Re: [Cz-L] World War One in Bukowina

Mimi,
I will try to answer your question about the generation that came to Americ=
a right after WWI.=A0

Yes, my family fits the circumstances about which you are inquiring. =A0My =
grandmother Golda "Gussie" Weininger was born in 1899 on the Ribner-Weining=
er family dairy farm in Costesti. =A0Her mother was Bertha Ribner Weininger=
, at that time a widow, with three older children. =A0Gussie's father was A=
aron Dovid Barak Kantorji, the mazieve-shleger (monument =A0maker) and engr=
aver in Shtorozynetz. =A0It was a second marriage for them both; Gussie was=
 the only issue. =A0They were divorced by about 1910. =A0Bertha and Gussie =
moved to Czernowitz, where they worked unloading milk cans from the "Milk T=
rain" at 5:00 AM and delivering cholov isroel to Jewish families in Czernow=
itz. =A0
About 1908, Gussie's older half sister Rivka (Bessie) Weininger, about age =
13, emigrated to New York, insofar as we know, she traveled by =A0by hersel=
f, but probably went there to work as a servant for a family that came from=
 Bukovina previously. =A0On the Kantorji side, two of the seven older half-=
sisters (and one half-brother) moved to Vienna either before or soon after =
WWI. =A0They both married businessmen.
Gussie and Bertha lived through WWI in Czernowitz. =A0They continued to ope=
rate the milk business, making deliveries whenever it was safe and they cou=
ld. =A0They also sold tobacco and coffee to the soldiers of whichever army =
was in town -- except when it was the Cossacks. =A0Gussie said they became =
adept at driving their wagon through whatever passed for the military lines=
 that were always changing.
In 1920, Bessie sent a ticket from New York for their mother, Bertha, to sa=
il from Le Havre on the SS Franconia. =A0Bertha was over 60, and she declar=
ed that she was too old to go and America could not possibly be kosher enou=
gh, therefore she was giving the ticket to Gussie, the baby off the family,=
 not yet 21. =A0Gussie told me that after she obtained her certificat d'ind=
igeant and other papers at the district office for Costestie. =A0Next, she =
had to travel to Bucharest to buy a passport and id papers in Bertha's name=
 because it was written on the ticket. =A0Gussie stayed a month with her Ka=
ntorji half-sisters in Vienna. =A0She tried to visit some Weininger cousins=
 in Vienna, but they would not admit her to the house because she was a big=
, rough peasant girl. =A0Gussie said that they were highly assimilated, and=
 some had even converted to Christianity. =A0
Gussie's cousin from Czernowitz, Moritz Weininger, was already in Vienna, w=
here he had attended university. =A0 =A0They travelled together to Paris. =
=A0There was a Paris-Czernowitz connection, with whom they stayed for a wee=
k. =A0Then they parted ways; Moritz went to Marseilles to embark while Guss=
ie went first to Cherbourg where the Jewish community was actively helping =
emigrants and had here physical exam. =A0Then she embarked in Le Havre. =A0
When Gussie arrived in New York, Bessie was completely undone, because she =
knew she would never see their mother again. =A0 She resented her younger h=
alf-sister immensely, accusing her of stealing the ticket. =A0Gussie offere=
d to pay for the ticket by working as a household servant for Bessie, but t=
hey could not get along and Bessie kicked Gussie out. =A0The story goes tha=
t soon after, Bessie suffered a total nervous breakdown and spent the rest =
of her life in a New York State Hospital. =A0
Moritz and Gussie met up again in New York, where both went to work in the =
garment industry. =A0In 1921, Gussie's older half-brother Sam Kantorji (Can=
ter) came to Boston, where he eventually set up a monuments business in Che=
lsea, with a sign you could see from the Mystic River Bridge, "Drive Safely=
, We Can Wait."
In 1938-39, Sam Canter provided documents and tickets to get his two sister=
s and their families out of Vienna to come to Boston. =A0The three sisters =
who stayed in Bukovina all perished: the oldest, Malka and her husband and =
one son in Siberia, the third youngest Clara Schaeffler in the camp in Czer=
nowitz. =A0Clara's husband was Schimon Schaeffler, who had taken over Aron =
Dovid's mazieve schleger business in Shtorozynetz. =A0He was also the head =
