Shadows of a Forgotten World

My paternal grandmother was from central Ukraine, which for centuries was under the Russian Empire, and then from 1922 the Soviet Union. As such, unlike the rest of my ancestors who lived in western Ukraine (under Austria and then Poland), they experienced the Holodomor (Famine-Genocide) in 1932-3, a man-made famine which left millions of people in Soviet Ukraine dead. Five years ago I traveled to Kamianske (until a few months ago Dniprodzerzhynsk) to meet my grandmothers sisters who were still alive. It was a very interesting experience, as it was my first encounter with relatives who were not from Galicia, and thus with relatives who had a different history, language, and culture. They shared with me stories and old photographs of my ancestors. To commemorate the victims of this horrible tragedy, I want to share my family's account of their experience of the Holodomor, for it's these personal stories which should never be forgotten. Below is an excerpt about the Holodomor...

The ghost sign on Lesia Ukrayinka Theater was recently liberated: SIECZKARNIE  KULTYWATORY MŁOCARNIE  KIERATY CHAFF-CUTTERS TILLERS THRESHERS HORSE MILLS It seems at some point this space sold farming machinery, though I haven't been able to find any details about this so uncertain when. These signs look different than the ones found on this old photograph of the building. The original post about this ghost sign can be found here . 

I recently came across this old photo from 1930 with a hand-painted sign.  The remnants of these old signs are still visible today. Lwów 1930 Głęboka 12 Lviv 2016 12 Hlyboka St.

During WWII my grandmother was separated from her sister, only to be reunited with her half a century later on the other side of the world. While my grandmother and her family succeeded in escaping Ukraine before the Soviets took over their homeland in Galicia, her sister Maria had an entirely different fate, which carried her into the underground movement, a Gulag work camp, and exile in Siberia before she was able to return to Ukraine. By the time I was old enough to be curious about my grandmother's life in Ukraine and experiences during the war, it was too late to ask her. Fortunately, her sister took up the daunting and I'm sure emotionally difficult task of reliving her tumultuous life in order to document her experiences for her descendants. It was through these memoirs that was I was able to learn about my grandmother's life and her family, about the country I had heard so much about, about their struggle and sacrifices for a land they loved so dearly. Although ...

Some lovely old photographs of Paris with hand-painted signs

Mikolasch Passage was a glass-covered shopping arcade, which housed two cinemas, restaurants, cafes, and shops. The passage was built between 1898 and 1900. One entrance was from Kopernyka Street, through the entrance of Piotr Mikolasch's famous pharmacy. (In 1853 in Piotr Mikolasch's pharmacy, Jogann Zeh and Ignacy Lukasiewicz invented the first kerosene lamp. In 1892 the building on Kopernyka 1 was built for the new pharmacy by Karol Mikolasch, the son of Piotr.) The passage was destroyed by bombing in June 1941. Entrance from Kopernyka Street Inside Plan The ruins Ghost sign - looks like the middle of the word "Mikolascha"

My paternal grandfather was born in the village of Lybokhora (Turka District), the "capital" of Boyko instrumental music. His parents, who were from the Sambir and Lviv regions, moved to this Carpathian village in the early 1900s to direct and teach at the local school. This is a picture from Lybokhora (1930s) of my grandfather (white shirt in second row, with bird on his shoulder) with his parents, siblings, and some family friends.  Many years ago I came across an album of authentic music recordings from his village. When I listen to it, I can image that during celebrations and rituals, my ancestors heard precisely this music. Links with info and downloads: http://lemko.org/lvpro/turka.html http://www.ex.ua/7952774 http://www.discogs.com/

I haven't come across many Ukrainian or Russian store signs in photos of prewar Lviv. On Ruska Street there are some Cyrillic ghost signs, in particular one in Ukrainian, which can be found here . I've also found a Ukrainian ghost sign in Przemysl . Below is a photograph of furniture shop. In addition to Polish, there is also Russian (though in contemporary Russian it should be "Магазин Мебели" not "Магазин Мебелей"). If it is indeed Russian, it likely dates from 1914-1915 when Lviv was briefly under Russian rule during WWI. Otherwise, as was pointed out to me in a comment, it could be Iazychie , a language used by Ukrainian Russophiles. I like the couch in front of the store and the "ghost" near it.

Here's a lovely old photo of a shopfront in Lviv. The shop sold various kinds of hats. "Czapek" means "hat" in Polish. I've posted other old photos of Lviv with hand-painted advertisements, Part I  and Part II One of my favorite ghost signs visible in Lviv today is from another hat shop, pictured below. (I've posted these before, here and here .)

Old photos are windows to the past, to a forgotten world. I'm fortunate to have quite a few old family photos, which allow me to get a glimpse into the lives they led . I decided to share some of these photos with a correspondent from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty who traveled around Ukraine collectin material for her project "My Ukraine: Memory and Identity." My story can be found here . 1936 - Brody, Ukraine

Photos taken from the Facebook page Ретро Львов

I’ve searched old photos of Lviv for photos with hand-painted signs, in particular for ones that are still visible today. I’ve only found one – an old photo of the milk house, which I posted about earlier.  Here are a few other ones with signs that disappeared long ago. Shevchenko Boulevard building with advertisement on right is long gone bottom left corner signs with stripes Photos taken from the following websites: www.karta.org.pl , www.old.lviv.ua , http://www.lvivcenter.org/ , http://audiovis.nac.gov.pl/