Galicia - KNIAZOLUKA 2005

The Hitler-Stalin Pact was signed in 1939. Although officially labelled a "non-aggression treaty", the pact included a secret protocol, in which independent countries were divided into spheres of interest of the parties. The secret protocol explicitly assumed "territorial and political rearrangements" in the areas of these countries. Galicia was divided between Germany and the Soviet Union. Most of the German people of Galicia (- they were settled in this aerea since 1772 -) had to move to Germany.
 
My fathers family left Galicia in December 1939. At this time my father was 19 years old and he never came back.
 
66 years later I visited KNIAZOLUKA, a litte village south of Lviv (Lemberg) at the beginning of the Carpatian Mountains, were my father was born. I came here with a lot of old stories told by my father and I wanted to find my own pictures and my own story.
 
I remember the moment when I came to Kniazoluka: it was raining before, there was water on the street, but now the sun was shining. People went to church and I could hear them singing orthodox songs. I saw wooden houses and nice gardens with beautiful fences. I was very excited when I went through this little village and took my pictures and I had a good feeling just like bringing my father back - for a moment...
 
"Memory is like a rope coming down from heaven and taking you out from nowhere". Marcel Proust

in memory of my father, august 2005