Project number: [JOWBR, ROM-01899]

The town of Radautz

The cemetery

The cemetery is divided into 26 sections of different sizes, and it contains also a ritual purification facility and several vaults of rabbis. It also has several family vaults. Paths separate one section from another. Some of them are clearly defined, while others so badly as to obliterate completely the boundaries between sections. As regards the number of graves in each section, some are still completely empty, some are small sections with only several dozens of tombs, and some are as big as section 23, which has 17 rows, with about 80 graves in each – and about 1,250 graves all told.

The headstones in the cemetery are of different kinds. There are headstones made out of hard stone, beautifully carved, which have stood the test of time for 150 years or more; there are headstones made out of limestone, part of which crumbled a little with time; headstones of concrete and plaster which are badly deteriorated - and finally headstones made out of tin, completely rusted now, and undecipherable, of course. There also are splendid marble headstones dating from the second half of the 20th century.

The text written on the headstones is different for each period. On the old headstones there is Hebrew writing only and the Hebrew date only, and no last names. Later there are a few last names written in Hebrew. Later still there are last names and non-Hebrew names (as well as the traditional Hebrew text), first on the back of the stone only, later on the stone itself, on its lower part. Later still there is the Gregorian date of death, and even date of birth. As the community deteriorated you may find mistakes in Hebrew dates and Hebrew spelling, and even stones written in Romanian only.

Generally, the cemetery is in a pretty good shape, although it has suffered from the ravages of time. Although there is a watchman on behalf of the community, marble plates, candle holders and so on have been stolen. Part of the fence of the cemetery has been fixed, thanks to the project of conservation and documentation.

The project of conservation and documentation

Apart from the documentation project a few steps have been taken for improving the general state of the cemetery, using money donated by former residents of Bukowina: the holes in the fence surrounding the cemetery have been fixed, tools have been bought, trees and bushes have been cleared, while leaving massive trees in place.

The raw material

Photographs of headstones: in the spring and summer of 2005 Bondy Stenzler, with the welcome help of his wife Sidi, photographed about 3,600 headstones in the cemetery, sections 1 through 23. Sections 24 and 25 were only very partially photographed, and section 26 wasn't photographed at all. In all, about 5,700 photographs were processed. In many cases more than one photograph was taken for each headstone; from different angles, concentrating on a certain part, photographing the back of the stone if it contained additional information. The pictures were taken with a digital camera, using quite high resolution, so each picture has a volume of 1.5-2 Mbytes. Using the high resolution made the deciphering of the photographed data easier, especially on those headstones that are in bad shape. In some cases the headstones had to be cleaned first with a brush - and this too was done by Bondy and Sidi. Out of the pictures of headstones about 3,600 names were deciphered, the overwhelming majority of which are Hebrew (name of the deceased and of his/her father), some of them contain the foreign name as well (first name and family name). A negligible minority of the stones has only Latin lettering, especially from the middle of the 20th century onwards. The overwhelming majority of the names on the headstones occurs also on the burial maps, and a great part of them (those written in Latin only) in the index too. Furthermore, the pictures of the headstones are a unique source for about 360 names written on memorial tablets – as part of other peoples' stones, especially of those who perished in the Holocaust in Transnistria and elsewhere.

Maps of the cemetery: there is a map of the whole cemetery and there are maps for each section. In certain cases there are two maps for one section, with (minor) differences between them. On the map of the cemetery there is a separate section in which the cholera victims were buried – with no headstones and no map of the section. The maps were filled by hand, some of them in pencil, by several writers - all of them anonymous. The name of the deceased is written in Hebrew in the usual way “Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen”, and sometimes (especially in the 20th century) in Latin (first and last name). For some of the names written in the map in Latin script the foreign version is used as, for instance, Sally instead of Sara. In a small number of cases the date of death also was written on the map. The systematic listing on the map was almost completely discontinued in the middle of the 20th century, and only few burial data has been entered since. The writers' personal feeling is that the maps were first made in the first half of the 20th century, listing the graves of the cemetery and using no other sources. This assumption is substantiated by pictures showing headstones which have fallen down; though according to the map those tombs are supposed to be full, the names of the deceased aren't filled in. The maps were photographed by Bondy Stenzler in summer 2005, using a hand-held digital camera, under far from optimal lighting conditions - but using high resolution. The maps of the big sections were photographed piecemeal (with some overlapping) - to make possible the deciphering of every name.

