Berghahn Books

From Cernovcy to Czernowitz Author(s): Verena Dohrn Source: European Judaism: A Journal for the New Europe, Vol. 23, No. 2, EUROPE'S HIDDEN LEGACY (Autumn 90), pp. 29-34 Published by: Berghahn Books Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41443028 . Accessed: 25/06/2014 06:13

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This content downloaded from 195.34.79.101 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:13:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FromCernovcy to Czernowitz thesum for his return to pursecontaining journey From Cernovcy to Czernowitz* Pultuzk. When the hasidim got wind of this outragethey forced the issue and elected Rabbi Eliezer as theirspiritual leader. However,Plock Verena Dohm t had a terriblereputation as "a devourerof the clergy",and Rabbi Eliezer's termof officewas brief. relatively of a Mr Ashkenazi out the house on the Cernovcy was the last station journey pointed thatthe old whichhad been the residenceof another throughthe WestUkraine. They say rynek the the ultimatestandard famoushasidic Rabbi Czernowitzwas crown, figure, HayyimShapira. had been at its While on his the Russo- of all thatGalicia, the , praying balconyduring best. of the Bukovinahad fed Polish war in 1922, the man had been Legends questing saintly Rose Auslaenderand Paul arrestedand accused of to the journeys:poems by signalling enemy. Jewish of Aftera trialhe was executed a Celan, storiesof the German symbiosis, summary by firing and the manifold His some as a Enlightenment,tolerance squad. murder,perceived by Rose of the Shoah caused an cultural liveliness in that landscape. préfiguration , uproar in mind Poland and several to have Auslaenderhad painted a picture my throughout attempts of the "Green of the himrehabilitated were made until1939, when the mother/Bukovina", of cause thenseemed futile.For the firsttime I at "Carpathiantops/fatherly", "four-language- understandone last understoodhow such an absurdaccusation songs" and of "humans/who else overshadowedthis could have been - the rebbe's another".But: something perpetrated The black milk of the "Death balcony gave directlyonto the Vistula and idyllicpicture. had across it, had coloured it beyond,the open fields. Fugue" poured I had to findthe tombsof ancestors darklyso that it was no longerrecognizable. hoped my of Paul Celan - in the to kneel and forthose of The "Death Fugue" composed cemetery, pray wordsand our who had the out of hisown and strangers' suffering family perishedviolently among - end of the of four firstvictims of Nazi Instead of Czernowitz singsthe song barbarity. myhopes . . . weremet with the of the footballfield, language speakingfamily songs spectacle Karl Emil Franzostravelled which now the of the Once, the author occupies spot age-old Czernowitz:with As we walked the side of the on therailway to hishometown cemetery. along Train towardsthe from fieldI discoveredthe debrisof a tombstonewith the Karl-Ludwig East; to some Hebrew Whatdesecration! Even Cracow over Tarnow, Przemysl Lemberg. lettering. trainsand South:to thememorial monument which had been erected There,he changed travelled "Half Asiatic" he called in a cornerof the field the handfulof Czernowitz-Jassy. sports by which he survivorsof the Shoah had been , the landscape through severely the he vandalized.As we stoodthere, in tearful travelled; Czernowitz, city, however, plunged called "an oasis in the midstof the half-Asiatic a book of Psalmsin our a group thought, palms, culturaldesert". There was a time when the of youngstersjeered whilepassing Zhid , Zhidka I had never ever railwayunited Czernowitz with the world:with (Jew-boy,Jew-girl). Though and Warsaw and Bucharest, heardthat before,the blood frozein veins Lemberg Odessa, cry my and . In 1918 and in 1945 the as if I had some horrificecho perceived borders of the countrieswere drawn anew, fromthe of timethrough the resounding depths Czernowitzwas cut offfrom the world of the collectivememories of of cowering generations was to the outer of the ancestors.That word, which continued to echo in West, pushed edges Easternworld. Since then, an "IronCurtain" had my inside as we leftPlock, as we leftPoland, come to hangbetween the world,cutting streets summedup in one patheticsyllable, the harassing and lines in half.Until today, travellers experienceof the visit we had justended. Though railway a world had vanished,human follyabides. *Editor's Note: Translated and abridgedfrom a radio broadcast. tVerenaDohrn is a journalistand lecturerliving in Hanover,Germany. Her latestbook dealingwith contemporaryGerman life will appear shortly. 29

