Arrival at Rohrbach

The village of Worms is located on the main road, a quaint little rural Ukrainian village with an assortment of old German houses, the church, centerpiece of the village, since converted from the German Lutheran to Russian Orthodox faith. A few of the old folks there still remember the German heritage, but I got the sense that it will soon die with these old people. Rohrbach may hold a different promise.

Leaving Worms (now Vinogradne), the van carrying our little tour group gets back onto the main road and travels some 10 kilometers, where we see a sign indicating the turnoff to to Novosvetlovka, telling us its another 13 kilometers. Over the fields, where I'm sure my ancestors travelled, the distance is much shorter. The road now becomes a one lane sparsely-paved asphalt road running down the center of a row of planted trees. Sometimes it seems we are traveling through heavy forest, until a break in the trees shows us once again the green fields stretching endlessly to the horizon. About a 30 minute drive seems to be taking hours. Is there really a village out here? Suddenly we break out of the tree cover and see a few houses nestled in the valley. The village of Rohrbach, now Novosvetlovka. We pass by a large abandoned stone building which appears to me to be the remnants of a collective farm that the Soviets started when they took control of the village. We see these throughout Russia. In the distance beyond this building are what could be the remnants of clay pits, those used by the settlers to get brick for their houses.

Suddenly on the side of the road, just before it turns left into the village, is a prominent sign that announces the village. This is a special moment. Seeing this sign.


Two names. Rohrbach, Novosvetlovka. On the sign, the years 1809-2009. Two hundred Rokov. Two hundred years. This is not a highway directional sign put there by the department of roads. This sign was paid for and erected by the citizens of the village. They remember. During the communist era the perpetrators of this horrific crime of eulogizing pre-Soviet history would have been arrested and the sign would have been taken down. Times have changed. Seeing this sign and having my picture taken was a special moment for me.