From a Multiethnic to a Monoethnic Town of Burshtyn

‘There Are No Jews Here’ There Are No Jews Here: From Introduction a Multiethnic to a Monoethnic ierre Nora coined a term “lieux Town of Burshtyn de mémoire”, places of memory. PHe spoke about French places of memory which incarnate the national Svetlana Amosova memory of the French people. In my State Republican Center of Russian Folklore article I would like to present a much more complicated interaction of place and Russia memories. This case study discusses the functioning of objects produced by one ethno-religious group and serving as the Abstract places of memory of another completely This paper is devoted to the preservation and different ethno-religious group. In transformation of historical memory about the other words, I would like to analyze Jewish population of Galicia among Ukrainians metamorphoses undergone by memories and explores how memory about Jews functions in about Jews in the places where they have the town of Burshtyn, although Jews have not lived not lived for more than seventy years. The there for over seventy years. The study is based on 20 in-depth interviews that were conducted VWXG\LVEDVHGRQWKHÀHOGZRUNFRQGXFWHG in 2009-2010. The subjects, ethnic Ukrainians in the historical region of Galicia, where born before World War II, were eyewitnesses of Jewish population perished seventy years WKH -HZLVK OLIH WKDW RQFH ÁRXULVKHG LQ WKH WRZQ DJRGXULQJWKH+RORFDXVW7KHÀHOGZRUN The interviews targeted three major themes: (1) which my colleagues and me conducted in life stories of Jewish families, (2) religious life, (3) 2009 – 2010 years, was part of the project Jewish calendar rites and rites of passage. “Jewish History in Galicia and Bukovina”. Today, Burshtyn is one of two towns in Galicia, Before World War II, Galicia was a where memories about the Jewish population are multiethnic region of the Polish Republic, still preserved albeit in a fragmented form. Pierre but in 1939 it was annexed by the Soviet Nora coined the term «un lieu de mémoire», a place Union. After World War II Galicia turned of memory. The “Jewish local text” in Burshtyn is a case in point. The source of memories is symbolic into a monoethnic Ukrainian province: spaces in the townscape – the cemetery and the the Jews had been exterminated by synagogues. The “text about Jews” has survived the Nazis and Poles expelled by the only among those people, who lived in the town 6RYLHWV 'XULQJ ÀHOGZRUN PHPEHUV RI before the war and among their descendents and, the expedition conducted interviews in a ZKDW LV SDUWLFXODUO\ VLJQLÀFDQW RQO\ LQ WKH ROG dozen of former shtetls – Yiddish for “small part of the town, where Jews had lived. The case of towns” (e.g., Bohorodczany, Nadworna, Burshtyn enables us to observe a transformation Rozhniatov, Chernelytsia, Dolina, Kalush, of a polyethnic town into a monoethnic one at the Maniava, Otyniia and others) which once level of “local memory.” Notably, the transmission had predominantly Jewish population. “vehicle” of information about Jewish life is town toponymics: the informants describe some places The town of Burshtyn was one of the as “Jewish”. two former shtetls in Galicia, where WKHUHZDVQRSUREOHPWRÀQG8NUDLQLDQ interviewees able to speak about local Cultural Analysis 10 (2011): 117-124 © 2011 by The University of California. All rights reserved 117 Svetlana Amosova ‘There Are No Jews Here’ Jews (The second one is Solotvin). (All Urban Topography materials documenting this expedition Using the town of Burshtyn as an are posted on the website: http://www. example, I would like to show how the jewishgalicia.net/). In Burshtin my colleagues memory about Jews is preserved and and me worked in August 2010. We collected constructed anew, and how it is connected data through in-depth interviews. Seventeen with Jewish objects of Burshtyn’s urban interviews with local inhabitants (date of topography. birth between 1920 and 1930) have been The majority of our elderly