Hello everybody!
A few days ago, there was a discussion about a woman called Evgenia Finkel and her sayings about Traian Popovici, the way Marianne and Leo report them in their book. Even Gabriele mentions that she met this woman in 1999 in connection with her visiting of Edi Wagner’s grave at the cemetery – Edi Wagner being the uncle (brother of the mother) of her husband Edy Weissmann… By the way, he was also my uncle, as our mothers were sisters…
Amongst my contributions during the 2006 Reunion, I told the story of Edi Wagner, and I mentioned that I owe a big part of this story to that woman Evgenia Finkel. I met her in Chernivtsi in September 2003: she was by then already ninety-two, but still clear and sharp.
She told me that, although she never met Edi Wagner during his lifetime, she was probably the person still alive who knew his story best. In fact, she came to Cernauti for the first time late August 1936, having been sent there by the Bucharest Communist Party in order to investigate about the happenings in this town. Those happenings were the end of Edi Wagner’s story and of his Folklore Ensemble. She also said that she holds many testimonies signed by members of the Ensemble.
During the same stay I heard that she used to be the secretary of some Jewish organization in Chernivtsi, presided by Josef Burg. But the two didn’t get well along together and she resigned or had to leave…
Then, in April 2004, I met Johann Schlamp, a genuine member of the Ensemble, and he confirmed most of Evgenia Finkel’s story. He was clearly a fan of Edi Wagner, but also of Josef Schmidt: his archives were full of pictures, articles and other documents about those two figures of Czernowitz, so different and popular, but both forgotten by now. He wanted the city to name some streets after them… When we met in 2004, he was still quite excited about the movie “Dieses Jahr in Czernowitz” that the German moviemaker Volker Koepp shot there six months earlier: Johann, but also my cousin Edy Weissmann and his wife Gabriele, as well as the actor Harvey Keitel appear among others in the movie (let me tell that I do not agree with the image this movie gives of Czernowitz and Czernowitzers: I believe that this city was much more than that!)
For the rest – I mean concerning Traian Popovici – I notice that there are testimonies of some of us having to buy (or exchange against a dog!) a permit to stay. But I believe (like Mimi, Hardy and others) that this doesn’t mean Traian himself was involved, nor that he knew what was going on: Traian Popovici and the General Ionescu – they were the only ones who tried to oppose the deportations – asked some leaders of the Jewish community to establish lists of people for the economic permits (Jews needed in Cz in order to run the city utilities, etc.) and they installed a group of fifty people who were to deliver all permits, including the Popovici ones. This means that there were many potential possibilities of baksheesh, whether requested or proposed… By the way, my mother and I (as a baby) we survived in Cz as clandestine during all this period: no economic value and no money.
Now, for those interested in Edi Wagner’s story, here it is (see below) the way I told it in English (could be improved of course) at the Reunion in 2006 (For a better understanding: Alma Wagner is Edy Weissmann’s mother, Rusia Wagner is my mother and Simon Rosner my father…)
Regards to all
Charles
<Chapter 8
Edi Wagner:
A thunder before storm
As he returns from Palestine, Edi Wagner is a young man just over twenty-one. Everybody in the family loves music – some are even quite talented, like Edi and Alma – but none had ever an opportunity to study it methodically.
Meanwhile, the Nazi ideology has further progressed in town and, during Pessah 1933, a few groups of extremists and anti-Semites rush through the lower part of the city: they plunder and devastate over three hundred shops in the Jewish quarter.
Discussions at home become more vehement: Edi is convinced that young people of different communities – or “nationalities” – can understand each other: you just have to show them all those good things they have in common, and they will get together, no matter what limitations the ruling society is imposing on them.
Edi decides he must do something. Early 1934, he organizes a folkloric ensemble with young people of all nationalities: Jews, of course, but also Germans, Ukrainians, Rumanians, etc. Their number will grow and, towards the end, they will be over one hundred. They sing and dance and play balalaika and other string instruments. Edi himself plays the guitar and the balalaika by heart, but he knows that this is not enough for the quality of their concerts: he therefore asks a violin of the philharmonic orchestra to help them tune up at the start of each performance. Simon Rosner is also present and plays but, being the only left-hander in the group, he must always sit at the far right-end, so as not to hinder the other musicians.
For their first concert in Cernauti, seats are sold-out – possibly with the help of the Bund – but even more people come. Some policemen of the Siguranta, the political police, dressed as civilians, are also there in order to watch how this new group will behave. Of course, they soon feel outnumbered and call for reinforcement – but this can never arrive in time. And, when the choir starts to sing the “International” with a red flag in the back of the stage, everybody rise in the audience. The Siguranta-men cannot but rise as well and stay there till the end – the story doesn’t say whether they appreciate the purely folkloric part of the show.
Next morning, all theatre owners in Cernauti are informed that they are not allowed to lease their halls to Edi’s ensemble for any reason whatsoever. Never mind, says Edi, they will give their next show in Sadagura. But, a few days later, when they arrive in this town, the restraint is also applicable there. Creative like a true “born leader”, Edi decides they will walk back and perform on the road till Cernauti: songs, music and dancing all along the ten and more kilometres. As they pass through villages, inhabitants rush out of their homes; they participate, applaud and follow the ensemble till the capital. It’s a second success for the group.
For the third concert, it’s still impossible to lease a theatre in Cernauti. Creative again, Edi organizes the construction of a stage in open air: a few planks will do, assembled and fixed on top of some big barrels displayed on the street! A big crowd gathers before the Siguranta can intervene… and the show starts: another successful provocation, which further irritates the authorities.
