Category Archives: Cemeteries

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

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

Jewish Life in Radautz Before, During and After the Holocaust

The working team “War Graves”, founded by Petra and Holger Klawitter at the European School Rövershagen implemented the project “Jewish Life in Radautz Before, During and After the Holocaust” in close cooperation with the Andronic Motrescu College from Rădăuți. On July 4, 2017 I had the privilege to meet Petra, Holger and a few of their pupils in Rövershagen close to the Hanseatic City of Rostock.

The outstanding gifted and dedicated couple, both of them history teachers at the European School Rövershagen, not only founded the working team itself but also erected the rewarded “Holocaust Memorial Railway Wagon” on the school campus. For the implementation of the ongoing project, in March 2017, a small advance team conducted interviews with Holocaust survivors from Rădăuți in Israel. On July 6, 2017 the entire working team set forth on their journey (by bus) to Rădăuți.

In Rădăuți they joined their Romanian counterparts and the entrire working team – assisted by Bondy and Sidi Stenzler (rear row, 2nd and 3rd from left) set to work. Over the course of this very complex biennial project different suboperations will be effected, such as research works at the archives, interviews with the local population, maintenance works at the Jewish Cemetery, installation of a memorial plate inside of the Temple, presentation of a photo exhibition, printing of a comprehensive bilingual brochure in German and Romanian, and much more.

Romanian Media Coverage:
Monitorul de Suceava, July 18, 2017
NewsBucovina, July 17, 2017

Each and any assistance is highly appreciated. Donation account:
Förderverein “Verbundene RegS und GY Rostocker Heide e.V.”
IBAN: DE30130500000295001160
BIC: NOLADE21ROS
Verwendungszweck: AG Kriegsgräber

Memorials in Israel

Several cemeteries in Israel include memorials to the holocaust often related to individual towns or regions of Europe. A number of years ago, I visited such a memorial to the Jewish community of Radautz, Bukovina.

Harry Bolner visited two other memorials in the Haifa Cemetery, shown here (Dorohoi-Radautz-Transnistria Memorial – photo supplied by Harry Bolner via Merle Kastner):


Nearby, one can also find a memorial to the Pogrom in Iasi:

Thank you to Harry Bolner for taking the two photos above and sharing them with us.

Merle Kastner has done extensive work documenting burials in the Jewish Cemeteries of Montreal.  A memorial to the holocaust in Bukovina can be found there at the Baron de Hirsch Cemetery (photo courtesy of Merle Kastner):

The ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative

The ESJF European Jewish Cemeteries Initiative was set up as a German-based non-profit organization in early 2015 with the core objective of protecting and preserving Jewish cemetery sites across the European continent through delineation of cemetery boundaries and the construction of cemetery walls and locking gates.

Funded in 2015 through a pilot grant of 1,000,000 euros from the government of the Federal Republic of Germany, the ESJF is now working on some 30 individual protection projects in four European countries. 33 cemeteries were completed in 2015, i. e. 9,888 meters of fencing; over 60 sites were completed by the end of 2016, that is 11,876 meters of fencing.

Read more at: http://esjf-cemeteries.org/

At the Jewish Cemetery of Sadagora

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“Bukovina is in every sense a paradox. Everything is upside down here. It almost seems as if this topsy-turvy element had to belong to the nature of this land, as if its character was to consist of this. Everyone feels that Bukovina is something special, not to be put on a level with the other crownlands and that its cultural ties also have a certain nuance of their own,  something different from the ordinary. Yet, they only feel. What this character is, however, very few have so far attempted to fathom.”

This is a citation of Dr. Max Rosenberg from Czernowitz from the year 1914, preposed by H. F. van Drunen to his thesis “‘A Sanguine Bunch’ – Regional Identification in Habsburg Bukovina, 1774-1919” (Book of the Month, January 2015):

http://czernowitzbook.blogspot.de/2015/01/a-sanguine-bunch.html

One year later, in 1915, under the impression of the devastations caused during the Russian occupation, Dr. Max Rosenberg is visiting the Jewish Cemetery of Sadagora and his impressive report – see above – was published by the prestigious “Pester Lloyd” from Budapest on April 20, 1915:

Auf dem Judenfriedhof von Sadagora. Von Dr. Max Rosenberg (Czernowitz).

Am nördlichen Ende Sadagoras, in der Ecke einer weiten Wiese, ein kleiner, früher umfriedet gewesener Platz. Drinnen die charakteristischen weißen Steine, dicht nebeneinander gestellt, wie betende Juden gegen Osten gewendet. Es ist der Judenfriedhof Sadagoras. Ganz still liegt er jetzt da. Wer ihn betritt, hat aber das Gefühl, als ob jedes Stückchen aufgeworfenen Lehms gar manches erzählen könnte. Viel hat dieser abgeschiedene  Ort in der letzten Zeit erdulden müssen. Südlich vom Friedhof liegt das jüdische Städtchen mit seinen niedrigen, von Schindeldächern bedeckten Häusern und den engen winkeligen Straßen. Dort haben die Russen, als sie hier Herren waren, gewütet. Dieser kleine, tote, stille Judenfriedhof gewährt den Eindruck, als wollte er all das wieder erzählen, was der kleine Judenort da unten gelitten.

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Death Certificates Issued by the Czernowitz Jewish Hospital for the Year 1915

http://hauster.de/data/DeathCertificatesIndex.pdf
http://hauster.de/data/DeathCertificatesP.pdf
https://onedrive.live.com/redir?resid=68987ECBE0F5AAFC!36965&authkey=!APjY6IZK26Ojg8Q&ithint=folder%2cjpg

Excerpt from the article “On the history of the Jews in Czernowitz” by Prof. Dr. Herman Sternberg: “During the war years, Czernowitz could hardly be recognized. People frightened and weighed down with troubles, hurried like shadows through the streets. Military uniforms dominated the cityscape. Officers and tired soldiers were on their way to or from the railroad station. The station building, heated in winter had become a dormitory. Soldiers slept on the floor pressed closely together, leaving no space free. Anyone seeking the entrance had to step over them. The closer the war came to its end, the greater became the lack of food and other necessities. The most difficult articles to obtain were fuel and foot wear. Prices rose from day to day. The greatly reduced Jewish population suffered indescribable difficulties. Intellectual life had died completely. After the fall of darkness, all traffic ceased because the street lights didn’t work. Families generally restricted themselves to one room, dimly lit with an oil lamp. The only topic of conversation was the war and its consequences.”

Courtesy: Jewish Genealogical Society Of Ottawa