The black and white films and scans from my recent trip to Ukraine are back from the photo lab. The synagogue and the Beit Midrash (House of Study) in Uhniv, the Jewish cemetery in Buchach and the imposing synagogue in Hrymailiv are among the subjects. Here is a first selection.
When I woke up the sky was deep blue, the weather report promised 35 degrees. I decided to stay in the city and to walk to the Jewish cemetery and the nearby former concentration camp site. It was a sad walk.
Today I was traveling with the volunteers who work at the Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi (Czernowitz). Kosiv, Kuty and Vyzhnytsia (Wischnitz) were on the schedule. A journey through Hasidic wonderland. A wonderland that only exists in memories.
The Jewish cemetery of Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) is an enchanted garden. In his jungle you meet lions, deer, blessing hands, and people who are long gone. This morning I had some time to explore it once again. Even after many visits, it is a fascinating place to me. The cemetery tells of rise and fall of Jewish Czernowitz. I spent the afternoon with the volunteers of SVIT Ukraine who work in the cemetery.
I leave Lviv (Lwow, Lemberg) later than I intended. It is already 2 o’clock when the bus departs from the bus station and the trip takes longer than I thought. After 4 hours we reach Buchach. I change my plans and decide to stay overnight.
It was a short trip in early June to Galicia – only three days. But enough to explore Belz and Burshtyn and to take pictures. Today I received the scanned black-and-white films and made a first selection. Here are the results. I have not yet decided which shots I will add to the two photo exhibitions in September. What are your favorites?
The ride from Lviv (Lemberg, Lwow) to Burshtyn is wonderful. On the Galician hills poppy florishes blood red, our marshrutka (mini bus) passes horse-drawn carts, cows stroll on the road and over all storks are circling – writing enigmatic signs in the sky. Burshtyn, that is in Yiddish and Ukrainian amber. Two synagogues and a Jewish cemetery are preserved.
Today I was in Belz. The usual bumpy roads and courageous marshrutka (mini bus) drivers. That alone does not make a story. But Belz turnes out to be unusually beautiful and interesting. Although the town is so small that one can walk through it in no time, it offers many traces of the rich heritage of Galicia. Ukrainian, Polish and Jewish traces.
My journey in February through Western Ukraine – through Galicia, Bukovina and Podolia – was another opportunity to take more photos for two exhibitions in autumn. Here is a first selection, including images from Lviv (Lemberg, Lwow), Sokal, Velyki Mosty, Zhovkva, Staryi Sambir, Ternopil, Sataniv and Chernivtsi (Czernowitz). What are your favorites?
When I asked Mykola Kushnir, the director of the Jewish Museum in Chernivtsi (Czernowitz), how I could see the wall paintings in the former synagogue of Novoselitsa, he invited me spontaneously to go there with him today. A really nice and generous offer – especially as Mykola has the key to the synagogue. Thanks, Mykola, for this wonderful excursion – the last on this journey!
Vanished World 