Category Archives: Memoirs

Czernowitz – Stadt der Dichter [City of Poets] by Amy-Diana Colin & Edith Silbermann

Amy-Diana Colin’s (PhD, Yale) much-anticipated book “Czernowitz – Stadt der Dichter [City of Poets]”, the “History of a Jewish Family from Bukovina (1900-1948)” is now at the bookseller’s!

What a literary delectation, something for winter’s eve, but not only! From the blurb we learn: “The report of an exceptional contemporary witness: Edith Silbermann, nee Horowitz, from Czernowitz (Bukovina), actress, reciter, translator, Germanist, publicist, mediator between German and Jewish cultural traditions, narrates her turbulent family history and reports on her youth in Czernowitz before and during WW2. One chapter of this book is dedicated to Paul Antschel (Celan), Edith Silbermann’s friend from the early Czernowitz years until his death. It was for both, Paul and Edith, the first love of their youth. […]”

It is not just a literary delectation, it’s also a listening pleasure, since this precious book comes with two audio CDs including recordings from Edith Silbermann’s sophisticated recitation program. Read, listen and enjoy! It’s a special publication for Czernowitz lovers!

Alfred Kittner’s Handwritten CV in Romanian from the Year 1946

I, Alfred Kittner, was born on November 24, 1906 in Czernowitz. My father, Heinrich Kittner (dead in 1932) was an accountant, my mother, Cecilia Kittner, born Kapralik, died in 1910, when I was barely 3 years old. I attended primary school and high school in Vienna, where my father lived during the First World War, and in Czernowitz. After graduating high school in 1925 and after attending for a year the Sciences Department of the Czernowitz University, I performed my military service as an infantryman in Satu Mare (1928-1929) and then I attended German Studies and German literature courses at Breslau University, where I began my literary career. In 1932, back in Czernowitz, I worked for a year in the accounting department of the Marmorosch-Blank Bank, and in 1933 I started as an editor with the “Der Tag”; (The Day) newspaper in Czernowitz, at which paper I worked as secretary, literary editor, spell-checker, reporter, etc. until 1936, when this newspaper became Czernowitzer Tagblatt. I worked in my former capacity at this newspaper as well, until it was suspended once the Goga-Cuza Cabinet came to power in 1939. This year I also published a volume of poetry. As a publicist, I always fought for the cause of democracy, against obscurantism, and I revealed, among other things, in my articles, the terrorist means and persecution applied by the Czernowitz police against the Communist prisoners. Throughout this time, I have been an occasional collaborator of literary magazines from Viena, Prague, etc.

In 1940-1941, after Northern Bukovina was annexed to the Soviet Russia, I worked as a librarian with the Regional Czernowitz Library, and as a censor of the foreign books, and I collaborated with the Moscow International Literature Magazine. In 1941, I was deported, having been black-listed as a democratic publicist, by the secret police of Gen. Antonescu. With my familyat Bug, after three torturous years in several extermination camps {Cariera pe Bug (Bug Quarry), Cetvertinovca, Demidovca, Obadovca} being freed by the victorious advancement of the Red Army, I returned to Czernowitz, where I restarted my former job at the Library. In the meantime, my brother in law was mobilized as a military medic and a captain in the liberating Polish Army, sent [invitations] for the entire family. This is how I ended up in Poland, from where I returned to my country after my brother in law was released from the military.

In October 1945 I became a librarian with Arlus [Association for closer Ties with the Soviet Union – Asociația Română pentru strângerea Legăturilor cu Uniunea Sovietică] Library, in which capacity I work even to this day, and in January of this year, I began to work as a radio anchor.

[Translation by courtesy of Elena Iuga]

From Czernowitz to the German Order of Merit by Bianca Rosenthal

Available at grci@calpoly.edu or amazon.com

Jacob Drucker’s List by Rachel Leigh

From Anne-Mette Prent of Norway – Her Czernowitz Connection

Just received today from Anne-Mette Prent of Norway, and I hope she will write soon to the list telling us more about the following documents. Here is an abbreviated version of what she just wrote to me:

