I am back in london now, but was just yesterday in Volochisk. Had a
great time. Stayed there for 2 days in the hotel. Weather was good. I managed
to
take some more photos of the cemetery and record the names and dates
on all the legible grave stones, though most have no family names. Popped
over to
Podvolochisk, too. There the first person I met outside the museum
happened to be a jewess, who showed me to the jewish graveyard and introduced
me to
the 2 other jews who live there, a young couple who are interested
in their heritage and want to make a holocaust memorial, but who have no
money, no
contact with jews in the outside world and are even afraid to speak
about the subject in the presence of their fellow townsfolk. I shall try
to help them as much
as I can.
In Volochisk I became like a local celebrity.I was the first tourist
the hotel had seen for some years. I was asked to speak in the school,
interviewed on the local radio about hershl, and presented with a book
by the mayor. He is more interested in attracting business and tourism
to present- day Volochisk than in its past and especially its jewish past
(this is still a taboo subject there), but I mananged to persuade him to
put something in the Volochisk museum about the pre-war jewish population
and their demise ( at the moment there's nothing), in return for inviting
his son to come and study for a while in London. I'm not sure that either
side
of the bargain will come to pass, but at least I tried, and at least
I have a contact there with some influence. Maybe he could write something
for the website too.
As for Misha (Misha aizen, the head of the jewish community in Volochisk),
I saw him. He is well thank G-d. He got your letter and apparently replied,
but you obviously didn't recieve it. Anyway I got him to write another
permission and I'll send it to you, maybe with some new photos................
I'll write to Misha again about the Trugmans. He's written something about them in Russian in the letter I'll send you, but I get the impression he didn't know them personally, and was away at the front when the Volochisk Jews were killed...........
I was in Odessa beforehand for a month so I was already able to understand
conversations in Russian, though my speaking is basic, and I'm sure much
editing will have to go on of my radio interview. In fact in Volochisk
most people speak in Ukrainian rather than Russian, so I learnt a bit of
Ukrainian too.............
Yours,
Jeremy.
A List of legible gravestones in the old Jewish cemetery at Volochisk
as
recorded by J.H. Grant on September 3rd 2000.
1)Yankov Moyshe bar Avrohom , died Mar Kheshvon (oct-nov) 1873.
2)Rokhl bas Avrohom.
3) Etl bas Toyviye.
4) Yehude Beyomin bar Menakhem Nokhem Halevi SEGAL.
5) Mordekhe bar Shimshon Dovid, died 1895.
6) Zev bar Eliezer, died Sivan (may-june) 1900.
7) Reyzl bas Yehude, died 1901.
8) Pesiye bas Shloyme, died 1897.
7) Yisroel bar Moyshe.
8) Tsvi Meyer bar Avrohom [Yoysef?], died Mar Kheshvon (oct-nov).
9) Khayim [bar Avrohom?].
10) Yeshue bar Moyshe STERN /STERMER /STERMAN [?], died childless,
7th Oder
(feb-march).
11) Osher[?]… Shmuel Yehude bar Eliezer, died Elul (aug-sept) 1927.
12) Yoysef ben Khayim Yehude, died Mar Kheshvon (oct-nov) 1925.
13) Leminski [?].