[Cz-L] The Russian Retreat in 1941

My father
Simon Rosner was born in Wizhnitz in 1910, like Joseph Burg.
Here is an
excerpt from my book entitled <Emancipation – Are you also from Czernowitz>
about the Russian retreat in 1941.
 
< …Simon speaks
some Russian: he is appointed responsible for a block of houses, although he
didn’t apply for the job. In fact, these are a few houses in the Strada
Brancoveanu – the former Liliengasse – where a small room is attributed to him
and Rusia.
The family
survives, day after day, selling some goods from time to time, a blanket, a
watch, a carpet, in order to buy some food or some coal in the winter.  Whether you queue at a shop or try it on the
black market, you have to be there at the right time and on the right spot, if
you want to find something to buy…
 
The Soviet occupation of Bukovina lasts one year, till
Hitler goes back on the pact with Stalin and launches operation Barbarossa on
22nd June 1941.
Before it leaves, the Red Army enlists by force 3,000
young men from the city, among whom Simon and one of his elder brothers: this
probably saved their life.
 
Sixty-two years later, I met in Czernowitz  with the Yiddish writer Joseph Burg, who got enlisted
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 enlisted – 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 23rd1941, together with many others, Simon is called to the Residence and gets enlisted.
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,
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, 25thof 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.
 
The electric plant of the city is destroyed and the
main bridge over the Pruth River blown up. Early July, the last soviet forces
leave Czernowitz without fighting. Communists, students, civil servants and
many opportunists having good reasons to fear for their life, use the
opportunity and flee. … >

[Charles Rosner]

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Received on 2013-07-22 09:21:16