The jews of bessarabia the holocaust period

 

 

 

“Save us from the claws of death”- a group of Jews from Bessarabia write on the eve of 

their deportation to Transnistria in a secret letter from Ataki on 22.10.1941 to the 

president of the Federation of Communities, Dr. Fielderman. 

 

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BALANCE SHEET OF THE LOSSES 

In some locations the number of victims can be found by comparing those remaining 

alive in August 1941 with the census information from 1930.  In the town of Khotin, 

1981Jews were murdered while in the entire district the number was 13,334.  From 

50,603 Jews in 1930 in Lapusna – including Kishinev- only 10,311 were alive on 

September 1, 1941.  In Balti 8941 Jews were alive from a total of 31,916 in 1930. 

In December 1941 Jon Antonescu appointed a special committee to “investigate 

irregularities in the Kishinev ghetto”.  The committee reported that Jews were placed in 

camps as follows: 

Vertuzhen – 25,000 people; Markuleshty- 11,000; Edinets and Scureni-25,000; 

Kishinev-11,252; Orgeyev, Cahul, Ismail, Kilia-Noua and Bolgrod had about 1000 

people each.  The total was thus:  75-80,000 Jews were arrested and sent to camps 

and of those 55,867 were deported.  The explanation for the difference in totals is 

explained by “They died a natural death, escaped or were shot”. 

In order to understand these totals there must be some explanation.  When the 

detention camps were organized there were at most 80,000 Jews in the whole of 

Bessarabia.  In the 1930 census the total was 206,958 Jews.  It is obvious that 126,958 

people are missing.  This is the minimum number of people killed from the time the 

German-Romanian armies entered and the opening of these camps.  The tragic events 

happened in 1941 and the official census had been taken in 1930.  It is certain that the 

number of Jews also grew in those 11 years.  In addition, in 1940, thousands of 

refugees from Ragat and Transylvania arrived in Bessarabia. 

If we add to the 126,958 people who were murdered in the first stage of military 

operations the 25,000 killed in the stage of sending people to detention camps and 

from there to Transnistria, the total of victims in Bessarabia is 151,958.  This is an 

estimated figure and it is probably lower than the actual total since the number of 

refugees from Romania and natural growth do not figure. 

There is no doubt that many Romanian soldiers took part in the massacre, but they 

often followed the German troops who served as an example to them.  The Germans 

also had the plans, the initiative and the command for these atrocities.  The Romanian 

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troops followed orders, but they still contributed to the destruction of the Jews of 

Bessarabia. 

ROBBERY OF JEWISH ASSETS 

When the Romanian army entered Bessarabia the soldiers began to steal.  The 

Romanian troops had followed the Germans.  Their task was to identify the Jewish 

homes and to rob them.  While doing so they killed any Jews found in the homes.  This 

happened in the villages of Parlitza and Taura-Noua.  When the German command 

found out what happened it distanced itself from these acts. When the terrible 

massacres committed by the Einzatzgruppe became known, it was understood that the 

Germans were worried that the Romanians did not know how to properly camouflage 

their activities. 

Since robbery was not included in the “political activities” of the Germans, the 

Romanian army and police felt free to do as they pleased in this area.  In addition to 

the soldiers there were also the gendarmes and the peasants who denounced the Jews 

hiding nearby so that they could obtain their belongings. 

In addition to robberies committed by the gendarmes, soldiers and civilians there was 

also a systematic loss directed by the government supposedly based on the law.  A law 

was published on September 3, 1941 which delineated the Romanization of Bessarabia 

and northern Bukovina.  According to this law the Romanian government received 

everything belonging to Jewish individuals or institutions.  An inquiry committee 

decreed that in the case of the confiscation of homes belonging to Jews in Bessarabia, 

payment would have to be made according to accepted legal procedures.  Some 

difficulty occurred and the authors of the law announced that the procedure could not 

be followed since it was unknown where the Jews had been deported.  In other words, 

the deportation of the Jews across the Dniester was not part of the law since they did 

not leave of their own accord.  In this situation the legal authorities would have to find 

a solution for the problem.  It turns out that the authors of the law felt that one day 

they would have to own up to their deeds and therefore it was essential to have an 

inventory of all that was stolen.  An order was issued to have reports on all the towns 

and villages where Jews resided, which houses were found to be in good condition and 

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which lands were owned by Jews.  Due to the order given, detailed reports remained 

about the lands, the gardens, number of factories and private homes, etc. 

In order to do the official robberies, emissaries were sent to the camps where the Jews 

of Bessarabia were concentrated until they were deported to Transnistria.  Some of 

these emissaries were representatives of the National Bank and their task was to collect 

all the gold and the jewellery.  On October 10, 1941 Jon Antonescu ordered that in 

exchange for the gold and jewellery taken from the Jews the National Bank would be 

required to pay in rubles or German Reichmarks, but definitely not in Lei, the 

Romanian currency. 

The exchange of Romanian and Russian currency or checks drawn on German banks 

was in itself robbery.  In July 1940 the Russians exchanged Romanian currency with 

rubles at a rate of 40 Lei per ruble.  In July 1941 the Germans returned and the Russian 

currency was exchanged at a rate of one Lei per ruble.  In October they again 

exchanged money belonging to Jews at a rate of one ruble per 40 Lei.  In Transnistria 

the rate was 60 rubles per one German mark.  To understand the value of what 

remained in the hands of the Jews it must be noted that a loaf of bread cost 10 marks- 

equivalent to 1 million lei in 1940! 

There was testimony that the representatives of the Romanian bank who were to pay 

for the gold and jewellery took everything for themselves without paying anything to 

the original owners. 

On December 9, 1941 the Romanian treasury ordered all gold and silver coins as well 

as raw precious metals were to be given to the National Bank.  Gold and silver jewellery 

was given to an auction house to be sold.  Two years later, on July 15, 1943, the 

treasury ordered all valuables to be sent to the government mint to be recast and sold 

to military institutions.  Gold in the watches was melted and the inside works were 

given to a school for watchmakers of the Labor Ministry.  In this way many government 

departments enjoyed Jewish valuables.  In addition to robberies described earlier, it is 

known that after the conquest of Bessarabia many merchants and adventurers arrived 

to take over Jewish factories and rob their homes.  In some factories the machinery was 

dismantled and transferred to Romania.  People became wealthy by abusing those slain 

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