23 June 1915, Wednesday

(A) Drohobych. Jakub Schulz, Bruno’s father, dies.

(B) Bruno Schulz is still in Vienna at that time.

(A) According to the death record book, Jakub Schulz – “a merchant, son of the deceased parents, Szymon and Hinda Schulz” – dies at about nine in the morning in his own apartment at ul. Bednarska1. It is probably the house of the Schulz family at ul. Floriańska 102. Jakub, who is 69 years old at the time, dies of “senile decay”. The funeral takes place the following day.

See also: 23 April 1931. (ts) (transl. mw)

(B) According to Schulz’s registration and refugee cards, he stayed in Vienna continuously since 30 November 1914*. In the light of these documents, it is impossible to uphold the current version of Jerzy Ficowski, who writes in the Regions of Great Heresy: “When [the war] broke out, part of the family, fearing the approaching front, left for Vienna. The deterioration of my father’s health forced him to return quickly, especially since Bruno was also unwell. The tireless mother took care of her two sick family members in Drogobych – her husband and son. The house was turned into a hospital as it had been a few years ago, and it was perhaps the longest period of Bruno’s continuous contact with Jakub. [...] As a convalescent, he helped to nurture his dying father”3. 

At that time, Schulz lived at Elisabethpromenade 29. He could not return to his family home yet as he was not granted permission from the authorities. Lviv and the surrounding counties, including Drogobych, were liberated from the occupation by the Russian army only three days before. In addition, as a student supporting the formation of the Academic Legion, he was probably obliged to keep performing sanitary service. After fierce battles for Lviv, there were many wounded soldiers in the capital’s hospitals4. It is also possible that he was struggling with health problems at the time. (js) (transl. ms)

  • 1
    Central Archives of Historical Records, Record books of Jewish communities from the area “behind the Bug River”, 1789–1943, reference number 1/300/0/-/3226, sheet 24.
  • 2
    The name of ul. Bednarska was entered in the death record book from 1915, both in the column specifying the place of death and in the column specifying the place of residence (ibid.). Ul. Bednarska was an extension of ul. Floriańska, where the Schulz house was located. These streets were often confused with each other, and the names were used interchangeably. See Jerzy Kandziora, Opowieści o mieszkaniach z kręgu Schulzowskiego mitu, “Schulz/Forum” 2018, no. 11, pp. 101–116, as well as 10 April 1903.
  • 3
    Jerzy Ficowski, Regiony wielkiej herezji i okolice. Bruno Schulz i jego mitologia, Sejny 2002, pp. 26–27.
  • 4
    According to official data, 274,000 wounded and sick soldiers were sent to Viennese hospitals in the first two years of the war. The number of sanitary trains transported from the front was 4,631, and the number of cars is 12,023 (Im Epizentrum des Zusammenbruchs. Wien im Ersten Weltkrieg, Herausgegeben von Alfred Pfoser, Andreas Weigl, Wien 2013, p. 17).