"He spoke Yiddish like a Jew": Neighbors' Contribution to the Mass Killing of Jews in Northern Bukovina and Bessasrabia, July 1941

Dr. Simon Geissbühler (Romania and the Holocaust: Events Contexts Aftermath, ibidem, 2016): Holocaust memory in Romania as well as in those areas controlled by Romania during the Second World War which are now part of Ukraine and the Republic of Moldova is fragile, fragmented, and often guided by a semi-passive attitude of wanting-not-to-know. […] A big gap exists between public knowledge about the Holocaust and scholarly research. Large parts of the Romanian population as well as people now living in those places where atrocities were perpetrated by Romanians do not want to know. Most traces of Jewish life before the Holocaust and of the Holocaust itself have been neglected or even erased. Jewish cemeteries in Northern Bukovina, southwestern Ukraine, and the Republic of Moldova are often in a state of neglect. Very few synagogues still exist, and most have long since been destroyed or converted for other purposes. Mass graves are difficult to locate and most often not even recorded on maps. There are only very few and no new Jewish or Holocaust museums in these regions. […] There are some positive countertrends, however, but it is too early to speak about a strong wind of change when it comes to Holocaust memory in present-day Romania.

Courtesy: Oxford Academic Press • Holocaust and Genocide Studies

About my Family / Autobiographical Fragments • Despre familia mea / Fragmente autobiografice

Osias Stenzler's Credo: "God blessed me with a long life, celebrating in Radauti between friends, 95 years of life and I hope the divinity will give me some more time (my grandfather reached a hundred years). I let my followers the confession of my work, saying that each of us must put the shoulder, if we want the society to move in the desired direction for us. Of course the road is not easy, it is done with sacrifices and offerings…."

"The Osias 'Shike' Stenzler Radautz Booklet" is a unique document compiled by Osias Stenzler over about three decades until his death in the year 2008 at the age of 99 years. His memory, unlike his eyesight, never faded, even at an advanced age. After the loss of vision, Osias’ sons Daniel and Bondy kept his records from dictation and so we have the rare opportunity to discover a real treasure chest making alive the Jewish life in post WW2 Radautz. The booklet is headlined "Occupations and Professions Practiced by the Jewish Population of Radautz", but beyond the long list of names it contains authentic notes and remarks on the Radautz Jewish community.

Courtesy: Bondy Stenzler

Der Franziszeische Kataster im Kronland Bukowina • The Land Register of Francis I in the Crownland of Bukovina

 

The Land Register of Francis I (1817 – 1861) is a comprehensive cartographical and statistical documentation of the natural, economic and social circumstances surrounding the Habsburg monarchy in the first half of the 19th century.  The measurement, soil assessment and earning power of all crown lands and the arrangement in tax districts and 30,556 land registry districts was a great technical and cultural-political achievement at a time after the Napoleonic Wars in which the Austrian monarchy had reached a new low. Since January of 2008 the Universities of Klagenfurt and Innsbruck have been working on a research project (funded with the support of the Austrian Scientific Fund – FWF) whose aim is to scientifically develop and examine the maps and records of the states of Carinthia and Bukovina. [...] 

The layout of the Land Register of Francis I (with its fiscal, judicial and political objectives) sought to bring together the provinces of the union of states into a uniform jurisdiction regarding soil assessment and taxation.  As a basic part of the development of a more or less unified economic area, the “Franziszeische Surveying Unit” in conjunction with the “land registry” and the “soil assessment” had the goal of viewing the “tax assessment” (which did not take place) as an undertaking to reshape a large region economically, administratively and judicially.  For this reason the “land registry” was an important step towards a “modern state” – in the case of the Habsburg monarchy this was definitely without and against the ideological support of nationalism taking place during the start of the 19th century. In its political meaning the research into the land registry has up until now been largely ignored. There has been almost no adequate consideration for the land registry in the overall view of the Austrian management, economic and social history. The missing editorial coverage of the land registry as a source for comparison studies is a drawback whose elimination should provide new impulse to the research with a middle European perspective.

Courtesy: OAPEN Open Access