Negative:: Tannery

European Jews

Podolia province, Bratslavsky district, Shtetl of Nemyriv

1925

Photofilm

5,6 x 8,2

РЭМ 4443-2

“The processing of leather for boots requires more or less complicated implements, which is why it turned long ago into a craft pursued solely by specialists. In some cases whole villages are occupied in leather processing, but most often it is a trade for craftsmen in shtetls, both Ukrainians. I had a chance to visit a small tannery owned by a Jew in the shtetl of Nemirov. The tannery occupied two small barns; in one of them, hides were kept, and a vat with clear water and with diluted lime were installed, while in the other, a larger one, was the tannery as such. It contained vats with tan bark and extracts on the left, and more lime vats, bating teeth, and a space for hide drying in winter time on the right. In the middle was a large boiler where tanning extract is boiled. An oak shredder was kept in the yard under a shed” (M. A. Friede. A description of various trades of the population of East Podolia. 1925. RME Archive).