Category Archives: Holocaust

Czernowitz Jewish Cemetery 1992 by Boris Dratva


KEYWORDS
• Commentary by Anna Barth’s son, who is visiting Czernowitz from [Venezuela] in May 1992
• Interview with Boris Dratva
• Interviews with Holocaust survivors
• Vandalism at the cemetery

HEADSTONES [in order of appearance]: Anna Kahane • Ruchel Kramer • Mali [?] Rosenberg • Golde Hecht • Anna Barth • Israel Schorr • Aron Moses Weissman • Mortco Kirmayer • Berl Brandmann • Abraham Gewürz • Gusta Baar • Simon Leiser Kinsbrunner • Bertha Kinsbrunner, née Schimmel • Sidi [?] Herman • Dora Kuppermann • Nathan Tropper • Emanuel Salter, Kamena • Elias Kampelmacher • Markus Kampelmacher • Dr. Benno Straucher • Fany Straucher Rosenstraus • Dr. Eduard Straucher • Marie Fischer-Straucher • David Tittinger • Berta Goldenberg • Pepi Trichter • Josef Steiner • Babette Steiner, née Kraus • Emil Steiner • Samuel Dankner • Calman Fischer • Chawe Hudel Krell • Markus und Dora Gewürz • Samuel Hechler [?] / Mechler [?] • Bruno Tittinger • Dr. Ludwig Chaies • Helene Rosenkranz • Aron Rosenkranz • Dr. Leo Rosen • Henriette Rosenzweig • Anna Zirl Abeles • Leon Abeles • Chaim Rosenzweig • David Altmann • Rose Altmann, née Luft • Berta Eisenberg, née Altmann • Jonas Grabstein • Salomon Goldschmidt • Rosa de Anhauch • Berl und Brane Rudel • Eliezer Steinbarg • Betty Bursztyn

Antschel • Documentary by Susanne Ayoub • Paul Celan and Klaus Demus

The premiere of the film in Ukraine took place on November 27th, 2020, on the occasion of the festival “Paul Celan Literature Days 2020” in Czernowitz, organized by the Paul Celan Literature Centre, Meridian Czernowitz and sponsored by the Austrian Cultural Forum Kyiv. The film (45:29 min.) is German with Ukrainian subtitles.

The documentary “Antschel” was shot in 2020 by the Austrian director and poet Susanne Ayoub. The narrator of the film is Paul Celan’s childhood friend Klaus Demus. The two young poets met in Vienna in 1948.

List of Repatriates from Southern Bukovina

This list comes from World Jewish Congress London (London n° 1087) and displays – in more or less alphabetical order – about 3,500 repatriated persons from Southern Bukovina, no date, no list of nationalities, but most likely all of them Jewish. Is there anybody out there, who might tell us more on this list? Is it connected to the list of “Repatriates at the USSR/Romanian Border – March/April 1946” posted at:

http://radauti.blogspot.com/2009/12/repatriates-at-ussrromanian-border.html

Courtesy: Arolsen Archives

Forgotten Holocaust – A Journey to Transnistria

The Chernivtsi Museum of the History and Culture of Bukovinian Jews: „The official trailer of a documentary ‘Forgotten Holocaust – a journey to Transnistria’ (film director: Resa Asarschahab, Idea: Markus Winkler und Kristina Forbat) has been aired. The film was shot in the autumn of 2019 in the framework of a Ukrainian-German educational project. The project was initiated by the Institute for the German Culture and History of Southeast Europe at the Ludwig-Maximilian University, Munich (https://www.ikgs.de) and implemented in cooperation with the Chernivtsi Museum of the History and Culture of Bukovinian Jews, Yurii Fedkovych Chernivtsi National University and the State University of the Republic of Moldova (Chisinau).

The film describes the life of a Chernivtsi citizen Rosa Zuckermann, who was deported to Transnistria in the autumn of 1941 together with her parents, a husband and a small child. Rosa was the only one of the whole family who survived. The story of this family resembles the fate of many Jewish families from Chernivtsi. That is why it is so meaningful and important to get to know it.

Film crew from Germany made the journey from Chernivtsi through Măşrculeşti, Soroca, Mohyliv-Podilskyi to a small town in Podillia – Bershad. It was accompanied by Dr. Markus Winkler (Berlin), the head of the project; Mykola Kushnir, the director of the Museum of the History and Culture of Bukovinian Jews (Chernivtsi) as well as by students from Ukraine (Chernivtsi, Mohyliv-Podilskyi) and the Republic of Moldova (Chisinau, Bălți).

