The jews of bessarabia the holocaust period

 

 

There was repercussion against Dr. Fielderman.  The Germans were upset by his letters 

and his intervention on behalf of the Jews of Bessarabia and wanted him removed.  The 

Association of Christian-Romanian lawyers published a protest and demand sending 

Dr. Fielderman to trial for anti-patriotic activities.  In the end, the denunciation was 

successful and Dr. Fielderman was not allowed to continue to be a member of the 

Association of lawyers.  Prior to that, on December 16, 1941 the union of Jewish 

communities was disbanded and was replaced by the “Jewish Center”, according to the 

German model and with the participation of Gustave Richter, the emissary of Eichmann 

in Germany. 

In the meantime, at the end of October. Before it was disbanded, the union of Jewish 

communities tried once more to help the evacuees.  Hundred of bogus telegrams 

arrived in Bucharest announcing illness in the family  hoping that those sick would be 

released or they could receive medications.  There were private attempts to save 

individuals.  One of the leaders of the Kishinev community, Attorney Shapiro, managed 

to reach Bucharest and knocked on many doors in despair trying to save his neighbors.  

He was unsuccessful.  He was given an opportunity to stay and to save himself, but he 

preferred to return to Kishinev and was never heard from again. 

The union of Jewish communities tried to intervene directly with the central authorities 

in Bessarabia.  They sent to Kishinev Attorney Musat, a Christian in their employ.  Not 

much is known about his actions, but he did send a telegram announcing his failure. 

Another attempt was planned to save the Jews of Bessarabia who survived the 

evacuation to Transnistria.  It was during the negotiations about the return of the 

evacuees.  This began at the end of fall 1942 in Bucharest.  The plan included 

immediate emigration- a condition presented by the Romanian representative.  After 

the Germans found out about the plan, through their ambassador in Bucharest, all 

attempts to return refugees from Transnistria or to allow them to immigrate were 

unsuccessful. 

During the summer and fall of 1943 the negotiations for repatriation were renewed, 

but slowly, due to the inquests in Transnistria and a decision about who had preferred 

rights. 

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In the meantime the military situation of the Germans and Romanians worsened.  

There was a retreat on the southern front.  In the summer of 1943 the Germans lost 

Kharkov, Stalino and the Doenitz Basin.  In November of that year the German and 

Romanian armies were surrounded in Crimea.  Romanian leaders began to accept 

reality and became more flexible.  The negotiations about the fate of the Jews were 

renewed at that time.  The Jewish leaders in Bucharest began to prepare detailed plans. 

One of those who was involved was Fred Shraga- an important figure in the attempt to 

save Romanians Jews in Transnistria.  He went to Transnistria in January 1943 as head 

of a delegation of the help committee organized by the Jewish Center.  In the report he 

presented on November 12, 1943 he gave some practical suggestions on how to save 

the evacuees of Bessarabia.  There were about 7-8,000 people involved.  He thought 

they should be brought back to Moldova or Bukovina, as close as possible to 

Bessarabia.  A few days later there was a high-level consultation with the participation 

of Antonescu and his advisers, including the governor of Bukovina.  They discussed 

moving the Jews from Transnistria in a way that would not put them in the path of the 

retreating German army who would massacre them.  One of the participants at the 

meeting informed those present that the Jews had a suggestion for the preferences in 

the moving of the evacuees, beginning with 5,000 orphans.  They also discussed with 

Antonescu the problem of the Jews of Bukovina and Bessarabia and how to deal with 

them.  Antonescu offered to gather them in Vizhnitza in Bukovina (as suggested by 

Fred Shraga).  The governor of Bukovina did not accept this suggestion. 

In the meantime the front came closer to Bessarabia.  In February 1944 the Russian 

army reached the banks of the Bug, crossed the river, entered Transnistria and went 

over the Dniester north of Kishinev.  On March 28, 1944 the army reached the northern 

Prut, near Iasi.  As a result of these activities a large part of Bessarabia-its northern 

section-is now in the hands of the Russians.  In southern Bessarabia there was still a 

German force that stood its ground until Romania surrendered.  This stubborn stand 

had no military value, but it was following an explicit order by Hitler. 

