From the 2006 Reunion Group

Czernowitz Reminiscenses - Part 2

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From: Charles Rosner
<frenchczern@...>
Date: Wed Mar 1, 2006  3:30 am
Subject: Re: [czernowitz2006]
February 2006-February1944
frenchczern

Dear Irene,
   I’m not good at expressing my feelings and emotions. Just know that reading
your mail and the words of your father… made me cry. I even have tears in my
eyes, right now, while I desperately try to find the correct words to thank you.
   So, thank you for copying us with your father's message, this message he mean t
for you and for future generations. May he rest in peace!
   Encore merci,
   Charles


IRENE <irenef1@...> wrote:  Dear friends,
Last days of February 2006: I read your short biographies.
Nights of February 1944: my father is writing at candle light, telling his
life's story to his 3 and a half years old son. The place: a kolkhoz not far
from Stalingrad. A sudden disruption appears in the calm flow of the story.
Here I copy a few lines from my father's old notebook. I dedicate them to
you, those children and youngsters who survived the darkest years of the
last century. You are the winners.
Irene

              "TRISTES INTERMEZZO
Also, damals 1918, freuten wir uns auf die Heimkehr; wie
selbstverstaendlich, wie natuerlich. Jetzt 1944, kann es diese Freude nicht
geben.--- Die Nachrichten, die wir letzthin auf Umwegen aus unserer Heimat
erhielten, zusammen mit den Mitteilungen aus den von der faschistischen Pest
befreiten Gebieten, gaben ein ensetzliches Bild. Vor allem: die Juden sind
ausgemordet.
Hinter dieser schauerlichen Tatsache verbirgt sich eine ganze Veraenderung
dessen, was uns Heimat war, verbirgt sich der schneidende Schmerz um den
Verlust unserer naechsten Menschen, meiner Freunde, unseres Volkes...
Erschuettert beugen wir unsere Haeupter - noch- uns Ueberlebenden! Und aus
erstickten Kehlen dringt ein "Jisgadal wejiskadesch"...
Mein Kind, Du bist ein Kind jenes Volkes, das so seltsamerweise beim Tode
seiner Naechsten, das Kaddisch-Gebet sagt, das nichts anderes als eine
Verherrlichung Gottes ist. Wie schwer der Schlag auch sein mag - Gott ist
gross. Und weiter heisst es in den Psalmen "Nicht die Toten werden Gott
verherrlichen..." Der ewige Ruf: weiterleben!
Vor Dir die ewige, unveraenderliche Aufgabe: Dich erhalten, das Volk
erhalten, dem Ewigen (in unserer Sprache- der Menschheit) dienen. Wie kann
es anders sein? Was koennen wir tun, als jenem Ruf folgen? Wir muessen den
Schmerz besiegen, wir muessen weiter bauen! Nur so koennen wir das unsagbar
Entsetzliche raechen und ueberwinden. Februar 1944, Aleksikovo"

Josef Ehrenkranz.

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From: "mrgltshl" <grshilo@...>
Date: Wed Mar 1, 2006  6:04 am
Subject: februar 2006/ 1944
mrgltshl

dear irene,
i read your father words and fell a thrill.....
its so moveing, and so familiar...
thank you for sharing those words with us.

i feel sorry you won't join the runion this time.
i'm still optimistic, we can meet and talk in our home country, even
thougth you are in the haifa, and i'm in ramat hasharon. after i read
your father's words, i know,we have a lot in common,

rita margalit-shilo
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From: "IRENE" <irenef1@...>
Date: Sun Mar 19, 2006  5:20 am
Subject: Reunion06 inTel-Aviv
irenef1@...

Dear Czernowitzers,

Since my recent conversion to Czernowitzerdom I went through many moments of
joy and excitement, as I already told you.

  Last Thursday I was lucky to attend a peak event: the After-Purim Social
Gathering organized by the Bukowiner Landsmannschaft in Tel-Aviv.

I even met some familiar faces: Ilya, Mady1 and Mady2, Rony and Many and
Irith, Lili and Heddy too.

After a short and very funny introduction by Mr Yalon, here came the
highlight: Prof.Zwi Yawetz's lecture on " Bukowiner Humor". Everybody agreed
this is a very serious topic. As a consequence we all (an about 250 people
audience) laughed at every second sentence. Brilliant. I received an
additional bonus when, with a comic twist, Prof.Yawetz mentioned the famous
Meisler Schule and the famous teacher Frau Singer - my beloved Tante Flora.

At the finale con brio Mr. Yawetz gave a lengthy recitation, by heart, of a
parody of Schiller's "Die Glocke": in Yiddish it sounds like "Die Lockschen"
(Nu, Hardy?).

Lachen ist gesund.

Bleibt mir gesund.

Be well and don't forget to laugh even if you feel like crying. (" mit einem
Aug' lacht man, mit dem anderem weint man")

Irene

P.S. Please tell me, somebody; what's the source of "Rebbe Pomelech"?
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From: "David Glynn" <glynn@...>
Date: Tue Mar 28, 2006  3:01 pm
Subject: Czernowitz movies
glynn@...

