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April 5, 2013
Article turns into a documentary
The search for one family’s Czernowitz history has resulted in new, lasting connections.
SHULA KLINGER
On March 4, 2011, the Jewish Independent published my article “A rekindling of a vibrant culture.” In it, I talked about my search for my family’s history in the Austro-Hungarian province of Bukowina. With little to go on, I had hoped to learn something about my paternal grandmother’s family. For some time, I had worried about my scant knowledge and about how badly I would answer my children’s questions when they grew up; with the passing of another generation, I could imagine our sense of our history disintegrating altogether. My searches turned up nothing of consequence. However, thanks to a listserv hosted at Cornell University, I made contact with Bukowiners of three generations. Thanks to this wonderful group, I gained an insight into the time, place and people that made my grandmother who she was.
When my article was published, I received wonderful feedback from the list members. Encouraged by these responses, I submitted it to a producer at CBC Radio. The producer suggested that we build the essay into a documentary. So, having only ever communicated with the Czernowitzers by e-mail, I now had a reason to speak to them in person. I e-mailed the list, asking for participants in the radio documentary, and waited. And this is where my journey changed course.
By an amazing stroke of luck, Jerome Schatten, one of the list moderators, lived in Vancouver. I drove to his home with my children and asked questions while my baby snuggled in the baby carrier. Jerome answered my questions with great panache. I learned both about his work as a moderator and his own family history. His passion for genealogy and Bukowina history can be heard in his thoughtful responses.
Next, I spoke to Cornel in England, Ruth in the United States and Charles in France. These conversations were a highlight of the project. They gave me an opportunity to record survivors speaking in languages other than English, such as French, German, Hebrew and Romanian. These conversations were a rite of passage for me, as I had never had an adult conversation with any of my grandparents – my paternal grandmother, Regina, met me when I was a year old, but passed away before I was able to meet her again.
Another Czernowitzer, Anny, was a great help in making sure that the German phrases I included in the documentary were correct. I can only hope that my accent would have made my grandmother proud.
While I was working on the documentary, a fellow in the state of Georgia shared with the group a letter he had written. The letter, addressed to his son, explained why he was bequeathing to him the yellow star he’d been forced to wear in the ghetto. I read his words while my infant son fell asleep next to me. It was one of the most deeply moving, personal texts I have ever read. I wrote to him, asking if I might use his letter in the documentary. I was honored when he agreed and thrilled when he sent an audio file of himself reading the piece. Naturally, this made it into the final cut. There are few moments in one’s professional life when one is obliged to call a halt to whatever one is doing and sit completely still, listening, in silent meditation. This was one of them.
The books I read while conducting research for the documentary also formed a big part of my education: Eisig Moses’ account of the massacre of Ciudin, and his extraordinary survival; Ruth’s Journey, the devastating yet poetic memoir of list member Ruth Glasberg Gold; Ghosts of Home: The Afterlife of Czernowitz in Jewish Memory, by list members Marianne Hirsch and Leo Spitzer.
While I was reading, I received an e-mail from a list member suggesting that I speak to her father. By another stroke of luck, her parents – Eva and Frederick Andermann – were due to be in Vancouver the following week. We met in their hotel room, where my older son Benjamin, 5, had a splendid time telling Eva stories about the plastic mice he’d brought to show her.
Following our interview, the Andermanns’ daughter, Lisa, sent me a copy of a book written by Eva’s mother, Mina. I found myself wanting to sweep the four-year-old Eva – silent, hiding behind a false wall – into my arms and keep her safe, before remembering that this child was now one of my elders.
This was a period of rich education for my children as well. They listened and watched as I researched versions of the song “Rumania,” which I’d chosen to accompany my spoken report. My sons Benjamin and Joel (now two years old) and I danced and sang along to all of them. It is a memory I treasure.
The documentary, called She was from Czernowitz, aired on CBC’s Living Out Loud on April 13, 2012. Again, I was touched by the list members’ responses. I received more than 30 messages of congratulations and thanks. These e-mails described the segment with words like “touching” (Sally), “magnificent” (Edgar) and “poignant” (Iris). They also talked about “hope for the future” (Mickey). Since then, one of the participants has written, “I love you for your deep interest in our past.”
I also heard from people I did not know, people I was able to introduce to the Cz-L group. One listener wrote in from Ontario to offer me an article his father had written. This gentleman’s great-grandfather moved from Czernowitz to Vienna in the 1890s. This was yet another wonderful example of how, long after community bonds are shattered, the descendants of these communities can come together to retell their stories, forge new bonds and find ways to educate the next generation.
Taking my article from the printed page to a radio broadcast was an unforgettable experience. It showed me how present, warm, hilarious, articulate and determined the voices of our elders truly are. How their stories are not just about the past, and how carefully one should guard against reducing the Holocaust narrative to the simplistic, binary approach of, “those who survived” or “those who perished.”
I am able to share all of this with my children, whose treasure boxes will contain Mina’s Story, Ruth’s Journey, Ghosts of Home and a CD bearing the documentary we all made together.
Shula Klinger is an author and artist in North Vancouver, B.C. Her young adult novel, The Kingdom of Strange, was published in 2008 by Marshall Cavendish.
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