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[Page 87]

Dornesti (Hadikfalva)
(Romania)

47°52' / 26°01'

Translation of chapter
“Hadikfalva (Dornesti)” from Volume II:

Geschichte der Juden in der Bukowina

Edited by: Hugo Gold

Written by: Hugo Gold using information provided by Mosche Landau

Published in Tel Aviv, 1962

Translated by:

Jerome Silverbush z”l


This is a translation of the chapter “Hadikfalva (Dornesti)”, Geschichte der Juden in der Bukowina
{History of the Jews in the Bukovina} Editor: Dr. Hugo Gold, written by Dr. Hugo Gold using information provided by
Mosche Landau, Tel Aviv, Published in Tel Aviv, 1962


In Bukovina also known as Little Austria, there were five Hungarian colonies, three in the vicinity of Radauti (Andresfalva, Hadikfalva and Istenszegetz) and two in the region of Suczawer (Lajosfalva and Jossiffalva). The largest was Hadikfalva which at the time of the return of the Hungarians in the years 1941/1942 had over 6000 inhabitants in 1500 dwellings

As elsewhere in the world, Jews filled the openings in commerce soon after the founding of the Hadikfalva. They came mostly from Siret, were owners of "Greislereien" and inns, opened butcher shops and various businesses for necessities of all sorts and served the population as translators in dealing with the surrounding non-Hungarian natives Also the craft work was mostly in Jewish hands. The Hungarian colonists recognized the importance of their Jewish neighbors when they needed advice.

It was difficult for the first Jewish settlers. The trip to and from the weekly market in Siret and Radauti which they under took for the purpose of buying goods was an ordeal, since at the beginning of the 19th century there were no paved roads. The primitive paths became impassable during Fall rains and the trips had to be continually interrupted. There were moving scenes of parting when a family father undertook a trip of this sort. Cautious men went so far as to give their wives a letter of divorce (get) to make her remarriage possible in case he disappeared. The travel problem was solved when about 1870, the new railroad from Chernivtsi to Itzkany was built through Hadikfalva. Hadikfalva then became a coal and water stop for the local train to Radauti and Seletin.

The businessman Awner Rosenwald built a prayer house for the Jews in Hadikfalva. He also left a endowment for Jewish and non Jewish orphans. There were no congegration in Hadikfalva because of the availability of religious resources in nearby Radauti and Siret. But the Jews of Hadikfalva had their own butcher for kosher slaughter of animals and covered the cost of a cheder. The only doctor in the village was the Jew, Doctor Szabo. and the pharmacy Metsch was also Jewish owned. There was Zionist activity in Hadikfalva. Mrs Rivka Freier and after 1924, Mosche and Sabine Landau were active in Zionist fundraising.

Wholesale business were gradually established. Berl Terner opened a lumber yard near the railroad station. Jehuda Leib Kraft from Sereth built two mills. Austrian military officials had these mills burned however when the Russian army approached in 1914. The population of the town was evacuated and only returned after the Russians gave up the Carpathian front. In the years 1914 to 1916 the Britain and France pressured Romania to stop sending grain to Austria. The Austrian envoy Graf Czernin started a counter action and used the help of a Jewish middleman in order to organize secrete grain shipments to Austria. One of these was Nathan Eidinger who skillfully used his relation to Romanian "Bojaren" and until the entrance of Romania in the war earned much money with his transactions. He involved his brother-in-law Siegmund Rachmut and Rachmut's nephew Solomon Landau in the business.

After the war the heirs of Jehuda Leib Kraft built the largest water turbine powered mills in Bukovina. A lively export of agricultural products was started from the "model" farms whose owners were Margosches, Adelstein, Wassermann and Blum. Lipa Laufer was a well known cattle exporter. Mosch Braunstein delivered fruit to Western markets.

As late as 1939 the Kraft company built a starch and dextrose that could process 50 wagons of potatoes daily.

The material well being also brought cultural advances with it. In the community center (Beth-Hamidrasch) founded by Markus Landau programs took place that helped raise the cultural level. In 1940 after the occupation of North Bukovina by the Russians, the Romanian soldiers treated the Jews in the town badly. Mosche Landau and Hermann Rudich were only through a stroke of luck not killed. In 1941, the Jews of Hadikfalva together with the Jews of Radauti and Siret were deported. The few survivors are scattered throughout the world with some living in Israel.

This work was written by Dr. Hugo Gold using information provided by Mosche Landau 

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