May 11.Leaving to Russia.Depart pour la Russie

This morning I leave to Russia.
Ce matin je pars en Russie.
Below is the itinerary for the next two,three days,by the way I don't know yet how many days.

Voici l'itineraire pour les deux,trois prochains jours a venir.
Then I'll go to Gatchina and St Petersburg where I still have relatives Micha and Galia Usdin(Micha's Grandfather Kusel was my Grandfather's brother) and a good friend Natacha Tchilingarava.

Ensuite je partirai pour Gatchina et St Petersburg ou j'ai encore de la famille Micha et Galia Usdin(Le grand pere de Micha,Kusiel etait le frere de mon grand pere) et une tres bonne amie Natacha Tchilingarova.


8.20 AM.It's time to close the laptop and to go!
8h20 Il est temps de fermer l'ordinateur et de partir!
On the road again....

May 10,my last day in Vishki.Mon dernier jour a Vishki

Somewhere in the blog I wrote,that the synagogue of Vishki was destroyed in 1949.But I received a mail from Leizer Dumesch who spent his childhood in Vishki.He writes"Когда после войны отец приехал в Вишки,синагоги уже не было ,её сожгпи в 1941 году ,а не в 1949."(When after the war my father arrived in Vishki,there was no more synagogue.They burnt it in 1941 and not in 1949)

Quelque part dans mon blog j'ai ecrit que la synagogue a ete detruite en 1949.Ce matin j'ai reçu un mail de Leizer Dumesch qui a passé son enfance a Vishki et qui ecrit que quand son pere est revenu a Vishki apres la guerre la synagogue avait deja ete detruite.

All is very difficult as people say different things.
Leizer also wrote"Я был мальчишской и
то хорошо помню,что хорошая,красивая синагога была на улице Шульгас
,недалеко от Аглонас и фасадом выходила на базарную площадь ,рынок
располагался метров 300 от неё."(I was a little child but I remember very well what a beautiful synagogue was on Shulgas st[Bazarnaya st]not far from Aglonas and the front gave onto the Market place,the market 300 meters from it)

The market place in Vishki



On the market place,where they gave tickets to have the right to sell products


I was taking a last photo of the mikveh (or bakery)when people walked to me and invited me to drink coffee.(this never happens in France...)

J'etais en train de prendre une photo quand des gens sont venus vers moi et m'ont invitée a prendre un café chez eux(cela n'arrive jamais en France)

Regina,Sacha and Nina





Then with Nina Sergueievna of Sonia's house we drove to Volodia Gaga,who is 72 years old and remembers the holocaust in Vishki.

Apres avec Nina Sergueievna qui habite la maison de Sonia Usdin nous sommes allées chez Volodia Gaga qui a 72 ans et se rappelle tres bien de l'holocauste a Vishki.

Volodia Gaga and Veronika Galvane in 1972


Volodia Gaga talks about the holocaust in Vishki

Yersterday I took a movie of the Jewish cemetery.Eleonora Petrovna said that there were tombstones all over the cemetery but they stole the stones.Hopefully about 150 remain.It's very sad as not only the Germans killed all the Jews,but the Soviets stole the stones.

Hier j'ai filmé le cimetiere juif.Eleonora Petrovna a dit que le cimetiere etait reempli de tombes apres la guerre mais les Soviets les ont volées.Heureusement il reste encore environ 150 tombes.Non seulement les Allemands ont tué tous les Juifs mais en plus les Soviets ont pillé le cimetiere.

The Jewish cemetery of Vishki

The videos are not good quality because I had to reduce them.I'll make of them better films when I'll be in France.

Toutes les photos
All the photos

and to end my last day in Vishki Janis and Regina,the owners of the guest room invited me for a "chachlik party"
Et pour terminer mon sejour a Vishki Janis et Regina,les proprietaires des chambres d'hotes m'ont invitee a une "chachlik party"


Janis Kudins



To morrow morning I'll cross the border to Russia.
Demain matin je passe la frontiere russe.

May 9.День Победы

Поздравляю с Днем Победы!

Объявление
Я уезжаю в Россию 11 мая...Так как я буду путешествовать, я буду состанавливаться в разных местах ...Не беспокойтесь, если вы меня не видите...Это будет означать, что у меня нет соединения с интернетом.
До новых встреч в эфире,
ваша Кристина Сергеевна

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A Vishki j'ai rencontré Vladislav qui est né en 1928 et qui se souvient de la tuerie.En face de la synagogue il y avait un cordonnier.Il m'a montré des petits fers a chaussure et me les a offert.

In Vishki I met Vladislav who was born in 1828 and who remembers the killings.He shown me little ironshoes(don't know the word) and gave them to me.(Bruce I'll gave you one).There was a shoe maker across the street where the synagogue was.

Ostrov forest
"Tragedy of Vishki Jews started in July 1941, when those involved in the local commanding centre started to recruit locals to identify and eventually bring together all Jews. Ostrov Wood by the Vishki Lake was being prepared for the bloody operation, it was announced to the locals that Jews will be shot there, machine-guns were being installed. Vishki District became a closed zone, all the Jews were taken to Ostrov. Suddenly, an order came to call off the operation. Jews came back to their homes to prepare for transfer to Daugavpils Ghetto, where all the Jews had to arrive by July 26 1941."from Eleonora Petrovna's book

Ostrov forest

Et pour vous faire envie,maman et Nicolas voici mon repas de tout a l'heure( 6 heures)au motel Garden.




