Category Archives: Identification

The Genesis of Paul Celan’s “Todesfuge”?

From the renowned biography “Paul Celan: Poet, Survivor, Jew” by John Felstiner, Professor Emeritus of English at Stanford University and author of many standard works on Paul Celan, we learn (p. 28) on the genesis of Paul Celan’s “Todesfuge” as follows:

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“Celan once remarked, that ‘Todesfuge’ arose from something he read about Jews playing dance tunes in a Nazi camp. He might have seen a pamphlet dated 29 August 1944, on ‘The Lublin Extermination Camp’ (Maidanek). In July 1944 the Red Army took Maidanek, and what they discovered was publicized worldwide, as propaganda. This pamphlet, issued by Moscow’s Foreign Languages Publishing House, appeared in various cities and languages. Written by Konstantin Simonov, it reports that tangos and fox-trots were played during camp functions, and it contains other details suggestive of ‘Todesfuge’.

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CLICK ON THE FRONT COVERS TO DOWNLOAD PDF VERSIONS OF THE PAMPHLETS

The earliest notice of Celan’s poem may connect it to the Simonov pamphlet. ‘Todesfuge’ first appeared not in German but in Romanian (it was Celan’s first published poem and his first under the name “Celan”). In May 1947, the Bucharest magazine Contemporanul printed Petre Solomon’s translation, prefacing it with the note: ‘The poem whose translation we are publishing is built upon the evocation of a real fact. In Lublin, as in many other ‘Nazi death camps,’ one group of the condemned were forced to sing nostalgic songs while others dug graves.'”

Deathfugue – First Publication (Romanian)

Reasons enough for me to track Konstantin Simonov and – Eureka! – I succeeded to figure out, that Konstantin Simonov visited Czernowitz while touring the fronts in June 1944. His report, headlined “ONLY ONE-THIRD OF CZERNOWITZ’ 80,000 JEWS REMAIN ALIVE, RUSSIAN CORRESPONDENT REPORTS” was published by the Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) on June 21, 1944:

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Is it to keen to assume a possible personal meeting between Paul Celan and Konstantin Simonov during his visit in June 1944? John Felstiner wrote:

“I’m grateful for your sharing the news of his visit, and yes, it’s certainly *possible* they met. But who can confirm it? […] If you look at the Preface of my Celan anthology (Norton), you’ll see he wrote to a Czernowitz exile friend in Russia on July 1st, ’44: ‘I’ve come to Kiev for two days…” So at least it appears he may have been in Czernowitz a week earlier. A bit later in my book I mention PC translating Simonov. What a story in the making!”

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Just imagine how exciting it was for me, to get such an encouraging feedback! Provided that my guess is correct, we might have identified another small piece of the puzzle related to the genesis of Paul Celan’s “Todesfuge”! But who can confirm it? – Back to you, Czernowitzers!

Politically Incorrect, But Beautiful Photos!

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Iosif Vaisman: “A boy (or a girl?) in pajamas with a cigarette reading Czernowitzer Allgemeine Zeitung. May be somebody can recognize this child. […] Without trying to read too much into it, one can’t fail to notice several reveaing details. Most boys would pose as a sailor, a cowboy or something similarly “romantic” for a picture like this, this boy poses as a businessman (if a somewhat cartoonish one). Definite signs of the upper-class background: long and well cared for hair, starched and pressed pajamas, and, interestingly, Czernowitzer Allgemeine Zeitung – the more exclusive of two major German papers in Czernowitz (the other one – Czernowitzer Morgenblatt – was more “democratic”). But the most interesting part is the look on his face, very businesslike and cynical. The boy was a good actor.”

8565173318_1fb86f5786_h Victoria Gedaly, Römerbad, Czernowitz 1927

Ilana Gordon: “I was so surprised to see this picture. My mother has a similar picture that was staged at home. My great grandfather took my grandmother to America and left my mother at home. When they came back they saw my mother standing in front of their door. She was 3 years old, dressed like a man, with a cigarette in her mouth. This must have been some funny trend. When they came saw her, my great grandmother instructed her to say, (of course it was in German but I don’t know how to say it) “See what happens when you leave little children home!”

The interesting thing about this photo is that when I went to Czernowitz and found the Roemerbad we went into the courtyard and I immediately recognized the doorway and stairs that were exactly the same as they were in the photo.

