Inside Jakob Glanzer Shul

Posted on December 7, 2016 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Synagogues

Jakob Glanzer Shul is one of the last remaining synagogues in Lviv. The building is in bad condition; an adjuncting wall already collapsed. Since years a young man fights for the preservation of the synagogue. I met him today.

Jakob Glanzer Shul

Inside Jakob Glanzer Shul

Continue reading →

Old Lviv

Posted on December 6, 2016 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

Many visitors think, the old town is Lviv’s oldest part. It is not. Duke Danilo built his settlement and castle on a hill north of the present old town and named it after his son Lev. Today it is a quarter around the Old Market, where once Lviv’s reform synagogue stood – blown up during the German occupation.

Old Market – once Lviv’s reform synagogue stood here

Continue reading →

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.

Continue reading →

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.

Zolotyi Potik (Galicia) – Jewish cemetery

Chernivtsi in Podolia – Jewish cemetery

Kuty (Galicia) – Jewish cemetery

Chernivtsi (Czernowitz) – former synagogue

Chernivtsi in Podolia – abandoned Jewish home

Mohyliv-Podilskyi (Podolia) – Jewish cemetery

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

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

Continue reading →

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.

Lviv Opera House

Strudel in Lviv

Exhibition by Jason Francisco at the Golden Rose Synagogue

Arthur

Iryna

Galician village

Crossing Dniestr River

On the train

The volunteers of SVIT Ukraine

Continue reading →

What is left to tell

Posted on June 16, 2015 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

The last two days of our trip through western Ukraine: A long bus ride to Lviv, a meeting with Edgar Hauster and a last walk. Farewell Ukraine, I will return!

Entering the marshrutka in Chernivtsi

Marshrutka itenery

View from George Hotel

Edgar and Sylvia

View of Lviv from Magnus warehouse

Jakob Glanzer Shul

Ghetto Memorial

Flight from Lviv

Continue reading →

A last Day in Lviv

Posted on June 8, 2015 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

A last day in Lviv for Sylvia and me before heading to Podolia/Transnistria. Sylvia gave an impressive speech at a conference. At noon we walked to the site of former concentration camp at Janowska Road. In the evening there was another opportunity to meet old and new friends.

Conference for the presevation of Jewish heritage

Meylakh Sheykhet

Sylvia de Swaan

Golden Rose Synagogue

Promotional stand of the Ukrainian Army

Promotional stand of an voluntary battalion

Janowska Road concentration camp site – execution ground

Continue reading →

The Fragility of Life

Posted on June 6, 2015 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

Today Sylvia and I started to explore Lviv together. The city is a familiar place for me, a new one for Sylvia. It was also a chance to meet friends. It was a day of talks.

Graffiti in Lviv

Lviv – restoration works

Lviv, Lychakiv cemetery, soldiers graves

Lviv – detail of the Golden Rose Synagogue

Continue reading →

First Greetings from Lviv

Posted on June 5, 2015 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

A long day comes to an end. Sylvia and I got up at around 3 o’clock in the morning – she in Amsterdam, I in Cologne. Finally, we met at the airport of Vienna and flew to Lviv together. Here we are now – at the very beginning of a new journey.

Sylvia and I

Young people singing in the streets of Lviv

Relatives of members of a volunteers battalion collect money and inform about the ongoing war in the east of Ukraine

Fragments of gravestones at the site of the former Jewish cemetery

Dome of the former Jewish hospital

Remains of former shop signs

Continue reading →

Lviv welcomed me with snow

Posted on December 26, 2014 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

After so many years of returning, it is a kind of homecoming when I go back to Lviv (Lwow, Lemberg). This time, Lviv welcomed me with snow. Upon my arrival at the airport heavy white snowflakes were falling and now it looks like it will not stop. A nice start for a new journey.