Dear Friend,

Welcome to The Wiener Holocaust Library's e-newsletter for September 2020.

This month we are pleased to announce further reopening plans for the Library. Please note that restrictions still apply due to the ongoing Coronavirus crisis. See below for further details.

We are also pleased to share a special Roma Holocaust Memorial Day video; a vignette from the archives by Senior Archivist, Howard Falksohn; updates on the Library's Refugee Family Papers: An Interactive Map project; an opportunity to sign up to upcoming virtual events and to catch up on recent talks and more.

We know this is a difficult time for everyone, and we continue to send our very best wishes to you all.

Kind regards,

The Wiener Holocaust Library

Exhibition curator, Dr Barbara Warnock, spoke with The Guardian journalist, Caroline Davies, to highlight some of the Library's collections showcased in our new exhibition, Jewish Resistance to the Holocaust. Dr Warnock explores how some of the Library's diaries and manuscripts included within this exhibition turn a spotlight on the little-known acts of endurance and bravery. 

To mark Roma Holocaust Memorial Day on 2 August, and to mark the launch of The Wiener Holocaust Library’s exhibition, Forgotten Victims: The Nazi Genocide of the Roma and Sinti at the United Nations, exhibition curator Dr Barbara Warnock spoke to Daniela Abraham, founder of the Sinti and Roma Holocaust Memorial Trust, about her family’s experiences during the Nazi era and about her aims for the Trust.

The short, socially distanced, conversation was filmed at The Wiener Holocaust Library in London on 4 August 2020.

Otto Fokschaner identification card for British Mandate Palestine, c. 1940s. Wiener Holocaust Library Collections. 

Whilst the Jewish populations in certain parts of Europe covered by our collections are again approaching (or even exceeding) pre-Nazi-era levels, there are other once-thriving communities of which barely a trace remains.

One such example is Chernivtsi in South West Ukraine, known as Czernowitz under Austrian rule and Cernauti under Romanian rule, capital of the region Bukovina. During the Habsburg Empire and particularly after the revolutions which swept across Europe in 1848, Czernowitz’s Jewish population flourished. By 1910 it was the largest of five principal ethnic/national minorities including Rumanians, Ukrainians, Ruthenians and Poles, who lived harmoniously together in this cosmopolitan city. It was a hotbed of cultural activity and in 1908 hosted the first Yiddish language conference, although the majority of the Jewish population spoke German. Among some of its illustrious natives were the poet Paul Celan (1920-1970), the writer Rose Ausländer (1901-1988), the city’s last Yiddish poet, Josef Burg (1912-2009); the Argentinian-Jewish pioneer of film and music, Max Glücksmann (1875-1946) and the stage director, Sam Kogan (1946-2004).

Here at The Wiener Holocaust Library, we are fortunate to hold a rare surviving remnant from this bygone era. The Fokschaner family papers document, in microcosm, the fate of Bukovina’s middle class German-speaking Jewish population from the years of prosperity and political freedom under the Austro-Hungarians to the community’s destruction at the hands of Romania’s violently antisemitic Fascist party in the late 1930s.

The Fokschaner family can be traced back to the 19th century in Czernowitz. Leon Fokschaner was an agricultural engineer in the middle of the 19th century. He had several children, amongst them Max Fokschaner (born in 1862) who was a lawyer and Parliamentarian. He represented the interests of the Jewish population in Bukovina. Max Fokschaner's wife Sarina (born in 1877) was active in charitable circles and established the children's wing at the Jewish hospital in Czernowitz. Max established a law practice together with his two sons Wolfgang (born in 1899) and Otto (born in 1903) and his son-in-law Erich Lupul who married his daughter Else (born in 1905). Wolfgang Fokschaner served as a captain in the Austrian army in the First World War.

The law practice survived the transition of Czernowitz from Austrian-Hungarian to Romanian jurisdiction in 1918. When Max Fokschaner passed away in 1926, Wolfgang took over the running of the practice. However, Wolfgang emigrated to Bucharest in 1939 and later to Geneva and Israel. Wolfgang's daughter was born in Bucharest and his son, Michael, in Geneva.

In the mid-1930s Otto Fokschaner took over the running of the law firm. He was married to Erica (born in 1905, née Barber) and they had a son George, born in 1933. Erica's mother Klara Löwner was born in Bielitz (Bielsko, now Poland) in 1880 and her husband was a lawyer. She remarried after his death.

Otto Fokschaner served as a sub-lieutenant in the Romanian military reserves and was attached to an artillery regiment. In 1939 he was dismissed from the army in line with the decree that all Jewish officers be removed from their posts. In 1940 Czernowitz was annexed by the USSR and the family was forced to flee overnight and seek refuge in Bucharest where they lived until 1941 when they emigrated to Israel. The family obtained Palestinian citizenship in 1946. At some point, the family moved to the United Kingdom as Otto Fokschaner was living in London in 1999.

Klara Loewner remained in Czernowitz after the Soviet occupation and the Romanian re-occupation in 1941. In 1944 Klara obtained an exceptional permission to leave the country and emigrated to Israel.

This collection consists of family papers including the papers and authenticated copies of papers of Max and Sarina Fokschaner, Otto and Erika Fokschaner, Erich Lupul and Else Fokschaner, Wolfgang Fokschaner, Karoline Fokschaner, Johanna Fokschaner and Klara Löwner. Documents include certificate of Palestinian naturalisation; affidavit in lieu of passport; nationality, school, birth, nationality and wedding certificates; professional certificates; Max Fokschaner's election certificates for entry to Parliament of the province of Bukovina; inheritance papers; border passes, passports and identity cards; emigration papers for Palestine including lists of belongings, and a photograph of Max Fokschaner's grave. Also included is a linen armband with printed letters A.R.P. (Air Raid Precaution) and Hebrew printed letters for Tel Aviv Civil Guard.

Travel pass giving Otto Fokschaner and his wife the right to travel to and from British Mandate Palestine, 1946. Wiener Holocaust Library Collections. 

This collection can be accessed digitally in the Library’s Wolfson Reading Room.

To register your interest for either of the below events please email Lesley Urbach.