Memorial to the Victims of the Chişinău Ghetto

Monumentul victimilor din ghetoul Chişinău

A memorial in Chişinău (Russian name used before 1991: Kishinev) close to the former ghetto honours the Jews who were held there in 1941.

History

Chișinău lies in the historical region of Bessarabia; today, it is the capital of the Republic of Moldova. Jews settled in Chișinău in the 18th century, and the city became a centre of Jewish life in south-eastern Europe. The Jewish population reached close to 50,000 at the end of the 19th century, representing almost half of the total population. Time and again, however, anti-Jewish violence erupted in Chișinău, such as during the devastating pogrom of 1903.
In June 1940, Soviet troops occupied Bessarabia - which had been part of Romania since 1918 - in accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact, including Chișinău. When the German and Romanian armies attacked the Soviet Union and advanced towards Chișinău in June 1941, only few of the 50,000 Jews managed to escape inland to the Soviet Union. It is assumed that shortly after the city's occupation, up to 10,000 Jews were killed by locals and soldiers of the occupying forces. The army units were followed by SS Sonderkommando 11a under the command of Paul Zapp. At the end of July 1941, Zapp prompted the Romanian authorities to undertake systematic measures against the Jews. As a result, the district prefect established a ghetto and a concentration camp for the Jews. