Re: [Cz-L] Easy choice.

My father and uncles left Bukovina around 1927. Their positive references to Franz Josef clearly placed the Hapsburg era well ahead of the early Romanian period. The latter was marked by disastrous economic conditions exemplified by the only phrase taught to me: "Romania Mare, mamaliga nare" (Romania is Great, there is no cornmeal). My family also sought to escape military service in the Romanian army of that time, known for its harsh treatment of Jewish conscripts.

After visiting Czernovitz I also realized that the three brothers must have read the hand writing on the wall as anti-semitic policies became progressively discriminatory and dangerous, a development that probably became crystal clear with the 1926 killing of the schoolboy David Falik, (http://archive.jta.org/article/1926/11/24/2764154/jewish-pupils-will-be-punished-for-attending-david-faliks-funeral) who demonstrated against the imposition of quotas on Jewish student admissions (his killer admired the crime, but was acquired of murder). Although I only learned about the limitations on higher education and this event when I visited the Jewish Museum in 2010, I imagine my grandfather with a heavy heart encouraged his sons to emigrate soon after this atrocity against a boy about the same age as his own boys.

Sent by iPhone

On Oct 21, 2012, at 10:41 PM, Miriam Taylor <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu> wrote:

> I am not sure which time period would be the best.
> Habsburg? or Romanian before WW2?
> The Romanian period from July 1941 till March 1944
> was clearly the worst, only about 60% of us survived.
> The Soviet period after WW2 was only slightly better.
> Pre-Habsburg was probably also quite bad.
> Ukrainian period? Somewhere in the middle.
>
> In making these choices I considered personal freedom,
> standard of living, state of medicine and technology,
> quality of government and perceived satisfaction with life
> in general and with life in Czernowitz in particular.
>
> Mimi

-snip-
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Received on 2012-10-22 05:28:14