Chernivtsi

A view of the city.

Chernivtsi (Ukrainian: Чернівці́, Romanian: Cernăuți, German: Czernowitz) is a city in western Ukraine, situated on the upper course of the River Prut. It has a population of approximately 260,000 people.

History

The city's coat of arms from 1918 to 1940.

The city was formerly a part of Austria-Hungary. When the empire dissolved in 1918, the city and its surrounding area became part of Romania.

In 1940, the Red Army occupied the area; the area around the city became known as Chernivtsi Oblast, and was allotted to the Ukrainian SSR by the Soviet Union. The city's large Romanian intelligentsia found refuge in Romania; while the Bukovina Germans were "repatriated" according to a Soviet-Nazi agreement. This prompted Romania to switch from an ally of France and Britain to one of Nazi Germany; in July 1941, the Romanian Army retook the city as part of the Axis attack on the Soviet Union during World War II.

In August 1941, Romanian military dictator Ion Antonescu ordered the creation of a ghetto in the lowland part of the city, where 50,000 Bukovina Jews were crammed, two-thirds of whom would be deported to Transnistria in October 1941 and partly in early 1942, where the majority perished. Romanian mayor of the city Traian Popovici managed to persuade Antonescu to raise the number of Jews exempted from deportation from 200 to 20,000.

In 1944, when Axis forces were driven out by the Red Army, the city was reincorporated into the Ukrainian SSR. Over the following years, most of the Jews left for Israel; the city was an important node in the Berihah network. Bukovina Poles were also "repatriated" by the Soviets after World War II. The city became a predominantly Ukrainian one.

Hockey in Chernivtsi

During Romanian times, Cernauti was one of the main hockey centers along with Bucharest and Miercurea Ciuc.

The game caught on in the city during the 1930s and the regional Bukovina Championship, featuring primarily Cernauti-based clubs, was contested.

Dragos Voda Cernauti became Romanian champions in 1938.

More recently, the First Amateur Championship of the Chernivtsi Region was contested in 2007. The inaugural edition of the competition was won by HC Chernivtsi.

All-time teams

• Borochow Cernauti
• CFR Cernauti
• Dragos Voda Cernauti
• Dovbusch Cernauti
• Maccabi Cernauti
• Jahn Cernauti
• Jask Cernauti
• Muncitorul Cernauti
• Polonia Cernauti
• Prutul Cernauti
• HC Chernivtsi
• Lyodovyy Maydanchyk Chernivtsi
• Stara Zhuchka Chernivtsi

Arenas

• Lyodovyy Maydanchyk (present-day outdoor facility)

Pre-WWII rinks

These were all outdoor facilities.

• Der Primariaplatz (capacity: 1000)
• Der Eisplatz Polonia-Maccabi
• Vasil Alexandri

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