Lessons from Yanovska

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

Yanovska, a former concentration camp in Lviv, was among the locations of horror during the German occupation of Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, this place is largely unknown. What would be the benefit if we knew more about it? And what is needed to happen, so we can learn something from Yanovska?

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – now an Ukrainian state prison

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – memorial

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – now an Ukrainian state prison

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – information board

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – now an Ukrainian state prison

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – execution ground

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – gate to “the sands”

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – now an Ukrainian state prison

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Scars on the door frame

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

In the old Jewish quarter of medieval Lviv (Lwow in Polish, Lemberg in German), you can see strange signs on the doorposts. Notches on the right door frame, approximately at shoulder height, which are inclined inwardly in the direction of the person entering the house. Here was a Jewish house blessing attached – a mezuzah.

traces of a mezuzah in Lviv (Lwow, Lemberg)

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There is no Jewish cemetery in Vyzhnytsia

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Jewish Cemeteries, Northern Bukovina

August 2012. I’ve been wanting for a long time to visit Vizhnitz – Vyzhnytsia in Ukrainian. Maybe because it was the equivalent of the middle-class and assimilated Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) Jewery once. Vizhnitz was a stronghold of Hasidism, of Jewish mysticism and Judaism for the poor. Can you still feel some of it today? Yes, if you manage to find the Jewish cemetery.

Vizhnitz Jewish cemetery

Vizhnitz former synagogue, now a music hall

Vizhnitz Jewish cemetery

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When history comes close

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

Chernivtsi, former Czernowitz, in western Ukraine in August 2012. For the last five years, volunteer organizations have been engaged in the maintenance of the Jewish cemetery. Young people from the whole world remove vines and undergrowth in an attempt to make the cemetery accessible each summer. It is hard physical work but it is possible to learn and experience much.