Re: [Cz-L] Czernowitz watches

Mimi described below the scandalized behavior of Jews in trying to sneak
valuables out of Czernowitz. Gold bars in men's heals? Outrageous! Actually,
I was a six year old boy so my parents did not tell me that I had a small
gold bar in my shoe. I did complain that one shoe felt funny but they
assured me that I was imagining. Since my father was a gold smith he also
turned some gold into coco powder and my mother baked two honey cakes; one
with the gold and the other without. At the border, the russian soldier with
the assault weapon cut both in three places and asked if his companion could
have a slice. Mother gave her a slice from the one that had no gold and we
lived to tell the tale. The objective was not to take insane risks but
simply not to arrive in Bucharest penniless.
Ervin
----- Original Message -----
From: "Miriam Taylor" <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>
To: <Czernowitz-L_at_cornell.edu>
Sent: Wednesday, March 23, 2011 10:19 AM
Subject: Czernowitz watches

>I did not know the watchmaker street in Czernowitz, but am fully aware of
> the importance and value, Czernowitzers placed on watches. My maternal
> grandfather's gold pocket watch survives in my family today. It is about
> 6cm. in diameter and has a double lid. I do not know how my parents
> smuggled
> it into the ghetto and then out, but I clearly remember how this watch was
> taken out of the USSR, when we left Czernowitz in 1944.
>
> The art of hiding and smuggling was being perfected then.
> Women baked gold coins or small jewels into cakes. Shoulder pads in coats
> and jackets were taken apart, money or jewels sewn in to them and sewn
> back
> into the garments. The heels of men's shoes were taken apart and small
> gold
> bars hidden in them. I mean really small bars, about 10 gram in weight.
>
> But the Russian soldiers were most keen to find gold watches. For some
> reason the term "Tovanis-watch sticks in my mind, but we called them
> "Tziballes" (onions) and because they were so big, they were hard to
> hide.
>
> My parents blackened the cover of my grandfather's watch with coal and
> shoe paste, but also arranged with a friend, that after this friend had
> gone
> through the border search, my father would somehow sidle up to him and
> drop
> the watch into his pocket. But the border control had one of their
> "Spitzel"
> (spies), pretending to be a carter, stand on top of a cart, watching
> everyone. I can picture him now. A very tall, dark and burly man, with a
> big
> mustache and a loud voice. When my father tried to slip the watch into his
> friend's pocket, it fell to the ground and of course the "Spitzel"
> noticed.
> He came over, my father had to hand over the watch and I thought, that it
> would be confiscated. But the border guard just looked at it with disgust
> and handed it back to my father.
>
> A more astonishing feat of smuggling was performed by another
> Czernowitzer;
> I do not know whether he was an old or a young man, but he seemed to have
> trouble walking, wore a long and very greasy looking coat, had long hair
> stuck together in filthy locks and carried a tall pot, like the one's
> which
> were used for boiling milk, filled with boiled prunes. From time to time,
> with his dirty fingers, he would fish out a prune and convey it to his
> mouth.
> He looked disgusting. Everyone shied away from him, but the story was,
> that
> under the layer of "Floimen-Yoich" ( boiled prunes), there was a layer of
> gold coins.
>
> Mimi
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Received on 2011-04-04 20:17:54