From Galicia to Bukovina

Posted on April 30, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Synagogues

April 26. Chortkiv is our last stop in Galicia, a former center of Hasidism. Then we travel further south, into the Bukovina and towards Chernivtsi (former Czernowitz).

Chrortkiv – Hasidic synagogue

Chrortkiv – market

Chrortkiv – synagogue next to the market

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From Berezhani to Chortkiv

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

April 25. We travel further through Eastern Galicia. Berezhani, Pidhaitsi, Buchach, Chortkiv – remains of synagogues, cemeteries and rabbinical courts.

Berezhani – market square

Berezhani – Jewish cemetery

Berezhani – tour with the students from the local orphanage

Berezhani – Great Synagogue

Pidhaitsi – Jewish cemetery

Pidhaitsi – Jewish cemetery, mass grave

Pidhaitsi – Jewish cemetery

Pidhaitsi – synagogue

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From Brody to Berezhani

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues

April 24. Zigzag through Galicia: From Brody via Zolochiv, Pidhirzhi and Rohatyn to Berezhani. On the way are spectacular monuments – but also very sad places.

Brody – Joseph Roth’s Gymnasium

Pidhirzhi

Zolochiv

Rohatyn – old cemetery

Rohatyn – new cemetery

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From Lviv to Brody via Busk

Posted on April 23, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries

Our first day of travel on the roads of Galicia. We want to start things slowly. From Lviv to Brody is 80 kilometers. In between, we will make a stop in Busk. In both places we are mainly interested in the Jewish cemeteries.

Busk – Jewish cemetery

Brody – synagogue

Brody – Jewish cemetery

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Landscape after a Genocide

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

Next to the village of Lysynychi – now a suburb of Lviv (Lwow, Lemberg) – tens of thousands of people were murdered by the SS and their helpers. No one knows how many. The numbers vary between 50,000 and 200,000. The victims were mainly Jews, but also members of the Polish resistance, Russian prisoners of war and thousands of Italian soldiers who were massacred by the Germans after the capitulation of Italy. Does something commemorate these crimes and their victims in the forest of Lysynychi? Today I was there.

Lysynychi – possible mass graves

Lysynychi – view down to the former camp

Lysynychi – asphalt factory

Lysynychi – small white flowers

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The Leather Suitcase

Posted on April 19, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Northern Bukovina

This is a poem by Tom Berman, the great-grandson of Lazar Igel, the first Rabbi of the Czernowitz Temple. Tom died a few days ago in the Galapagos islands; it was a life-long dream of him to go there. Tom survived Nazi dictatorship over huge parts of Europe through the “Kindertransport” to England. His family was erased. The poem reflects this. Tom immigrated to Israel and became an internationaly known scientist. He survived the time of persecution by 68 years.

Tomb of Lazar Igel at Czernowitz Jewish cemetery

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Travel Plans are almost complete

Posted on April 10, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Northern Bukovina

From April 21 to May 5 I go to Ukraine again. With me are two good friends, an old camera, a bunch of black and white films, a lot of travel plans and one of the most terrible books I have ever read. I hope to report from the trip while traveling. Do you have recommendations?

Trip preparations – my camera

Trip preparations – a map

Trip preparations – Leon Wells’ book

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Action Reconciliation Service for Peace announces summer camp to clear the Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi

Posted on April 8, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Jewish Cemeteries, Northern Bukovina

Action Reconciliation Service for Peace (ARSP) expects 13 to 15 volunteers for a summer camp from September 26 to October 8 in Chernivtsi (former Czernowitz). Participants in the age of 40+ will not only work but also explore the history of the city.

Czernowitz Jewish cemetery

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Silence in the Rabbi’s Residence

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Northern Bukovina, Synagogues

In 2006 I was for the first time in Sadagora (Sadhora in Ukrainian). Since then I have returned almost every year. The formerly independent community is now a suburb of Czernowitz (Chernivtsi) and was up to the Romanian and German occupation, the home of a Hasidic rabbinical dynasty and its followers. What remained is a cemetery, the synagogue of the rabbi of Sadagora and his residence. Do these spots of commemoration have a future?