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.101 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:13:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FromCernovcy to Czernowitz fromthe West had to organizethe journeyto Czernowitzspoke in a Swabian dialect in their Galicia and into the Bukovina through suburbRosch. And othersmixed their languages, Moscow . . . spoke Judaeo-German or Yiddish- their The timecame whenCzernowitz, the town-of- ancestors from the late Middle Ages, from many-people- , , Romanians, Germany,had broughtthe old Judenteutsckwith - was destroyed.Many of the 120,000who them. lived there: most of the 50,000 Jews(almost a The real floweringtime for Czernowitz Jewry thirdof the inhabitants)were killed; the rest- began when it was separated fromGalicia in gone with the wind. The old Czernowitz,51 1849. It became the "Crown-landDuchy of years on afterWorld War II started,is almost Bukovina"in 1867,part of the Austro-Hungarian forgotten.The present Cernovcyis a Soviet double-monarchy.This broughtthe Jews the provincialtown withabout 260,000 inhabitants yearned-forequal civil rightswith the Christian living in a kind of no-man's land, on the citizens of Czernowitz... A rich and varied Southwestborder of the Ukrainian Socialist Jewishculture now developed in Czernowitz:the Soviet Republic, 37 miles distant from the assimilatedJewish landowner, the factory owner, Romanian border. scholar, or simple shoemaker; the tattered Czernowitz/Cernauti/Cernovcy- merchants' Kaftan-Jews or theWunderrabbis , enlightened or roads fromConstantinople to Nuernberg,from Hassidic-influencedSocialists all the way to the Siebenbuergento Cracow and to the Baltic- dogmaticZionists - all was partof that culture. It theyflowed into one anotherhere, at a fordof was filled with social-economic,cultural and the Pruth.Czernowitz, as the name suggests,of politicalcontradictions and varyingexperiences Slavicorigin. It is firstmentioned in a document, which became a cultural dynamite or, by as a customspoint, in 1408. In the course of contrast,artistic intuition in the mindsof the history,the city had differentmasters: Moldavian intellectualsof Czernowitz. counts,Turkish governors, Habsburg emperors A major difference existed between whofinally granted it its own sovereignty lasting a Czernowitzand theimpoverished, heterogeneous good halfcentury until the beginningof the War Galicia behind the Carpathianmountains. The in 1914. When Austria-Hungaryand its double Bukovinawith its capitalcity Czernowitz in the monarchycame to an end, Czernowitzwas ceded Eastern-mostsection of the weakened, fairly to the Romanians.After a Soviet ultimatumin enlightenedHabsburg monarchy was a closed, 1940,the Red Armyentered it, and theGermans but certainlynot homogenoussociety with its came a year later and occupied Czernowitz.In own enclaves of smaller,closed societies.And 1945 it became part of the Soviet Union. therewas a place in Czernowitzfor that third of Whateverbefell it, Czernowitzwas different, its populationwhich was Jewish. . . unique among cities and the - it was "a Comparingthe old and the new cityplans of world all its own". Czernowitz(the old one so muchbetter, so much It was a Jewishplace. Most of its inhabitants more detailed than the Soviet plan of today's were German-Sephardic-Galician-Russian-JewsCernovcy) while seated on a stone benchin the whofound their home in theBukovina. 1408 was Ringplatz,one beginsto understandthis place. also thedate whenthe first Jews were mentioned The old Czernowitzis there,before our eyes: the in documents.The MuslimTurks, rulers of the Ringplatz,the Rathaus, the Hotel "Schwarzer citysince the conquest of Constantinople in 1453, Adler"; the main road fromNorth to South, showed the Jews far more tolerancethan the the old Tempelgasse in the West, the Spanish Inquisitionor the Cossacks who had Russischestrassein the East. Diagonallyacross made the Jews theirscapegoat in theirbattle fromus is the Herrengasse,Southeast - thenas againstthe Schlachta(the Polish nobility).The now the "Korso" in the "Klein-Wien"of the Habsburgs,during their rule, came to profit Orient.One difference:Where in the Habsburg fromthe sophisticationand wealthof the Jewish time one saw the Maria Statue, in Romanian merchantsin Czernowitz,and receivedthe full times the "Liberation Monument" with the loyaltyof their Jewish citizens. In addition,many Bukovina aurochs triumphant over the of theCzernowitz Jews spoke the language of the vanquisheddouble eagle of Austria-Hungary, Habsburgs,High German,while the Germansin there now stands the Lenin Monumentin the 30

