(2024-05-20/22) My father, Julius Hauster, graduated from high school in Czernowitz in June 1929 at the age of sixteen. In November 1929, he was just seventeen, he began his engineering studies in Grenoble, received his diploma as an electrical engineer in June 1933 and applied for French citizenship. Nothing came of this, he returned to Czernowitz and married his wife Rahel in September 1937. After WW2 and the Holocaust, Julius and Rahel were determined to emigrate from Communist Romania to Brazil. On September 14, 1947, Julius wrote to his parents: "... if we manage to get the passport. We will then also travel via Switzerland and Paris. I also want to visit the old Grenoble to remember the first one in my second youth."
That didn't work out either, shortly afterwards they got divorced and their dreams of Brazil were shattered. What would my father have said to me visiting his beloved Grenoble in my umpteenth youth? I don't know, probably something like "it's about time", but I can now understand why he liked Grenoble so much.
2 comments:
Such a mixture of the pleasures and poignance comes across in the memories of place you discuss and the physicality of place that you visit. Thank yo for sharing this.
Thank you so much, dear Eytan, very much appreciated. The fact that you and our other Czernowitzers are taking such an active virtual part in my tour doubles the joy of it.
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