[Cz-L] Houses, visits.

In 1999, I visited Czernowitz for the first time, together with my
mother who came for the first time after the war. We hired a young
guide, (Sergij Ossachuk, historian, who spoke excellent German) and went
to visit the houses where the family had lived. It took a while for my
mother at first, to find her bearings. The first house we went to was my
maternal grand-father's house, which is next to the new synagogue.
We entered the courtyard and immediately a small dogm twice as loud as
his size, began barking. A woman came out, and our guide explained to
her what we were there for. She asked us to return in about half an
hour, my mother wanted to return to the hotel,, but I insisted that we
stay. We took a little
walk and when returned, we were asked in, a table was set with little
cakes, biscuits, drinks and some stronger ones too, etc. It was a family
with a daughter, very friendly. My mother looked around the walls,
trying to remember and catch a little bit of the past. But she became
very embittered somehow. She had left the house in 1944, her brother and
father were dead, the other siblings living somewhere else, only her
mother and a sister stayed behind in the house until they too, emigrated
to Romania later, wanting to join the rest of the family. Of course,
they were obliged to give the house away, for a piece of papter. The
couple was very interested in mother's story and we had a pleasant
"talk". My mother wanted to see the rest of the house, which is L shaped
and quite large. They told us that the house had been split into several
apartments and sold, i.e. privatized.

In my father's house, on Holovna (Siebenbürgergasse,(my mother
remembered well now) we went to the first floor, knocked on the door of
the apartment, again a woman came out and I tried to say some of the few
words in Russian which I knew from school: -was, house, my father...
Our guide had left us for a short spell. However, the woman understood
immediately and asked us in, smiling. Again, the house had been split
into several
flats, so that her flat consisted of the large kitchen, an entrance with
a lovely white tile-oven (Kachelofen), and a large living/bedroom, (also
split up) where my mother remembered, papa's grand-piano had stood. The
rest of the apartment belonged to another family, who were at work. The
house is under historical protection, and had also been privatized.

On my second visit to the city I went again to the house and brought the
woman some coffe, tea, chocolate. She was very surprised and at first,
didn't want to accept them, but in the end she did.

When we filmed with Volker Koepp in winter, 2003, my husband came along
and we went to his parent's house, which is almost opposive Rose
Ausländer's birth house on Morariugasse. My husband speaks Russian, so
we had no language problem. Again, a big, barking dog received us and we
had to wait at the gate for the owner, who came, and was not at all
friendly, but in the end he let us in and we went into the garden,
looking around. His wife came out and asked if we wanted to see the
inside, but we left quickly. They made us feel as if we had come to take
it all back.
So I think, generally the population is fairly positive to visitors. Of
course, no-one likes the idea of having his flat taken away from him.
And I wonder, if the houses were bought from the city then the city
administration would be responsible.. They would need a lot of money for
restitution, I doubt whether they have such a budget. And the
government certainly not, unless they join the EU, and then it would be
EU money!
Maybe our children and grand-children will live to see something of the
kind.
Gabriele

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Received on 2013-02-09 11:40:18