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The Heavens Are Empty - Avrom Bendavid-Val [76]

By Root 793 0
Ellen Singerman, Anne Weiner, and Hailan V’Shoreshav (cited above);

• The Antwarg, Blitzstein, Burak, Foer, Gilden, Gluz, Gotman, Kerman, Kimelblat, Pearlmutter, Potash, Roitenberg, Schuster, Sheinbein, Szames, and Zucker families, who provided me with firsthand Trochenbrod stories or stories handed down from their forebears;

• Film footage of twenty interviews with people born in Trochenbrod or living in nearby villages, shot in Israel, the United States, and Ukraine by Itai Tamir and a Transfax Film Productions crew (www.transfax.co.il) for the Israeli Bet TAL organization (http://bet-tal.com), which graciously made the footage available to me;

• Videotapes of elderly individuals reminiscing about their lives in Trochenbrod, which were given to me by their respective descendants;

• Maps—Austro-Hungarian, German, Polish, Russian, Soviet, Ukrainian and U.S. military—spanning the period 1706–2006;

• Videotape of four trips to the site of Trochenbrod by groups primarily of Israelis, including the visit in 1992 of Israelis and two Americans to erect the black marble monuments at Trochenbrod and at the mass grave site;

• Interviews with people born in Trochenbrod who now live in Israel, Brazil, North America, Poland, and Ukraine;

• Interviews with a number of Ukrainians living in the Trochenbrod area who remember Trochenbrod from their childhood or youth;

• Conversations with Ukrainians who now live or used to live in villages near the site of Trochenbrod;

• My own photographs and video footage of the site of Trochenbrod and the surrounding area;

• Explorations of the Trochenbrod terrain by foot and tractor with my friend Ivan Podziubanchuk and his family from the nearby village of Domashiv, during my nine visits to the area in the period 1997–2009.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I want first to thank Jessica Case, my editor at Pegasus Books. Jessica happily took me and my manuscript under her wing and devoted untold hours skillfully helping refine the manuscript and bringing the book to the widest possible English readership. She has been a wonderful partner from whom I’ve learned a great deal, and has been a pleasure to work with.

Another person who has been instrumental in helping me bring the story of Trochenbrod to life is my literary agent, Jonah Straus. Jonah immediately understood what this book was and could be, was enthusiastic about it, and worked hard to find the right publisher and an international readership. He, too, has been a pleasure to work with.

I want also to thank Michael Millman, Senior Editor, Praeger Publishing, and all the others at Praeger who considered and encouraged this book.

It’s amazing—and wonderful—how many people gave of themselves for this project. It’s only because they gladly shared so much so freely that I was able to put this book together, and help Trochenbrod live on beyond our lifetimes. I can’t thank them enough.

In Israel there was:

Michal Barry, who helped with Hebrew-to-English translation during interviews with Shmulik Potash;

Chaim and Mira Binnenbaum, who helped coordinate with Israeli interview subjects;

Joseph Blau, who helped with research and Hebrew-to-English translation;

Yehuda and Uri Dotan, who provided key video and photographic material;

Tuvia Drori, who shared his Trochenbrod stories over the course of many years;

Moshe Goler, who provided information about the Argentine Trochenbrod-Lozisht community;

Sarit Harpaz, who helped coordinate with Israeli interview subjects;

Henia Katzir, who shared her family’s Trochenbrod stories and photos and provided information on the early days of the Israeli Trochenbrod-Lozisht community and the postwar activities of her father, Eliezer (Burak) Barkai;

Moti Litvak, who helped coordinate with Israeli interview subjects;

Shmuel Potash, who shared his stories of Trochenbrod and his journey from Poland to Israel;

Noam Rosenblatt, who provided translation and liaison help concerning Gad Rosenblatt’s partisan years;

Nachman Rotenberg, who shared his Trochenbrod stories, knowledge, and photos;

Itai Tamir, of Transfax

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