We've collected a number of photographs of Rohatyn and we hope you enjoy viewing them.
If you have one that's especially pertinent, please feel free to send it along (either as a photo or in jpeg format). Please email Phyllis Kramer.My maternal grandmother left her home shtetl, Bukaczowze, in what was Austria-Hungary and is now Ukraine, in 1910. This past May, 2001 I had the opportunity to visit it and explore my personal history, on a trip that included visits to Cracow, Lviv, Poninka, Polonnoye, (my grandfather's towns) and Kiev as well as the Galician towns of my grandmother, Pauline.
We stayed in Ivano-Frankivsk, Stanislau in my grandmother's time, as a base to explore Galicia. From there, we drove through Burstyn and Rohatyn on our way to my grandmother's town of Bukaczowze. In Rohatyn we visited the Holocaust memorial on the site of the mass grave, where most of my grandmother's siblings and their families were slaughtered in 1942. The Holocaust memorial is in the middle of a field, on the outskirts of Rohatyn.
There is one marker, in Cyrillic, which commemorates the Soviet citizens who died during World War II, with no mention of Jews. The more recent monument, put up by Israelis, commemorates the
3500 Jews from Rohatyn and surrounding communities who were killed by the German in March 1942.
My relatives who died at this spot were among those 3500. I grew up knowing their names and faces from family photos. I am named for one of my great-aunts and there I was standing at her grave. I don't have the words to tell you how I felt. As a history teacher I have taught the story of the Holocaust countless times. As a genealogist I have thought about it many times. But standing at that place where my Mandel family was actually killed brought it home in a way that nothing else ever has.
The Jewish cemetery stands on a hill a little nearer to town. There are only a few stones left and they are largely illegible. The monument on the cemetery 
site reads " In commemoration of the Jewish community of Rohatyn and its surrounding areas that had lived for 600 years and was brutally annihilated by the German Nazis during
the years of 1941-1944." It also indicates that the tombstones were destroyed by the Nazis, during the war.
In 1998 the Israeli Landsmanshaften society wrote to the Mayor of Rogatin to request permission to place a monument in the town. They also wanted to clean up and fence in the old and "new" cemetery sites and the two areas of mass graves (from the Aktions of 1942). These areas were all neglected. The mayor responded positively and met with members of the society. By 1999 the Israeli society collected over $2000 and had a promise of a large donation from an ex-Rohatyner.The monument was erected, and there was a ceremony held in Rohatyn. If you are interested, questions and/or checks can be sent to Israel % Fishel Kirshen, 34 Yonathan Street, Zahala, Tel Aviv 69081.
This photograph at left is of
Kuba Glotzer, a native of Rohatyn, who returned in June 1998 with his family. The photograph was taken at the monument in Rohatyn and sent to us for publication on this web page.
Kuba lost his entire family in Rohatyn during the Holocaust. He was ordered with few other young men from the ghetto, to bury the victims of the March 20th massacre. When it was suggested that he could look for his cousins, with tears in his eyes he said "I buried my cousins in the mass grave where the monument is erected, the one in the photo".
At the liquidation of the Rohatyner Ghetto, Kuba escaped to the woods and survived.
These are photographs of the Kahal Office in Rohatyn in 1938. There are two persons that seem to appear in both photos of the Kahal office. Can you find them? One is the man with the cigarette in his right hand in the first photo and standing on the ladder in the 
second.
It is interesting to note the seemingly large number of record books (with labels identifying the contents) appearing on the shelves in the cabinets behind the people.
The Second photo appears to be the older of the two photos. And, do note two the small padlocks on the upper doors.
My grandfather, Wolf Steinmetz mentions in a letter of September 1939 that there were two individuals who were involved in packing up the Jewish Court records in preparation to evacuate the records to Sansk (I'm not sure what Sansk means). He named a Mr. Stein and Seligen. Seligen was the person traveling by rail accompanying the records, on the way to Chadrow (which i believe means Chodorow, the next larger train station going west).
However, it is unclear of what became of the records. Seligen was trying to get the records via the circuitous rail route, which was under bombardment, to safety in Stanislaus. He made it to Stryj, and then beyond Bolechow. The train had to back up to Bolechaw where the Polish authorities freed Seligen and permitted him to go back to Stryj; at the time my grandfather's letter was written he was with the Poles in Stryj. I have no indication at all of what eventually happened to the vital historical records of the Rohatyn Jewish Community!
If anyone has any information on this, please click on my name below and email me. Thank you
Howard Steinmetz
The cemetery photograph on the left was donated by Howard Steinmetz. Howard said: "This photo was taken in the Jewish Cemetery in Rohatyn in 1918 by my father. I have seen a photo taken by a recent visitor from a similar prospective; the stones are all gone, the trees are all gone; only the church spires in the background are still there, along with our blessed memories of the Jewish Community.
