Europe 2012 – Day 17 – Mukachevo

I was up early enough for breakfast for only the second time in Uzhgorod. I’ve been catching up on my sleep a bit. My ride arrived just after breakfast and we were off to Mukachevo.

Everyone in genealogy says that no one gets records out of the Uzhgorod archive but instead you go to the Mukachevo synagogue. But who am I to do what everyone else does? At the synagogue, I was told they have no records and to go to the archive. So much for that idea.

We visited both the new and old Jewish cemeteries. I had checked online again to be sure, and none of my known family were buried at either, as far as the online records say. There should be a few, so I don’t really know what that’s about. Still, the caretaker pointed me to the Schwimmers and the one Rosenthal in the new cemetery. I saw other names that are also in my family and photographed them too. The old cemetery is just a large field with piles of a few remaining stones, some intact, some in pieces, and some embedded into the walls.

In the center of the city, my driver pointed out another synagogue that was just rebuilt. Is that the one with the old records? Maybe, but it was closed.

A visit to Palanok Castle ended the tour for the day.

And now, I wait in Uzhgorod for the archive to call, which hopefully they will do before I leave for the Paris conference.

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