Together and Apart in Brzezany: Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians, 1919-1945

225 Pages·2002·2.25 MB·English

by  Shimon Redlich

Together and Apart in Brzezany

TOGETHER
and
APART
in
BRZEZANY
Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians, 1919–1945
Shimon Redlich
This book is a publication of
Indiana University Press
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Bloomington, IN 47404-3797 USA
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© 2002 by Shimon Redlich
All rights reserved
No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any
form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including
photocopying and recording, or by any information storage
and retrieval system, without permission in writing from
the publisher. The Association of American University
Presses’ Resolution on Permissions constitutes the only
exception to this prohibition.
The paper used in this publication meets the minimum
requirements of American National Standard for Information
Sciences—Permanence of Paper for Printed Library
Materials, ANSI Z39.48-1984.
Manufactured in the United States of America
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Redlich, Shimon.
Together and apart in Brzezany : Poles, Jews, and
Ukrainians, 1919–1945 / Shimon Redlich.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-253-34074-8 (cloth : alk. paper)
1. Berezhany (Ukraine)—Ethnic relations. 2. Berezhany
(Ukraine)—History—20th century. 3. Redlich, Shimon.
I. Title: Poles, Jews, and Ukrainians, 1919–1945. II. Title.
DK508.95.B48 R43 2002
305.8'009477'9—dc21
2001004948
1 2 3 4 5 07 06 05 04 03 02
In memory of
Tanka Kontsevych
and
Karol Codogni

C O N T E N T S
preface and acknowledgments ix
a note on transliteration xiii
maps xiv
1 My Return 1
2 Close and Distant Neighbors 20
3 The Good Years, 1919–1939 34
4 The Soviet Interlude, 1939–1941 78
5 The German Occupation, 1941–1944 93
6 The Aftermath, 1944–1945 141
7 Their Return 153
Concluding Remarks 163
interviews 166
notes 168
bibliography 185
index 191

PREFACE AND
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The writing of this book was not so much a matter of choice as of necessity.
For some time I have contemplated writing about my childhood in Brzezany,
a town in eastern Galicia. For those whose childhood ended abruptly and
prematurely, clinging to the life before disaster struck is much like holding
fast to an anchor of a drowning boat. I was a happy, secure, and loved child
of 6 when the Germans occupied Brzezany. And it was to those few normal
prewar years that I gradually and consciously started returning for solace
and hope. I have been drawn to relive my early past.
The actual writing of my story faced insurmountable difficulties, not least
of which is inherent in my craft. As a historian, I am well aware that relying
solely on memory to record the past has many pitfalls. Moreover, my authen-
tic childhood memories were rather scattered and scant. There was another
reason for my reluctance. Did my own personal ordeal merit telling? Hin-
dered by these obstacles, I searched for a way to fulfill my need to write. I
soon realized that my childhood, or what I remembered of it, was the place,
the sites, the landscapes, and, most of all, the people with whom I shared a
life before the war. Indeed, it was through researching and writing about my
hometown that I began to recover the childhood I longed to remember and
the war experience that for many years I tried to repress.
In trying to persevere after a trauma, we often bury the deserving memo-
ries along with the tormenting ones. Some of the worthiest people in my life,
those who saved it, were for many years casualties of my attempt to forget the
past and build a new life. It was nearly half a century before I could express