Bukovynian Jews during the Holocaust: The problem of preserving historical memory

Abstract

In the article, based on archival materials, published memoirs, a retrospective analysis of events and contemporary reflections of the Holocaust on the territory of Bukovina during the Second World War is carried out. During the Soviet, German-Romanian occupation of the region, the Bukovinian Jewish community suffered severe suffering and trials, huge human and material losses, which greatly undermined the social, economic and cultural positions of the Jewish population in Bukovina. In fact, the socio-cultural face of Chernivtsi and the region changed, entire generations of Bukovinian Jews were erased from historical memory, forever disappeared into the darkness of history.

From the late 80’s – early 90’s XX century. in the conditions of the collapse of the USSR and the emergence of an independent Ukraine, it became possible to study the events of the Holocaust in the Chernivtsi region, to study the fate of Bukovynian Jews during the Second World War. Despite the mass emigration, in 1990-1995 the Jewish community of Chernivtsi published five collections of memories of Holocaust survivors of the Holocaust in Bukovina, erected a memorial sign at the scene of the shootings in the summer of 1941 and a memorial plaque on the Chernivtsi ghetto (in 2016 the efforts of the Jewish community of Chernivtsi to create a full memorial in the territory of the former ghetto).

Since 2010, the Museum of Jewish History and Culture of Bukovina has been established in Chernivtsi, and at the Chernivtsi National University there is a Center of Jewish studies, which is actively engaged in the study and promotion of Bukovina Jewish history, including the topic of the Holocaust.

Since 2017, work has begun on the creation of the Holocaust Museum in Chernivtsi in the building of the former memorial synagogue «Beit Kadish» on the territory of a Jewish cemetery, which aims to commemorate the memory of Bukovinian Jews who died during the Second World War.

Over the past 30 years, more than 65 monuments (memorials, plaques) have appeared in the Chernivtsi region to commemorate those killed in the Holocaust. However, around the Holocaust events in Bukovina, a memory conflict has arisen – it is about different interpretations of events (Ukrainian, Romanian, Jewish, post-Soviet narratives) and commemorative practices related to it. An example of the post-Soviet memory of the Holocaust is the recently opened memorial in one of the districts of Chernivtsi (Sadgora), on the so-called “Kozak Hill”, in memory of the executed Jews in the summer of 1941. The Soviet term “Great Patriotic War” is used in the inscription on the monument.

Keywords: Holocaust, Transnistria, ghetto, «autorization», deportation, primar