Partial index of the cemetery: During the years 2001-2003 the late Ms. Tania Grinberg, the Jewish community's secretary, made a partial index of the cemetery. The index is written in Latin script and listed according to the ABC of last names. It contains the following columns: last name, first name, Gregorian date of death, section, row, number in the row, number of death certificate, notes. The index contains some 2,850 names, about 18 names on every page. In very many cases, only the name and the section number are spelt out. The writers assume that the main source of the index is the names written on the maps in Latin letters. (Ms. Grinberg knowing no Hebrew, she couldn't read Hebrew names.) Besides, starting in the 1940s, there occur detailed lists of deaths - accompanied by number of death certificate. This data was probably taken from the community's archives. A special subgroup of this group consists of names without burial place (section and row). No parallels of this kind of lists were found - either in photographs of the ground or in the maps - and it is doubtful if those listed are buried in Radautz. The names listed in the index are written using German spelling mostly, and Romanian in the rest (especially towards the end of the period). The index too was photographed by Bondy Stenzler in summer 2005, using a hand-held digital camera, under far from optimal lighting conditions - but using high resolution.

Analyzing the information sources

The second-best source is the maps of burial sections. Because of the (natural) incompleteness of the data of the maps their main function was to support evidence of the pictures. This support takes one or several of the following forms: adding a family name if it wasn't written on the headstone, adding of non-Hebrew first names, date of death (if it wasn't deciphered from the headstone). In addition, the photographer's route was “tracked”. This tracking has made possible the completion of names in cases in which the headstones had been completely destroyed and not photographed -but had still been in good shape when the map was made - therefore the name of the deceased occurred on the map. Regarding the sections not yet photographed - the maps are the best source of information.

The third-best source of information is the burial index. Its basic incompleteness (it doesn't contain any names written in Hebrew only), spelling mistakes, double entries on the one hand and missing entries on the other - all this render it less than optimal. Nevertheless, this source has been used for completing information in quite a few cases (in addition to the pictures and maps) of one or more of the following: adding non-Hebrew first names, date of death (if not deciphered from the stone), and additional information drawn from the notes. Above all, as mentioned above, the index added names that don't occur in the maps and photographs.

Principles of listing

The justification for this is that it allows every searcher to reach all information using the data that he knows. For example: a person whose first names are Ya'akov Eliezer is listed under them on the Hebrew part of the tombstone. In the non-Hebrew part (if it exists) he might occur as Jakob (German spelling) or Iacob (Romanian). The whole information in this case will be written down thus: Ya'akov Eliezer Jakob Iacob.

The structure of database

In every row, the data has been set in 34 columns, divided into groups as follows:

Name (Latin lettering): last name (if known), first name, Hebrew name (for example Elazar ben Aharon HaKohen). In the column of last name the (/) sign is used for dividing two transliterations of the same name, and the (-) sign for dividing between two family names. In the first-name column the (-) sign is used for differentiating between two first names, and additional (non-Hebrew) names occur at the end -without any sign.

Additional names (Latin lettering): father's name (including last name if known and different from deceased's name), mother's name, additional family names (if mentioned).

Dates and localities (Latin lettering): Gregorian birth date, place of birth, Gregorian death date, Hebrew death date, place of death, Gregorian date of burial (if known and not identical with date of death), age at death (if explicitly stated in the information sources). Gregorian dates are written according to the formula 13-Dec-1950. In case of contradiction between the (Hebrew and Gregorian) dates data, as it occurs in the sources (of information) – it was solved by finding the origin of the mistake and setting the right date in the record. If unsuccessful, the information is written down as it occurs - with an appropriate note in the notes' column.

Name (Hebrew lettering): last name (if known), first name.

Additional names (Hebrew lettering): maiden name, father's name, mother's name, spouse's name.

Dates (Hebrew lettering): Hebrew date of birth, Hebrew date of death, Hebrew date of burial (if known and different from date of death).

Other data (Latin lettering): number of section, number of row in section, codes of information sources (H-Headstone, M-Map, I-Index, T-Tablet, this last serves for identification of information occurring on memorial tablets written on headstones of other deceased persons), identification of the pictures of the headstone (up to four per record), notes. The notes' column serves for writing notes on family relations (grandson of the Rabbi …..), profession (ritual slaughterer / doctor etc.), mention of two persons buried in the same grave, indication of conflicting information and so on.

Statistical data

• About 5,700 names (last name is known for about 3,800 of them)
• About 360 names of people who died in the holocaust
• Record of about 3,700 headstones, in 5,700 pictures

Summing up

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