[Cz-L] Animals on the Ringplatz

Hardy Breier's news about goats and wolves on the Herrengasse and Ringplatz
reminded me of a real event there:
In 1942, my stepmother's father Simon Rosen, once a distinguished grain
exporter in Czernowitz, was accosted on the Ringplatz by a notorious Jewish
police informer (Spitzel) who tried to shake him down for some money. Mr.
Rosen, who hailed from Poland and spoke Yiddish, pointed to the Romanian
monument in front of the Schwarzer Adler and said: Fun vonen sol ich nemen
geld? Darf ich milken dem buhai (Where should I get money? I would have to
milk the bull). Next day he was arrested for defaming Romanian history and
it took a hefty baksheesh to get him out.
This monument has an interesting story. Old photos show a huge crucifix
there. After the Bukovina was awarded to Romania at the end of WWI, the
Ringplatz became Piata Unirii (Union Square) and the new masters erected an
imposing monument: a Romanian soldier embracing a young maid (Bukovina) in
front of the Moldavian bison (zimbru) trampling on the Austrian eagle. The
anatomy of the bison was outlined very graphically. In 1940, when the
Ringplatz became Krasnaya Ploshchad (Red Square), the monument was enclosed
in a wooden box shaped like a five-pointed star and draped in red. In 1941,
when two huge SS banners were draping the Schwarzer Adler, the Romanians
were delighted to discover that the bison and company were still there and
had a festive unveiling. In 1944, the Soviet liberators didn't take any
chances: bison, eagle, soldier, and maid were hauled away and were never
heard from again. In their place appeared V.I. Lenin with his stretched out
arm pointing to the bookstore at the corner of the Herrengasse. The
Czernowitzer wags interpreted this as Lenin's order to go study the
"Gistoria VKPB" (History of the Soviet Communist Party), which was required
reading for every literate and illiterate grazhdanin (citizen). I am certain
that Lenin is no longer there, but I don't know who has taken his place
since the blue and yellow flag was hoisted on the City Hall tower. I noticed
 from Hardy's Photos that the Ringplatz Tramway Station, which housed one of
the few public toilets, is gone. Well, the new and ever resourceful
Czernowitzers have learned to do without it...

Happy Hanukkah!
Alfred (Fred) Schneider


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Received on 2008-12-12 21:12:09