interviewees recorded. VDLG WKDW %XUVKW\Q KDG VLJQLÀFDQWO\ In my opinion, this unusual situation changed after World War II. The Jewish is caused by the preservation and and Polish population disappeared, “structure” of Jewish objects in this town. and the structure of the town altered. These objects play the role of “places of Burshtyn grew considerably after a heat- memory”. and-power plant was built there in the 1950s. What used to be a downtown “Places of memory” in Burshtyn became a suburb. Some of the prewar Two kinds of physical remnants play the buildings burned down during the war role of “places of memory” about Jews and others were demolished in the post- in present day Galicia: Jewish cemeteries war years. Now the town consists of and former synagogues. In Galicia, two parts: the new one with apartment like everywhere in Eastern Europe, buildings that rose near the heat-and- the situation with Jewish cemeteries power plant, and the old one with small varies from complete destruction and private houses. It is not surprising that the disappearance to a relatively high degree majority of those who work at the power of preservation. For example, only plant are newcomers from neighboring one quarter of the Jewish cemetery in villages and other parts of the Ukraine. Burshtyn is still preserved, and according They inhabited the new apartment to the local inhabitants, the rest had been houses, while the original, “indigenous” destroyed by the Nazis who used the population remained in the old part of tombstones to pave a road. Buildings Burshtyn. Therefore it is quite logical of former synagogues serve as a second that only families living in the old town place of memory about Jews. By contrast preserve some memory about Jews who with cemeteries, these buildings were also lived in the old town. Ukrainians mostly destroyed. The few that survived living in the new center are unaware that were reconstructed. They seldom bear Burstyn was multiethnic before World Jewish symbols. The buildings of former War II. synagogues are now used as shops, sport Our elderly interviewees in the old halls, or storehouses (Cf. Vitti 2011, 108). town mention that Jews constituted However, in the memory of our elderly the majority of prewar population in interviewees these buildings used to be Burshtyn. They owned shops and were “Jewish churches.” engaged in crafts. One woman recalled a proverb that circulated before the war: “The streets are Polish and the houses are 118 ‘There Are No Jews Here’ The building of the second synagogue in Burshtyn was constructed (or restored) in 1931 Jewish” (SII, 1920). However, today only ɁɤɥɚɞɛɢɳɿɬɨɝɨɬɨȽɟɪɰɟɧɚɜɭɥɢɰɹ one street is perceived as a Jewish one. ɇɟɡɧɚɸɱɨɦɭɧɚɡɜɚɥɢɜɭɥɢɰɹȽɟɪɰɟɧɚ It starts from two former synagogue ɩɨɦɨɽɦɭɬɨɛɭɜɩɢɫɶɦɟɧɧɢɤɹɤɢɣɱɢ ɳɨɩɨɦɨɽɦɭ buildings and continues to the Jewish cemetery. In the interwar period this Ⱥɹɤɜɨɧɚɪɚɧɧɿɲɚɧɚɡɢɜɚɥɚɫɹ" street was named after Theodor Herzl – Ɍɚɤɿɧɚɡɜɚɥɚɫɹɳɟɡɚɉɨɥɶɳɿɜɟɫɶ ɱɚɫ ɜɨɧ Ƚɟɪɰɟɧɚ ɧɚɡɢɜɚɜɫɹ ɳɟ ɡɚ the founder of political Zionism and the ɉɨɥɶɳɿ World Zionist Organization. In the Soviet -- there is Herzen Street near the period it was renamed after Alexander FHPHWHU\ , GR QRW NQRZ ZK\ LW ZDV Herzen, a Russian author and thinker, QDPHG +HU]HQ 6WUHHW , WKLQN KH ZDV D without any Jewish roots. His writings ZULWHURUVRPHWKLQJ introduced socialist ideas to the Russian $QGZKDWZDVLWFDOOHGHDUOLHU" reader. In the Soviet period they were 7KLVLVZKDWLWZDVFDOOHGLQ3RODQG part of the school curriculum, so his ,W ZDV DOZD\V FDOOHG +HU]HQ 6WUHHW LQ name was widely known. The majority 3RODQG´ 1)6 of our Ukrainian interviewees live in this ȼɨɧɚ ɧɚɡɢɜɚɽɬɶɫɹ Ƚɟɪɰɟɧɚ ɚ ɞɨ street. They did not pay special attention ɜɿɣɧɢɧɚɡɢɜɚɥɚɫɹ;ɟɪɰɥɹ to the name change and seem to believe ɇɭɬɨɩɨɩɨɥɶɫɶɤɢ that renaming was due to the change Ƚɟɪɰɥɹ ɩɨɩɨɥɶɫɶɤɢ Ⱥ ɩɨɪɭɫɫɤɢ RI WKH RIÀFLDO ODQJXDJH IURP 3ROLVK WR Ƚɟɪɰɟɧɚ Russian after the war. 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