On the Marienbad Nuremberg Axis with Richard Svandrlik

I am hesitant to write this post about the culture that I detest in the destroyed and the reinvented forms. Holocausts come and go, they are the recurring byproduct of the human race. But not the Gulags, where citizens are subjected to a sustained ideological brainwashing, no one comes alive from the Gulags, not in a literal sense, be it the Inca empire, the Egyptian slavery or the Stalin plague, etc.

But this post is about a unique and living man, his name is Richard Svandrlik, he now resides in Nuremberg Germany. I feel kinship with Richard, we grew in parallel and we both left the “Soviet Block” within months of each other. Richard Svandrlik’s story sounds so familiar, unbounded intellectual curiosity, the illegal appreciation of the Rock’n'Roll, pushed from Czechoslovakia as a dissident when he was 21.

When I first saw his prolific Marienbad collection, especially the Rebbisher photos I was amazed. Richard wrote: ”I found them in the empty buildings” – he then explained:

“In 1945 the spa town of Marienbad had a population of 64,000, plus 150,000 in the urban hinterland. In 1960 it was down to about 8-10,000. The Jewish visitors disappeared and then, after the war, the large German population (that enthusiastically supported Hitler) was banished to Germany. Marienbad became a military zone.

Many formerly world known hotels were totally empty, abandoned, some of them till today! This was for us children a paradise for playing there. I grew up on the Poststrasse, known in Marienbad as the Jewish St. I discovered that my grandmother from Prague was Jewish. My father beside being a biologist and a piano player was a history enthusiast. So I learned about the history already as child. And there I started my collection.

I have a huge digital archive now – about 12 thousands photos and records, different postcards of Marienbad – almost all as scans. I buy this stuff, then I make a scan in the best resolution and quality and sell them again. I am not a collector [if Richard is not a collector, then who is?], but I am very interested in the history, art, architecture and music. Professionally I work as an electrical engineer in Nuremberg.”

The big part of Richard Svandrlik’s collection are the photos of the European Rabbis taken by the Rebbisher paparazzi of the day. The book is in German and this remains sort of a barrier for the most Jews today but you can get the glimpses of the massive undertaking from the pages.

There is a great number of Gerer and Beltzer photos. Along with the Lubavitcher I don’t care for the generals who left their soldiers on the field. The fraudulent grandeur of these movements today is only a testimony to that shame. Same for the Ruzhiner (Sadigura, etc. or even Vizhnitz) and Twerskys courts. There is one word as alien to that culture as elephant to the Eskimos – honor.

Anyhow, here is a complete chapter from the book about the 1937 Kenessio Gedaulo (big PDF no pun intended). Nominally one of the last pre-war Aguda conventions.

I will publish some photos thematically, exclusively of the Rabbis with the “human” faces. I want to start with the Rabbi of Krakow Joseph Nekhemia Kornitzer. The Royal seat of the Polish kingdom calls for a man royal in stature (you can enlarge the photos).

The grave of Rabbi of Krakow Joseph Nechemia Kornitzer (1880-1933).

Is the young prince in spodek to the right of the Benzion Halberstam in fact Shlomo Halberstam of Boro Park?

Richard will have to explain that last one.

Further reading:

• European Entries – Kazimierz, Krakow
• The Kafkaesque Ride on the Belz – Marienbad Express
• Why did Richard Joel’s Salary go up?

Tagged as: europe, history, holocaust, jews, poland, Richard Svandrlik