Hello Bruce,

A friend has helped me to scan some of the documents from my grandmother. Here are “ Heiratsurkunde”( 2 pages) “Trauungs-Matriken-Schein”( 2 pages), Lehrbefahigungs-Zeugnis”, and two pictures from Weissensee graveyard in Berlin. The poem on Karl Ernst`s stone, I am very anxious to know if anyone in the group knows anything about. I have asked Germanists here in Oslo, but it seems to be quite unknown to all. The inscription on my great-grandparents` stone is in Hebrew, and I have already sent you the German translation. All these documents are in German, my German is worse than my English, consequently, it`s been a job translating everything into Norwegian. But it has been rewarding! I got around 100 documents from The Archive, most of them in Norwegian. I also got papers from the German SS in connection with my uncle Karl Ernst, he commited suicide while being tortured in Berlin, since he was Jewish and a communist. It was in these papers I found that he was born in Czernowitz. The story of my grandmother is in Norwegian, to translate it into English, do you think that is worth it? It will take me weeks! But if you think the group is intterested I will do it. I think I owe her that.

Book by Hedwig Brener – Just published!

From: Hartung-Gorre

Sent: Friday, March 06, 2015 3:09 PM

To: Brener, Hedwig

Subject: “Begegnungen mit Menschen und Städten” sind fertig

Liebe Frau Brenner,

gerade sind die fertig gedruckten Bücher aus der Druckerei eingetroffen.

Das Buch ist sehr, sehr schön geworden.

Mit herzlichen Grüßen und Wünschen zum Wochenende

[Google Translation:

The final printed books have just arrived from the printers.

The book is very, very nice.

With warm regards and wishes for the weekend,]

Ihre

Renate Gorre und Woflgang Hartung-Gorre

Hartung-Gorre Verlag

Inh.: Dr. Renate Gorre

Saentisblick 26

D-78465 Konstanz

Fon: +49 (0)7533 97227

Fax: +49 (0)7533 97228

www.hartung-gorre.de

Zum neuen Buch von Hedwig Brenner
„Begegnungen mit Menschen und Städten“
von Christel Wollmann-Fiedler, BerlinAuf Menschen zugehen zu können ist eine Gabe, mit ihnen zu sprechen, von ihnen zu erfahren, eine Bereicherung des Lebens. Sich Jahrzehnte später an diese Begegnungen zu erinnern, eine Gnade!
Hedwig Brenner, die Erfinderin dieses neuen Buches, durchstreifte Städte vor unendlich vielen Jahren, begegnete zufällig in Parks und auf Plätzen alten Bekannten oder Unbekannten, die zu Freunden wurden. Die Schilderungen in diesem Buch sind nicht erfunden, erlebt und aufgeschrieben wurden sie von einer kommunikativen weltoffenen sechsundneunzigjährigen alten Dame, einer Czernowitzerin, eben Hedwig Brenner, wie bereits erwähnt. Geboren wurde die Schriftstellerin 1918 in der Bukowina, im deutschsprachigen Buchenland, das einst bis zum Ende des 1. Weltkrieges zur Donaumonarchie gehörte, dann zum Königreich Rumänien kam, 1945 gar zur Sowjetunion und seit 1990 zur Ukraine gehört. In einer liberalen jüdischen Familie wuchs Hedwig Brenner auf, ließ sich von der Vielfalt der Kulturen in ihrer Heimatstadt inspirieren. Auch sie erlebte die Diskriminierung und Verfolgung der jüdischen Bevölkerung in der Nazizeit, kam ins Getto in Czernowitz, überlebte die Gräuel, verließ die Heimat und nahm die Erinnerungen mit. Erst vor dreißig Jahren ist sie in der 3. Heimat, im Heiligen Land Israel, angekommen.
Neugierig und wissbegierig ist Hedwig Brenner seit der Kindheit, wie sie selbst zugibt, beobachtet mit Verve. Diese Beobachtungen und Begegnungen erzählt sie uns in ihrem neunten Buch. Reisen war, nein, ist ihre Leidenschaft. Erst vor einigen Monaten besuchte sie Berlin, hatte Lesungen, traf auch hier wiederum Menschen, die irgendwann ihren Weg kreuzten und neue kamen hinzu.
Seinerzeit in Ploiesti im rumänischen Petrolgebiet in den Jahren 1945 bis 1982 erlebte Hedwig Brenner so manches während der Ceaucescuadministration. Reisen ins westliche Ausland, in „kapitalistische“ Länder, waren untersagt und somit eine Seltenheit. Hedwig Brenner eroberte das Herz des einen oder anderen, bekam einen Paß mit Stempel und reiste mit vier Dollar Taschengeld ins „feindliche“ Ausland zu Freunden und Verwandten nach London, Brüssel, Düsseldorf und anderswohin. Nur alleine durfte sie reisen, Ehemann und Söhne blieben als Pfand zuhause. Die kommunistische Regierung kontrollierte und reglementierte das Leben seiner Bürger. Erst später, von Israel aus, besuchte das Ehepaar Brenner gemeinsam Land und Leute in Europa und Nordamerika.
Bis ins Detail sind Hedwig Brenner diese Städte mit ihren Sehenswürdigkeiten und Schönheiten gedanklich geblieben, die Namen der Menschen, der alten und neuen Freunde kramte sie aus der Gedankenschublade und schrieb sie in Haifa in Neve Sha’nan nieder.
Nehmen sie teil an den vergangenen Erlebnissen und Begegnungen dieser alten Dame, lassen Sie sich verführen an Orte und durchstreifen sie mit ihr Städte, die heute anders aussehen als damals, seien sie zu Gast bei Menschen, die Hedwig Brenner in ihren Erinnerungen schildert. Fantasie ist auch eine Gnade und eine Gabe!