Felix Zuckermann, the son of Rosa Zuckermann, also took part in the project. For him it was a moving trip into the terrible past, searching for traces and answers to questions he hadn’t dare to ask his mom when she was still alive.

Students, who participated in the project, were able to learn more about the Holocaust in Transnistria. During the seminar ‘Memory Workshop’ they discussed issues related to the culture of remembrance in their countries as well as presented their projects in this field.

Official presentation of the film was to be held at the end of February in Berlin. However due to the coronavirus pandemic it has been postponed.”

Memorial at Mass Grave – Bershad Jewish Cemetery

From Ruth Levin:

This is the tombstone on the mass grave at the Bershad Jewish cemetery.
The names on the tablet are of my grandparents: Joseph the son of Shimshon and Feiga the daughter of Levy; and their daughters – Haika (Clara) and Dvora (Dora) Levin. They all were deported from Czernowitz and died of typhoid in 1942.
My father was informed of the fate of his family when he himself was in the gulag. He was released in 1956 and lived in Moscow. My brother traveled to Bershad in  1972 and put this tablet on the stone. In 2017 our friends visited the cemetery and did not find the tablet. The local guide said that it was apparently stolen, because it was made of metal. Our friends ordered a new tablet made of stone and put it instead of the old one.  Ruth Levin

And this from Edgar Hauster

Read more at: Bershad, Oy Vey Bershad from the year 2015

Chernivtsi Jewish Survivors Organization Affidavits

This collection includes names from the 901 affidavits collected by the Chernivisti Jewish Survivors Organization. The organization collected the affidavits in order to press the Soviet government for stipendiary pensions in restitution for the atrocities the survivors suffered during World War II. The index includes name and information about experiences during World War II.

Courtesy: USHMM United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

Stones to Czernowitz • A Documentary in Progress

This is the story of a woman, Ilana, who’s passion was to find out what happened to her Grandfather after WWII. His name was Gustav Gedaly. He and his wife and daughter (Ilana’s mother) were rescued from the Holocaust thanks to the actions of a righteous gentile. However, after the War, Gustav was deported to Siberia by Stalin, never to be seen by his family again. Ilana promised her mother that she would find out why…

Read more at: https://www.stonestoczernowitz.com

Storojinets Ghetto in August 1941

 

Inhabitants of the Storojinets Ghetto in August 1941

Naftali Zloczower, Kibbutz Kfar Charuv, Israel

In September 2017, my wife, Nava, and I made a roots trip to Bukovina, including Storojinets (Storozynets), the hometown of my parents and grandparents. The trip was enlightening, exciting, moving and inspiring. One of the top highlights of the trip was our visit in the Czernowitz Archives (State Archives of Chernivtsi Oblast). We were presented with cardboard files containing listings of the inhabitants of the Storojinet Ghetto in August of 1941, shortly after the Jewish Ghetto was established by the Romanian fascists in July, and shortly before all these Jewish residents were marched and hauled to the camps of Transnistria in October-November. We had very limited time to go over the many pages of listings, since we arrived close to the closing hour of the archives. Even though we were allowed to stay a little longer than the official closing time, we were under pressure and were not able to view all the lists (at the last minute they brought to us the files from my great grandparents’ village, Banila, but we did not have the time to even open the files). As we quickly went over the files, looking for familiar names, we found the names of almost all my relatives who were in the Ghetto at that time. Using my camera, I photographed only pages containing last names that looked familiar to me (relatives and family acquaintances). Even though the pages I photographed included only part of the many pages of listings, they contained many names of Ghetto residents.

I decided to compile and prepare a printed list of the residents appearing in the photographed pages, not realizing what a difficult task I took on myself. The lists were hand-written by different clerks, each with his/her personal handwriting. The language of the listings was Romanian, and some of the scripts were unfamiliar to me. Not being a doctor or a teacher, who are used to reading barely legible or illegible scribblings, it was very difficult for me to decipher many of the names and words. Street names and names of towns changed since 1941, so it is difficult to check these out. There were different spellings to the same names, making it even more difficult to decipher them. To add to the difficulties, some of the photographed pages were not in perfect focus, making the names even more illegible. It was extremely difficult to decipher the names of people, streets, towns, and regions, but I used different means and methods in trying to accomplish this. I think I was successful in deciphering many of the illegible names, but I am sure there are still many mistakes in the list I compiled. The city of Storojinet, the second largest in Bukovina in 1941, was and still is the administrative center of the County of Storojinet. The original lists give the names of the town/city and county or region where each of the listed people was born. In my lists, for people born in towns in Storojinet County, I just wrote the name of the town. For people born in towns/cities not in Storojinet County, I wrote the name of the town/city and, in parenthesis, the name of the county or region where they were born. The original lists showed the age of each person, and I added to the age the calculatedapproximate year of birth (1941 – age = year of birth). I also marked known relatives and family acquaintances. In this document, I include a photographed copy of one of the original pages, as a sample page, and translations of the Romanian column headings of the original table. If you wish to have a copy of an original page containing specific names, please write to me and I will send you a copy.