The fourth concert takes place in the South, beyond Bukowina’s border, in a town of the old “Regat”. Like for the first concert, the local authorities have no idea of the context and do not take any preventive measure. All notabilities and important civil servants are invited… and they come. When the first notes of the “International” do resound through the hall, everybody rise, including the mayor who cannot but follow the movement…
I often wondered whether Edi Wagner was a true communist. Although my mother Rusia considered him as such – she had very superficial notions in politics – I don’t believe so. He was certainly in favor of the socialist ideals that influenced so many young people in the thirties. But his own ideas were quite simpler and closer to the individuals: he was not acting in respect of the economic class-fight, but tried naively to induce some mutual understanding and come-together of the individuals from the different nationalities in Bukovina.
It’s on 26th of April 2004, the very day of his 90th birthday, that I finally met in Chernivtsi an authentic member of Edi’s ensemble: Johann Schlamp, a German born in Bukovina, who used to be a carpenter in his time. He had only a few friends among the German community, because most of them had turned to Hitler’s national socialism. On the contrary, he had many friends among the Jews, because their cultural life, with literature, music and theatre, was so appealing on him.
Johann Schlamp meets Edi in 1934 and soon becomes a member of the ensemble as a singer and guitarist. He is four years younger than Edi and likes immediately his personality: Edi is a cheerful and friendly young lad, with a bright smile at which girls cannot resist “And, myself, I was also good looking at that time!” he adds. He confirms the happening of the first four concerts and explains that, thereafter, the ensemble performed in a few other towns in Bukovina, as well as in Cernauti. In Radautz, for example, two fascist groups tried in vain to interrupt the concert and threw stones at them. The concerts lasted well over the usual two hours, rather four hours with the requests for additional plays, and they often ended towards 1:00 am.
Anti-Semitic and violent actions of the Iron Guard and Siguranta worsen in the summer 1936: gangs of fascist students aggress Jewish people on the streets; the Jewish press from the West gets burned as soon as it arrives in the city; young Jewish workers take their turn to guard round the clock the Morgenroït, the House of Jewish Culture; fascist groups deny any access for Jews to all gardens in town: it’s mainly the Volksgarten they are aiming at.
Edi is worried. The ensemble gave its last performance in April at the Scala, the House of Culture related to the Bund. Outside, the “hunt for Jews” has increased and it often degenerates into fights. Edi tries to organize a group of young people, whose task will be to intervene and protect the Jews from the fascists.
On 4th of August 1936, a few young Jews sit on a bench in the Volksgarten and read newspapers. Comes a group of Rumanian fascists who insult them. The verbal aggression soon degenerates into fight and the leader of the fascists, a student in theology, is stabbed into the heart and dies.
Edi isn’t present, nor is Johann Schlamp: they did meet near the Tempel and have spent the afternoon together in town. Later, Johann accompanies Edi back to the Morariugasse and goes home as well.
On the same evening, thirty young people from the Bund are arrested, brought to the police headquarter and brutally questioned. At dawn, the Siguranta storms into the Wagner’s home. They take Edi, search the house and find his address book. Soon thereafter, they do the same at Johann’s home.
Edi, considered as the leader of the fight group, is bound into ropes, tortured – they tear-out his nails – and beaten near to death. In the evening, as they cannot make him talk and acknowledge “his crimes”, they throw him out of the highest window of the police headquarters. Later, in an attempt to save face, the police will pretend he tried to take his life and ran himself through the window.
No one is allowed to see him, except his mother. In his pockets she finds a note with the inscription “Wagner judän mortratur!” Wagner, a Yid, shall die!
Brought to the Jewish hospital in town, he dies next morning 6th of August 1936: he was not yet twenty-six years old.
The family is not allowed to organize a public ceremony for his burial: this has to take place same night at the Jewish cemetery and in presence of his parents only.
Most of the other young people are soon released, without any charge: the police fears possible local consequences of its acts. But Johann is taken to court near Bucarest: he is accused of “having brought shame on Rumania because of his Jewish frequentation”! Finally, he is condemned to spend one year in prison and to pay a 10.000 Lei fine.
One year later, according to tradition, the family arranges for a tombstone on Edi’s grave. As his father, and thus himself, are members of the Kohanim/Cohen caste, the sign of two open hands in a protective and blessing position, appears on top of it; and, under the usual Hebrew inscription, his mother Netti wants a few words to be written in German:
Besucht mich oft an meinem Grabe
Doch wecket mich nicht auf
Bedenkt was ich gelitten habe
In meinem kurzen Lebenslauf.
(Come often to my grave, but do not wake me up:
just think of what I suffered in that short life of mine)
In May 1966, almost thirty years after these events, the city of Chernovtsy – at the height of the communist regime – organized an exhibition in memory of Edi Wagner “who died as a hero and martyr in the fight against fascism” My mother Rusia was officially invited.
I was working at that time in Marseille and I still remember the emotion in her voice when she called from Paris and told me about it on the phone. She went to Chernovtsy, but never again did she mention anything about this trip: all I have is a very bad group picture, taken at the cemetery next to Edi’s grave.
Since then, a plate covering the “Kohanim sign” has been added locally. It says:
“A member of the underground revolutionary movement in Bukovina,
Tortured to death by the Siguranta on 7th August 1936”
I prefer to keep in mind the image of the happy and charming young man, as well as the memory of what he represented for his friends.>
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Received on 2010-05-11 11:40:01
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