[Cz-L] Romania, Czernowitz and Jews

From: <HJarvis16_at_aol.com>
Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2012 17:48:05 -0400 (EDT)
To: czernowitz-l_at_list.cornell.edu
Reply-to: HJarvis16_at_aol.com

As one of the first to return to his home town in 1987 I prefaced my
account (see: http://czernowitz.ehpes.com/stories/jarvis/img045c.pdf)
with my translation of the moving Prologue from a book called
'The History of the Jews of Czernowitz' - Olamenu, Tel Aviv, 1962.

This Prologue gives voice to my feelings of how the Jews suffered at the
hands of the Roumanians

"Once upon a time,long before the Hitler era,yet still within our
lifetime,the Jews of Czernowitz firmly believed that this town which they
loved was their home. Even the treacherous behaviour of the then Roumanian
Government could not mar the deeply rooted attachment they felt for the town.
It was not until the outbreak of WW2 that disillusionment ultimately came.

Whilst so called Christian friends came to visit the ghetto in order to
trade money and valuables with feigned sympathy and empty promises; while the
expulsion of the Jews was celebrated with a bunting display on the town
hall; while the mob robbed and sneered and the authorities declared open season
for Jews; while the Roumanian police sold them to the peasants free to
murder and rob the corpses; while in the death marches to the camps in
Transnistria, men,women and children died agonisingly of hunger,
frost and torture; with the burning of the Temple and the sight of Jews
being killed with such fervour; it was then that their last illusions were
finally shattered. The Jews here had no home.

The few that escaped this hell and those who left the town before this
catastrophe were real human beings deeply attached to the loving memories
of their youth. All men hold dear the town where, under the loving care of
devoted parents, they ultimately matured.. These attachments have been
severed forever and only profound grief remains.

This book is dedicated to the Jews of Czernowitz scattered all over the world
who cannot forget their town".

Harry Jarivs
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Received on 2012-03-24 19:03:05

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