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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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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In Zhovkva you can learn about Diversity

Posted on March 26, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Synagogues

During my visit in October 2012, Zhovkva turns out to be an extraordinary beautiful place. As the nearby Lviv (Lwow, Lemberg), the town’s streets tell about the multiethnic past of Galicia – in a smaller scale than the imposing Lviv. The town has a touristic future. Jewish, Ukrainian and Polish heritage would be part of it. Including one of the most beautiful synagogues in Galicia.

Zhovkva synagogue

Zhovkva synagogue and market

Zhovkva synagogue – Aron Hakodesh

Zhovkva synagogue

Zhovkva – traces of a mezuzah

Zhovkva – market square

Zhovkva – Ukrainian wooden square

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We owe it to our history to take active responsibility

Posted on March 13, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

Marla Raucher Osborn’s family originates from Rohatyn, a small town in Eastern Galicia. Since years she researches her family’s history. Is there something we can learn from it? Yes, says Marla, there is a bigger picture and a responsibility for remembrance and preservation. Marla has an audience for this message – in Ukraine, at Facebook, in the world. An interview with an impressive activist.

Marla Raucher Osborn after an interview with a eye witness © Marla Raucher Osborn

Rohatyn mass grave memorial © Marla Raucher Osborn

Fragments of Jewish headstones found in Rohatyn © Marla Raucher Osborn

Fragments of Jewish headstones found in Rohatyn

Marla Raucher Osborn speaks to students in Rohatyn © Marla Raucher Osborn

Marla Raucher Osborn giving an interview to Ukrainian TV © Marla Raucher Osborn

Mass grave site next to Rohatyn © Marla Raucher Osborn

Remains of the Jewish cemetery in Rohatyn © Marla Raucher Osborn

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Jews have never lived in Brody

Posted on March 8, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

Brody was once one of the most Jewish cities of the Austro-Hungarian empire. The writer Joseph Roth, the most famous native son of the city, described with melancholy the decay of the monarchy. The ruins of a synagogue and an impressive cemetery still recall Jewish Brody. But in the local museum, the reinterpretation of history is already completed: Jews have never lived in Brody.

Brody, Great Synagogue

Brody, Jewish cemetery

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The Kosiv Coincidence

Posted on February 25, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries

In October 2012, I visited Kosiv with a friend, a former shtetl in Galicia – a popular craft market had lured us there. We found no Ukrainian kilim, but we discovered the Jewish cemetery. Back in Germany, Kosiv crosses my way unexpectedly again. Locations can follow you.

Kosiv – Jewish cemetery

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When walls talk

Posted on February 19, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

On Lviv’s facades strange characters can be read in languages that only a handful still speak in the city: Polish, Yiddish and German. This are the old store advertisings, which come to light when a house is being renovated or the plaster falls of the walls.