Zlatopol
Kiev gubernia
Dreyfus in Kasrilevke, Zola in Zlatopol
A tale of Mark and Jolee
Zola's visit to Zlatopol, Ukraine
Photos of the visit are here.
During the course of two days in late June, 2002 my wife Jolee and I
visited the village of Zlatopol, Ukraine where my paternal grandparents
had lived until they emigrated in the first years of the last
century. Incorporated into the neighboring town of Novomirgorod in
1959, Zlatopol is located about 80 km northwest of Kirovograd (formerly
Elizabethgrad), which lies some 225 km southeast of Kiev.
As
we set out on our adventure, we thought that our visits to
Prague and Budapest (at the beginning and end of our itinerary) would
be the highlights of the trip. Contrary to this expectation,
our visit to Zlatopol was the most memorable part of our three
and a half week journey. Where I had readied myself for a voyage
into the heart of darkness, I discovered instead a delightful
welcoming small community still rooted in the past. Where I
had expected to find no trace of my family, I experienced a deep
sense of continuity with the Zalozhins and Krupnikovs (my grandparents’ original
family names) even though they had all apparently emigrated
years before World War II. The dusty roads, the pre-war frame
houses, and most importantly the continued existence of Jewish
residents in Zlatopol forged a link to the past that made our
visit a unique and wonderful experience.
Our guide’s name was Anna Royzner. She works in a team
with her sister-in-law Tanya and a driver (on this trip
a capable young man named Volodya). Our experience confirmed
what many others have said: a good guide/interpreter can
mean the difference between a wonderful experience and one
that does not meet expectations. Anna is an English teacher
and Tanya a history teacher. Together they were able to research
Zlatopol before we arrived, locate the most important person
in Kirovograd to help us in our visit, and once in Novomirgorod,
locate the oldest living Jewish person in Zlatopol and arrange
a visit with her. And of course Anna was our able interpreter,
something we could not have done without, since we only knew
a few key Russian words and phrases.
Anna,
Tanya, and Volodya met us in Kiev about 11:00 AM on Tuesday, June
25 after a seven hour drive from their homes in Western Ukraine.
After introducing ourselves, we began our six-hour drive to Kirovograd,
the provincial industrial town we had decided to use as
our base for visiting Zlatopol. Konstantin
Shchedrov is the director of the Jewish History Museum
in Kirovograd. He is also president of the synagogue, director
of the Jewish theater group, and head of the Jewish Cultural
Society of Kirovograd.
The Jewish History Museum is located on the second floor of the 100-year-old
synagogue. Although we visited many impressive museums in Prague,
Vilnius, Kaunas, Odessa, and Budapest, this small museum in Kirovograd
was an unexpected gem. We were fortunate that Mr. Shchedrov
was in town and able to take time from his genuinely busy schedule
(given all the hats he wears) to guide us through the
museum. There were displays on famous Jews who were from Kirovograd,
such as the revolutionaries Trotsky and Zinoviev. Another
display told the story of Russia’s
first tramway and how the factory owner and most of the workers
who built the trams and operated them were Jews. And how
the first tram accident fatality was Jewish as well! Another
dealt with Jewish history during the Pale of Settlement,
another during the Civil War of 1917-1920, and another section
dealt with the Nazi invasion and occupation. A list of names
of confirmed victims of the fascists in the Kirovograd region
has been compiled and is available to look through. And while
much of the museum is devoted to tragic events in the history
of the Jews of Kirovograd, there are several informative
displays devoted to contemporary life. These include the
story of the Jewish theater group of Kirovograd, which participates
in theater competition throughout Eastern Europe. Mr. Shchedrev
capped our tour by taking us to several of the sites just
outside of Kirovograd where the Nazis had killed thousands
of Jews and Red Army soldiers.
After our morning at the Jewish History Museum, it was off
to Zlatopol. It was June 26th. On the drive out, Anna
and Tanya shared with Jolee and I the information they
gleaned about Zlatopol from Russian language sources.
Before our trip I’d
only been able to find a handful of references to the
village, mainly dealing with the terrible pogroms during
the 1918-20 period plus a brief reference in the Encyclopedia
Judaica. Anna and Tanya were able to add a bit more
to this, mainly for the World War II period. The told
us that the Jews who had remained in the village when
the fascists came in August of 1941 were eventually
all killed and thrown down a well.
After the war, those Jewish residents who had been evacuated or who had
been at the front in the Red Army and survived returned
to Zlatopol. They recovered the bodies and buried
them in a common tomb at the old Jewish cemetery. The research
that Anna and Tanya had done was very helpful in
preparing us for our visit.
But it was meeting Busia Israelevna Nemirovskaya that made Zlatopol really
come alive for us, the Zlatopol of pre-war and World War II days. Eighty
year old Busia is the oldest Jew living in Zlatopol.