Read more: http://www.eylonconsulting.com/bukovina/blog/?p=2838

Dr. Jolie Weininger from Jerusalem wrote on August 7, 2019: “Yesterday morning checking my e-mail I saw the post about Storojinetz Ghetto in August 1941. When watching on Naftali Zloczower’s blog the part of the list of the inhabitants of the Ghetto where his family members were shown under a magnifying glass, below I suddenly saw the name of my Paternal Grand-Father : Neuman recte Weininger Nechemia! Thereafter looking at the whole page there were also the name of Bertha and Rachmiel Rosenberg, my Father’s aunt and uncle and lower on the same page my Maternal Grand-Father, David Hernes. What a strange coincidence! My Paternal Grand- Parents both perished in Bershad…on February ’42 my Father got a little note ( I still have it) where they asked for help. Money as they were starving, freezing and suffering of typhus…My parents got the Popovici permit to remain in Czernowitz – my Dad as a chemist, my Mom gaving birth to me : the first baby born in the Ghetto! Unfortunatelly when they tried to add the Grand-parents on the permits it was to late, they already left for Transnistria! My Father however could add his sister, Lola, which fortunately was in Czernowitz! My other Grand-father, David Hernes, could escape from the Storojinetz Ghetto. Walking to Czernowitz he was so seriously beaten up by roumenian soldiers, that after however arriving to join us in the Ghetto, he passed away in February ’42. Aunt Bertha and her husband survived Bershad. I was profoundly touched by Naftali Zloczower’s post, this is a modest way to show my appreciation and to thank him.”

The Initial Spark to Jägendorf’s Foundry

Yitzhak Arad, The Holocaust in the Soviet Union, University of Nebraska Press & Yad Vashem, Lincoln/Jerusalem, 2009, P. 301-3012: “Around 27,000 Jews – half of the deportees from Bukovina – were concentrated in the Mogilev-Podolsky region. The town was an economical center, and many of the deportees hoped to find accomodation and employment there. The initiative of a few Jews made it possible for thousands of deportees to remain in the town – contrary to the designs of the Romanian authorities, who felt that there was no room in the semi-ruined town for the Jews. A prominent figure among these was the engineer Ziegfried Jägendorf, who had held the rank of lieutenant in the Austrian army during World War I. Jägendorf managed to arrange a meeting with the town’s Romanian prefect, Colonel Ion Baleanu, with whom he had served in the Austrian army and who knew that he was an engineer. To Jägendorf’s request that conditions should be eased for the Jewish deportees and that they should be permitted to stay in the town, Baleanu replied:

You must realize that Jews cannot stay in Mogilev: we are establishing camps for them elsewhere in the district…We need your services here in Mogilev. The power station was put out of action during the battles and further damaged when the Dnestr overflowed its banks. I want you to select a few electricians and mechanics from your ranks, four or five, perhaps.

Jägendorf convinced the town’s Romanian authorities that the repair and reopening of the power station would require hundreds of Jewish workers, and so they were permitted to remain in the town with their families. After Jägendorf and his employees reinstated the town’s electricity supply, further manufacturing plants were established in which Jews were employed. One of Jägendorf’s enterprises was a metal foundry, to which he gave the name ‘Turnatoria’. It produced various commodities, including heaters for government officials and the local population, metal parts for repairing bridges over the Dnestr, and other objects; in the beginning of 1942 more than 1,000 Jews were employed in these plants. For the deportees these initiatives were salvation. Jägendorf was elected chairman of the thirteen-man Jewish council, and, except for the latter half of 1942, he served in this position for as long as the ghetto existed.”

Read aslo: https://hauster.blogspot.com/2010/02/das-wunder-von-moghilev.html