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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Galician Diptychs

Posted on May 15, 2017 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

Images may create stories in one’s head – especially when they are arranged to pairs. Thanks to the rich photo material I was able to collect during the trip to Ukraine in April, I arranged some diptychs. They reflect the fate of the local Jewish communities, a genocide and the wipe out of history. But something is always left and speaks to us.

Former Jewish neighborhood of Pidhaitsi

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A long Way back to Lviv

Posted on April 15, 2017 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Synagogues

If you travel in Galicia, you are crossing a continent. The region is a compaction of European history. Leaving Chortkiv in the morning, Marla, Jay, Alex, Vasyl and I have been to Buchach, Monastyryska, Pidhaitsi and Peremyshliany today. A day of discoveries – pleasant and painful ones.

Pidhaitsi synagogue

Pidhaitsi – trace of a mezuzah

Pidhaitsi

Pidhaitsi Jewish cemetery

Buchach market

Buchach – birth place of Siemon Wiesenthal

Buchach – bus station with Jewish cemetery in the background

Buchach Jewish cemetery

Monastyryska synagogue

collective farm built of Jewish tombstones

Peremyshliany – remains of Jewish tombstones

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Galicia and Bukovina in Black and White (2)

Posted on May 21, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia, Jewish Cemeteries, Northern Bukovina, Synagogues

Here it is, the second half of the selection of black and white photos from the trip through Galicia and Bukovina in April and May 2013. The journey finally comes to an end and something new starts.

Ivano-Frankivsk – Jewish cemetery

Kalush – Jewish cemetery

Kuty – Jewish cemetery

Lysynychi – mass grave site

Nadvirna – Jewish cemetery

Pidhaitsi – synagogue

Pidhaitsi – Jewish cemetery

Rohatyn – old Jewish cemetery

Rohatyn – new Jewish cemetery

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From Berezhani to Chortkiv

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Christian Herrmann under Eastern Galicia

April 25. We travel further through Eastern Galicia. Berezhani, Pidhaitsi, Buchach, Chortkiv – remains of synagogues, cemeteries and rabbinical courts.