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.101 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:13:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FromCernovcy to Czernowitz middleof the Ringplatz,surrounded by flower- hope in theirarrival, assumed that theywould beds. Acrossfrom it towersa 20-metre-tallphoto provideprotection against the Germansand an wall, covered with pictures of honoured easier life for themselves.In those days, the comradesfrom the Cernovcydistrict. youngPaul Celan came to know the poems of Searching for the Jewish Czernowitz, we Ossip Mandelstam,and learned fromhim the wandered throughthe formerTempel-Gasse. magicof wordsas tools forfashioning the vision The Jewishtemple from 1877 stillstands there. of sufferingin the future. Once, it housedone thousandpeople. Whenthe The Jewswere declared fairgame when the Germans occupied Czernowitzin 1941, they Germansarrived. The EinsatzgruppeSS had no - burnedit but the walls withstoodthe flames, delicatequalms about the way to deal withthem. and evensurvived attempts to blowit up afterthe "Liquidate them!"was the order. Immediately, war. Only the Byzantinedome, the slimturrets in thefirst days, thousands were taken, tortured, and oriel bays are lackingtoday. Insteadof the and killed. A ghettowas establishedin the old Starof David, a hammerand sickleis seen above Jewishquarter at the edge of the Cecina of the the portal.The templeof Czernowitzis now the Pruth. movie-house"Oktober". Our walk down to the old Jewishquarter Even afterthe war had begun, the Jewsof broughtus throughthe Karl-LiebknechtStrasse Czernowitzconsidered themselves to be safe. (formerlythe UhrmacherGasse), across the Jews escaping from Germany sought shelter ScholemAleichem Strasse, the old JudenGasse. there. In 1940, the Russian occupationbegan, No rope-makers, carpenters, furriers, and the Russians began to persecute the watchmaker, shoemaker, plumber, barbers, bourgeois,well-to-do Jews, accusing them even coppersmiths,locksmith, pot repairer, glass of collaboration with the German fascists, blower, tailor, gold- and silver-smiths- no dispossessedthem, deported them. Most of the advertisementsof workshopsor shopwindows; youngrevolutionaries, including poor and non- nothinglike that to be seen in theJewish quarter. religiousJews, did notfear the Soviets. They saw No sweetaroma arose out of cellarbakeries, no

