Re:[Cz-L] Military and other records

Here is my last message again, this time in plain text format: sorry for the inconvenience...

Hi Lisa!
My father Simon Rosner was also enrolled by force into the Red Army when the Soviets withdrew from Czernowitz in June 1941. I don’t know of any Red Army Archives being available on the net. The little I know comes from what my father told us: here are a few paragraphs from my book, putting some faint light on this story…
Regards,
Charles

<…
The Soviet occupation of Bukovina lasts one year, till Hitler reneges the pact with Stalin and launches operation Barbarossa on 22nd June 1941.
Before it leaves, the Red Army enrolls by force 3,000 young men from the city, among whom Simon and his elder brother David: this probably saved their life.

Sixty-two years later, I met with the Yiddish writer Joseph Burg, who got enrolled as well. Here is how he pictures the event “Things were quite simple: you were ordered to come and so you did. Otherwise, they would come and fetch you: either you accepted and got enrolled – then you were given a uniform and a gun, but no cartridges – or you didn’t and were immediately arrested and, at best, deported to Siberia”…
Among the archives left over by my parents, I found a few words scribbled by Simon on a notebook.

On June 23rd 1941, together with many others, Simon is called to the Residence and gets enrolled. They all spend the night there and, next morning, are taken to the former nuns’ convent in front of the Volksgarten. He wants to inform Rusia, who is pregnant; he wants to tell her where he is and that they all hope to stay in Czernowitz. But it is difficult to get out, except for a very short permission, and they live too far. He knows many young men who are like him in the convent and, finally, he is able to send a short note to Rusia with one of them.
Next day, 25th of June, he writes again to her:
“Yesterday I could quickly inform mother and she will certainly come and tell you where I am: just after the barracks in the Siebenbürgerstrasse in front of the Volksgarten. Maybe you can come today and, if I’m not allowed to go out, I will see you from the window… Also, I forgot to tell you that the rent will be lower now that you are alone: 40 kopeks/sqm and only 3.35 instead of 6.75 for the water; don’t let H. fool you, go and see K. at 25 Rathausstrasse, and if R. isn’t present, try to see S. My Mäderl, be strong and always remember your promise… Pah, my Dear, and take good care of yourself, I want to retrieve you in good health!”
Later same day, Simon is embarked with many others in a train leaving northeast, behind the front.
…
Simon

Simon understands progressively in 1941 that he will be away for more than a few weeks. He feels terribly lonely and he also writes some words in a notebook, addressing them to Rusia…
At first, he is appointed to the infirmary; close to the front line for a few months, he carries wounded soldiers on stretchers. He sees how soldiers leave for a battle with a gun plus a bottle of vodka, but no cartridges : Just get some from a dead German! He is shown how to jump into the excavation made by the last bomb in order to escape the next one; and, when an alien plane shoots on his convoy near a corn field, he runs along the field instead of trying to hide in the forest of stems. He loads and unloads trucks, carrying up to 100-kg-bags on his back. He is taught how to arrange a fire under trucks’ diesel engines, so that they can start in winter…

Stalin doesn’t trust those recruits from Bukovina who speak German: he orders they shall be sent eastwards, as far as possible from the front line.

Like many, Simon is sent to Alma Ata, by then the capital of Kazakhstan.
One day, he thinks of a way to get discharged from the army: he is shortsighted and decides to learn by heart each line of the infirmary’s poster used in ophthalmology. He then complains that he doesn’t see well with his old glasses. And when they test him, first without his glasses and then with incredibly thick ones on his nose, he roughly guesses through the fog the level of the line they point at and tells by heart the corresponding line!
He is discharged.
…
________________________________________________________

Subject: Re: [Cz-L] Military and other records
From: Lisa Cohn <aforestclearing_at_yahoo.com>
Date: Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:40:56 -0700
X-Message-Number: 35

Thank you for the kind welcome.=A0 I live in NJ, and I have alr=
eady joined the Romanian listserve, very handy since my father's family did=
n't stick to one town as my mother's family did in Lithuania.=A0 =0A=A0=0AT=
hank you also for those who found my great-grandmother's tombstone on Jewis=
hgen.=A0 That's a wonderful resource that I've been using for years.=A0=
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Received on 2012-04-24 15:33:02