The jews of bessarabia the holocaust period

 

 

On the night between June 13 and 14 1941, before the Germans took over, the 

Russians began to exile hundreds of people to Siberia and other eastern areas.  Among 

the thousands of Jews taken out of their homes that night and during the following 

week were many who had been active in different parties and associations.  They were 

placed on wagons, trucks and railway cars and taken over the Dniester to an unknown 

location.  Some of these Jews were among the wealthy and all the exiles were 

accompanied by their families. 

The criteria for exiling people and the actual execution were all done by orders of the 

central defense ministry of the Soviet Union.  For that reason, some of those exiled 

were Communists who had been suspected in the past and others were quite poor. 

The deportees spent many days in crowded cars traveling through the Soviet Union.  

Then new cars were brought and filled.  However, the war broke out on June 22 and it 

was impossible to activate mass deportations as previously planned. They still 

continued even when the arrival of the Romanian and German armies was imminent. 

In total about 8,000 Jews were exiled from Bessarabia by the Soviet authorities during 

that year. 

ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL PATH 

On August 15, 1940, about seven weeks after the Soviet takeover of Bessarabia and 

about two weeks after its annexation by the Republic of Moldova of the Soviet Union, a 

new regulation was published.  It dealt with loans to factories and businesses, 

transportation by land and by sea and communications in Bessarabia.  However, within 

the Jewish community there were considerable economic changes already noticeable 

when the Red Army entered.  The soldiers and the numerous Soviet functionaries 

bought everything they saw without caring about the price.  This was followed by a 

buying frenzy among the local population.  The shop owners were afraid of being 

accused of speculation and sold all goods in their possession.  As a result there was 

very little left in the warehouses and the stores.  Almost immediately there was a lack 

of basics such as shoes, clothing, kitchen supplies, etc.  It was even difficult to obtain 

bread without waiting in a long line. 

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Another serious outcome was the fact that the shop owners accumulated a great deal 

of cash, but they had no more goods to sell.  This situation became worse due to the 

big difference in the exchange rates between the Romanian lei and the ruble. Although 

the official rate was 40 lei to the ruble, many Soviet citizens exchanged at the rate of 

100 lei per ruble.  Even those shop owners and small businessmen who tried to stay 

open were eventually forced to close their stores due to the heavy taxes levied by the 

new authorities. 

There was a limit to the amounts of money to be withdrawn from the bank and general 

banking activity was frozen.  The small savings and loans funds that had helped many 

poorer Jews in the past also had to discontinue their services. 

The new situation caused thousands of Jewish family heads and main earners to be 

without any income.  In addition there were thousands of Jewish young men and 

women in towns and villages who were chronically unemployed and who represented a 

large percentage of the population.  They presented a serious problem for the new 

authorities. 

Another issue was that of Jews who had formerly owned businesses now nationalized 

by the authorities.  According to the new criteria these people were considered as 

“users” and “anti-socialists” and the authorities had no moral or governmental 

obligation towards them.   Some of them remained in their positions temporarily in 

order to train those who would replace them.  They were constantly watched by the 

commissars since they were thought to be anti-government.   

There was a sudden appearance in Bessarabia of hordes of officers, clerks, teachers 

and other Soviet experts who came, ostensibly, to “help” the new young Soviet 

Republic.  This phenomenon prevented many local residents from obtaining 

government positions and it also created a housing shortage. The solution to this 

problem was the nationalization of large buildings and the expropriation of entire 

apartments or rooms.  In general, those who suffered the most from these events were 

former property owners and middle class people in villages and towns who had to 

share their homes “for the good of the state” or to leave their apartments.  Even people 

in the lower classes had difficulties. 

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In addition to the loss of their homes through expropriation, former property owners 

and the unemployed (through no fault of their own) also were deprived of food 

vouchers or identity papers.  Sometimes their identity papers included section 39 

which forbade them from residing in larger cities.  No wonder that those who were 

forced to be unemployed made efforts to find any position without paying attention to 

the quality of work or the salary.  In order to obtain a government job one had to 

complete a detailed personal application indicating social status and political past.  Not 

only was this quite uncomfortable for the applicants, but there was some danger 

involved in being exposed as “criminals” or “undesirables”.  As a result, there were 

Zionist activists, property owners and former merchants who preferred physical work 

such as loading and unloading lumber, carrying luggage in the train station, wood 

cutting for institutions, bakeries, armories, hospitals, etc.  In these positions they were 

able to remain almost anonymous- which would not have happened if they had stayed 

closer to their former occupations.  

Those who enjoyed better integration in government jobs and could earn more were 

the craftsmen.  The authorities organized them in a cooperative called Artels.  Those 

who were especially encouraged were the small craftsmen who were nicknamed 

Kostarniki.  The first cooperatives were usually the shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, 

bakers, etc.  In many instances these cooperatives were housed in buildings of Jewish 

institutions.  For example, the cooperative bakery in Bricheva was located in the Tarbut 

School.  In Lipcani the “Artels” for carpenters and tailors were located in synagogues.  

In place of the former stores there were cooperatives for transporting groceries, 

textiles and other needed products.  There were also cooperatives for barbers and 

others. 

In the new situation, where the lands were nationalized and the agrarian reform in 

1940, very few Jewish land owners could continue to earn their living by farming.  They 

were restricted in the size of land they could keep according to the number of people 

in the family.  The head of the family who was permitted to keep his land (or a portion 

of it) had to prove that he and his family actually worked the land by themselves.  

There was a very rigid oversight of the produce.  In spite of these issues there were 

still some Jewish families earning their living by farming, although sometimes it was 

within a cooperative. 

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