Transnistria – Bukovina Jewish Heritage Sites

Banila Czernowitz Ropcha and Storozhinetz [Eng] – 9/2017 – by Naftali Zloczower

Roots trip to Bukovina

My name is Naftali Zloczower, and both my parents, Dvora (Dora) Schneider Zloczower and Menachem (Maniu) Zloczower, were born, raised, and lived in Storojinets (Storozhynets), Bukovina (today in Ukraine), until the second world war, as did many members of my family and relatives.

In September of this year, 2017, my wife, Nava and I took a roots trip to Bukovina, visiting Czernowits (Chernivtsi), Storojinets, Banila (Banyliv-Pidhirni) and Rupcze (Ropche). We visited Lvov (Lviv) and Zloczow (Zolochiv – probably the source of my family name), but they are in Galicia, and not in Bukovina.

In Chernivtsi, we visited the archive and were presented with 3 files of Romanian records listing Jews who lived in the Storojinets Ghetto in August 1941, before they were herded away to the Transnistria camps. When time ran out, just before closing time, a file with records from Banila was brought to us, but, even though we were allowed to stay after the normal closing time, we did not have enough time to go over the Banila file. In the Storojinets files we found listings of all the members of my mother’s family, including my mother, her sisters and brother, and her parents, as well as listings of many other family members, relatives, and acquaintances. I photographed pages that included names of relatives and familiar last names.

In Storojinets, we found the house of my mother’s family and, we are pretty sure, the house of my father’s family. We also found and photographed the Great Temple on what was Temple Gasse, and the school were my mother and aunts learned.

We visited the Jewish cemeteries in Stotojinets and in Banila, In Banila, we found my great-grandfather, Yossel Zloczower’s grave and the grave of his brother (most probably), Peretz Zloczower, whom I did not know before. In the Storojinets Cemetery we found graves of my maternal great-grandparents, Abraham and Scheindel Schneider, and graves of quite a few family members and relatives. I photographed tombstones with familiar last names.

I wrote a report of our roots trip in Hebrew, and I will write one in English, as well.

See below the link to the trip report.

Roots – 9-2017

See below pictures from Banila Cemetery:
The house nearby and the trail to the cemetery.

The tombstones peeping from the bushes

Tombstones and Zloczower family members tombstones

Pictures from Storozhynetz Cemetery

Pictures from Banila

Pictures from Storozhynets

The old synagogue… serves now as a gym… better than previously being a gypsy market…

Banila Czernowitz Ropcha and Storozhinetz [Heb] – 9/2017 – by Naftali Zloczower

שמי נפתלי זלוצ’ובר ושני הוריי, מנחם זלוצ’ובר ודבורה (דורה) שניידר זלוצ’ובר נולדו וגדלו בסטרוז’ינץ עד מלחמת העולם השנייה. משפחת סבי, אביו של אבי מבנילה ומשפחת סבתי, אם אמי, רוזה הולינגר מרופצ’ה. כך שכל משפחתי, בדורות האחרונים, ממחוז סטרוז’ינץ בבוקובינה.

בספטמבר האחרון (2017) אשתי, נאוה, ואני ערכנו טיול שורשים בצ’רנוביץ, בסטרוז’ינץ, בבנילה וברופצ’ה. בארכיון בצ’רנוביץ גילינו שנמצאים שם תיקים בהם רשימות של יהודי בוקובינה, כל ישוב בנפרד, אשר הוכנו על ידי הרומנים הפשיסטים אחרי כיבוש מחדש של בוקובינה מהרוסים, אחרי הקמת הגטאות, ולקראת הובלת יהודי בוקובינה למחנות טרנסניסטריה. בשלושה תיקים של רשימות יהודי סטרוז’ינץ מצאנו רשומים של אמי ומשפחתה ורבים מבני משפחתי וקרובי משפחה שנלקחו לטרנסניסטריה. צילמתי את הדפים בתיקים שהכילו שמות של בני משפחה ומכרים וגם כאלו של בעלי שמות משפחה זהים לשמות בני משפחתנו הרחבה ומכרים.

ביקרנו גם בבתי העלמין היהודים בבנילה ובסטרוז’ינץ. בבנילה מצאנו את קברו של סבא-רבא שלי יוסף זלוצ’ובר ושל אחיו, שלא ידעתי על קיומו, פרץ זלוצ’ובר.