The evacuees of Bessarabia returned home.  Some of them went to old Romania and 

from there to Eretz Israel.  This is an important additional story in itself, but 

documentation is still incomplete. 

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T.I.L. 

THE FATE OF THE JEWS OF BESSARABIA IN AREAS OF THE SOVIET UNION 

On July, 1941, when the conquest of Bessarabia by German and Romanian armies was 

completed, there were about 50, 000 Bessarabian Jews in areas of the Soviet Union that 

had not been conquered.  Some were political prisoners who had been exiled before 

the war to distant areas, a few were military and the majority were citizens who arrived 

after the war broke out either on their own or as evacuees.  After they crossed the 

Dniester and arrived in the Soviet area it was difficult to distinguish between the 

refugees and the evacuees since all were given help by the authorities.  A few had a 

specific destination and tried hard to reach it, but the majority were refugees who 

simply went east using trains that had space for them, following instructions by the 

authorities or just escaping the Germans. 

Many of the Jewish refugees from Bessarabia were caught by the German army at 

different stages during their escape and their bitter fate was the same as that of the 

Jews of Ukraine under German rule.  Even among those who managed to escape the 

advancing German army there were many victims of starvation, illnesses and 

exhaustion. 

The testimonies available inform us that the refugees from Bessarabia were centered 

mainly in Tashkent, Pergana, Stalingrad, Frunze, and Uffa and in collectives in 

Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan or in Sverdlovsk, Ural, Caucasus, etc.  Many were absorbed 

in factories or collectives where they found jobs as day workers or peddlers.  The 

women worked in cotton harvesting or other agricultural tasks.  The pay was usually 

quite low.  Still there were some instances where talented or professional refugees 

found employment in top positions in administration.  (The former bank manager of 

Edinets was appointed as chief accountant of a large construction and electrical 

company in the Novocherskoy district). 

When the number of Jews in villages and collectives in Uzbekistan grew there was a rise 

in anti-Semitic sentiment among the Uzbeks, encouraged by the Poles.  In spite of the 

harsh economic conditions and the difficult living situation, social life and culture 

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among the Jewish refugees were lively and there were even weddings performed.  In 

general, there were good relations between the Jews of Bessarabia and those from 

Poland residing there. 

In general, the public and government authorities in Soviet Moldova did not show 

special interest in the refugees from Bessarabia.  In larger concentrations of people 

from Bessarabia and Moldova there were “agents” representing the political and 

government entities of Soviet Moldova whose task was to help in finding work, 

providing food and petrol and in propagating political ideas among them.  The 

refugees did not know much about these activities and some of them were not even 

aware they existed. 

One of the main activities that these institutions assumed in April 1942, aided by the 

agents, was local fund raising to purchase tanks for Soviet Moldova.  At the end of the 

year a special Moldovan department was established within the broadcasting system of 

Moscow.  There was also a renewal of the newspaper “Socialist Moldova”.  In February 

1943, in Tashkent, there was a conference of refugees from Bessarabia that was 

dedicated to “the struggle of the Moldovan people against the German conqueror and 

his Romanian servants”.  Most important for the refugees from Bessarabia was the 

work of the Moldovan republican institutions that prepared a cadre of government 

workers prior to the anticipated liberation from the Germans.  Craftsmen and experts 

in various fields among the refugees as well as the unemployed were part of this 

program that began to function at the end of 1943.  There was great participation in 

courses in different locations in the Soviet Union. 

 

POLITICAL EXILES 

The fate of the Jewish political evacuees that had been exiled into interior Russia 

during the Soviet regime of 1940/41 and especially June 1941 was quite bad.  About 

10,000 Jewish souls wandered in packed freight cars going eastward.  The prisoners 

who had been found guilty and those who were deemed “dangerous” to the regime 

were treated in a similar manner.   

