Jewish Waldheim Cemetery in Forest Park in Cook County, Illinois — The American Midwest (Great Lakes)

Pinsk Holocaust Memorial

Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, October 23, 2024

1. Pinsk Holocaust Memorial Marker

Inscription. In memory of the Nazi victims of Pinsk and surrounding area
1940 — 1945

Erected by Pinsker Independent Society.

Topics and series. This historical marker and memorial is listed in these topic lists: Cemeteries & Burial Sites • Immigration • Religion & Religious Structures • War, World II. In addition, it is included in the The Holocaust series list. A significant historical year for this entry is 1940.

Location. 41° 51.307′ N, 87° 48.468′ W. Marker is in Forest Park, Illinois, in Cook County. It is in Jewish Waldheim Cemetery. It can be reached from Harlem Drive (Illinois Route 43) near 16th Street, on the right when traveling south. The memorial is in Jewish Waldheim Cemetery, in the Pinsker Independent Society section (Gate 238). Touch for map. Marker is in this post office area: Riverside IL 60546, United States of America. Touch for directions.

Regionally, this marker and memorial is in Greater Chicago.

It is also in the American Midwest

and on the Great Lakes.

Globally, it is in North America,

the Western Hemisphere,

the Western World,

and the Anglosphere.

Historically, it finds itself

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in what was once the Viceroyalty of New France,

the territory of the Mississippian Culture,

and the Northwest Territory.

Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within walking distance of this marker: Chenstochow Holocaust Memorial (a few steps from this marker); Holocaust Memorial (about 500 feet away, measured in a direct line); Anshe Chodorkov Cemetery (approx. 0.2 miles away); Ever-Blooming Night and Day Flowers, 1982 (approx. half a mile away); Veterans Memorial (approx. half a mile away); Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus Train Wreck (approx. 0.6 miles away); Jewish Veterans Memorial (approx. 0.7 miles away); 9/11 Memorial (approx. 0.8 miles away). Touch for a list and map of all markers in Forest Park.

More about this marker. The top of the marker is a Hebrew translation of the text dedicating the memorial to Holocaust victims.

Jewish Waldheim Cemetery is actually a combination of roughly 250 different Jewish cemeteries divided over 60 acres spanning much of the area inside Roosevelt Road, Harlem Avenue, Cermak Avenue (22nd Street) and Des Plaines Avenue in Forest Park. While many were founded by synagogues, a fair

Pinsk Holocaust Memorial image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, October 23, 2024

2. Pinsk Holocaust Memorial

number were founded by organizations like the Pinsker Independent Society, which catered to Jewish immigrants who had come to Chicago from various locations in Eastern Europe.

Regarding Pinsk Holocaust Memorial. Pinsk is the capital of a region called Polesia, which today is in far southern Belarus near the border with Ukraine. After World War I, Pinsk was part of Poland and had a population that was almost three-quarters Jewish. The Soviet Union controlled the area in 1939, after the fall of Poland, until 1941, when German troops occupied it after Operation Barbarossa. That August, under orders from Heinrich Himmler to kill all of Pinsk's Jews, the Nazis rounded up and killed 11,000 Jewish men, including boys and the elderly. In May 1942, the remaining 20,000 inhabitants, most of them women, children and the elderly, were put into a ghetto. In October, a new order from Himmler ordered the elimination of that ghetto, and almost all of the remaining Jewish residents were executed.

Also see . . . Pinsk Jews in the Ghetto: Current state of affairs. A history of the German occupation of Pinsk, the elimination of the city's

Two Holocaust memorials image. Click for full size.

Photographed by Sean P. Flynn, October 23, 2024

3. Two Holocaust memorials

The Pinsk Holocaust Memorial is on the other side of the road facing the camera; in the foreground is a memorial to the Holocaust victims from Chenstochow, Poland.

Jews, and the 1994 discovery of a German document from 1942 that listed Pinsk's remaining Jewish residents, most of them women, children and the elderly, almost all of whom would be executed later that year. (Submitted on October 24, 2024, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.)

Credits. This page was last revised on October 25, 2024. It was originally submitted on October 23, 2024, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. This page has been viewed 249 times since then and 28 times this year. Photos: 1. submitted on October 23, 2024, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 2. submitted on October 24, 2024, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois. 3. submitted on October 23, 2024, by Sean P. Flynn of Oak Park, Illinois.