Galicia from a train window

Posted on August 25, 2016 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

A last goodbye to the volunteers, who clear the Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi (Czernowitz). A last farewell to Bukovina and its capital. In the afternoon Sylvia and I took the train from Chernivtsi to Lviv. For five and a half hours we watched the beautiful Galician landscape rolling by. Now we are in Lviv – exhausted but happy – and wait for a very last excursion tomorrow.

Galicia from a train window

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Kosiv today

Posted on August 18, 2016 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries

The volunteers of SVIT Ukraine, who clear the Jewish cemetery in Chernivtsi (Czernowitz), were out for a day trip today. On the itinerary was among others the Galician town of Kosiv – famous for its local crafts market – and its Jewish cemetery. In the densely overgrown cemetery we met an old man who was mowing grass with a scythe. He had a story to tell.

Kosiv Jewish cemetery

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North of Czernowitz

Posted on August 17, 2016 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Northern Bukovina

Sylvia, Marla, Jay and I went for an excursion today, which lead us to Zastavna, Balamutivka and Vikno – all north of Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) – as well as to Sniatyn in the west. All of those towns and villages – except Vikno – had Jewish cemeteries, but they are not preserved at every place.

Zastavna Jewish cemetery

Balamutivka Jewish cemetery

Dniester river

Grave of Prince Cantacuzino at Vikno Christian cemetery

Snyatin synagogue

Snyatin Jewish cemetery

Sylvia de Swaan at Snyatin Jewish cemetery

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To Zhovkva in Good Company

Posted on August 13, 2016 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues

A new journey has begun. Over the next two weeks I will be traveling with my friend Sylvia de Swaan – a great photographer. The first week of our trip through Galicia, Bukovina and Bessarabia we will share with our friends and researchers Marla Raucher Osborn and Jay Osborn. Today we were in Zhovkva, about 30 kilometers north from Lviv.

Zhovkva synagogue

Zhovkva synagogue

Jay Osborn

Zhovkva

Zhovkva – trace of a mezuzah

Zhovkva market – formerly the Jewish cemetery

Zhovkva market – ohel at the former Jewish cemetery

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Exhibition on the Holocaust in the Galician Oil Belt opened in Cologne

Posted on February 24, 2016 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Exhibition

On 18 February ‘A Story of Destruction and Rescue’, an exhibition documenting the Holocaust in the eastern Galician towns of Drohobych and Boryslav was opened in Cologne. The exhibition was created by an international team from Poland, Israel, Ukraine and Germany. It was already on display in several locations in Poland and Ukraine and will be shown in more places in Israel and Ukraine this summer. The Cologne exhibition will remain open to the public until 31 March.

Visitors at the exhibition opening

Activists of Action Reconciliation Service for Peace, among them Georg Goosmann

Galician sounds by Trezmorim Klezmer Band

Jürgen Wilhelm – head of the Regional Assembly of the Rhineland – speaking

Exhibition curator Klaus Hasbron-Blume speaking

Varda Ghivoly – representative of Drohobycz Borysław and Vicinity Organisation – speaking

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A Time Of Gifts: Calendar For Free Download

Posted on December 1, 2015 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Media, Northern Bukovina, Podolia, Synagogues, Volhynia (Volyn)

Hanukkah and Christmas are coming closer – a time of gifts in which I would like to give a present to all who accompanied my trips to Eastern Europe’s Jewish past and present via Facebook and my Vanished World blog: a calendar for 2016, which can be downloaded for free and be produced on your own printer or at an on-line print shop.

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A Summer in Black and White

Posted on November 4, 2015 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Northern Bukovina, Podolia, Synagogues

I was traveling twice to Ukraine during this year’s summer – once in June with my friend Sylvia de Swaan, once in July to support the volunteers of SVIT Ukraine in their work in the Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi (Czernowitz). It took an unusually long time to develop the black and white films of these two months, to scan them, make a selection and finally work them over. Now this has been completed, and here is a first selection.

Kuty (Galicia) – Jewish cemetery

Cariera de Piatra – former territory of Romanian and Soviet concentration camp

Zolotyi Potik (Galicia) – Jewish cemetery

Chernivtsi in Podolia – Jewish cemetery

Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) – former synagogue

Mohyliv-Podilskyi (Podolia) – Jewish cemetery

Zolotyi Potik (Galicia) – Jewish cemetery

Lviv (Lwow, Lemberg) – Jakob Glanzer Shul, former Hasidic synagogue

Chernivtsi in Podolia – abandoned Jewish home

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Through Bukovina and Galicia with the Volunteers

Posted on July 28, 2015 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Northern Bukovina

Meanwhile, I’m back home and still have to report the latest events of the recent journey. On Friday – our last day in Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) – Arthur and I have been on a day trip through Bukovina and Galicia with the volunteers of SVIT Ukraine. Vashkivtsi, Vyzhnytsia (Wischnitz), Kuty and Kosiv were the places we went to.

Vyzhnytsia (Wischnitz)

Vyzhnytsia (Wischnitz) – talking about what we saw

Kuty Jewish cemetery

Kosiv Jewish cemetery

Cooling down

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A missing Center at the Golden Creek

Posted on July 21, 2015 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues

It was the wish of my friend Arthur to go to Horodenka and Zolotyi Potik (Golden Creek) – small towns in Galicia, from which his ancestors came to Chernivtsi (Czernowitz). Today we have been there; a long day trip through the beauty of the Galician summer. An ocean of flowers over which the storks circle. With us was Maxym, a local photographer and journalist, who maneuvered his car bravely around the potholes.

Horodenka Synagogue

Horodenka Jewish Cemetery

Zolotyi Potik – Potocki Castle

Zolotyi Potik Jewish cemetery

Zolotyi Potik – former Jewish quarter, now a park

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Finally in Czernowitz

Posted on July 19, 2015 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Northern Bukovina

It is already our third travel day. Arthur Rindner – an old time Czernowitzer – and I met on Friday at Vienna’s airport and flew to Lviv / Lemberg. Now we are already in Czernowitz and have met the international volunteer group that will work in the next two weeks in the Jewish cemetery.