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.

Lviv: old store advertising

Continue reading →

Lessons from Yanovska

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

Yanovska, a former concentration camp in Lviv, was among the locations of horror during the German occupation of Eastern Europe. Nevertheless, this place is largely unknown. What would be the benefit if we knew more about it? And what is needed to happen, so we can learn something from Yanovska?

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – gate to “the sands”

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – information board

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – memorial

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – now an Ukrainian state prison

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – execution ground

Site of former Yanovska concentration camp – now an Ukrainian state prison

Continue reading →

Scars on the door frame

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

In the old Jewish quarter of medieval Lviv (Lwow in Polish, Lemberg in German), you can see strange signs on the doorposts. Notches on the right door frame, approximately at shoulder height, which are inclined inwardly in the direction of the person entering the house. Here was a Jewish house blessing attached – a mezuzah.