A long Way through the Carpathians

Posted on March 28, 2018 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Synagogues, Transcarpathia

The first day of our new trip. Marla, Jay, Vasyl and I left Lviv in the morning. We had a first stop in Drohobych, continued via Boryslav and Skhidnytsia, and finally arrived in Uzhhorod shortly before sundown. We found a beautiful church, two beit midrash (Jewish study houses) and one of the last surviving wooden synagogues of Ukraine.

Church of St. George in Drohobych

Beit midrash in Boryslav

Oil pumps in Boryslav

Beit midrash in Boryslav

Former synagogue in Skhidnytsia

In the Carpathians

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Five Days in Galicia in Black and White

Posted on June 29, 2017 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues

It was a short trip of only five days in April when my friends Marla, Jay, Vasyl, Alex and I traveled in Lviv and Ternopil region in Galicia, Ukraine. An intense trip to explore what is left of the Jewish heritage. As always I had two cameras with me – a digital one for colour photographs and an analogue one for black and white. Analogue photography is a slow business, but finally here is now a selection of what I got: synagogues and Jewish cemeteries in the towns of Berezhany, Budaniv, Drohobych, Husiatyn, Korolivka, Monastyryska, Pidhaitsi and Sataniv.

Berezhany Jewish cemetery

Budaniv synagogue

Drohobych synagogue – recently renovated

Husiatyn synagogue

Korolivka Jewish cemetery

Monastyryska synagogue

Pidhaitsi synagogue

Pidhaitsi Jewish cemetery

Sataniv Jewish cemetery

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Drohobych revisited

Posted on April 17, 2017 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues

I have been to Drohobych before. But Tanya Firman, who guided my friends Marla, Jay and me, made the visit special today. The Galician town had its golden age when oil was found there in the 19th and early 20th century. Much is still visible from that time – but also from the tragic end of Drohobych’s Jews.

Drohobych – Great Synagogue

Drohobych – synagogue

Drohobych – old Jewish cemetery

Drohobych – new Jewish cemetery

Drohobych

Drohobych – home of Bruno Schulz

Drohobych – Jewish orphanage

Bronytsya forest mass graves

Bronytsya forest memorial

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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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Galicia and Bukovina in Black and White (1)

Posted on May 20, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Northern Bukovina, Synagogues

Analog photography is not for the impatient. Through digital cameras we are used to check a picture directly. Images on film are different. Two weeks after the trip through Galicia and Bukovina I got the developed black and white films and the scans of the negatives. A first impression and a first selection.

Busk – Jewish cemetery

Brody – Jewish cemetery

Bolekhiv – Jewish cemetery

Bolekhiv – synagogue

Berezhani – Jewish cemetery

Berezhani – synagogue

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Closing the Circle: From Stryi to Lviv via Drohobych

Posted on May 8, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Synagogues

May 4. A last day on the streets of Galicia. We visit the old synagogue of Stryi. But above all, we are in the footsteps of Polish-Jewish writer Bruno Schulz in Drohobych. Then we return to Lviv. Our trip is close to its end.