My mother Erica was reminiscing about films she saw at the "Kapitol" in the
Herrengasse.  It was owned by an uncle of my mother's cousin Anny.  Erica
recalls that the cinema showed mainly German films, rather than Hollywood
(this was in the 1930s) - one starred Franciska Gaal, who played the maid of
a household, desperately in love with the chauffeur (who turned out to be
the son of the household).  At one stage in this film, the heroine was in
tears, because she had received a note from the chauffeur, but couldn't
read...  Anny's maid was with my mother at this film, and at this point she
too was in tears, because she couldn't read either, and so really felt the
heroine's predicament...  Another film that my mother saw there starred
Joseph Schmidt, the famous tenor.

Mimi once sent me a photo showing a set of billboards advertising what's on
at the cinemas.  "David Copperfield" appeared to be showing at the Scala!
Erica says that the Scala was by far the smartest cinema in Czernowitz,
fitted in handsome blue velvet.  She thinks it was somewhere in the part of
town near to the Temple.  She saw several silent films there, including
Chaplin's "City Lights".

David
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From: Miriam Taylor <mirtaylo@...>
Date: Tue Mar 28, 2006  12:03 pm
Subject: Czernowitz movies
mirtcz

I think it is the "Capitol" on the Herrengasse which has the beautiful foyer
in the 1930ies style which is still preserved now as it was.

After " The Thief of Bagdad" with Cornell Wilde, the movies which made the
greatest impression on me during my Czernowitz years are both Russian; "The
stone flower" and "The Jaz party". The latter one was Russia's answer to
Holywood musicals. There is a wonderful scene in it where the farm animals
invade a fashionable party of the "burjui". The very popular song "Sertze"
was written for this movie. I remembered the movie, but not it's name for
all these years, every time I met older Russians, I asked about it, just to
be answered by shrugging of the shoulders. Finally, a few years ago, I found
a person who said: of course, the jaz party.
It is every bit as good as I remembered it, or even better.

There also was one war movie, I do not know whether Russian or American, in
which they poured gasoline on a river and ignited it, does anyone remember
which movie this was?

If I remember correctly, they called  Laurel and Hardy, Stan si Bran, for
years I thought those were Romanian movies.

Czernowitz,Czernowitz nur du allein solst stet die Stadt meiner Traume sein.
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From: "HARDY BREIER" <HARDY3@...>
Date: Tue Mar 28, 2006  8:25 pm
Subject: MOVIES
HARDY3@...

HI MIMI,
  THE SORCERER IN  "THE THIEF OF BAGDAD" WAS PLAYED BY
THE FAMOUS GERMAN ACTOR CONRAD VEIDT (NOT CORNEL WILDE)
  THE "JAZZ PARTY "WAS ALSO CALLED " VESYOLYE REBIATA "
THE "MERRY BUNCH " AND WAS A 1934 FILM.
  THE FILM WITH GAS BURNING ON WATER IS  " THE SONG OF RUSSIA"
WITH ROBERT TAYLOR I MENTIONED BEFORE.
   THERE ALSO WAS "CIRCUS" WITH AN ILLICIT BLACK BABY  REJECTED BY THE
AMERICANS BUT WELCOMED BY THE OPENMINDED
SOVIET POPULATION....
     I ALSO REMEMBER "DOCTOR MAMLOK" (OR THE LIKE) ABOUT
A FAMOUS JEWISH SURGEON, REMOVED BY THE NAZIS FROM
HIS JOB ( IN GERMANY) AND THEN THE GESTAPO CHIEF NEEDS
AN URGENT OPERATION AND WILL NOT ALLOW ANY NAZI DOCTOR
TO APPROACH HIM . ALL HE SAYS TO HIS NAZI SUBORDINATES IS:
" GO AND FETCH THE JEW ".
  HOBEN MIR GEHAT A NEKUME !
  HARDY
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From: Gabriele Weissmann
<G.Weissmann@...>
Date: Tue Mar 28, 2006  2:47 pm
Subject: Translation
G.Weissmann@...

To all those who are not familiar with German : This article appeared in
one of Berlin largest newspapers, "Berliner Morgenpost"
*
*"Swinging end of the 19th Jewish Culture Festival - December 2005
Today Czernowitz is a city in Ukraine.  Before it belonged respectively
to Austro-Hungaria, then to Romania, and later to the Soviet Union.
However, the Jewish Czernowitz lives on in many places. In New York, in
Tel Aviv, in Vienna and in Berlin. Two years ago,Volker Koepp has made a
moving documentary about this phenomenon, "This year in Czernowitz".
Now, at the end of the 19th Jewish Culture Festival, Czernowitz gathered
together again, in the  theatre tend behind
the Centrum Judaicum (this is a Jewish centre in Berlin next to the
Oranienburger Synagogue, once one of the biggest in Europe, destroyed in
the Cristallnacht in
1938 and now a ruin but nicely restored).
Shantel ,is a music producer from Frankfurt and a star disc-jokey since
his success with the "Club Bukowina", got to see the home of his
grand-parents only four years ago. On the musical side, he has been
working on Czernowitz for a much longer time. For his youngest project,
"Kosher Nostra", he assmelbed Jewish songs and klezmer sounds, a wild
mix, suitable not only for the dance floor but also for listening to.
Furthermore, Shantel brought live guests, first and foremost the
Czernowitz orchestra Lev Feldman. 14 musicians in folklore costumes and
respective music. One could hear wedding melodies, Moldawian dances,
a jazzed-up version of the "Grine Kuzine" (Jiddisch for green cousin),
Tango and Czardas. Feldman, conducting,shakes the rumba rattles,dances
himself Kasatchok, to make the audience join him, and he succeeds".
The rest of the article is more for Berlin audiences. The journalist,
Uwe Sauerwein, is a German who fell in love with Jewish folklore and
klezmer music, plays the guitar and accompanies himself, singing, in
Jiddish, and has an enormous repertoire.
Hope to have brought some new light on our favourite theme.
Gabriele

Gabriele Weissmann
Kaiserdamm 18
D- 14057 Berlin
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From: "HARDY BREIER" <HARDY3@...>
Date: Wed Mar 15, 2006  8:34 pm
Subject: SPORT TEACHER STANGER.doc
HARDY3@...

SPORT TEACHER STANGER.
 IN SCHOOL #18 WE HAD A GYMNASTICS TEACHER BY THE NAME 
OF STANGER. HE WAS ALSO OUR MUSIC TEACHER AND HE HAD
MUSICAL AMBITIONS.
 
HE WANTED TO FORM AN ORCHESTRA AND ALL PUPILS
WITH INSTRUMENTS WERE ASKED TO COME AND PLAY.
WE ALL BROUGHT OUR FIDDLES AND MANDOLINS AND  STANGER
WAS THE CONDUCTOR AND THE SOUND WE PRODUCED IS HARD TO
DESCRIBE : SUCH A SCRATCHING AND WHEEZING CAME OUT FROM THE
REHEARSALS THAT MICE AND OTHER VERMIN FLED THE ROOM IN PANIC.
   
OUR FAME WAS SOON CIRCULATED AND WE WERE APPROACHED WITH
OFFERS TO PERFORM IN INFESTED HOUSES  AS VERMIN BUSTERS.
STANGER STOOD ON THE PODIUM  GESTICULATING WITH HIS HANDS , LIKE
A REAL TOSCANINI .

STANGER ALSO TAUGHT US SINGING. HE REHEARSED WITH US ALL THE
LATEST PATRIOTIC RUSSIAN WAR SONGS AND OUR SHOWPIECE WAS
MARCHING THE STREETS AND SINGING  THE LATEST HIT.
     
WE DIDN'T SING WELL BUT WE SANG  LOUD. WE SHOUTED LIKE MAD - WORDS
WE HARDLY UNDERSTOOD.. I REMEMBER ONE DAY ON THE RUSSKAYA ULITZA
WE MARCHED AND BLASTED AWAY , PEOPLE CAME OUT IN MASSES TO SEE IF 
THE RED ARMY CHOIR  ARRIVED IN TOWN!

STANGER ,WHO ALSO WAS A COMMIE , WAS ON THE CITY EDUCATION BOARD AND
REPORTED EVERY EVENT WHEN WE WERE BEATEN UP BY PUPILS OF THE
NEIGHBOURING RUSSIAN SCHOOL.
     
I REMEMBER ONE DAY WHEN WE WERE AMBUSHED NEAR THE VOLKSGARTEN ,
STANGER LE DA COUNTERATTACK AND VALIANTLY REPULSED THE HULIGANS.
NEXT DAY HE REPORTED TO THE HIGHER RANKS OF THE CITY BOARD AND FOR SOME
TIME WE HAD PIECE. AND THEN WE HAD METRE KAPELIUCH OUR PHYSICS TEACHER
WHO GOT HIS NAME FROM HIS VERY HIGH HAT.

HE WAS A PATHETIC SOMEWHAT QUIXOTIC  FIGURE. HE WAS A BROTHER OF
"TODER"  (DUMBHEAD) SEGAL TEACHING MATH..
      
BUT ABOUT  THIS I WILL TELL YOU SOME OTHER TIME .
HARDY
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From: Lucca <lucca99@...>
Date: Wed Mar 15, 2006  9:18 am
Subject: Re: [czernowitz2006] My
meeting with JoseF 2.doc
lucca99@...

Was the military instructor's name "Stanger?"
I also frequented first  school No.3 and then later No. 18. We had one teacher
whose name was Segal, and the teacher who taught us jiddish was named Ginninger.
He was ugly like hell, but charming like an angel!
Oh God, all those memories!
Lucca
----- Original Message -----
From: "HARDY BREIER" <HARDY3@...>
Subject: [czernowitz2006] My meeting with JoseF 2.doc

> Our military instructor( every school had one) helped
> us out, he said:" Every and each of your families
> keeps benzene at home , go and get it !"
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