Christian Hermann sent along the following photo of Nobel Prize winner Herta Muller at the Cz. Jewish Cemetery. He writes:”was surprised to find the Jewish cemetery of Czernowitz on the first page of Berlin’s daily paper Der Tagesspiegel. Nobel Prize winner Herta Müller did visit Czernowitz and several German newspapers now use the photo by Isolde Ohlbaum. The subtitle says: Landscapes of homelesness. The image shows Herta Müller in May 2009 at the old Jewish cemetry in the Ukrainian city of Czernowitz once belonging to Austria-Hungary. The now 56 years old German was born in Romania and lives in Germany since 1987.”I found out that her mother was in a Soviet work camp during the war. Is there a possible Jewish connection through her mother?
Herta Muller front page photo in Berlin’s newspaper
Bruce Reisch
Dear Bruce,as far as I know there are no family connections to Czernowitz. Herta Müller derives from Banat, a Romanian area close to Serbia, where a German minority used to live. Her mother was not deported during but after the war. But how can one not be interested in Czernowitz when you are a German speaking writer? Müller protested last year when two former Securitate agents were invited by the Romanian institut of culture in Berlin to take part in a Czernowitz event.http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herta_M%C3%BCllerChristian
Perhaps Obama will be the next to visit?!