Clay in My Boots: A Romp Through My Genealogical Past

On the way to Radyvyliv we made stops at  Pidhirtsi  Castle and  Olesko  Castle where I purchased an old synagogue key (to be confirmed).  Olesko Castle: Pidhirtsi Castle: We then toured Brody, a Galician border town, having a Jewish population of almost 70% pre-WWII, with the local historian and museum curator , Vasyl Strilchuk,   stoping at shops and businesses formerly owned by Jews, the great temple, market square, museum, cemetery, and Holocaust memorial at the sight of 4,000 slaughtered Jews. I’m confident my family may have traded with these Hapsburg controlled townspeople. Radyvyliv, a Volyn border town, 10km away was home to 8 direct 3-6x GG Grandparents born between 1740 and 1860. We found a former synagogue and walked the town.  We visited the Jewish Cemetary in very poor condition with stones in total disarray with very few readable. Carol and I walked the property and then sat quietly listening to the whispering willows and pines in the background of a small active play

Entering the gates and looking down rows of tightly packed headstones was a sight to behold.  There were 120 rows with anywhere from 40-90 headstones.  The caretaker said there are approximately 12,000 graves. This cemetery has been under restoration since 1994. Understandable since Brody was at one time 75% Jewish. The graves show about 150 years of life and death.  Just outside the cemetery, in the woods is a memorial that has inscribed “In memory of the holy martyrs-Jews that we’re ruthlessly killed by the Nazi murderers.” 15,000 murdered in the woods surrounding the cemetery. In only two years the Nazis took the same number of lives there as those buried in that cemetery over a 150 year period!  I broke down and wept.  There are no remaining Jews in Brody.  Carol