It’s been more than five years since I was last in Budapest. A lot has changed since then and if you don’t think too much about politics during such a trip, Budapest continues to be a fascinating destination – also and especially because of its Jewish heritage.
Despite its destruction in 1519, the traces of Regensburg’s medieval Jewish community are still there. They can be found along the streets and backyards: tombstones of the Jewish cemetery.
The city of Augsburg made me happy. On Thursday night, I had an exhibition opening at Bukowina-Institut and my dear friend Katharina Haberkorn was so kind to guide me through Jewish and non-Jewish sites in the city.
Hungary’s capital Budapest is known for its rich Jewish heritage but also for its present vivid Jewish community. Those, liberated from Budapest ghetto by the Red Army laid the foundation for the renewal of Jewish life. Their descendants are heirs of a unique legacy. During a trip in early January I had the opportunity to experience some highlights of Jewish Budapest.
I traveled in Ukraine in December, visited Berlin’s Weißensee Jewish cemetery in January, have been to Warsaw and its neighbouring towns of Karczew and Otwock in February. Finally, I had time to edit some of the analogue black and whites from these trips. Here they are…
There is a competition between Warsaw, Vienna, Łódź and Berlin, who has the biggest Jewish cemetery in Europe. With 43 hectares and 115.000 burials the cemetery in Berlin’s suburb Weißensee is at least one of the biggest. I had a walk there.
Should Austria’s capital Vienna be part of a blog that deals with the Jewish heritage of Eastern Europe? Necessarily, because Vienna was not only the gateway from Central Europe to the eastern provinces of the Habsburg Empire, it was also the gateway to the West for many Jewish immigrants in search of a better future. A travel report.
Vanished World 