Category Archives: Czernowitz

“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.

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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.

Read more at: http://www.memphisfilmtv.com/een-sjtetl-in-de-cariben/?lang=en

ASF Camps

From Shelley Mitchell

I want to share an interesting experience with you. I was looking at the headstones uncovered by the ASF camps. My grandfather’s name was Moldauer. One of the headstones uncovered was that of a Berta Moldauer. I tried to find out more about her but I couldn’t. I don’t think she was in any of the databases. So I continued my long-term search for my Moldauers and I came across this passport application for her son in Brazil. It shows that Berta was married to Wilhelm and their son was named Jakob. While this information did not help me personally, it can now be added to the information we already have about those who lived in Czernowitz. Without the work of the volunteers, Berta would still be an unknown. Hopefully, her grandchildren will look for her someday.

Shelley
jake

What to make of this?

From Cornel Fleming:

The first name reminds me of the German word for garlic, and the second name is what they used to do in the Herrengasse and the Volksgarten….it means one who strolls for pleasure!! And I wonder what kind of stockings they produced..the kind that elegant ladies wore or the kind some of the uber-frummes wore! As I said too..still using the AUSTRIAN street name. May be worth forwarding to our historical genius Hedwig

C.

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Austrian Decoration for Science and Art for Margit Bartfeld-Feller

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Margit Bartfeld-Feller und das Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst der Bundesrepublik Österreich

Berlin –  Wien ist ein Katzensprung, von Czernowitz nach Vasjugan in Sibirien sind es bereits weit über viertausend Kilometer und von Tomsk nach Tel Aviv gar  mehr als fünftausend, eine lange und große Reise. Die lange große Reise war für Margit Bartfeld-Feller und ihre  Familie 1990 die erste Reise in ein westliches demokratisches Land, ein freies Land, das Land Israel, das Gelobte Land, nach 50 Jahren Verbannung. Als Einwanderer wurden sie aufgenommen.

1941 wurde Margit Bartfeld-Feller mit den Eltern und dem Bruder Otti bei Nacht und Nebel aus Czernowitz von den Sowjets nach Sibirien in die Taiga deportiert. Stalin, der Tyrann, befahl diese Untaten. Juden, Intellektuelle, Fabrikanten und politisch Andersdenkende  wurden vom Estland bis ans Schwarze Meer in Viehwaggons gepfercht, nordöstlich in Richtung Sowjetunion transportiert und weiter auf Schiffen nach Sibirien zum Schwerstarbeiten verschleppt. „Verrecken“ sollten sie, war Stalins Befehl! Margit war jung, gerade 18 Jahre alt, ihr Bruder jünger. In Czernowitz in der Bukowina wurde Margit Bartfeld 1923 geboren, ging dort zur Schule,  für Literatur und Musik begeisterten sie die Eltern. In  Czernowitz, der Stadt  Rose Ausländers und Paul Celans, lebte Margit in Geborgenheit. Noch bevor  Hitlers Schergen in die Bukowina kamen, ließ Stalin die erwähnten Bewohner abholen und schickte sie zum Sterben durch Hunger und unmenschliche Lebensverhältnisse in die Taiga an den Vasjugan. Ein schreckliches Leben erwartete die Deportierten dort. Wie Fliegen starben sie. 1948 heiratete Margit Bartfeld den ebenfalls aus Czernowitz deportierten Kurt Feller. In Krassnojarka, dem „Todesnest“, wie sie den Ort nannten, trafen sie sich wieder. Ihre Ehe begann mit geliehenen Eheringen.

Die Tochter  Anita wurde 1954 geboren, die kleine Familie Bartfeld-Feller teilte sich ein Zimmer in Tomsk.  1979 starb Kurt Feller, der inzwischen in Tomsk ein bekannter Architekt und Baumeister geworden war.

Margit Bartfeld Feller schreibt sich seit ihrer Ankunft im Heiligen Land  ihre Vergangenheit, ihr Erlebtes, von der Seele. Über zehn Bücher erschienen unter der Herausgabe von Professor Dr. Erhard Roy Wiehn  im Hartung & Gorre Verlag in Konstanz.

Der Theodor Kramer Literaturpreis wurde der Schriftstellerin im September 2013 in Österreich verliehen.

Vorletzte Woche überreichte Seine Exzellenz, der Botschafter der Republik Österreich, Herr Dr. Franz Kuglitsch, der einundneunzigjährigen Zeitzeugin und Autorin Margit Bartfeld-Feller in Tel Aviv das Ehrenkreuz für Wissenschaft und Kunst der Republik Österreich.

Christel Wollmann-Fiedler, Berlin, September 2014

Medallion

From Jean Weightman:

I have attached two photographs of a medallion I found among my mother’s things. My mother was born in Czernowitz in 1913. Her parents and maternal and paternal grandparents were all Czernowitzers from around the mid 1850s.

The medallion could be Romanian, Austro-Hungarian, German or something else.

It looks like a coin with the tiny photograph fixed to one side and decorated with enamelled Forget-me-nots.

I wonder if anyone from the list is able to identify the gentleman – possibly a monarch – and the coin. I cannot find a date on the medallion. It may have been on the side that was later decorated with the photograph and the flowers.

Thanks and best wishes to all.

Jean Weightman

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Sara Schmidt mother of Joseph

From Oren Saraf:

At the cemetery of Gura Humora, we found the grave of Sara Schmidt, the mother of Joseph Schmidt.

My grandfather , Dr. Scharfstein, was born in Gura Humora, and After becoming an ENT doctor, he lived in Czernowitz. (I am sure that the tonsils of some of our CZ-L members were removed by him in the ‘30’s.)

My ant remember that around ’36 or ’37, Joseph Schmidt came from Vienna to see Dr. Scharfstein for some problem he had in his throat. After the treatment they had privet recital at home.

Oren Saraf

The grave of Sarah Schmidt, mother of Joseph Schmidt at Gura Humora Romania

The grave of Sarah Schmidt, mother of Joseph Schmidt at Gura Humora Romania

 

Interesting Photo

Sometimes folks send me photos with no information — this is one of those.  I always write back asking for whatever info exists — in this case I received no response and the photo eventually got separated from the correspondence, becoming an orphan on my desktop.

So, perhaps the sender will recognize the photo and use the comment box to provide some context?

Looks like the late 20’s early 30’s in beautiful downtown Czernowitz — the Ringplatz by the Dermata shoe store?

jerome

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Meisler School Class III 1939-40

From Oren Saraf — this photo from his Aunt’s album…

Return with Ehpes to those wonderful? days of yesteryear — Did you attend the Meisler School in 1939-40? Unlikely, but possible. Do you recognize anyone, or think you recognize someone?  Oren says his aunt Lotte sits just left of the sign board.

Click on the photo to enlarge

Czernowitz -Meisler School 1939-40 from Oren Saraf

Czernowitz -Meisler School 1939-40 from Oren Saraf

1938 Maccabi Football Club?

From Gabriele Weissmann…

I found this [among] my uncle’s photos. I wonder if anybody recognizes a person. Also, in the background, a building which looks solid enough to have survived the war. Maybe it still stands. I believe it is a Maccabi football team. On the back of the photo is says only “Czernowitz 1938”.
Gabriele

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Click photo to enlarge