בבית העלמין בסטרוז’ינץ מצאתי את קבריהם של סבא –רבא וסבתא-רבתא שלי, אברהם שניידר ורוזה שניידר לבית הולינגר, כמו גם קברים של בני משפחה אחרים ומכרים.

הכנתי את הדו”ח המצורף ושלחתי אותו לבני משפחתי ומכרים שנמצאים בארץ, כולל דודתי, אחות אמי, ציפורה שניידר שטרן, ובן דודה של אמי, ישראל דורון שניידר, אשר שמותיהם מופיעים בתיקי ארכיון צ’רנוביץ והם עדיין נמצאים אתנו ופעילים.

יש לי צילומים רבים של דפי רשימות היהודים מארכיון צ’רנוביץ, תמונות מבתי הקברות, כולל תמונות של מצבות שניתן לקרוא את החרוט עליהן, ותמונות כלליות מצ’רנוביץ, סטרוז’ינץ, בנילה ורופצ’ה.

הקישור שלהלן מכיל את סיכום הביקור ותמונות.

Roots – 9-2017

תמונות מבית העלמין בבנילה

הבית והשביל המוליך לבית העלמין

מצבות מציצות מבין השיחים

מצבות של בני משפחת זלוצ’ובר

בית העלמין בסטורוזינץ

תמונות מבנילה

תמונות מסטרוז’נץ

בית הכנסת הישן. כעת אולם ספורט, טוב יותר משוק צועני שהיה קודם

Shargorod Memorial – 8/2017 – by Josef (Julku) Klein

This memorial was erected at the Shargorod Cemetery. It was the initiative of and funding by the engineer Mr. Rubin (Bubby) Laufman, a native of Kimpolung, in memory of his father Zeev (Wilhelm) Laufman and his grandmother Sarah and his grandfather Joseph, and not less important, to the Jewish victims of the Holocaust from the communities of Kimpolung-Bukovina and the surrounding area, who were deported to Transnistria, to the Shargorod ghetto, during World War II, where they perished from illnesses, cold, hunger and endless marches in Ukranian roads. Some of them were buried on the site as individuals, but most of them were buried in a mass grave in the Shargorod cemetery.

Here is an article (in German) written by Mr. Klein and 3 pictures taken during the dedication ceremony.

Shargorod monument

Djurin Ghetto – by Sara Rosen, Phd. – April 2017

Mrs. Sara Rosen has researched processes in Ghettos in Transnistria.
Her paper provided hereafter deal with the Djurin Ghetto and is provided here with her permission. Sara, thank you!

Ghetto Djurin in Transnistria through the lenses of Kunstadt Diary

Djurin is located about 45 kilometers northeast of the city of Mogilev, about 25 km south of Shargorod. Before the outbreak of the second WW, the local Jewish community numbered some 2,000 people. The Jews lived in very great poverty. Notably Rabbi Herschel Karalnik was the respected leader of Jews in the town.

At the outbreak of the war all men were drafted into the Red Army including the Jews. In town remained only the elderly, the sick, women and children, about 1,000 people. Date of occupation by the German and Romanian armies: July 22^nd , 1941. From the fall of 1941, the Romanians ruled Djurin.

The first deportees arrived in Djurin in September 1941 from Bessarabia. They arrived after a long weeks of wondering from camp to camp. Those deported Jews were housed in the synagogue and most of them died shortly after arrival. From the end of October of that year to January 1942 hundreds of deportees, arrived in Djurin ghetto. Most of them were brought from Bucovina, and others north of Moldova (Dorohoi) .

Inspired by Rabi Karalnik, local Jews welcomed the deportees with open arms although the locals themselves were very poor. 8- 10 persons crowded in one room. The homes of local Jews were able to receive more than two-thirds of them and gave those blankets and household items. About 1,000 people did not have a place; they were housed in barns and warehouses.

This paper is focusing on the reality of the new life in which the Jews deported to Djurin ghetto found themselves, as Kunstadt wrote in his Diary. The paper describes the local Jews and the relationship between them and the deportees, as well as the non-Jewish environment outside the ghetto and the relationships forged with those outsiders. All of this as it emerges from this diary.

