Re: [Cz-L] Our love for Czernowitz

The Romanian government may have neglected the maintenance of streets,
supply of water and electricity, but obviously the citizens expected
better,
otherwise the newspapers would not have reported on such things.
Czernowitzers thought of these problems as due to the inefficiency
and venality
of the Romanian government, not as basic faults of the city.

Our love for Czernowitz is mostly based on how our parents felt
before WW2.
Our parents and grandparents did not compare Czernowitz to Paris,
London or Vienna, these large cities are not where they or their
ancestors
had come from, or places they were familiar with. They compared
Czernowitz
to Sighet, Botosani, Kishinev, Kolomaiya, or Kaminetz Podolsk, the
cities
which were near and from which they or their ancestors had migrated
to Czernowitz.

The inhabitants of Czernowitz born between 1870 and 1920, thought of
their city
as progressive, cultured and worth living in. That is why so few left
in the 1930ties,
when it was obvious that both the political and economic situation
was worsening.
To a large degree, the generation of our parents, those born between
1900 and
1920, deluded themselves; they paid little attention to the rise of
fascism and instead
were satisfied with joining various political and cultural
organizations.
There were Esparanto enthusiasts, communists, Brunnerians, nature
enthusiasts,
hikers, skiers, amateur actors, etc.
Various streams of Zionism, each had their enthusiasts, those who
wanted Yiddish
to be the national language fought those who wanted Hebrew to be the
national language.
The number of newspapers, journals and weeklies published was large.
Life was interesting, exciting and for the majority, quite comfortable.

Mimi

On Aug 14, 2012, at 5:28 AM, Berti Glaubach wrote:

> Reading daily "Der Tag" from 1933/4 one is amazed about the non stop
> critique Hugo Gold and Alia have about the physical condition the
> streets of Cz. are in, the neglect of the municipality of the water
> pipes, the non respecting of privacy by shouting, loud music,
> unacceptable street noise, bad electric supply, bad behavior of most
> citizens, neglect by central government (Bucuresti) of this specific
> province and town, discrimination against foreign language speakers
> (mostly German) in offices, schools and even on the streets. The image
> of Cz. is one far worse than that of other towns like Timisoara etc.
> and the comparisons made on a nearly weekly basis by the newspaper.
>
> Putting aside our idealizations on one side and the natural function
> of a critical newspaper that as we know until to-day will exaggerate
> whenever possible any bad reality on the other, I think that part of
> the difference is explainable by the changes that occurred during the
> 1930th. Czernowitz suffered in WWI three occupations, was then
> neglected by the new Romanian administration, had may be an uplift
> from 1925 to 1929 and then the general economic crisis from1929 t0
> 1933. Only in 1934 things got better and we naturally remember the
> town as it was in this second part of the 30th. For us the streets
> were already paved etc.....
>
> The next phase was of course a turn to the worse...
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Received on 2012-08-14 09:07:06