2021: My Trip to Kiselin, Ukraine

Hello Everyone,

First of all, I want to say thank you for the incredible amount of information I received from all of you before I went to Kiselin. It helped to color my experience and provide me with the necessary background to discover as much as I did when I went there. The trip to the village ended up being a far more informative, moving, and epic experience than I had imagined. I will outline my trip there for you all in this email, and hopefully provide some new information and updates as well. Specifically, I was sent these two links: (https://iajgscemetery.org/eastern-europe/ukraine/kiselin and https://www.esjf-cemeteries.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Volyn-on-line-2018-compressed.pdf) that outlined the three major grave sites in the village. I am happy to report that the bleak picture they report from a trip taken in the 90's is no longer accurate, and all three of the sites have been vastly improved, as I will show below.

As a brief introduction, I went to Kiselin on Wednesday, July 14th, and was accompanied by my friend Igor, who is fluent in Russian, Ukrainian, and English, as well as his two parents, Sergey and Svetlana, who are fluent in Russian and Ukrainian, as well as conversational in English. These language skills proved invaluable, as none of the people we met spoke any English. Also, since the photos are too large to include in this email, I have made a google photos album and shared it. I will attempt to reference the photos in the order they appear in the album. Here is the link to it:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/YqVLiDkHcvvkpSwT9

The first thing I noticed about the village was just how remote it is. In the photos album, the first photo is of the road there, which turned out not to be the main road, but is the second of only two paths that lead into the village (picture 1).

Shortly after our arrival, we saw a man returning from a grain delivery trip (picture 2). I think it paints a picture of how, despite the multiple massacres that occurred there, the village's day to day life has not changed much over the past century (Without an actual crop, the man pictured used a thin stick from the ground to whip his horse to walk faster)

The first thing we saw in Kiselin was the rather impressive ruins of a Polish church that once served the large catholic population of the village, a reminder that the jews weren't the only massacred group in this area. After seeing that, Sergey attempted to find a local who could give us more information. We searched and found a woman, whom I did not catch the name of. She was born in 1936 and has been living in Kiselin her entire life (picture 3). She was too young during the holocaust to have any real memories of it. She did, however, tell us about the town historian, Vasily Sokol, who lived on the other side of the village (picture 4). We made our way to his house and he graciously sat outside with us and told us about the village's history.

He is a historian of the orthodox christian community in the area, so he didn't know too much about the jewish community. He did, however, take us on an impromptu guided tour of the three major jewish memorial sites in the village, as well as showed me a number of other notable places.

I will be referencing these sites as they are referenced in this link: https://iajgscemetery.org/eastern-europe/ukraine/kiselin
(i.e as Kiselin I, II, and III)

Kiselin II: This was the first sight I saw. It was directly off of the road into the village, so it was actually the first thing I saw in Kiselin. As you can see, the stone matches the description, but the fence around it is no longer broken. It seems to have been repaired. The monument commemorates the killing of over 40 Jews in 1941, and is adorned with many stones on top left by visitors over the years (pictures 5,6). I myself brought a few smooth rocks from the US to leave (picture 7).

Kiselin III: This is the most incredible sight I encountered on this trip. What is described as an unmarked and overgrown piece of flatland has, at some point in the last 25 years, been transformed into a rather beautiful memorial sight. Upon approaching it with Vasily, I was immediately drawn to the white pillar next to the memorial. On it, as well as a description of the overall memorial, are pictures and direct references to Helen Perel (pictures 9-13). I was quite taken aback by this, and when I told Vasily that I was related to her, he looked quite stunned. She is pictured on the memorial plaque as a young girl in a white dress, and is referred to as a holocaust survivor from the village. Based on her testimony for the Shoah Foundation (who also seems to have supplied the photos for this memorial) that I watched, I believe this is the place where Helen's family (Her parents, sister, and sister's children) are buried. The memorial itself is a series of wooden pillars leading up to a winding metal cage that contains large fragmented stones, which I believe are ruins from the destroyed "Jewish block" that Vasily said once existed in the village (pictures 8, 14-17). The location of this block is now a patch of overgrown forest. This memorial seems fairly well maintained, with only a bit of overgrowth.

Kiselin I: This was the last sight I saw in Kiselin. While this cemetery no longer has any headstones and is completely overgrown, it has been improved. As the sign says, "The new wall of this Jewish cemetery was erected by the ESJF Charitable Society for the Maintenance and Protection of Jewish Cemeteries, with support from the German Government, for the remembrance of the Jewish community of the village Kyssylyn, destroyed during the holocaust years. 2020" (translation provided by yours truly, 4 years of college German paying off) (picture 18). Around the cemetery site now sits a large white wall (picture 20) and a metal gate with a star of David in the center (picture 19).

On top of these memorial sights, I was shown a number of other notable places, including world war one and two bunkers. For the sake of keeping this email readable, however, I won't go into detail about that. I would like to say though, that what began as an off-hand comment by my father ended up becoming a quite memorable and meaningful adventure. My reason for going to Ukraine was to accompany my friend Igor to see his family, and was not to go to Kiselin. With the help of everyone on this email chain, however, this incredible experience became a reality. I hope that this information, whether novel or not, is meaningful to all of you in one way or another. I am happy to have made a small impact on the effort to understand and preserve our family's history.

Lastly, Vasily provided me with this email address ([email protected]) to share with all of you incase you had further questions. I am not sure where it goes or whether the people who answer it speak any English, but it may be a useful resource to anyone who is interested.

Best,
James
Sat, Jul 31, 2021