Re: [Cz-L] Discrimination Thread

Honestly Artur, I don't remember ever laughing and weeping simultaneously,
which is what occurred while reading your nostalgic, humorous but
poignantly beautiful story on returning to your grandmother's former house in
Czernowitz..
    Without using words like theft, fear and guilt, over two generations
later your story implies the granddaughter of the woman who benefited from
the seizure of your grandmother's house conveyed those very emotions when
confronted by the grandson of the original owner. The fact that you only
wanted to see the house again
did not seem to allay those feelings. To her, in 1945 you might as well
have carved your name in that basement in blood..
 
    Thank you, Artur. Your story speaks for itself.
                                                                            
        
Iris
Iris June Steinhauser Vinegar
Raleigh, North Carolina
 
 
 
 
 
 
In a message dated 2/10/2013 7:30:28 A.M. Eastern Standard Time,
vonczernowitz_at_yahoo.com writes:
Repeating my visit to my grandmothers house.

Visit to my Grandmother’s House.
August 2010, my last visit to Czernowitz, the town where I was born, I
wanted to visit my grandmother’s house.
I called a taxi to take me to the house. The taxi arrived and the driver
said “kuda” (“where”) and I said “Vozmite menya k domu moye babushki v
Kos¬modemianskoy ulitse”, (“take me to my grandmother’s house in
Kosmodemianskoy street”). Before the war the street was called Schießstätten Gasse. He
starts driving and we pass the Russische Gasse but he drove the wrong way. I
tell the driver “Vy vidite etot dom, eto gde ya rodilsya.” (You see this
house, this is where I was born”). I tell the driver, turn around and drive
strait to my grandmother’s house without detours as I know this city and
that I am not a dumb tourist. We arrive at the house, I knock, the door is
opened by a young lady, she asks me what I want; I tell her that I would
like to see the interior of the house as this house is was my grandmother’s
house. She tells me that it is impossible; she tells me that the house
belongs to her own grand¬mother. I tell her
OK, I have no desire of taking this house away from you and all that I
want, is to see the inside of the house. My taxi driver tells her to let me in
and that he does not see a problem. She lets me in, I walk to the kitchen,
gone is the “pripicheck” the place where my father and I used to sleep on
top during the cold Czernowitzer winters and where my grandmother cooked
and baked those fabulous meals.
Gone are the beautiful curtains and the old furniture. I thank the lady
and she takes me to the door, and as I say goodbye, it clicks; I ask the lady
if I could also see the cellar. She wants to know why and I say just for
old times. The cellar was the place where my grandmother kept her wood for
heating and cooking; also her “Vorräte” (“provisions”), like potatoes,
onions, jars of pickles, the sauerkraut and her jars of schmaltz. We walk down
the few steps, I walk over to the wooden column which is in the middle of
the cellar and there it is my name ARTUR, which I carved before leaving
Czernowitz in 1945. I showed this to the lady, and told her, you see this is my
 name.
The lady opened her mouth, but no sound came out. I believe that she
stopped breathing. She stood there with her mouth open for a long time and as we
walked up the stairs she kept on whispering, “eto nevozmozhno, staraya
babushka eto nevozmozhno” (“this is impossible, old grand¬mother, this is
impossible”). I kept on telling her, not to worry; I have no desire taking your
house away. The only person who really enjoyed this was my taxi driver, he
just could not stop laughing and when he took me back to the hotel he did
not take any money from me. He kept on saying “molodets, molodets” (“you
are great, you are great”), and also “umnik”, which I believe is “smart”
or “a person with brains”.
He kept on shaking his head, waving his hands and laughing.
*
P.S.: It was Artur without the H, the way it was written in Czernowitz at
that time.

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Received on 2013-02-10 12:02:32