See in the link: Kunstadt – Sarah Rosen

Tzibulevka Jewish Mass Grave – by Ptachia & Bruria Menkin

On 7-15 July 2015 a group of almost 90 people from Israel went on a journey on the path of the Holocaust of Romanian Jews, in Bukovina and Transnistria valley of death.

Mr. Ptachia Menkin and Mrs. Bruria Menkin took part in this journey, that was organized by the World Organization of Bukovina Jews and led by Mr. Yochanan Ron Singer and Mr. Dan Marian. The Menkins also visited this area previously in 2013, 2011 and 2005.

One of the places they visited was Tzibulevka in Transnistria, where they saw 3 monuments on the mass grave of Jews murdered in WWII. Among those victims were Bruria’s grand parents – Israel and Brana Margulis from Siret. Bruria’s mother has always cried that there is no grave of her beloved parents and finding this mass-grave has resolved her sorrow.
The monuments are in a corn field, approximately 1 Km from the village. Two monuments are close to each other and one is 50m away. The monuments are built on a stone basis.
Please note that there are 2 villages – Old and New Tzibulevka (Staraya Tzibulevka, Novaya Tzibulevka).
See below a map of the area and pictures of the monuments and visit also http://www.yadvashem.org/yv/he/research/ghettos_encyclopedia/ghetto_details.asp?cid=871 .

קבר אחים בציבולובקה 2 2015

קבר אחים בציבולובקה 3 2015

קבר אחים בציבולובקה 1 2015

Bershad Memorial – by Edgar Hauster

In July 2015 Edgar Hauster took his motorcycle ride for his “Motorcycle Ride to Czernowitz via Istanbul”. Amongst many places he visited on this long trip was the Bershad Memorial. He wrote – A picture paints a thousand words. What about more than one thousand one hundred pictures? Let me share with all of you the “Photographic Supplement to my Motorcycle Ride to Czernowitz via Istanbul“.
All his pictures taken in Bershad are at:
http://1drv.ms/1IYuKe3

Here are part of those pictures.

Bershad Synagogue – by Edgar Hauster

In July 2015 Edgar Hauster took his motorcycle ride for his “Motorcycle Ride to Czernowitz via Istanbul”. Amongst many places he visited on this long trip was the Bershad Synagogue. He wrote – A picture paints a thousand words. What about more than one thousand one hundred pictures? Let me share with all of you the “Photographic Supplement to my Motorcycle Ride to Czernowitz via Istanbul“.
All his pictures taken in Bershad are at:
http://1drv.ms/1IYuKe3

Here are part of those pictures.

Bershad Jewish Cemetery – by Edgar Hauster

In July 2015 Edgar Hauster took his motorcycle ride for his “Motorcycle Ride to Czernowitz via Istanbul”. Amongst many places he visited on this long trip was the Bershad Cemetery. He wrote – A picture paints a thousand words. What about more than one thousand one hundred pictures? Let me share with all of you the “Photographic Supplement to my Motorcycle Ride to Czernowitz via Istanbul“.
All his pictures taken in Bershad are at:
http://1drv.ms/1IYuKe3

Here are part of those pictures.

Bershad Synagogue – by Mr. Zvika Schwartzman

On 7-15 July 2015 a group of almost 90 people from Israel went on a journey on the path of the Holocaust of Romanian Jews, in Bukovina and Transnistria valley of death.

Mr. Zvika Schwartzman took part in this journey, that was organized by the World Organization of Bukovina Jews and led byMr. Yochanan Ron Singer and Mr. Dan Marian.

One of the places Mr. Schwartzman visited was the Bershad Synagogue in Ukraine/Transnistria.
See a picture from the synagogue.

Bershad Ghetto Memorial – by Mr. Zvika Schwartzman

On 7-15 July 2015 a group of almost 90 people from Israel went on a journey on the path of the Holocaust of Romanian Jews, in Bukovina and Transnistria valley of death.

Mr. Zvika Schwartzman took part in this journey, that was organized by the World Organization of Bukovina Jews and led byMr. Yochanan Ron Singer and Mr. Dan Marian.

One of the places Mr. Schwartzman visited was the Bershad Ghetto in Ukraine/Transnistria and visited the Ghetto Mass Murder Memorial.
See a picture of a the memorial site and the visit of the group there.