Hedwig Brenner and her son Michael from the USA

1920 Czernowitz Class Photo

From David Rosner:

Dear Aunt and Uncle (Edy und Gaby Weissmann), dear fellow members of the
list,

As promised I come to you with a recently found photograph, which was deeply
dug into in my beloved father Charles ROSNER’s things – and to be more
precise in one of the more or less preserved cardboard suitcases that
belonged to my grandparents, and which remained all over the years.

As you can see it is about Edy Wagner’s class, I wonder if I read right :
“Zur Erinnerung von meiner III. Volksschulklasse im Juli 1920″…
But I may be wrong.

I hope you all like this as much as I did when I found it !… Unless you
maybe had it already.

Greetings from Normandy.

David.

David ROSNER,
Directeur Pièces, Service Après-Vente et Informatique, Groupe SAUSSEREAU.
Téléphone : +33.(0)6.74.32.20.15.
www.saussereau.com

[Click to enlarge — High resolution versions of these photos available from admin@ehpes.com]

“A Shtetl in the Caribbean”, a Roadmovie Documentary…

…across Belarus, Ukraine, Israel, USA and Curacao is now on the way to your heart and to your cinema!

Click on CC (closed caption) to turn on/off English subtitles.

Trailer A Shtetl in the Caribbean from Memphis Film & Television on Vimeo.

A SHTETL IN THE CARIBBEAN tells the compelling story of two childhood friends who grew up on Curaçao, in search for their family history in Eastern Europe.

Mark and Tsale, children of Eastern European Jews that fled to Curaçao, travel back to the home countries of their ancestors. In a documentary road-movie across Curaçao, the United States, Belarus, Ukraine and Israel, we witness their discoveries, courage and despair while they are reminded of the sacrifices their parents had to make to provide their family with a better future.

This unknown story is revealed in a journey from the desolate wastelands of Eastern Europe to the exotic Caribbean, a contrast metaphoric for the history of Mark and Tsale’s ancestors.

A SHTETL IN THE CARIBBEAN originated from a strong emotion: we are all part of the same family, no matter how different we are. The film is also an homage to Curaçao, a small island with a big heart, and a place that has been a safe haven for strangers. Only in such a place a human being can truly build a home.