Czernowitz:the Old Temple,now a cinema. 31

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.101 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:13:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FromCernovcy to Czernowitz sharpsmell from whiskey bars, butchersor fish came to thatUkrainian concentration camp . shops. Yet it is said thatabout twentythousand thetwenty-one year old Paul Celan and hisfriend Jewsstill live in Cernovcy. Moses Rosenkranzwere lucky:they were taken And so we walkedacross the Volgogradskaya, to do repairwork on theroads. Paul Celan had to alias SpringbrunnenGasse, and entered the endure that parents and friendsdisappeared, Henry Barbusse Strasse, the old Synagogen that theywere murdered. Gasse. The metamorphosisof the streetnames We are back at the synagogue. Nearby reports the paradigmaticchanges within the monuments have disappeared: no Turkish historyof thecity, in Cernovcyas in otherSoviet Fountain,a witnessfrom Turkish times; no traces towns.Next to the Lenin-Mainstreetthere is a of theghetto, no memorial.Only a synagoguein Karl Marx Strasse(once the ArmenianStreet), the old Tuerkengasse. A high building, in and thereis a Friedrich-EngelsStrasse. At least Moorishstyle with decorated facades, a clearly the Juden Gasse is still permittedto carrya preservedStar of David, tightlysurrounded by Jewishname, thatof the Jewishwriter Scholem other houses. Once, in Czernowitzbefore the Aleichem. And, on the old SynagogenStrasse war, therewere over seventysynagogues here. . . . amongrows of old houseswhich survived the An old couple passes. The man stops to tell us fire of 1867 . . . stands the old synagogue. . . that the synagoguenow belongsto a technical but the old Czernowitzwas gone. We walked firm,used as a culturalcentre. It could not be around and looked for children,up the Henry used foranything else afterthe war, since there BarbusseStreet, towards the centre. . . triedto were so few Jewsin Cernovcy.Of 50,000 Jews reconstructthe boundariesof the ghetto,and in Czernowitz, barely 6000 survived the walkedup theold TuerkenbrunnerGasse, up . . . Tuerkengasse. The time rushesby. Shabbes is almostgone. Deportations to Transnistrien,the area We come to the synagogue in the Lukian- betweenDniestr and theSouthern Bug, travelled KobelickijStrasse, the only one whichis stilla severalhundred kilometres to theeast ofthe city, synagoguein Cernovcy.Eighteen old men,most

Czernowitz:Old Synagogue,now a theatreworkshop. 32

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.101 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:13:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions FromCernovcy to Czernowitz

Czernowitz:Family Synagogue. of them wearing straw hats and white linen national, religious,political and social groups jackets, are assembled for Havdalah in the morespace to come to termswith their identity. formerfamily synagogue. Freshly painted, with a Jewish associations have now sprung up in gleamingsilver Star of David on itsdome, it was differentareas: in Riga, Vilna, Moscow, easy to find.The men spoke Yiddishand a little Leningrad,Kiev, Lwow, and also in Cernovcy. bitof German.They were afraid, avoided giving Most of the 150,000Jews in Cernovcydid - as theirnames, did not permitus to writedown demandedof them by the Soviets - forgetthe old anythingof the conversation, of course refused to mameloschenYiddish, as well as Hebrew, the be recordedon tape . . . who can tell . . . the languageof theirsacred books; it was forgotten fear of Fascism, of Stalinism,of and repressed: resides deeply within them. One of them, probablythe youngest one, conductsthe service, Kra-kra-kra screams the crow. assigns individualtasks on Shabbat: who will Kra-kra-krain bird language is also the carrythe Torah,who willread the Parasha' and sacred Hebrew language,meaning: Read! he criticizes those who talk during the Read! Kro-kro-kro!For the crow is the services. . . bird-rabbi,and calls out: Kra-Kra! Read, The old antisemitismcontinues in the Soviet bird, read . . .! Union . . . even though, today, the reformer Mikhail Gorbachev has given Jews and other One of the Yiddishfables of Elieser Steinbarg 33

