AW: [Cz-L] Re: czernowitz-l digest: May 30, 2011

Hi Charles,

there must have been lots of Rosners in Wiznitz and and the area. My father and
grandfather were also born there.

Cheers,
Alex

----- Ursprüngliche Mail ----
> Von: Charles Rosner <frenchczern1_at_yahoo.com>
> An: Czernowitz Genealogy and History <czernowitz-l_at_list.cornell.edu>; asher
>turtel <ashtur_at_netvision.net.il>; alexander rosner <alexanderrosner_at_yahoo.de>
> Gesendet: Dienstag, den 31. Mai 2011, 12:17:09 Uhr
> Betreff: [Cz-L] Re: czernowitz-l digest: May 30, 2011
>
> Sorry Asher, you are mixing Alexander and Charles...
> It's me, Charles, who was born in August 1941 in Czernowitz.
> I got the French Citizenship in the late fifties. One day, in the seventies I
>asked for a new birth certificate: it took a few months and the answer came as
>"born in USSR", which was a big surprise for my parents and for me. Some twelve
>years later, with the help of a friend who was a French Consul abroad, I made a
>formal application to the president of the relevant "tribunal administratif" in
>order to get this corrected. It took again a couple of years, but since then my
>birth certificate correctly states that I was born in Rumania...
> Now, concerning languages, my mother Rosa Wagner was born in Czernowitz, she
>spoke German at home and addressed her parents with "Der Papa" and "Die Mama";
>my father was born in Wiznitz and spoke Yiddish till he arrived in Cernauti
>after the war. He improved his German later when he got to know my mother and
>her brothers; of course, my mother learned some Yiddish from him. I spoke only
>German at home, even after our arrival in France, and I grew up as well with
>Karl May as with Jules Verne...
> Here is what I write about languages and nationalities in my book "Are you
>(also) from Czernowitz?" (although I believe I already sent this some years ago
>to the List)
> < ...
> This complex history couldn’t but affect the life of the individuals who
>survived. For example in terms of nationalities, when people ask whether I’m
>German:
>
> - No, I’m French.
> - But, how come you speak so well German?
> - German was one of my mother tongues: I was born in a place that is today
>in Ukraine…
> - So, you are of Ukrainian origin?
> - No, when I was born, this was Rumania.
> - Then, your origin is Rumanian?
> - No, at the time of my parents, this was Austria.
> - Well, then you are of Austrian origin.
> - Well, yes… and no: my origin is that of a simple East-European Jew.
> - So, you speak Yiddish?
> - No, I speak German!
>
> To make a long story short, I often confirm that I’m of Austrian origin: my
>interlocutors would otherwise need a lot of patience to listen to a lengthy
>explanation. In fact, we spoke German at home and I chose to study it as a
>foreign language at college. My mother mastered perfectly German, which she
>also used as a child with her parents. The little Yiddish she knew, she got it
>from my father: Yiddish was his mother language and he only learned German as a
>teenager.
> Personally, I certainly understand some Yiddish, but I’m far from speaking it
>correctly. This leads sometimes to funny consequences. Like in the seventies,
>when I twice visited a friend living in Israel at the time. He let me have his
>car, so I could play the tourist:
> One day, I stop at a service station to buy some gasoline.
> I ask the man “Englit (English)?” His answer is “Lo (No)”
> So I say “Germanit”: again a “Lo”
> Desperately, I try “Tsarfatit (French)?” and he utters a third “Lo”, adding
>“Ivrit (Hebrew)?” It’s my turn to give him a “Lo”
> The man then takes his time for a closer look at me and, bending his head over
>his shoulder, he asks “Yiddish?” I cannot but say “Eeh… a bissele (a little)!”
> We exchange a few sentences while he is filling the tank. I pay and, as I am
>about to step back into the car, he says with a bright smile “Ir red take
>Yiddish vi a Goy (You really speak Yiddish like a non-Jew, a gentile)!”
> Back in Paris, when I told this story to my parents, they laughed for days.
> ...>
>
> -----------------=
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Received on 2011-05-31 06:08:42