Category Archives: Photos

Bojan, Boian, Boyany, Boiany, Бояни

(Bojan, 10.10.09) Bojan is a village in the close vicinity of Czernowitz. Tracing the Rudel family, part of my own family, I’ve received from Ludwig Rudel from the USA the following report:

The oral history of the Rudels goes back to 1825, with the birth of Eliezer. He was born in Galicia (in the Russian part of Poland).

In 1833 there was an upheaval in that region. Two things occurred. One was the Polish rebellion against Russia (began in 1830-1831) and led to a brutal repression by the Russians in 1833. The second was the cholera epidemic of the same time.

It was said that the schtetl in which Eliezer lived had a Cabalist Rabbi and he decided that God was angry with their village and that, to appease God, they should send four children of the village out of the village; one child North, one to the South, one to the East and one to the West. (A more charitable interpretation might be that the Rabbi wanted to get the children away from there because everyone was dying.)

Eliezer was one of the children sent away. A wagon driver passed through the Schtetl and Eliezer was given to him to take with him to his destination and care for him. Eliezer’s family name was not disclosed to the wagon driver. The wagon driver’s name was Rudel. (You might recall that last names were assigned to Jews in Austria in 1786 in preparation for the census.) He raised Eliezer, married him off to one of his daughters (Rebecca Rachel) and they settled in Bojan.

No doubt about that, based on this fascinating story, I visited to Bojan, looking for traces of Jewish death.

(GPS N 048° 16′ 17,6″ E 026° 08′ 03,0″)

I’m not sure but I’m afraid that might be the last opportunity to see the Cemetery, as there are suspect clearing activities in progress there.

In Bojan I was talking to an eyewitness, who observed in 1941 the execution of Jews on the village square.

Mr. Florea, aged eight at that time, reports on the cruel details, he has seen. Asked by me, who has been responsable for the executions, he initially evaded the issue, mentioning the execution has been conducted by soldiers.

I was insisting and I’ve asked wether there were German or Romanian soldiers. Somehow embarressed he confirmed: “They were Romanians, unfortunately Romanians.“

Edgar Hauster http://hauster.blogspot.com/P.S.: Would somebody, who reads Hebrew be so kind to translate the cemetery plate?

Nobel prize winner in literature from Romania – Cz. connection?

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 appearing in a front page photo in Berlin's daily newspaper.

Herta Muller front page photo in Berlin’s newspaper

Bruce Reisch

Help identify family in 1936 photo

This email was received today from Michal Apter-Lecker <micola@biu.013.net.il>:

Please help identify these people.

Please help identify these people.

“This photo was taken about 1936 in Czernowitz, by – Jacob Broll … Ferdinand 38 ? I do recognize only one person – Yosef-Yoshko Orenstein – the 2nd. to the left. Maybe you can help identify the others?”Please reply to the address above.
Bruce