BIOGRAPHY MARK WIZNITZER
Named after his two deceased grandfathers per Jewish tradition, Mark Leon Wiznitzer was born in the US and brought to Curacao as a baby. There he was called “ Buchi, ” a popular island nickname that legend dates back to the strongest African slave broken by the loss of his beloved wife, and is still often given to a native first son. In Willemstad, Mark attended the Dutch-language Hendrikschool before he moved to New York City at the age of eleven with his mother. But he returned to spend all his school vacations on Curacao, where he worked with his father in La Confianza, the family-owned department store. After studying political science at the State University of NY in Buffalo, Mark went on to complete a Masters in Foreign Service at Georgetown University. He worked in Curacao for Wiznitzer Brothers, the family’s retail and wholesale business, for a year before he was selected to join the US Department of State as a career diplomat in 1976, at which time he left Curacao for good. During his various assignments in Washington DC, Latin America and Europe, he earned awards for his performance in political and politico-military affairs, and strategic trade. After retiring in 1999, Mark completed an Executive MBA in Vienna. He was a volunteer for Barak Obama’s campaigns for the Democratic nomination and election as President. As a result of his first visit in 2010 to Vashkivtsi, Ukraine, the birthplace of the four Wiznitzer brothers, he organized his family’s restoration of the neglected Jewish cemetery there. He currently lives with his wife, Paula Goddard, in Virginia, where he recently became a volunteer advocate for senior residents of Arlington County.

BIOGRAPHY TSALE KIRZNER
Tsale Kirzner was born on Curaçao as the oldest son of Socher Kirzner and Fania Shusterman, refugees who built a home on the Caribbean island in 1948. He was named after his grandfather from his mothers side, Bezalel, who was killed by a firing squad in Mikasjevits in Belarus, as a warning to the Jewish people living in the town. Tsale went to the Hendrikschool and the Radulphus College on Curaçao, after which he moved to the US to study Sinology at Harvard University and economics at The George Washington University, graduating cum laude. Since 1974 Tsale lives in The Netherlands. Tsale is married to professor Lorraine Uhlaner and is father to five children.

What’s it about: “The Nazi, the Painter and the Forgotten Story of the SS Road”?

Drawings dedicated by Arnold and Anna Daghani to Erich Dubowy

These two letters – Click here for the German transcription! – and the drawings above were sent by Arnold and Anna Daghani to Erich Dubowy between June and September 1976. They are reproduced by special courtesy of Erich’s son Daniel Dubowy from Canada. Concerning the relationship between Arnold Daghani and Erich Dubowy, we learn from Daniel: “…they knew each other from Czernowitz, (they were of the same age) but surely from Bucharest. In the early fifties in Bucharest there were quite a few Czernowitzer artists who socialized and met regularly, and my father who was an architect but also a decent piano player, must have intermingled with them. […] They may not have been close friends but acquainted enough to be in some constant correspondence before and after.” Even more, one of the reasons these letters make compelling reading is their historical relevance, far beyond just personal considerations.

Arnold Daghani shines a light on his artistic self-conception as well as on his relationship to the Romanian post WW2 artist community, such as to the Czernowitzer poet Alfred Kittner, the Romanian art reviewer Eugen Schileru, the Armenian businessman and art collector Krikor H. Zambaccian, the diplomat and art critic Oscar Walter Cisek, who authored short stories, novels, poems and essays in both German and Romanian. In addition we discover at the bottom of these letters a catalogue of Daghani’s works, which apparently were still in his possession before finally emigrating to England and settling in Hove, near Brighton, one year later in 1977. Daghani died in 1985, a deeply frustrated man, and his work is now held at Centre for German-Jewish Studies at the University of Sussex.

Dr Deborah Schultz comes straight to the point stating in her article “Pictorial Narrative, History and Memory in the Work of Arnold Daghani” as follows: “His frustrations were intensified by the lack of public interest in the camps in Ukraine, with all the attention focused on better-known camps such as Auschwitz, and he strongly believed that his account had to be heard. For Daghani writing and image making may have been the means of locating himself and of finding his way.” You will better comprehend this by reading the first paragraph of Daghani’s second letter: “As an ‘homage’, I received from the public prosecutors the entire investigation procedure file, since, according to the chief prosecutor [Fritz Bauer], it’s solely due to me, that they gained knowledge of the atrocities committed on the other side of the Bug River.” But it’s finally G. H. Bennett, Associate Professor in History at the University of Plymouth, who – by his article “The Limits of West German Justice in the 1960s: The Post-War Investigation of Walter Gieseke” and his book “The Nazi, the Painter and the Forgotten Story of the SS Road” – is enlightening the historical dimension for us.

Well, the “Nazi” was Walter Gieseke, Oberstleutnant of the Gendarmerie and SS, the “Painter” was Arnold Daghani and the DG IV (Durchgangsstraße IV) was the “SS Road”, the road building project across the Ukraine which resulted in the murder of substantial numbers of Jewish forced labourers, among those many from Bukovina.

