Re: [Cz-L] The mass exodus

Mordechai,

I greatly appreciate what you wrote about our feelings and attitudes towards
the Russians, Communism and remaining in our hometown and would like
to tell about what I remember from those days, or what my parents told me.

During the first Soviet period 1940 - 1941, I was too young to understand
what was happening, but we had to leave our apartment, which was next
to our factory, so as not to be considered "Burjui" and sent to Siberia.
My father, who previously had had Communist leanings, was completely cured,
when he experienced the mismanagement and terror of Soviet rule.
We were all very glad when in 1944, the Soviet army marched into Czernowitz.
I no longer had to wear the yellow star, I could go to school and even learn
Yiddish, but the mismanagement and terror continued.
Men who had just returned from Transnistria were conscripted into the army
and some were killed when German forces bombed the train they were on.
My father and some of his friends were given medical papers by one of their
friends, to say that they were insane and for some weeks stayed in
the insane asylum in the southern part of Czernowitz. Later, my mother was
ordered to appear in a nearby office, in order to be sent to cut down trees
in the forests near Czernowitz. Luckily she was saved from having to do so
through the intervention of two Ukrainian peasant women.

Beyond all other reasons and motives, after WW2, Jews wanted a Jewish state
in Palestine, more than anything else. While it was not possible
to immigrate to Palestine, everyone assumed that it would be easier to get
out of Romania, then out of the Soviet Union.
That is why so many tried to cross the border illegally and why most of us
left as soon as possible.

Mimi

On 4/24/12 3:44 AM, "Mordecai Lapidot" <lapidotm_at_zahav.net.il> wrote:

> Being one of those who were "repatriated" to Romania at begin May 1945 I
> still remember the elation at receiving the permission to leave. I was only
> 12 then, but remember vividly the border checking, being frightened to the
> very last if this is not a trick to send us NorthEastward instead of
> Southward. I also remember the transfer of the little goods we could bring
> with us onto a horse drawn farm cart, on which only we children sat, with
> the parents trodding along through the woody area and the subsequent elation
> when arriving in Dorohoi, from where we were transferred a week later to a
> town in Southern Romania.
> As you state - the question "why?" should not be asked of the thirty or more
> thousands that had survived the war - ~ 19000 of the happy of us who had
> been staying in Czernowits on the Popovici permits and the remaining few
> thousand of survivors from the Transnistria extermination area who had
> returned "home" in 1944.
> My mother, for instance, never knew if my father would return safely home
> from his "official" post as manager of a small food shop, because, if at the
> end of the day the accounts did not balance exactly to the Kopek (a fraction
> of a cent at the time), he would be already on the train NorthEastward.
> Or when we children did not know if our mothers would return safely from
> conscription to cut wood in the woods surrounding the town, who were still
> infested with "Banderovtzis" (fascist bandits who still roamed in the
> villages and woods).
> We had been in that terror regime in the course of the first occupation
> 1940-1, and although the subsequent fascist rule during 1941-4 had
> obliterated in its cruelty those memories, they returned vividly in 1944.
> But, as you write, the Red Army did save us, although, as you probably
> remember (those who were there at the time), ever since the capitulation of
> the Romanian Army groups at Stalingrad, begin of 1943, and the steady
> progress of the Red Army through the Ukraine towards Czernowitz, the
> attitude of the authorities in Czernowitz had changed perceptibly, and they
> even opened a Jewish school at the end of 1943 or begin of 1944 I believe (I
> do not remember exactly when but I remember our exultation of meeting again
> as Jewish children in a school). And, to our luck, the German forces, which
> in 1944 overthrew the Horty regime in Hungary, with the devastating effect
> on the many Jews there, did not execute a similar move in Romania at the
> begin of 1944, and in the middle of it it was already too late from them to
> act, with the Red Army at the gates of Romania.
> Well, tomorrow we can proudly celebrate the eve of the 64th Yom Haatzmaut
> here - who of us have dreamed in 1944 or even 1945 that this would be a
> reality?
> So Hag Atzmaut Sameah to the Jewish nation, who now has its own Sovereignty,
> but this eve is mourning for the nearly 23000 fallen in the wars to achieve
> it and to retain it, just a week after mourning the 6 millions who were
> exterminated.
>
> Mordecai
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
 Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
 in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
 the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
 or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
 an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
 searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. As a result,
 Messages sent to the list are available to the general public within days
 of posting.

Please post in "Plain Text" if possible (help available at:
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/PlainText.html>).

To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at:

<http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/elist/howto/user/leave.cfm>

To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to:
<owner-Czernowitz-L_at_list.cornell.edu>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on 2012-04-24 08:15:10