Same Space, Different Stories: German and Jewish memories of Bukovina after the Second World War

This article explores the themes of unity and disunity with regard to German and Jewish memories of Bukovina after the Second World War. Although one often reads in the literature that Bukovina was home to a large number of minorities, notably Jews and Germans, who lived together peacefully and harmoniously, I demonstrate the extent to which this ‘unity’ was challenged by the violent experience of the war and the Holocaust. I show that despite similar means and modes of commemoration and references to the same place and time, the stories told by German and Jews about the region were very different. Looking at the features of post-war approaches to Bukovina among Jews and Germans, I argue the ‘disunity’ results from both different experiences and different conceptions of Germanness. I conclude with some thoughts on Bukovina as a physical and memorial landscape in the present and the future.