Tombstone Tuesday: Perl Garber Zabarsky

There is no tombstone for Perl Garber Zabarsky. In fact, we are not entirely sure where she is buried. Perl was the eldest of three daughters of Avrum and Chana Garber, my great grandparents. She was their second child, likely born in 1888. Perl, along with her youngest child, her only daughter, Chana, was murdered during the German occupation of Labun during World War II. 

Thanks to my visit to Ukraine this past June, I have photographs of memorial plaques placed at the two mass murder sites where Labun Jewish residents were killed. I did two posts during my trip (here and here) regarding my visits to these sites.

First murder site in the forest south of Trojeshchina

Trojeshchina Forest memorial to Jewish Labun victims (photo by author, June 2013)

--------

Cherished

memory

to the Soviet

citizens

victims 

of Fascism

                       July

                       August

                     1941

 --------

This and the second memorial (shown below) were erected about 1970 by the local Ukrainian town's people. The memorials are in Ukrainian. I am indebted to several volunteers (whom I have already thanked personally) who responded to my post on JewishGen's ViewMate application and translated the first word. It literally means "light." However, in this context, it reflects the sentiment that their neighbors will not be forgotten.

As is typical of this time period and its war memorials, there is no mention of the fact that the victims were killed because they were Jewish.

This first site is about 1.5 miles from town in the forest to the south of Trojeshchina (the town adjoining Yurovshchina). The second site is in the forest on the road toward Polonne. On the map, below, the red oval represents the first site. The blue oval, the second.

Approximate locations of two mass murder sites outside Labun/Yurovshchina. Base map from Google Maps, accessed 9 September 2013

Velyka Berezna Forest memorial to Jewish Labun victims (photo by author, June 2013) 

The second memorial is similar to the first and only omits the reference to "Soviet citizens." 

--------

Cherished memory

to the victims of Fascism

August-September

1941

--------

On 13 September 1911 in Labun, Perl married Isseck Zabarsky of Gritsev.[1] They had four children: Usher (20 August 1914 - 26 April 2004), Leib Ber (8 December 1916 - October 1941), Motel/Mark (19 December 1918 - June 1943) and Chana (a August 1926 - ca. 1941). Isseck emigrated to the United States in 1935.[2] He was unable to successfully arrange passage for his family and they remained in the Soviet Union. He died in Boston on 4 August 1971.

The best information I have regarding Perl comes from Kniga Skorbatyi (The Book of Sorrows) published in Ukraine in 2003. As I understand it, this book in one in a series of volumes compiled based upon archival research regarding victims of the Holocaust in Ukraine. I first saw this volume in the Labun Museum and photographed several pages that had family surnames. According to this book, Perl and Chana were shot to death in Labun in 1941.[3]

Notes:
1.  Petition for Naturalization for Isseck Zabarsky, 4 May 1942, Brooklyn, New York, United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York, National Archives and Records Administration, New York City.
2. "New York Passenger Lists, 1820-1957," digital images, Ancestry.com
 (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 8 September 2009), manifest, Berengaria, Cherbourg to New York, arriving 8 October 1935, list 12, line 8, Aizik Zabarski; citing National Archives Microfilm Serial T715, Roll 5717.
3. Книга скорботи України, Хмельницька область (Book of Sorrows, Ukraine, Khmelnitskiy Oblast),volume 2, Kmelnitsky, 2003, pp. 95-96. The Family History Library  lists this book in their catalog - one of the few places in the United States that seems to have this volume.

Hritsev, 15 June 2013

Hritsev has fared a little better than Labun. Around the time my relatives were still in Ukraine, the communities were roughly equivalent in population and economy. Make no mistake, these are not wealthy places, but Hritsev has grown and changed, Labun much less so.

Hritsev actually has fairly new hotel and several restaurants (one with a Las Vegas theme!). We seriously considered moving from our hotel in Zaslav (a sad place economically and gastronomically) to Hritsev, but decided, to stay put one more night. An article I found from 2003 extolled the virtues of a group of forward-thinking Hritsev locals who were working on town economic development. I assume that these restaurants and the hotel benefitted from group seed money. In addition, back then the town was touting its ceramic tile industry.

The upshot of this community growth, from a family history standpoint, is that Hritsev is not as interesting. It's not as scenic.

These are shots of the rynak.

I am fond of this arty shot. I like the colors. They seemed to stand out in the market area.

My interest in Hritsev, which is about 10 miles west of Labun, is that my great grandfather David Myers' (nee Malzman) brother Zachary Myers was born here and resided here before embarking for the United States in 1922. He followed his sons, Jacob and Israel, who had, respectively, arrived in the USA in 1908 and 1912. I have also found clues that there may have been other family members in Hritsev. In addition, it's clear than many unusual surnames occur in both Labun and Hritsev. The towns seem to have been closely connected. 

With the help of a local, we located the Jewish cemetery (there are no Jewish people now is Hritsev) across the street from a large Christian cemetery. This is the street. The Jewish cemetery is on the left, just past the fence.

I walked into the tangle of often 6 foot tall vegetation. There was a great deal of standing water and mud and only one visible tombstone lying face down. I determined that the only way to really investigate this cemetery would be to whack down all the vegetation and go in with waders. Since I was not prepared to do any of this, we left.