Dear all,
It seems some memories are with us all our lives they can't be erased nor
can they be forgotten.
My mother's Austro-Hungarian heart was so convinced, after the "uneducated"
"nightmarish" Russian occupation nothing worse can ever happen
she was soon proven wrong.
My mother's second marriage with Max Gelband made us Kapitalists again and
we had one year of pure hell. Although I could still go to school,
homecoming was a nightmare of fear until the day the deportation started. It
was on a Friday, that I remember well, because my mother was preparing to
bake the Challeh, I went to school, my step-father went out, we had moved to
my mother's sister (naive as we were) hoping that it was a good hiding
place, which of course it wasn't.
I was informed through the Y.P.A. (Yidishe Plotke Agentur- much faster means
of communication than email - that the Black Maria was in front of our
house. I knew my mother and my aunt were alone at home so I ran, knowing
that whatever happens I'll be with my mother. When I came home ran up the
stairs, finger on the bell, that was the moment my aunt said to the Russians
in a loud German voice: "Am I sewn on to my sister? I have no idea where she
is." I ran away as fast as I could not comprehending where mother was-there
was no second exit from the flat!!! I sat through classes ( as a good girl
should) my friends dind't let me go back so I went to friends until the YPA
information I may see Mamma. What happened was that mother, a
"mathematician" thought of a way out. Being 1.71 tall if she didn't throw
herself out but let herself glide down the wall of the window leading to the
back yard, (about 2 and a half times her size) she'll be able to run through
our back yard to some friends. Well she landed a bundle of bones and had to
be taken to the Jewish Hospital in the Jewish Quarter.
Father meanwhile was hidden by relations who had farms in Rosh (Rosi), he
slept out,(I was hidden by friends and slept in beds or floors every night
with another NON Kapitalist family) and after a while couldn't do it any
longer and gave himself up. While waiting in an assembly hall for the next
transport overnight he cried. A young man beside him asked why, and when he
told him his sad tale, the boy said: I can write Russian let's try, nothing
to lose. They "borrowed" some toilette paper and a "Tintenstift". The
boy/man wrote his tale and asked to be allowed for his wife -who is under
GPU supervision- to join him and that we can travel together -he guaranteed
to bring me too. Just as they were closing the heavy carriage doors of the
train, his name was called and at ZERO hour he was saved and so was I. That
was the last transport, On the morning the Germans came mother was brought
home on the day
min war in Cti, started.
We all carry a war package but the wrapping is different, it seems.
Happy days, Hag Sameach,
anny
On Fri, Oct 2, 2009 at 12:15 AM, fred love <fredhotman_at_yahoo.com> wrote:
> I remember I was 11 when the Roumanians - German forces occupied
> Czernowitz. It would have been in July
> there was after the slaughter in the Judenviertel after the corpses have
> been cleared the then army and civilian authorities took Geisel( hostages)
> to repair the bridge over the Prut my father Mendel Weisinger and others
> mainly business men were herded to that area. The work was arduous these
> people never had a hand on an shovel let alone bridgework many drowned, some
> beaten to death and at the end every 10th man was shot. On return home they
> looked like ghosts, fear and terror in their eyes. The mass graves are in
> the vicinity of the bridge.
>
> My brothers Joseph and Paul were sent to a stone quarry with a lot of other
> remaining young men. I am not sure but it may have been called Califat where
> they were kept until the close arrival of the Russians.Again the authorities
> tried to blow up that quarry with the the slave labour in it. The Russians
> were to close so they the fled.
>
> The Russians were not better as some of you know half the Ringplatz was
> burned down and cleared during the Roumanian period but wanted to make it
> into the Krasnaya Ploshchad they had in mind and I remember the English
> Garden outside the Jewish Kulturhaus and where there is the Kobilianky
> Theater again households had to provide one member for labour.So the Jews of
> Czernowitz learned the hard way to clear the debris and work the soil.
>
> Also if some of you remember the unflinching memory of the Russians who did
> not manage to deport many Jews to Siberia in 1940 launched another raid
> rounding up many in the middle of the night,locking them the new established
> militia(private homes) again my father and others were deportet in inhuman
> conditions to Siberia (Swerdlowsk,Cheliabinsk and other places. Czernowitzer
> Jews realy understood the meaning of" from the frying pan into the fire)
> yours Fred.Weisinger
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Please post in "Plain
Text" if possible (help available at:
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/PlainText.html>).
To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at
http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/elist/lyris/leave.html
To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to:
owner-Czernowitz-L_at_list.cornell.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on 2009-10-03 10:36:13
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : 2010-01-01 08:14:31 PST