May 30 2017 - To Lwow

Why does one chooses to spend his Shavuot holiday in a far away land, in a small and unwelcoming town, with people that he hardly knows??

In 2010 , when I found myself leading a small "mission", including my mom and my two older kids , to Poland - we came to the site of the Belzec extermination camp, which is not on the "usual path״ of the Israelis who visit Poland.
We knew that most likely - some of our many missing branches - were buried there or in Rohatyn's mass graves...

The rustic sign on the entrance wall said : March 17, 1942.
We had no idea that was the date of the first transport to Belzec.

The date was march 17, 2010...

I am re - reading jack (Kuba) Glotzer's account of his crazy survival from the Rohatyn ghetto, as I prepare for my unexplained trip.

Marking the mass graves? Surveying them? Why? and why do I feel that I have to be there??

Seating in Ben Gurion airport, waiting for my flight to Lwow, I get to the chapter where Jack describes the day of the final liquidation of the Rohatyn ghetto, when he sees both his mother and brother being murdered by the Nazis.
It was on the day of the Shavuot holiday of 1943...*

So, for me - that was the reason. No more questions Asked.

My grandfather's father, three sisters, three brother in laws and quite a few nieces and nephews are probably buried in the Northern mass graves, from the last Aktion in Shavuot of 1943, unless they were on one of the trains sent from the Ghetto to Belzec.
We know nothing about his other sister, her husband, and daughter who lived in Lwow. We know nothing about my grandmother's sister with her husband and four kids who lived in Chodorov before the war. They all vanished without a trace.


*
June 6, 1943 was not the First day of Shavuoth.
June 9 was Shavuoth.
Jay suggests that this Aktion might have ended on Shavuoth.

May 31 2017 - Shavuoth, northern Rohatyn mass grave

The southern mass grave in Rohatyn is from the first Aktion, when only the Rohatyn Jews were in town  (in the ghetto). My grandmother's aunt and uncle and cousins, who lived in Rohatyn, are probably buried there (Mauer-Goldschlag).

After this first Aktion, the ghetto was free to receive new tenants, and this is when Jews were brought from all the surrounding villages ( including my grandfathet's family from Knyhinicze).

Since this is the day of Shavuoth it's not surprising that I "happen" to be assigned to join the archaeologists  who are working in the northern sight (with Sophia as a translator on my side).

The greenhouses were the first to be surveyed. Rustic decaying structures with an empty house behind them.
My job was to help clean the area from trash and cut some branches that will enable the machine to work smoothly. Sophia helped as well.

The area is adjacent to the outer houses of the town, a short walk from the center (Rynek).
There are some tractors parked and a lot of garbage too.
People work here on a daily basis, in some small businesses related to building materials.

After lunch we had some local visitors, people that work and live in the area.
They took us to the area behind the house that's behind the green houses and told us that 15 years ago, they brought a bulldozer to dig some clay for brick manufacturing, but they found many skulls and human hair and covered it back immediately. They also told us about a guy that had to dig  some holes for foundation to a building there, with similar results. The man swore he will not touch this area again.


I find some human bones on he surface (which are taken for inspection and than buried). This "find" while cleaning the area behind the greenhouses, after hearing the descriptions of the locals earlier, in the shadowy patch of land on Shavuoth - was one of the difficult moments for me on this trip.

flowers and dirt in the Northern site

The area behind the greenhouses

The next sight to be surveyed was this area that they showed us...

A strange moment was when the locals mentioned Jews from other villages that were brought to Rohatyn ghetto and I turned around to show them the list of villages on my Rohatyn group t- shirt.
For a few moments I stood there and I could only hear them when they were reading the names they were familiar with,  pointing at my back...

Me and my Rohatyn group T-shirt