Annotated Bibliography

Here are some helpful resources on Jewish life in the Carpathians. A few mention Vishni Bystra by name, although often by one of its alternative spellings. Some of these listings are very difficult to find or not in English or German and I therefore have not been able to check them out.  Feel free to contact me with additional listings or any feedback on these listings.

Baran, Alexander, "Jewish-Ukrainian Relations in Transcarpathia," in Peter J. Potichnyj and Howard Aster (Eds.), Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in Historical Perspective. Second Edition. Edmonton: Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies Press, 1990, 159-172.

Braham, Randolph L., "The Destruction of the Jews of Carpatho-Ruthenia," in Braham, Randolph L. (ed.), Hungarian Jewish Studies, Vol. 1, NY: World Federation of Hungarian Jews, 1966, 223-233.

Committee for Perpetuating the Memory of the Seven Communities. The Matyrs of Seven Communities: Dolha Kusnica Zadne Kerecke Bereznik Lisicovo Sucha-Bronka: A Portrait of Carpathian Jewry on the Eve of Destruction. Jerusalem: Graphit Press, 1993. These are shtetls in the same general area as Vishni Bystra. This book is mostly in Hebrew but has 74 pages in English.

Dicker, Herman. Piety and Perseverance: Jews from the Carpathian Mountains. New York: Sepher-Hermon, 1981. Out of print. Chapters on history, personalities, Hasidic melodies, and old photographs.

Eden, Joseph. The Jews of Kaszony, Subcarpathia. Great Neck, NY: 1988. Available from the National Yiddish Book Center. This book may also be found online at the New York Public Library.

Erez, Yehuda. Karpatorus. Jerusalem: Encyclopedia of the Jewish Diaspora, 1953. A memorial book in Hebrew with pictures.

Fankhauser,Urs. "Vergessene Juden. Keine Bescheinigung aus Auschwitz, " Berner Zeitung, November 22, 1997. This German language newspaper article includes brief interviews with two survivors who still live in the Carpathians.

Fejes, Judit, "On the History of the Mass Deportations from Carpatho-Ruthenia in 1941," in Randolph L. Braham and Pok Attila (eds.), The Holocaust in Hungary: Fifty Years Later. New York: Columbia University Press, 1997, 305-321.

Freilich, Samuel. The Coldest Winter: The Holocaust Memories of Rabbi Samuel Freilich. NY: Holocaust Library, 1988. Rabbi Freilich (who shares the same last name as my mother and may be a distant relative) grew up in Torun (a shtetl a few kilometers from my mother's) and is the father of Hadassah Freilich Lieberman, the wife of American Senator Joseph Lieberman. He has scattered references to Jews in the Carpathians throughout the book. Chapters 16 and 18 deal with the period right after the end of the war.

Golczewski, Frank.  "Interethnic Relations, Politics, and the Holocaust:  Ukrainians, Germans, and Jews in Western Ukaine."  In The Shoah in Ukraine:  History, Testimony, and Memorialization, ed. Wendy Lower and Ray Brandon.  Bloomington:  Indiana University Press, 2007.  ^(NEW!)

Gross, S.Y. and Kohen, Yitshak Yosef. Sefer Marmarosh: me'ah ve-shishim kehilot kedoshot be-yishuvan uve-hurbanan. Tel Aviv: Bet Marmarosh, 1983. This memorial book is in Hebrew but does have an excellent summary covering pre-war life and the Holocaust in English. Pages 455-456  are about Vishni Bystra.

Gryn, Naomi (producer and director), Chasing Shadows. 52-minute video on Hugo Gryn's return to this hometown of Berehovo. 1990. This video is a very moving account by this deceased English reform rabbi who was involved in human rights work. His autobiography, Chasing Shadows, was published by Penguin Books in 2001.

Honigsman, Jakov S. Juden in der Westukraine: judisches Leben and Leiden in Ostgalizien, Wolhynien, der Bukowina und Transkarpatien 1933-1945 (Jews in the West Ukraine: Jewish Life and Sorrows in East Galicia, Wolhynien, the Bukowina, and Transcarpathia 1933-1945). Konstanz: Raymond M. Guggenheim, 2001. (in German).

Jackson, Michael (Jakubowics). Head of the Line: A Holocaust Survivor's Memoir. No city: Moriah Press Offset Corp., 2000. This book is about Mr. Jackson's pre-war life in Torun and his experiences in Auschwitz. Mr. Jackson's original last name was the same as my mother's grandmother so we may be distant relatives.  Pages 1-52 are about his days in Torun up to the Holocaust.  On the footnote on page 91 he has the following quote:  “Bistra’s Jewish community was smaller than Torun’s, totaling only about a hundred Jewish families.  Bistra also had fewer Zionists, not because the community was smaller but because the village lacked a Hebrew school.  In general, the Jews of Bistra were more pious than those in Torun.  Only a small group of Jewish youths from Bistra secretly belonged to the Zionist organization.” This small group of youth include my mother and my aunt.  On pages 264-265 he talks about his best friend from his boyhood, Zvi Fixler, my mother’s first cousin, and Zvi's experiences in Israel during the time of the British mandate.   Mr. Jackson died in January of 2004 in Allentown, PA, before I was able to meet him.

Jacobs, David. Remember Your Heritage Montreal Institute for Genocide and Human Rights Studies, Vol. 10. Memoirs of a survivor. Available online.

