[Cz-L]Culture and relations between the various Ethnic groups which lived in Czernowitz/Chernivtsi before WW2

Dear Karolina,
Dear Czernowitzers,

I left Czernowitz/Chernivtsi when I was just 8 years old.
Therefore anything I will write about this subject is as seen and remembered
by a child, or surmised from what I read or heard my parents talk about.

The major ethnic groups in the city after WW1 and before WW2 were:
Jews - about 50% of the population.
Ruthenians, Romanians, Germans, Poles and Armenians.
Each ethnic group lived predominantly in its own neighborhoods and attended
its own churches or synagogues, but there were no ghettoes and no absolutely
uniformly inhabited neighborhoods.
The schools were integrated during the Austrian period and still mostly
integrated during the Romanian period.

Personal close friendships between members of the various ethnic groups were
rare, but not unknown. The same can be said about intermarriages.
I know of only two mixed marriages among the acquaintances of my family.
But professional people were judged and employed according to their
abilities, without regard to their ethnicity.
My family physician was Dr. Alexis Vladimir Zaloziecki, the head of the
Ruthenian community, and the most highly respected physician in Czernowitz
in the 1930ies.
Our piano tuner was Polish. My nursemaid was German.
In the factory of my grandparents, which produced Kosher processed meat and
only had about 8 employees, one was Polish.
Almost all people spoke some Ruthenian, they had to in order to communicate
with the villagers who sold their produce at the market.
Non-Jews who worked for Jewish families often spoke excellent Yiddish.

When at the end of WW1 the population of Czernowitz had to vote on becoming
part of Romania, both Jews and Ruthenians voted as one block against it.
When Czernowitz did become part of Romania, the government instituted
measures which discriminated against both Jews and Ruthenians.

Aside from ethnic divisions, there were also divisions due to wealth and
education. Czernowitz was a very snobbish city. People of divergent
ethnicity, but higher education were more likely to be in friendly contact
with each other.

While there were generally speaking no close friendly relations between
people of different ethnic background and while each ethnic group probably
had some stereotypical views of other groups, there were no hostile
relations or hostile actions between the various ethnic groups, till the
late 1930ies; and these were between Romanians and Jews and largely due
to the Romanian government and its functionaries.

The Czernowitz Address books accessible on the Ehpes website contain
the names of the heads of families, their professions and addresses.
By careful analysis of names according to probable ethnicity and matching
this information with profession and or address, it would be possible to
determine the most common professions for each ethnic group and the extent
to which they lived in separate neighborhoods.

Please in responding to this Email, write to both Karolina and Cz.-List.

Mimi

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Received on 2012-06-24 17:10:41