At my previous posting “The Stone Quarry on the Bug River at 8 Miles from N 48°40′ E 29°15′” you’ll find additional reports on the fate of the Jewish forced labourers including excerpts from Andrej Angrick’s article “Forced Labor along the ‘Straße der SS'” and Gerhard (Bobby) Schreiber’s memoirs “A Tale of Survival”. After getting numerous answers to our initial question, the final question concerns the moral condemnation and criminal conviction of the war criminals, but read by yourself G. H. Bennett’s conclusion:

“Gieseke was never brought to trial and Daghani would eventually conclude that the West German investigations into the crimes committed along DGIV were ‘merely a farce, a meaningless gesture’. […] The investigation of Walter Gieseke highlights the problems in the 1950s and 1960s of securing justice for crimes committed during the war. The processes of investigating and prosecuting of German war criminals in the context of West German justice in the 1950s and 1960s were not likely to result in a conviction. Gieseke’s defensive strategies maximized the problems facing investigators which resulted from the set of legal, political, social and investigative contexts that made a trial difficult and, in the eyes of many West Germans, unwanted and unwarranted. […] In the case of Walter Gieseke can be glimpsed many of thecomplexiti es that protected the guilty men and women of post-war Germany. Moreover, study of this case hopefully demonstrates the need to discount concerns about ‘practitioners’ trespassing onto the territory of historians. In studying post-war German justice, and indeed most aspects of legal history, there is ample scope for practitioners and historians to pool their skills and approaches to the mutual benefit of truly interdisciplinary scholarship.There is much to be learned from each other and little to be feared.

Additional Links:
“SS film links officer with war crimes” by BBC
“Lost film unearthed in Devon church…” by Daily Mail
“Arnold Daghani. Who is he?” by Miha Ahronovitz
“The Art of Arnold Daghani” by The Art of Polemics

Lu Rudel: Memoirs of an Agent for Change in International Development; My Flight Path into the 21st Century.

I am happy to report to you that the book, over which I have been laboring for the past three years, has finally come off the press. The title is, “Memoirs of an Agent for Change in International Development; My Flight Path into the 21st Century.”

The book has been selected for inclusion in the “Memoirs and Occasional Papers” series by The Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training. You can find it on their website, (www.ADST.org). Here is the link:

http://adst.org/publications/memoirs-and-occasional-papers/memoirs-of-an-agent-for-change-in-international-development/

The printed version is listed for purchase on Amazon as well. Additionally, it is available for downloading at Amazon as an e-book for the Kindle – at the modest price of $3.08.

This short description of the book’s contents appears on the back of the book cover: “Lu Rudel describes his unique experiences with US foreign economic aid programs during some of the most dramatic international events since World War II. These include Iran after the fall of Mosaddegh (1956-1960); Turkey after the military coup of 1960 to the start of the Cuba Missile crisis; India after the death of Nehru (1965-1970); and Pakistan following the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1988. Rudel’s firsthand observations on Iran differ markedly from the description of events commonly espoused by some historians and journalists.”He also provides a firsthand account of the political metamorphosis over the past half-century of the “Group of 77” nations as they attempted to employ the UN’s economic development agencies to press for a “New International Economic Order.” These experiences lead him to draw important lessons about the conduct and effectiveness of foreign aid.”After retirement in 1980 he launched a second career, applying lessons learned from his work in international development to creation of a thousand-acre land development and resort in rural Appalachia. His experiences over the following thirty years as an entrepreneur track the relentless growth of government regulations and the disappearance of community support institutions such as local banks, now being replaced by mega-banks.”Finally, he examines global trends of the past eighty years in four critical areas of change affecting our lives – population growth, science and technology, economic systems, and political structures – to draw some surprising conclusions and projections.”

I have placed a selection of photos on the web to complement the chapters of the book. The photos can be accessed by a link on the web site. (www.rudel.net).

I enjoyed writing these stories dealing with my two careers. You will have to decide if they make good reading. A second, companion volume dealing with the more personal aspects of our family life is approaching completion. I’ll let you know when that volume becomes available.

Lu Rudel, Bethesda, MD, October 2014

Ehpes Blog

Blog for the Czernowitz-L Discussion Group