We found her by Anna and Tanya walking around the
main square of Novomirgorod and asking if there was a Jewish
person in town who could talk to two Americans about
the old Jewish community of Zlatopol. One person
led to another and before you knew it we were on our way
to find the home of Busia Nemirovskaya, who had agreed
to meet with us. The streets of the Zlatopol neighborhood
were unpaved and dusty. Here and there you could
see a horse, chickens, and ducks along the side of the
road. An old woman was herding a gaggle of geese
up the street. The houses were small one story wooden
frame houses, many from before the war. Cherry trees
were everywhere. Red cherries, white cherries, sweet
cherries, tart cherries. And just like back home
at the end of June people were out picking the ripe cherries.
We managed to lose our way and then got our bearings again and found
Lunacharsky Street. We asked a young boy on a bike where the house
of Busia Nemirovskaya was. He answered in Russian: “This
is it, right here. And I am her grandson.” For
many hours over the course of that day and the
next we visited with Busia. She has a wonderful
memory and we covered many topics: Jewish life
in Zlatopol before the war, the fascist invasion,
her escape and evacuation to a collective farm
where she spent the war years working as a tractor
driver, the fate of Zlatopol Jews – like
her aunt and grandmother – who refused evacuation
and were killed by the fascists, the trial of local
Ukrainian collaborators after the war, the battle of
Stalingrad, her father’s imprisonment
under Stalin, the “thieves” who are governing
Ukraine today, and the difficult life of pensioners.
And yes, Busia did remember the families named Zalozhin
and Krupnikov, although they had emigrated long before
the war.
That
first afternoon we met in her house and the next day in the gazebo
in her lovely garden, with our talk accompanied by the singings of
birds. Her neighbors Maria and Tanya came by with tomato and sunflower
seeds for us to take back home with us. Cherries,
black and red currents and two kinds of homemade wine were
brought out. Many toasts were made and songs
were sung as well. Fortunately, I had a tape recorder with me
and was able to record much of this priceless
encounter.
After
our discussion Busia took us to the old Jewish
cemetery. Because Zlatopol had been such a
prosperous town before the war, there had been many valuable
headstones at the time of the fascist occupation.
The Nazis carted off most of the stones. When
we visited, what we saw was a large pasture with goats
grazing here and there, and an occasional headstone
either lying flat and partially buried or leaning
and lichen covered. At the entrance was the
common tomb of those murdered during the war, along
with a memorial plaque. And further on, the new Jewish
cemetery, where those who have passed on since
the war are buried. Busia took a few moments
out from guiding us around to visit the graves of here
father, mother, and husband.
When
we left Zlatopol both Jolee and I felt that
we had experienced something that was a genuine
privilege. We had been able to enter into
the life of my grandparents’ village
through our dialogue with Busia. As
for the title of this little commentary, “Dreyfus
in Kasrilevke, Zola in Zlatopol,” let me explain.
I have always wondered where the name Zola came from.
At first I thought it was assigned by a customs official
at the port of Boston. But my research has revealed
that the name change came after arrival, and went through
various permutations (Zalo, Zulo) until finally becoming
Zola. Still Zola is a curious name for a Jew from Russia.
And
then I read Sholom Aleichem’s “Dreyfus
in Kasrilevke” after I got back from our trip.
I was surprised to read that the Dreyfus Affair was
well known to Jews in the Pale, even in remote and
isolated towns. And according to Sholom Aleichem in
his fictional story, if Emile Zola had come to Kasrilevke,
the local Jews would have hoisted him on their shoulders
and paraded him through town. That’s
the kind of hero he was considered because of his strong
public denunciation of anti-Semitism and support of
Dreyfus. It’s not such a leap, I thought, to
the idea that my grandparents finally decided on the
name “Zola” because
of the high regard that European Jews of
that generation held for Emile Zola. I have
absolutely no evidence to support this view. But
it makes a good story and may very well
be true. And I don’t
think Emile would mind us borrowing the name.
Our
visit to Ukraine was part of a larger
trip to Eastern Europe that began in Prague,
continued through Lithuania (where my
maternal grandparents were from), Ukraine, and after
a couple of days in Istanbul, ended in
Budapest. We were particularly interested
in how the places my ancestors came from
were part of great historical events
and periods: the middle ages, the rise of capitalism,
the Russian Revolution, and the Nazi
invasion and occupation. We prepared for the trip
by reading many works on the history
of Europe and European Jewry, World War II,
as well as some fiction. In fact, the
six months leading up to our departure was
one of the most intense educational periods
that my wife and I had ever experienced.
By the time we left on our trip we felt
we were prepared for whatever our visit
to Ukraine had to offer.
I am still a novice genealogist. I write this commentary mainly for
others who are just starting out on this road, in the hope that there
may be some useful information here that will make your work more
productive and be a positive influence on plans you may have to visit
Eastern Europe. If I have one piece of advice after our experience,
it is to make your visit sooner rather than later. Once you’ve
done your homework and have decided to visit the ancestral village
in the old Russian Pale of Jewish Settlement, I would recommend not
waiting too long. At least in Ukraine, there are still a few Jews
living in many of the small towns and villages, people in their 80s
or older, who have lived in these places all of their lives and remember
what these villages were like in the pre-war days and during the
terrible days of World War II. There are not many and they will not
be with us forever. But they are our window into the past and can
help bring us closer to our ancestors.