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Sylvia Segenreich: Das ist mein Bruder Theo [Theobald Engler] im Alter von fünf Jahren. Vielleicht war das anläßlich einer Purimfeier [1928]. Er ist so lausbübisch gestanden, ich weiß nicht warum. Ich war noch gar nicht auf der Welt, als das Foto gemacht wurde. Theo hat seit seinem 10. Lebensjahr bei der Maccabi Fußball gespielt. Er hat oft meinen Eltern nach der Schule bei ihrer Arbeit geholfen, und zweimal in der Woche mit einem Lehrer Religion und Hebräisch gelernt. Mit 13 Jahren hatte er seine Bar Mitzwa. Er ist aufs Gymnasium gegangen und hatte viele Freunde. Als er 15 Jahre alt war, wollte er, wie einige seiner Sportfreunde von der Maccabi nach Palästina auswandern, denn es war das Jahr 1938. Aber mein Vater wollte ihn nicht gehen lassen, er war noch so jung. 1941 wurde er von den Deutschen in Czernowitz erschossen. Da war er gerade 18 Jahre alt. [Source: centropa.org]

Segenreich006Theobald Engler, Czernowitz 1928

Yvette Pintar: My great grandmother, Rosa Berl, daughter of Abraham Engler and Chaje Berl, was born in Czernowitz in 1889. I have finally decided to write (to you) after seeing the various photos of children with cigarettes, which *immediately* got my attention when the first one was posted on your website. My great grandmother had a brother named Osias Engler (I think his name was changed from Berl to Engler) whose daughter Sidonie was born in Czernowitz in 1926. I am fairly certain that this is a photo of Sidonie Engler, and it was likely to have been taking somewhere around 1930, guessing from her age in the photo. I have often thought of posting to the group, as I wonder if anyone knew my family there. I think Osias Engler left with his wife Rivka and daughter Sidonie around 1948, after the war. I have no idea what happened to them or where they ended up after 1948. My great grandmother had already left many years earlier and had moved to Leipzig (she left Germany and emigrated to South America in 1946). But I just had to share this photo with you as it clearly belongs with the others. You are welcome to post it if you would like.

Sidonie cigarette Sidonie Engler, Czernowitz ≈ 1930

Carte de mester

From Catherine Herbst:

“Carte de mester” (1937) of my grandmother, Maria Nagelberg, wife of Emil Herbst. Her husband was a mathematics teacher in Czernowitz. Their children, my father, Gedeon (1909) and his brother Carol (1922) were born in Czenowitz.

I wonder what the proper English translation of ‘Carte de mester’ would be? What other information is on this card?

Catherine

click to enlarge photo
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Freemasons Lodge of Czernowitz

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USHMM (Courtesy of Martha Guttmann Blum): Group portrait of members of the Freemasons Lodge of Chernovtsy, Bukovina, approximately 75 percent of whom were Jewish. The members were mainly intellectuals and leaders in business and local government. Among those pictured are Dr. Max Ennis (top row, third from the left); pharmacist, Dr. Abraham Guttman (top row, far right); an official in the revenue service, Dr. Max Gottfried (second row from the top, sixth from the left); and the judge, Dr. Jacob Rubel (third row from the top, far left). Chernovtsy, Romania, 1920 – 1925.

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USHMM (Courtesy of Lotte Gottfried Hirsch): Members of the mostly Jewish Masonic lodge in Czernowitz celebrate the 70th birthday of Dr. Isidor Gold (center). Women attended lodge meetings on special occasions such as this one. Chernovtsy, Romania, August 1937.

1919 Historical Documents in German

I received an email from List member Alex Denisenko, who sent along what looks like some interesting documents from 1919 Czernowitz/Sadagora :

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Dear Jerome,
These are scans of documents of American shipping company that operated in Czernowitz.
Do you know anything more about its operation? They might be of interest to CZ group members.
Regards,
Alex Denisenko

In a subsequent email Alex said:
To the best of my knowledge the company’s office was housed in the beginning of Synagogegasse, in the house that was nick named “Canada”.
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I made a pdf of the documents so you can access them and be able to magnify them, etc. The question is (because I am Germanically challenged), is: What significance would these documents be to researchers, and if appropriate, would the ‘Stories, Histories, Documents’ section on our Website be a good home for them? A summary of what the documents are about, not an exact translation, is what I need. Are all the pages of this correspondence connected? And does anyone know any more about the shipping company?

You will need Acrobat Reader or it’s equivalent to view the pdf file. Click on the link below:

Documents1919b

You can respond on List or with comments below — thanks

jerome