This content downloaded from 195.34.79.101 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:13:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions TheRighteous Gentiles in this fashion."Dwarf with the begins giant- The Righteous Gentiles head/SteinbergElieser/Redeemer of Stone and Berg [mountain]"was the name givenby Rose Auslaender to the writer of fables from Elisabeth Maxwell* Czernowitz."Mole and mouse/roseand ring-/no body remaineddead/while Elieser lived." No one is buried any more in the Jewish Dean Rabbi Dr Ladies cemeteryof Cernovcy.The leafyroof of the old Friedlander, Magonet, and it's a eventfulroad which chestnuttrees protectedus froma sudden rain Gentlemen, long has taken a carefreelittle squall. We stoodon thecentral path, near a small Protestant-Huguenot French fromthe South of France to be invited temple, alongside the graves of famous Chief girl Rabbis of Czernowitz.And therewe foundthe to address such a distinguishedgathering of learned and their and grave of the fabulistElieser Steinbarg.A light rabbis,professors disciples I am honouredand at stone, broader than high, stood there as an religiouslay people. deeply the same time full of awe and opened book or a notebook;upon it, a reliefof humility. colouredflowers which flew like birdsacross the I was invitedby Rabbi Magonetto talkon any of choice and decided I would like to stone: aleph, beth,gimel , dalet. . . topic my More thanmemories, more than the eldersin speak on the subjectof The RighteousGentiles , the name the Israelis to non-Jewish the old age homes representJewish culture in given by who to save Jewishlives Cernovcy.Young people came togethernot too people helped during these fateful long ago, in a JewishCultural Group; first,to years. Elie Wiesel has written of the total fightagainst the neglect and thevandalism which abandonment of the Jews. It would be is foundat the.cemeteries of Cernovcyand of of me as a Christianto come here Sadagora. They organizedHebrew and Yiddish preposterous and lecture on Gentilesif it was classes, establisheda Jewishlibrary, want to you Righteous notto sharewith researchas to there turnthe OrthodoxSynagogue into a Museum you my why were so few. were more in some forJewish history, open up relationswith Israel, Why they with the Association of CzernowitzJews in countriesthan in others?What were the factors thatmade some take a stand the the Emigration.Since summer1988 a bulletin people against tide of their Should we not see in the is published,funds are raised for theirgroup. society? of trueheroism that the And theytry to work withthe UkrainianFolk quiet courage righteous showedlessons for Christians and Jewsto share Party,and want to see an active Jewishlife in for the future? Cernovcy. For this I read testimoniesfrom The old maps of Czernowitzare morereliable lecture, many and several forfinding one's wayin the city than the new ones survivors,scholarly papers books writtenon the but I for Cernovcy. But the old Czernowitz was subject quote extensively fromthe book Samuel and Pearl destroyed by National Socialism and by by Oliner,The Altruistic 1 and from Stalinism, together with the hope that Personality thepaper written Mordecai Paldiel for assimilationmight be thesolution to antisemitism by Rememberingfor the and to the JewishQuestion. Karl Emil Franzos Futurey The Altruism of theRighteous Gentiles ? I recommendthe book theOliners and triedthe teachingsof the Enlightenmentin the strongly by I the vast I made best Lessingmanner, and it died aborning.Self- acknowledge borrowings from denial,even self-hatewas the result.It rendered MordecaiPaldiel's paper. A book by himon the Gentilesis soon to be the Jewshelpless; but then,so did theirpious Righteous publishedwhich surrenderof the selfto God. All of it fedhatred will be invaluablefor researchersin thisfield. The rabbisof old that of theJews. Had Karl Emil Franzosexperienced taught "whoeversaves the Shoah, he would have followedthe path of Paul Celan intohis Jewish identity, and he would *ElisabethMaxwell has written for us on other occasions. have rememberedthe Schibboleth. Dr Maxwellis particularlyconcerned with the Interfaith These came to me in dialogue,and helped to sponsor, direct and organise the thoughts Cernovcy, historicOxford Conference on theHolocaust. At in front of the old of present standing buildings sheis working ona futureconference which may take place Czernowitz. in Berlin.

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This content downloaded from 195.34.79.101 on Wed, 25 Jun 2014 06:13:40 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions