The discussion about the Bukovina community in Curacao reminded me the Odyssey my family had from Romania to Ecuador.
Here is a quote from our cousin Arthur Fischler memoirs, the trip from Rio to Guayaquil :
We left Rio, prior informing the family that we were finally departing for Guayaquil and that we would arrive two days later.
The flight - on a big plane - was pleasant and we landed in Trinidad, where we had to change planes. We arrived in a huge airport! It was really big! But there was no other plane to continue our trip, any people, or anything at all. We got off the plane and just stood there on the tarmac of this enormous airport until the military police arrived. They, in a very educated manner, spoke to us in English (which none of us understood) and we spoke French or German to them (which none of them understood). They put is in their vehicle and took us to the airport, where we continued speaking "at" each other without understanding anything.
Suddenly, it dawned on me that some friends of ours had immigrated to Trinidad before the war. I looked them up in the phone book and I actually found one of them. We spoke with him and he told the police officer that he was coming to the airport to straighten out the mess. He was so happy that he arrived at the airport with two cars full of people from Gurahumora!!
The mess got straightened out and they took us to a hotel in Port-o-Prince where we stayed for two entire weeks. We met all of our countrymen from GH, their families, their friends, and naturally, the island of Trinidad. Presently, I remember very little about this beautiful island. I was impressed by the fact most of the population was either black or Hindu. In fact, these were the first Indians from India I had ever seen. They had nice stores with things from India which I had never seen before. I remember that some trees with some very strange fruit grew in the hotel garden. I did not know what they were and I did not dare try the fruit on my own. Afterward I was told these are tasty fruit and that they are called "mango" and presently, our mangoes (although quite different from those in the Caribbean islands) are my favorite fruit and we have two beautiful mango trees in our backyard.
We had a good time in Trinidad and after a few days we went to the airport, prior having sent a cable to Guayaquil informing of our departure from Trinidad and our imminent arrival in Guayaquil on the following day.
At the airport we were informed that there were no direct flights to Guayaquil and that "our plane" was only flying to ... Curacao! (What a bummer! When we left Paris, we wanted to go west and we went south. Now that we wanted to go south, they were sending us north!) But we got on the plane bravely and arrived in Curacao. Someone remembered that Uncle Jose had a Marvin watch agent there, who distributed them. We called him and he came immediately and left us in a good hotel and ... that's the last we saw of him! After getting set-up in the hotel, we went (we were always in a group)on the street. We had not even walked some 10 meters, when a gentleman, from far away, started yelling in the direction of my Uncle Josef, "Hey, aren't you Hellwing from Bukovina?" He was a classmate ("Mitschueler" in German) of my uncle and they had not seen each other for over 30 years, but he had immediately recognized him. We spoke for a long time and he told us of other relatives that lived in Curacao, for example, the Wijnitzer family. When my grandmother heard the name, she jumped for joy and told us that it must be some nephews of hers that had immigrated many years ago. Unfortunately, they were on a trip.
Many years thereafter, Inge and I went to Curacao. I met three of the brothers who were distant cousins. And, to top it all off, the youngest was married to a girl from GH, who when seeing me, greeted me with, "How are you, my teacher?" I had actually been her teacher (together with Natzy and Burschi) when Jewish children were not allowed to go to state schools.
After they had met us, we were all invited and we got a good sightseeing tour of the island. What impressed us the most, of course, was the Jewish synagogue, which is the oldest in the American continent and despite being 300 years old, is in perfect conditions. It is a Sephardic temple and it has a sand floor. The temple is beautiful and the Torahs are kept in very ornate silver boxes, which are also beautiful. We also were very impressed by the cleanliness of the island and the honesty of its people.
We spent some 10 or 12 days in Curacao and we were able to get tickets, rather seats for Guayaquil.
Oren
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. As a result,
Messages sent to the list are available to the general public within days
of posting.
Please post in "Plain Text" (help available at:
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/PlainText.html>).
To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at:
<http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/elist/howto/user/leave.cfm>
To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to:
<owner-Czernowitz-L_at_list.cornell.edu>
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on 2014-10-30 07:32:06
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.2.0 : 2015-01-01 08:25:54 PST