Voices. A Mosaic of Ukrainian-Jewish Life. Before the WWII, 1920-30s

“We lived together and apart”, Aaron Weiss

Jewish Museum Augsburg Swabia

After a brief period of independence, Ukraine became part of the Soviet Union in 1922. The communists started to build an industrialized, socialist society on the territories of the former Russian Empire. Their economic and societal changes severely impacted Jewish life.

Collectivization and industrialization endangered traditional Jewish work areas. Moreover, to live up to the socialist ideology, religious practice was officially restricted and Jewish religion thus shifted to the domestic sphere. Being Jewish now became a question of nationality.

Roald Hoffmann

... was born in Zolochiv (then Poland) in 1937. He survived the Holocaust in Zolochiv
In 1949, he migrated to the USA, where he became Professor at Cornell University, Ithaca, New York.
He is a Nobel laureate in Chemistry (1981).

Interview from July 5, 2023

Roald Hoffmann and his mother Clara Safran (1937/1938) by Roald Hoffmann's private archiveJewish Museum Augsburg Swabia

Roald Hoffmann and his mother Clara Safran

1937/38

Roald Hoffmann and his father, Hilel Safran (1937/1938) by Roald Hoffmann's private archiveJewish Museum Augsburg Swabia

Roald Hoffmann and father Hilel Safran

1937/38

Aaron Weiss

... was born in Boryslav (then Poland) in 1926. He was saved by neighbors Yulia Shchepanyuk and Maria Potezhna. In 1948, he moved to Israel.
Interview from January 26, 2019, Lviv

A Jewish family in front of their house in Boryslav (1910/1914) by Claudia Erdheim's private archiveJewish Museum Augsburg Swabia

A Jewish family in front of their house in Boryslav

1910/14

Jewish population on the territory of Ukraine (1897-1900) by elfgenpick gmbh & co. kg Andrii ShestaliukJewish Museum Augsburg Swabia

Jewish population on the territory of Ukraine (1897-1900)

Galyna Shulyatytska

... was born in Berdychiv, Zhytomyr region (former UkSSR) in 1932. Together with her mother Raisa Nikolaevna, she survived in Berdychiv. She still resides in Berdychiv.

Interview from September 22, 2022

Jewish workers at the oil refining plant near Boryslav (1910/1925) by Claudia Erdheim's private archiveJewish Museum Augsburg Swabia

Jewish workers at the oil refining plant near Boryslav

1910/25

Jewish population on the territory of Ukraine in the interwar period (1926-1931) by elfgenpick gmbh & co. kg Andrii ShestaliukJewish Museum Augsburg Swabia

Jewish population on the territory of Ukraine

in the interwar period (1926-1931)

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