Re: [Cz-L] Resilience

Dear Greg,

Please send me your photo and it will be my great pleasure
to add it to the Photos of List Members Album on the Ehpes
site.

And thanks for 'coming out' on the list - welcome!

Merle

----- Original Message -----
From: "Greg Fedner" <gfedner_at_gmail.com>
To: <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
Cc: "cornel fleming" <cornel.fleming_at_virgin.net>; "Jacob Greenberg"
<grs_software_at_bigpond.com>; <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2013 9:41 PM
Subject: Re: [Cz-L] Resilience

> Greetings members of the List,
>
> I usually stay silent in the background, while reading everything sent
> to the List by other members. This time, though, I thought that I
> would just share my thoughts and feelings on the subject.
>
> First of all, I am not one of the "real" Czernowitzers - I was born
> near Kiev, and moved to Chernovitsy, as the place was known then, in
> 1961 at the tender age of 1 y.o. So, I don't, and can't really
> contribute to the discussions of the pre-WWII Czernowitz, or the
> war-time experiences (by the way, I enjoy immensely reading your
> reminiscences about that time period!) However, I most certainly know
> something about the Czernowitz of the late 1960s, 70s and 80s., as
> that is where/when I spent my childhood and young adult years. Judging
> by what I know and heard from the members of this List, population of
> Czernowitz of my time was drastically different from the time most
> other List members remember. While most of you and your families left
> in 1944-46, the place replenished its population by attracting large
> numbers of displaced and dispossessed Bessarabian Jews who survived
> the war, but also Ukrainians from surrounding villages, who heard
> about the luxurious apartments left vacant by the Jews (and some
> Gentiles as well) who escaped to the West. Granted, there were some
> old-time German-speaking Jews, and also some Ukrainians and Romanians
> who even could (sometimes) speak and understand Yiddish(!!!). These
> people, however, were a small minority. While the oldtimer Gentiles,
> used to living in the diverse and tolerant Czernowitz of the pre-WWII
> period, were generally accepting of the Jews, many of the new
> Ukrainian arrivals were strongly antisemitic, and remained so during
> my childhood and teenage years in the city. Soviet anti-Israel and
> thinly veiled antisemitic propaganda following the Six Day War in
> 1967, of course, did not help in that respect either...
>
> Now about the Righteous Gentiles in the Ukraine. It must be
> remembered that Ukrainians were also widely known for being drafted by
> the Nazis in large numbers into the Hischu and other Schutzmannschaft
> units, used by the Nazis to guard death camps, ghettos, and also
> taking a major part in the Nazi Einsatzkommando extermination
> operations of the Jewish population, such as at the Babiy Yar in Kiev
> and many others. I believe that most of those Ukrainians came from
> the Western Ukraine, but not only from the Galizien - from the
> Bukowina as well. There also was a well-known Bukowina "kuren" of the
> OUN-UPA ("banderovtsy") in the Czernowitz region. The sheer magnitude
> of the Holocaust of the Ukrainian Jews ("Holocaiust by the Bullets")
> resulted in a large number of the Righteous Gentiles; however, I am
> not so sure that the numbers paint the right picture, particularly if
> you look at the percentage of the general population...
>
> Something tells me that living in London or in Amsterdam, a Jewish
> person is far less likely to encounter direct and overt antisemitism
> of the street variety than in Czernowitz. Also, in Czernowitz it
> helps if you are perceived as a foreigner first and a Jew second
> (foreigners were always envied and looked up to). A foreigner Jew -
> absolutely not the same as a local, "domestic" Jew, and experiences
> will vastly differ... Just my two cents...
>
> One more note - my wife's family is Bessarabian, and they settled in
> Czernowitz in 1945, I believe. In talking with my in-laws, I got the
> impression that Czernowitzer Jews in Transnistrian camps were
> perceived by their fellow Bessarabian campmates as very impractical,
> ill-suited to the kind of street-smarts (making living arrangements,
> trading with guards and local peasants etc.) needed to survive in
> those harsh conditions... Of course, this is a generalization, and
> obviously not true for all...
>
> All the best to you all,
>
> Greg Fedner
> Columbus, Ohio
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Received on 2013-01-28 06:41:01