Jelinek, Yeshayahu A., "Carpatho-Rus' Jewry: The Last Czechoslovakian Chapter, 1944-1949," Shvut, No. 1-2 [17-18], 1995, 265-295.

Jelinek, Yeshayahu A. Exile in the Carpathians: The Jews of Carpatho-Rus' and Mukachevo, 1848-1948 (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 2003.  English edition:  The Carpathian Diaspora:  The Jews of Subcarpathian Rus' and Mukachevo, 1848-1948.  Available online   ^(NEW!)

Jelinek, Yeshayahu A., "Jewish Youth in Carpatho-Rus': Between Hope and Despair (1920-1938), " Shvut,, No. 7[23], 1998, 147-165.

Kachyna, Karel. Hanele.1999 Czech film (with English subtitles), 92 minutes. A dramatization of Olbracht's The Sorrowful Eyes of Hannah Karajich.

Karsai, Laszlo, "Zsidosors Karpataljan 1944-ben (Jewish Fate in Carpatho-Ruthenia in 1944)," Mult es Jovo (Past and Future), No. 3, 1991, 60-66 (in Hungarian).

Karsai, Laszlo, "Jewish Deportations in Carpatho-Ruthenia in 1944," Acta Historica, CI (Szeged, 1995), pp.37-49. ^(NEW!)

Kasnett, Yitzchak. The World That Was: Hungary/Romania. A Study of the Life and Torah Consciousness of Jews in the Cities and Villages of Transylvania, The Carpathian Mountains, and Budapest. Cleveland Heights, Ohio: Hebrew Academy of Cleveland, 1999. Scattered throughout are references to life among the ultra-Orthodox in the Carpathians.

Katzburg, Nathaniel. Hungary and the Jews: 1920-1943. Ramat Gan: Bar Ilan University, 1981, 284-285.

Lebovitz, Shirley. The Enduring Spirit: The Inspiring True Story of a Holocaust Survivor. Phoenix: Gildith Press, 1993.

Moskovits, Malda. The World That Crumbled. NY: Holocaust Library, 1993. A memoir by a survivor from a shtetl near Chust. The Bystra she refers to is Niznie Bystra (Lower Bystra), not Vishni Bystra (Upper Bystra).

Nadler, Allan L., "The War on Modernity of R. Hayyim Elazar Shapira of Munkacz," Modern Judaism, XIV(3), 1994, 233-264.

Olbracht, Ivan. The Sorrowful Eyes of Hannah Karajich. Budapest: Central European University Press, 1999. A novel set in the inter-war era about an ultra-Orthodox girl from the Carpathians who becomes a Zionist and falls in love with a highly assimilated Jewish man and the turmoil this causes in her village. The author made extensive travels in the Carpathians during the 1930's.

Peled, Ram. Young Pioneers: Hechalutz Hatzair in Subcarpathia: the Story of the Youth Zionist Movement in the 1930's and 1940's in Czechoslovakia. English translation from the original Hebrew by Joseph Eden and Kenneth Abrahami. NY: Avekta Productions, 198?. This video has wonderful archival pictures but is very hard to find. There is a copy in the New York Public Library.

Rosen, I. There once was...: The Oral Tradition of the Jews of Carpatho-Russia (in Hebrew). Tel Aviv: Tel Aviv University, 1999. English abstract.

Rotkirchen, Livia. "Deep Rooted Yet Alien: Some Aspect of History of the Jews in Subcarpathian Ruthenia," Yad Vashem Studies, Vol. XII, p.147.

Sole, Aryeh, "Subcarpathian Ruthenia: 1918-1938," In Colman, Hugh (ed.), The Jews of Czechoslovakia, Vol. 1, Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968, 124-154.

Stark, Tamas. Hungarian Jews During the Holocaust and After the Second World War: 1939-1949: A Statistical Review. New York: Columbia University Press, 2000, 105-110. Discusses survivors.

Stransky, Hugo, "The Religious Life in Slovakia and Subcarpathian Ruthenia," in Colman, Hugh (ed.), The Jews of Czechoslovakia, Vol. 1, Philadelphia, PA: Jewish Publication Society of America, 1968, 347-392.

Strom, Yale. Carpati: 50 Miles, 50 Years . This video features Zev Godinger, caretaker of the Jewish community in Berehovo. 

"Subcarpathian Ruthenia," Encyclopedia Judaica. Vol. 16, p.472.

Vishniac, Roman. A Vanished World. NY: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1983. Vishniac was a photographer who traveled Eastern Europe in the interwar years. Scattered throughout this book are photographs from the Carpathians.

Vishniac, Roman. To Give Them Light: The Legacy of Roman Vishniac .NY: Simon & Schuster, 1993, p. 31-65. These pages contain photographs of Carpathia Ruthenia.

Weiss, Aharon.  "Jewish-Ukrainian Relations in Western Ukraine During the Holocaust."  In Ukrainian-Jewish Relations in Historical Perspective, ed. Peter J. Potichnyj and Howard Aster.  Edmonton:  University of Alberta, 1988, 409-420.  ^(NEW!)                   

Yeshiva Gedolah. Night of Remembrance: 50th Anniversary of the Destruction of the Hungarian Jewish Community. Los Angeles: Yeshiva Gedolah, 1994. Pictures and memoirs from survivors from Carpathia.

Copyright © 2003 Karin Wandrei 

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