A Visit to Lanovtsy - June 28, 2003 by Katherine Sylvan continued form page 1

Continuing my quibbles on Soviet-style nonsense:

After the plane came to a stop, we were taken by bus to the little run-down Soviet -style terminal. A hard rain was falling. As the line of people filed into the terminal, only one door of the wooden double door was open, causing a bottleneck of people out in the rain trying to get in. Even the Younger Ukrainian passengers were joking that the second door couldn't be opened because "it was against the rules." No lights were on inside and the cloudy exterior also made for a cloudy interior. Forms in small Ukrainian print were lying about on the chairs. Sol couldn't find any forms in English. We stood in a long, steamy line for passport control while people from both sides were taking cuts. One of the young female officials, instead of facilitating the rest of us in helping us find the proper forms and getting our forms filled out, spent her time moving a group of friends through passport control ahead of the rest of us. After passportcontrol, we stepped into the next room where there was a luggage x-ray scanner and officials standing about smoking cigarettes, but no one giving any direction. It was very confusing. After going through the red tape in this room, we exited the terminal and there was Alex waiting for us. Any fears I had prior to this trip left me when I saw his open face and warm demeanor.

June 30, 2003

Alex drove us from Lviv to Ternopil. Dropped off our luggage at the Galicia Hotel and then we drove on to Lanovits. Sol very excited and talkative. Had a lunch of blini (Russian meat-filled dumplings). Then went to the monument at the killing ground and explored the "new" cemetery (250 years old). The new cemetery is overgrown and full of garbage and animal and human waste. It has become a trysting place for young people, a grazing ground for goats, a roosting place for chickens, and while we were there, a group of little boys was building a tree house. We drove to a different part of Lanovits where, with the help of a young man named Kolya, located the old cemetery which is now occupied by a house and a potato field. In a comer of the potato field under some heavy growth are the remains of some of the old gravestones. Alex also noticed some of the old gravestones in someone's front yard a little farther down the road. Kolya also took us to the site of the old water pump house. When he learned that we wanted to interview some of the older people who might remember the 40's, he took us to the house of an 87 year old woman who used to work as a domestic for Jews, before the massacre. She still knew some Yiddish but didn't remember any of Sol's relatives. It was apparent that she valued and respected her Jewish employers,
and repeated a number of times that today's Jews are not god fearing like the old Jews were.

We Drove to Teofopil to deliver money to Emma Zon. We all piled into her husband's Volga (Russian car). Had a flat tire on the way. Emma is restoring the Jewish cemetery and, curiously, reorganizing it. Instead of just uncovering and uprighting the fallen gravestones in situ, she is having them dragged to the top of a rise where they are all lined up like Easter Island monoliths.

We drove back to Ternopil for a late dinner. Because there are no comfortable hotel lodgings in Lanovits, we drove the fifty or so minutes back and forth from Ternopil to Lanovits for three days. I had plenty of time to observe the countryside which is hilly in places and where every square inch of land is in cultivation. Such a rich land ..... and the soil is that rich, black soil we have in parts of our country. People don't have lawns. Every little house or cottage had a front yard of potatoes and cabbages and then the long, strips of crops out from the back of the house. Because all the land is cultivated, the grazing of cattle and goats is done by children or old people along the sides of the roads, the only available areas of grass. We were very lucky with the weather.. ... we didn't have any really hot/humid days as Alex had forecasted.

From here on, my journal is sketchy. I found the second and third of our three days in
Lanovits so emotionally draining (and here I am, just an observer and not even a Jew whose relatives were killed) that when we returned to the hotel, I didn't have any energy left to write and went directly to bed.

July 1, 2003

The first thing Sol wanted to do this morning was walk on his grandfather Michael's street. We located what Sol and Alex are sure is Michael's house. The windows and doors have been changed and it has a second story. No one was home. The land next door which was a lane has become an overgrown lot. We located Aunt Soonia's house where an apartment building now stands, and also the site of the home of Avraham Gaylikhen, his grandma Bluma's brother. Had a snack at the market. Went to the Christian mission and Sol gave them some materials. They are publishing a book on the history of Lanovits County and will include some of Sol's pictures. They set up an interview with Nina Menyok, born 1930, for the next day. The day became cooler and overcast, perfect lighting for photographing as "many gravestones as possible in the new cemetery.

July 2, 2003

Miss Menyok could not remember any of Sol's family even when looking at their pictures, but she did say that Sol's face look "familiar." Miss Menyok talked about how she and her friends would take food from their own kitchens (against their parent's admonitions) and throw the food over the fence to their Jewish playmates. She said that over a period of months, Jews from all over the district were placed in the ghetto and were fenced in. The village men were forced to dig two massive pits each the size of three-story buildings. When asked if the men knew why they were digging the pits, Miss Menyok replied that they "didn't know and they knew." Then during the two days of the massacre, the Jews were brought down in groups of fifty. She said that at night the pools of blood would bubble up out of the ground. The Nazis then sprayed something over the bodies which made them decompose faster and pack down. Miss Menyok remembered that the owner of the flour mill was a Pole, that he was a large landowner and a minor lord. The manager of the flour mill was Avrum and his wife was names Bela. Daughter was Taba. Avrum was about 50 or older. His mother's name was Genendla, Avrum, his wife Bela and their son and daughter were all killed in the massacre. Miss Menyok remembered the community center (#138) as a school or meeting place. Alex is a master at the interviewing process, being able to translate simultaneously while the interviewee is speaking and knowing just when to stop or when to ask delicate questions. He is warm and respectful and somehow manages to keep an objective distance.

Gregory Basiuk(the town historian) then took us to the home of his aunt, Vasylyna Basok (born 1912). She remembered Michael Chisda, Soonia, and the two daughters by Rivka his 2nd wife (who were in their twenties) whom she called "spinsters." She remembered that Chana(cousin Boomi’s mother) and her husband lived
In Michael's house.

Vasylyna talked about an Eta Karner who died in 1981 and had relatives. Eta moved before the Gemans came and then returned after the War. Eta was a shop assistant at the train station. She was well respected. Buried in the Christian cemetery. Moshe Karner had many children. He Lived at the edge of the city. (Sol verified this with the map -location #89). Vasylyna talked briefly about the two days of massacre. Vasylyna has a heart condition and at this point became so emotional that she was having trouble breathing, so we terminated the interview. Her last words about the 2 days when the Jews were killed were "There was no sun. It was impossible to look at this world."

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