Et un des lacs de Vishki





Cliquez ici pour voir toutes les photos
Click here to see all the photos

May 8.

.

Eleonora Petrovna avec qui j'ai rendez vous ce matin a ecrit un livre sur Vishki.Le livre est en letton mais j'espere trouver un traducteur.
I'll meet Eleonora Petrovna this morning .She wrote a book about Vishki.The book is in latvian but I hope to find a translator.
Jula said that There were houses everywhere and they were very close together which is certainly true as 176 houses have been listed on Aglona street.Click here
Jula dit qu'il y avait des maisons partout et celles si etaient cote a cote ce qui ne m'etonne pas car nous avons repertorié 176 maison sur Aglonas st.Cliquez ici
En 1935 il y avait 423 Juifs sur une population de 750 habitants.

Bruce,Esther Shor(by the way she is my relative Galia Koltun's aunt)'s map is not wrong.The market place,Jewish school,post office are at their right places.


After Eleonora I'll try to figure out where your houses were.The problem is nobody knows where Riga st(Рижская ул.) was but they think it's Kraslava st now.


Veronica(Vika)Galvane's house


...on Bazarnaya ulitsa

I am meeting Galia and Boris this afternoon in Daugavpils.




The sky is still white but I am so happy to be here.
Le ciel est encore blanc mais je suis si heureuse d'etre ici.

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I met Eleonora Petrovna who wrote a book about Vishki.She gave me the book.
.The book seems interesting but it's writen in latvian.She explained that the Vishki Jewish cemetery was filled with graves after the war but the Soviets(or Latvian people)stole the stones to built the roads etc...as they did in Daugavpils.They distroyed the entire cemetery there and now people are buried in the hudge(all religions)cemetery on the road to Rezekne,by the way to Vishki.
J'ai rencontré Eleonora Petrovna qui est un professeur a la retraite et qui a ecrit un livre sur Vishki.Elle a expliqué que le cimetiere de Vishki etait rempli de tombe jusqu'au portail mais les soviets ont volé les tombes pour construire les routes etc..Ils ont fait la meme chose a Daugavpils et maintenant les Juifs sont enterre dans l'immense cimetiere de toutes religions a la sortie de Daugavpils sur la route de Rezekne,c.a.d sur la route de Vishki.

Catherine 1ere,la femme de Pierre le Grand est née a Vishki pres de la gare actuelle et construite en 1860 et quelques,d'apres Eleonora.Je suppose que mon Grand pere a pris le train dans cette gare quand il est parti pour la guerre en 1914.Tres emouvant
Catherine the first,according to Eleonora and other sources was born in Vishki near the railway station built in about 1860.I suppose that my Grand father took the train in this station when he went to fight in 1914.Very moving.
The Vishki railway station

CatherineII dite la Grande Catherine de Russie est passée a vishki et cette eglise orthodoxe ci dessous a environ un mile de Vishki sur la route de Kraslava a ete construite en son honneur.
Catherine II,called Catherine the Great went through Vishki and this orthodox church below situated about one mile from Vishki on the road to Kraslava was built to honour her.


Je suis allée a Daugavpils voir Galia et Boris Koltun.Quel plaisir d'etre avec eux!Ils m'ont invitée a dejeuner au restaurant a nouveau.
I drove to Daugavpils to meet Galia and Boris Koltun.What a pleasure to be with them.They invited me in a restaurant again and again I loved the food.
En face du restaurant il y a une jolie eglise orthodoxe.
Across the street there is a beautiful orthodox church.

We went to the Jewish cemetery where Boris's Grandmother is buried.
Nous sommes allés au cimetiere Juif ou la grand mere de Boris est enterrée.

Boris's Grandmother gravestone



The rabbis of Dvinsk(Daugavpils)graves


Je ne reverrai pas Galia et Boris car je pars en Russie dimanche.Cela me rend tres triste mais il y a internet.
I shall not see Galia and Boris anymore this time as I leave to Russia on sunday.It makes me very sad.



Galia Koltun talks about her Grandmother Gita Usdin

In the garden of all the houses in Vishki there is a bania(little wood cabins for bath.Kind of sauna)
Dans le jardin de toutes les maisons il y a un bania(sorte de petites isbas en bois qui sert de sauna)

Bania at Sonia's house



Inside of the bania



Svetlana,Nina and Dima's daughter.
She gave me a tapestry,that she made.An isba in a russian paysage.


Maintenant voici ou je vis,dans la guest house de Janis Kudins,maire de Vishki et de Spogi.La fenetre ouverte est ma chambre.
Now here is where I live,in Janis Kudins's guest house.He is the mayor of Vishki and Spogi.The opened window is my bedroom.



Today photos

Yersterday photos

May 7.Day 6

Le temps a changé depuis hier.Le ciel est blanc et il faisait froid cette nuit.
The weather changed.White sky and it was cold tonight.

Элена,дай мне твой мэйл адрес.Он где то а его не нашла.Ты скоро уедешь во Францию.Удач желаю на пути.

J'ai rendez vous avec Jula a Daugavpils a 1 heures et nous revenons ici.Elle a vécu a Vishki apres la guerre et bien sur connait beaucoup de choses.Je pense qu'elle m'aidera dans mes recherches.
I have an appointment at 1PM with Jula in Daugavpils ,then we come back here.She lived in Vishki after the war and knows a lot.
La Lettonie a beaucoup changé depuis mon dernier sejour en 1994.A l'epoque elle sortait du communisme et il restait beaucoup de traces.Maintenant comme tous les pays d'Europe de l'Est elle s'uniformise sur le modele Europe de l'ouest.Batiments modernes,super marchés,voitures neuves etc etc...

All the houses in the village seem small but inside it's quite big and there are several rooms.I have a better idea of how my ancestors lived as I go in all the abandoned houses when they are not locked.My family during czarist government lived in the house of Danilievitcha on Peterburg st which is Aglonas st.


The pharmacy of Vishki(back of the house)




Inside










Before driving to Daugavpils to take Jula I went to Lizla Petrovna Borkevich to take pictures of the "pojarnaya kniga".

VIDEOS

Jula's mother's house in Vishki.The house has been bombed during the war as most of the houses of Vishki.





My fiancé,Nina,Dima and Jula



Izrael Dumesch's house





Bazarnaya Plochad


Appartement where Jula lived with her mother


This lady talks a little about the holocaust in Vishki

May6.Day 5

This is the former pharmacy in Vishki.It was on Aglona st on the right side when you come from Spogi.
C'est l'ancienne pharmacy a Vishki sur la rue Aglona coté droit quand on arrive de Spogi.
This stove is inside this abandoned house and concerning stoves my friend Natalia from Orenburg(Russia)wrote "we had the same stove one under socialism in our bathroon when we had to boil some water and take a bath, it called "titan. we burned there small pieces of wod, old newspappers and magazines."

The house of The Bor Jewish family is situated behind the pharmacy


On Aglonas st when you come from Spogi all the houses on the left have a have an odd number


Aglona st which was,I think,Peterburg st during Czarist regime was named Komsomolskaya st during the soviets.


At 11AM I have an appointment with Ilza Petrovna Borkevich who lives on Aglonas st in a former house of Moll.The house ,she said,is 120 years old and she has been owning it since 1944.I'll try to buy her "fire book".

Ilza Petrovna's house

At 3PM I'll meet with Galia Koltun whose maiden name was Yoffe.Her grand mother and ancestors lived in Vishki.Nachman Usdin ,my Great Grandfather's brother remarried with her Grand mother Gita Yoffe after Sora-Piesha Moshevna Usdina(Nachman's first wife)'s death in 1900.
Gita Usdin was killed by the nazis in 1941.Their son Izrael Usdin was killed in Germany during the war in 1944.Their descendants live in Israel.
Click here to know more about Galia and her family.
And to see all the photos click here

ALL THE PHOTOS

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This morning after having driven in Vishki and trying to draw a map of the village I drove out of the village on the way to Kraslava and I saw a house on the right side far away on a hill in Moskovskaya village(it's not really a village as there are only several house.
In this house a woman Tamara who was a friend of Jula Dumesch(yes,yes Bruce ...and to morrow Jula and I will go to them)and her mother live.It's a beautiful place,remote but beautiful.
They live as we lived many many years ago.

Preparing potatoes for the cow,the veal and the pork

What a contrast with the hotel Latgale in Daugavpils where I drunk a coffee before I met with Galia and Boria Koltun.
They invited me to a restaurant(шикарный ресторан)


Then we drove to the Dvinsk Krepost and to The pogulanski forest where the nazis murdered thousands of Jews in 1941.


"At the end of june 1941,Vishki was captured by the germans.On the night of july 28,the local Jews were banished to the ghetto of Dvinsk.On the road,they were joined by streams of Jews from other municipalities who were transported there.As soon as they passed by the Agloneh monastery,the Jews were shot by Latvians who gathered on both sides of the road,thus extracting from them some victims.After a stay of a number of days in the crowded Dvinsk ghetto,the Vishki Jews were told,as were all the Jews who had arrived from the surrounding villages,that they were about to be transferred,as it were,to another ghetto.They were taken to the adjacent Pogulanski Forest and murdered with guns,as part of the terrifying slaughter known in the Dvinsk ghetto as the "provincial action".Among the victims was the last rabbi of Vishki,Rabbi Yaakov Meir Pulchinski.The two USDIN brothers from Vishki who worked in a peat mining camp adjacent to Eizpoteh escaped from there.Together with two other Jews they hid for a long period of time in the ruins of an ancient fortress in the area.In the year 1944,the four were discovered and murdered."
Gita Usdin,Galia's Grandmother and my Great Grand aunt wasn't killed in Vishki but I
in a gaz truck.

ALL THE PHOTOS
TOUTES LES PHOTOS