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Some of the political prisoners, among them those who were caught crossing the 

border to or from Romania illegally, as well as Jewish leaders, were sent in early 1941 

to various locations in Russia-some to miserable Archangelsk.  From the few letters 

received from them it was discovered that the elderly and the weak became ill 

immediately while younger people did hard labor – mostly cutting down trees.  Other 

prisoners, among them members of a Zionist underground, either imprisoned in 

Kishinev before the war or arrested later, were transferred at the end of June to interior 

Russia.  They were heavily bombed by the enemy while on route.  At the beginning of 

the trip they were put into a prison in Tiraspol across the Dniester.  From there they 

were taken through the town with heavy escort to the train station.  At the station they 

were placed on locked freight cars with only tiny barricaded windows.  They were 

brought in these cars to Irkutsk in Siberia after a voyage of 5 weeks.  They suffered 

greatly from the terrible crowding, hunger and thirst, and the insufferable heat.  In 

addition, hordes of fleas and lice attacked them and they never had a chance to bathe. 

When the prisoners were brought to their destinations in Ural, Siberia and other God-

forsaken places, they were subject to lengthy investigations.  They were abused and 

tortured to force them to admit to political crimes such as spying, slander or carrying 

on propaganda against the Soviet regime, etc.  Many were sent to labor camps for 

lengthy periods of time.  They did forced labor and lived in harsh conditions.  Very few 

of them remained alive as a result of this.  One of the female prisoners who stayed at a 

camp near Sverdlovsk reported that they were forced to work 14 hours a day cutting 

trees and sawing them.  They were poorly fed.  Soon many contagious illnesses hit 

them due to the poor healthy conditions.  From 1,800 prisoners brought there to work 

only about 300 remained a few months later.  Many who succeeded in remaining alive 

were disabled for the rest of their lives. 

The prisoners who fulfilled their time or those who became disabled were liberated 

from the labor camps, but they remained under the supervision of the government.  

They found other work in various places and were fortunate to return to Bessarabia or 

Czernowitz.  Some even succeeded in leaving the Soviet Union.   

In June 1941 there was mass evacuation of thousands of families and their methods of 

transportation were not any different from those of the prisoners.  Many travelled for 

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weeks in locked freight cars with two holes on the floor instead of toilets.  There were 

70-80 people in every car.  They rode mostly in daytime and stopped at night on side 

tracks, far from a station.  This was done so no one would notice them.  Two or three 

people from every car were sent to find food for the others.  The food was poor and 

minimal.  Almost immediately the men were separated from their families and were 

interrogated and tried as prisoners.  Most of them were found guilty according to 

Soviet law and they were sentenced to five years and more.  They did hard labor in the 

taiga of Siberia and other locations.  Family members had to live apart from them, up 

to 20 years at times, in distant places across the Ural Mountains and in central Asia.  

Many of them died due to harsh conditions and climate and poor living conditions.  

Many of the heads of families who did the hard labor far away from their families died 

not knowing the fate of their dear ones.  After many months there was permission for 

the reunification of families, but very few succeeded in doing so.  After the war a few 

families returned to Bessarabia. 

THE JEWS OF BESSARABIA IN THE WAR AGAINST THE GERMANS 

REGULAR ARMY:  The Jews of Bessarabia were able to participate in the war against the 

Nazis and their collaborators when they were able to join the Soviet army either directly 

or indirectly. Although there was an official draft in Bessarabia early in the war, the 

enlistment offices were not really prepared to receive them.  In some locations the 

enlistment operated on a need basis and as a result many Jews were able to join the 

army at the beginning of the war.  In general they were placed in special units that 

were almost completely Jewish and they were sent to the front at the Dniester. 

In addition to the Jews who were drafted in the beginning, many of the refugees joined 

the Red Army at certain stages of the war.  There were cases, especially in the 

beginning, where Jews from Bessarabia and other areas were not accepted by the Red 

Army and were sent to the Labor Army or other civilian organizations.  They received 

protective documents.  The evacuees and the prisoners were never permitted to serve 

in the army. 

Many Jews from Bessarabia who survived the German and Romanian conquest were 

drafted into the Red Army when it reached them in Ukraine, Transnistria or Bessarabia 

early in 1944.  Some enlisted looking for revenge for the terrible times they had 

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suffered during the conquest.  Many of them were refugees that had just returned from 

exile in Transnistria.  A Jewish soldier who was drafted upon his return from 

Transnistria testified that after he was injured and lost his eye in a battle in Poland he 

continued to serve in a field engineering unit in Austria, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and 

Germany before it surrendered. 

It is difficult to estimate the number of Jewish soldiers from Bessarabia who fought in 

WWII; there is no doubt that there must have been thousands of them.  Many were 

killed or injured during battle.  A considerable number of them received decorations 

and medals including the highest award in the Red Army – Hero of the Soviet Union. 