In 1992 the US Commission reported on all the cemeteries in Poland and the Ukraine. The report included the following information on Rogatin:
The cemetery is in the NorthEastern section, near the stadium. The last known Jewish burial was in 1940; It was used mainly by Hasidic Jews. The cemetery is located on a hillside, isolated, marked by no sign or marker; entrance is off a public road; it has no wall,gate or fence; it is used as dump. The cemetery has less than 20 stones, most toppled or broken. Vegetation overgrowth is a constant problem, disturbing graves. Today there are fewer than 10 Jews in Rogatin. (The form was completed by Jewish communite of Kolesnik Victor Pavlovich [ph:(03422)34894].
The photograph of the gravestone below is
from the Jewish Cemetery in Rohatyn
(source: Joan Krotenberg).
Before we complete our information on cemeteries, I wish to share with you an photograph of a Jewish graveyard in the Ukraine. Although this photograph is not from Rohatyn, instead from Chernovitz, when I saw it, and purchased a copy, I felt compelled to talk with the photographer. I asked him if I could add this photograph to my Rohatyn web site, as it evoked in me a strong sense of the history, the warmth and the sadness of European Jewish graveyards. Yuri agreed.
From a short biographical sketch, I extracted the following:
In America, where he has been living since 1990, Yuri Lev continued professional photography, while working as a computer programmer. In 1999 he decided to once again devote his full time to photography. He now resides in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, with his wife, daughter and two cats. For more information
Yuri Lev's website.
Now, isn't that an amazing photograph!
"Yuri Lev was born in Leningrad, Russia and spent the greater part of his life living in Moscow. He traveled all across the Soviet Union ...in 1985 ... established his own studio, where he taught...photography. His works appeared in major publications such as Life and The New York Times Magazine as well as other American and Russian magazines. 
. .
The Faust Family Kappella from Rohatyn, 1912
by Alexander Feller, August 2005
Do any Rohatyner decscendents have any pictures of musicians in their personal collections?
I have many pictures from Rohatyn of relatives that also contain persons
that I can not identify and may be just friends. For instance, the musical group below.
Those I can identify are, from top right to left: David Faust
(violin), Itsik Hersch Faust (flute), unknown (the badken), Yankel Faust (trumpet),
Mendal Bass (bass), and Mautra Schmiel Faust (clarinet). Sitting from right is
Wolf Zimbler (viola), Moses Faust (violin). This photo is a scan from the original
photo and handed down through my
Faust relatives. If you have any photos of these musicians playing other than this one, I woud
be interested in viewing them. Any information into the identities of the bassist, the badken,
or Wolf Zimbler, please relay that to me Alexander Feller
The attached playbill is for a play called "The Big Lottery" written by Sholom Alichem and
performed in 1924 in Rohatyn. The play was directed by Jack Faust and actors included other
members of the Faust family such as Max, Kalman, and Bertha. Listed on the play are other actors
and contributors from Rohatyn. This photo is courtesy of the Faust Family Collection.
Alexander Feller August 2007
One last note: the nearby town of Bukachevtsy also has a shtetlinks site, and there are quite a
number of wonderful photos of the Blitz family recently added by the author of that page (Cipora
Blitz's mother was a Faust from Rohatyn and her father a Blitz from Bukachevtsy); to see them
go to: http://www.shtetlinks.jewishgen.org/Bukaczowce/Blitz.htm.
My children and grandchildren are very interested in reading about their roots. In the Yizkor Book there is an article by Jack's Uncle Zev Barban. Too bad that Jack is not alive to read it. In his immediate family, Jack was the only survivor after the Holocaust. He gave his testimony to the Shoah Spielberg foundation . The copy of his biography could be found in Yad Vashem and also in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Jack’s entire family came from Rohatyn. He told us:
My maternal grandparents, Leah and Kalman Yankel Barban lived and died in Rohatyn. My father Meyer Glotzer emigrated to the United States. My mother Toba Barban Glotzer perished in the holocaust along with my uncles/aunts Morris Barban and Golda and Wolf Rappaport. Zissel and Joseph Loew immigrated to the US.
My brothers Samuel and Moshe Glotzer perished in the Shoa, along with my aunts and uncles Iser and Esther Glotzer, Jack and Goldie Glotzer, Malka Glotzer Altman, and Malka Glotzer. Uncle Max Altman came to the United States, along with aunts Chane Kuperman, Rose Altman, Jeni Hecht and Charne Schwartz.
Thank you very much Bea.