of the Jewish Kultesgemeinde in Shtorozynetz. =A0When the Germans arrived, =
he went out with a delegation to meet them. =A0They shot him dead on the sp=
ot. =A0It took me decades to reconstruct many of these details.
It was always very difficult to persuade Gussie to tell me even a little ab=
out her life "in the old country." =A0Already the family geneologist-to-be =
as a child, I was constantly cajoling and needling her to tell me something=
 about Bukovina and Czernowitz. =A0
Usually, she would thunder, "It was TERRIBLE! =A0Better you shouldn't know!=
!!" =A0Gussie was no Germanophile; she had none of the love of German cultu=
re of the city people and sophisticates. =A0She would say "Yiddish -- the J=
ewish -- is best!" =A0 There was no doubt in her mind that leaving as soon =
as she could was good, final, and no looking back. =A0
One time, I was really bugging Gussie, and asked if she had ever been raped=
 by Cossacks. =A0"Certainly Not!" =A0she replied, "How could we ever be so =
careless? =A0When the Cossacks occupied the town, my mother hid me in the r=
oot cellar for six months." =A0In retrospect, I am not certain to which tow=
n she may was referring -- Costestie, Czernowitz, Shtorozynetz, or possibly=
 someplace on the outskirts of one of them. =A0
One time I asked Gussie, "Wasn't there anything good there? =A0Surely, it c=
ould not have been all bad." =A0She thought very hard, and then allowed tha=
t there was somebody (I forget the name or the relation) who made wonderful=
 candy. =A0Subsequently, I found in one of the commercial gazetteers for Bu=
kovina, a Schaeffler who was a confectioner, who is a possible candidate.
My mother Harriet was always trying to prove how modern and sophisticated s=
he was, and it disturbed her greatly that her mother was so primitive and u=
nchangeable. =A0"You are such a peasant," Harriet would say, "You should do=
 something sophisticated already."=A0
"So, nu, what is this -- 'sophisticated'?"
"You should go to Europe, take a vacation trip to Europe."
"I should go to Europe? =A0I CAME from Europe!!!" =A0To her "Europe," all o=
f it, was the ultimate hell and always would be hell, and also was the wors=
t epithet imaginable.
Finally, when I was about 19 and she was about 73, in 1972 I believe, I got=
 her to open up a little about "the old country," and why it was so TERRIBL=
E. =A0=A0
She explained, "Look, in America, you have the Ku Klux Klan, but they are n=
ot part of the mainstream of society. =A0In Europe, everyone is the Ku Klux=
 Klan: =A0Everyone has someone they hate;=A0Everyone has someone they want =
to kill; andEveryone will do it the first chance they can get away with it!=
" =A0
She had no illusions about European civilization or culture, and she shared=
 those same attitudes with many of her immigrant generation from Eastern Eu=
rope. =A0Nearly all were active in the labor unions. =A0Many were socialist=
s or communists, but their internationalism did not really extend to "the o=
ld country." =A0Generally, they agreed that there was no hope for it. =A0No=
ne showed any nostalgia. =A0None wanted to go back, ever, and they would be=
 horrified to know that their children went. =A0
Hope this helps to answer your question,
Marc

Marc M. Cohen, Arch.D, Architect
=0APalo Alto, CA 94306 USA
=0ATEL +1 650 218-8119 Mobile

--- On Sun, 10/17/10, Miriam Taylor <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu> wrote:

From: Miriam Taylor <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
Subject: Re: [Cz-L] World War One in Bukowina
To: "Charles Rosner" <frenchczern1_at_yahoo.com>, "Czernowitz Genealogy and Hi=
story" <czernowitz-l_at_list.cornell.edu>
Date: Sunday, October 17, 2010, 1:46 PM

Thank you Charles for sending us the history of events in Czernowitz during
WW1.

You write that the Jewish population of Czernowitz increased rapidly after
the war. Do you, or does anyone else know whether the the newcomers came
mostly from the Ukraine, or from the old kingdom of Romania?

Many members of this list are the descendants of Czernowitzers who left
during the early part of the 20th century, it would be interesting to know
whether many Jewish Czernowitzers, left soon after the end of WW1.

Mimi
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Received on 2010-10-18 05:21:36