: Organization and execution of a state mass crime); Dieter Pohl; Studies in Contemporary History, Volume 50; Institut für Zeitgeschichte, Munich, 1997
- Deutsche Herrschaft, ukrainischer Nationalismus, antijüdische Gewalt: Der Sommer 1941 in der Westukraine (German rule, Ukrainian nationalism, anti-Jewish violence: the summer of 1941 in western Ukraine); Kai Struve; Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston, 2015; pages 247~432 and others
- RJH Assists Jewish Headstone Recovery in Lviv; a news report from February 2020 about the LVC-led volunteer action to extract more than 50 Jewish headstone fragments from a crumbling residential retaining wall in Lviv, posted by Marla Raucher Osborn on the website of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage
- Case Study 13 – Headstone Recovery and Return: Lviv Barvinok Street; overview and details with photographs of the headstone recovery efforts in June 2018 from vul. Barvinok in Lviv, on the Fulbright-sponsored research project website A Guide to Jewish Cemetery Preservation in Western Ukraine
- East of Lviv Through Galicia – a photo and text essay from July 2017 covering headstones uncovered on Barvinok Street as well as Jewish heritage at sites northeast of Lviv, from Christian Herrmann’s Vanished World blog site
- The End of Silence – a photo and text essay from November 2017 about the recovery of a dozen headstone fragments from a courtyard between buildings in central Lviv, from Christian Herrmann’s Vanished World blog site
- Gator som bär sår (“The streets bear their wounds”) – an essay in five parts (see also Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, and the concluding Part 5) by headstone recovery volunteer Sonia Engström for her viewpoint-east.org blog
- Facebook post dated 18Jun2018 – on the start of the new headstone recovery project, posted by the Lviv Volunteer Center – ВЄБФ “Хесед-Ар’є”
- Facebook post 21Jun2018 – on the project in progress, posted by the Lviv Volunteer Center – ВЄБФ “Хесед-Ар’є”
- Facebook post 21Jun2018 – on the project in progress, posted by Marla Raucher Osborn of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage
- Facebook post 25Jun2018 – on the project in progress, posted by the Lviv Volunteer Center – ВЄБФ “Хесед-Ар’є”
- Facebook post 25Jun2018 – on the project in progress, posted by Marla Raucher Osborn of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage
- Facebook post 26Jun2018 – a call to volunteer action, posted by Marla Raucher Osborn of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage
- Facebook post 28Jun2018 – on the project in progress, posted by Marla Raucher Osborn of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage
- Facebook post 28Jun2018 – 3-minute video of volunteers extracting and moving a headstone from the street, posted by documentary filmmaker Sashko Balabai
- Facebook post 02Jul2018 – on the arrangement for heavy machinery to help accelerate the project progress, posted by the Lviv Volunteer Center – ВЄБФ “Хесед-Ар’є”
- Facebook post 02Jul2018 – on the project in progress, posted by Marla Raucher Osborn of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage
- Facebook post 17Jul2018 – on the collection and transfer of the recovered headstones to the new Jewish cemetery in Lviv, posted by the Lviv Volunteer Center – ВЄБФ “Хесед-Ар’є”
- Facebook post 17Jul2018 – on the collection and transfer of the recovered headstones to the new Jewish cemetery in Lviv, posted by Marla Raucher Osborn of Rohatyn Jewish Heritage
- Facebook post 27Mar2019 – on the collection of residual broken and unmarked fragments of headstones from Barvinok Street and their delivery to the new Jewish cemetery in Lviv, posted by the Lviv Volunteer Center – ВЄБФ “Хесед-Ар’є”
- Facebook post 16Aug2019 – on the sorting, cleaning, and storing of the recovered Barvinok Street headstones at the new Jewish cemetery in Lviv as part of a large volunteer work camp, posted by the Lviv Volunteer Center – ВЄБФ “Хесед-Ар’є”
- У Львові під час ремонту дороги знайшли єврейські надгробки (“Jewish tombstones found in Lviv during road repairs”) – news video coverage of the headstone recovery work on Barvinok Street in progress on 25 June 2020, by Ukrainian news Channel 5
- Ukraine: Dozens of matzevot rescued from under L’viv street; had been used as paving – a summary on 26 June 2018 of real-time Facebook reports by Sasha Nazar and Marla Raucher Osborn in the news portal of Jewish Heritage Europe
- Volunteers rescue Jewish headstones used to pave street in western Ukraine – news coverage of the recovery effort reported on 28 June 2018 by JTA (Jewish Telegraph Agency)
- Врятувати мацеви (“Saving Matzevot”) – news coverage of the recovery effort reported on 03 July 2018 by Yulia Lishchenko for Високий Замок