PARTISAN ACTIVITY:  The Jews of Bessarabia played an important part in political 

military activities on the home front during the German and Romanian conquest. They 

were members of the Soviet partisan movement.  Prior to their retreat the Soviets 

planned to leave in Bessarabia loyal members, especially from among the Communist 

Party and the Comsomol, to do underground work in partisan and other spy groups.  

The program was not always successful due to time pressures and other reasons.  It 

was sometimes activated by the government and party institutions of Soviet Moldova 

that retreated after the Red Army.  In August 1941some active Communists infiltrated 

conquered Bessarabia.  In September another group was sent by the central committee 

of the Moldovan Communist Party (in Donetsk).  It was to contact the underground and 

included several Jews.  At the same time other Jews were sent to Bessarabia and one of 

them was Barukh Moshe Deutch.  He went to the Kishinev area and made contact with 

the ghetto.  According to one version he tried to form a secret cell there and to find 

Jewish youth for the partisans.  Deutch was caught by the authorities and was hung.  

All the other activists were caught and killed or they died during their sorties. Very few 

of them, among them several women, remained alive after the war. 

Jews from Bessarabia were active as partisans in Ukraine, Crimea, Transnistria and 

other places.  They were part of the Moldovan partisan movement or other movements. 

RETURN OF THE REMNANTS 

The Soviet forces began to return to Bessarabia during March 1944.  At the time they 

only controlled the northern section of the province.  They passed through Transnistria 

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where only a small part of the thousands of Jews, evacuated there by the Germans and 

Romanians, remained alive.  Kishinev was conquered by the Red Army on August 24.  

The army was followed by units of activists sent by the authorities and the Party of 

Soviet Moldova.  These units were established in areas of the Soviet Union that had not 

been conquered.  They consisted of administrators, security, and economics experts.  

Their main task was to re-establish Soviet rule in all liberated areas and to begin 

rebuilding.  As happened in 1940/41 there were many clerks and specialists who were 

brought from other areas of the Soviet Union, mainly Ukraine. 

When the Red Army returned to Bessarabia there were only remnants of the local 

Jewish community that had existed before the war.  Some died in attacks, mass 

murders and others were evacuated to Transnistria or the Soviet Union.  Those among 

the evacuees who were fortunate enough to see the Red Army returning to their homes 

saw in it a liberating force and received the soldiers warmly. 

Soon a feeling of bitter resentment developed among the Jewish survivors against the 

military and civil authorities. There were rumors that the Jews survived because they 

had cooperated with the conquerors.  Some were upset because the survivors were 

sent by the authorities to do military service or work in mines as soon as they 

returned. 

Soon the survivors were permitted to return to their homes in Bessarabia.  They were 

followed by the refugees who had been in Ukraine, interior Russia and even Ural and 

central Asia.  Those who returned found their house empty and ruined.  In many cased 

the survivors were the only ones who remained from their families.  The survivors did 

not stay in small communities, but went to larger towns and cities.  Some left 

Bessarabia and went to Romania, Eretz Israel or America. 

Many survivors settled in Kishinev and soon their numbers grew to over 500.  There 

were attempts to organize cultural life with literary evenings and a Jewish theatre 

group. However, communal activity was mainly centered in the synagogue and the 

religious community. 

The conditions in smaller towns were far worse.  There was no organized Jewish life, 

whether cultural or religious.  The only concerns were making a living.  There were 

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hardly any young people and the representatives of the Soviet authorities were new 

and were not known to the veteran Jewish Communists.  Even in these towns life 

centered mainly around the synagogues, but only for a short time.  The authorities 

allowed meetings in synagogues and the keeping of Jewish customs and traditions, but 

there was no official recognition or financial support. 

In spite of the absence of cultural and educational institutions and the fact that Jewish 

writers were unable to publish their work, there was still some semblance of Jewish 

culture even under these conditions.  The use of Yiddish was popular and the attitude 

to the language was respectful.  Even 14 years later (1959), in the census, 48,000 

(50.5%) of the 95,000 Jews in Moldova declared Yiddish to be their mother tongue. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

T.L.V.