Recently the funds of the Museum of the History and Culture of Bukovinian Jews have been enriched by unique documents - materials of the criminal case against Beatrice Rosalia Scherzer, a famous poet of Jewish origin, who is known to the world as Rosa Auslander. The destiny of the poet, who was born in Chernivtsi in 1901, was full of difficulties. One of the hard times was when she was arrested in November 1940 by the NKVS (Secret Service). The Soviet authority accused Rosa Auslander of being a spy, because she had lived in the USA and was a citizen of this state. However, this accusation was not proven during the investigation.
For a long time the materials of this case were classified and not accessible even for researchers. The museum's co-workers requested the Department of the Security Service of Ukraine in Chernivtsi region to allow the museum to use certain materials of the case for the 11th display board of the museum's permanent exhibition which is dedicated to the history of Bukovinian Jews in 1940-1941. To our surprise, the Security Service, answering our request, informed us, that they are ready to declassify the whole case and to hand it over to the museum.
In order to do this, Yaroslav Havrysh, the head of the Department of the Security Service of Ukraine in Chernivtsi region came to the museum. In the presence of guests and representatives of the mass-media, Yaroslav Havrysh handed a copy of the case over to Mykola Kushnir, the director of the museum.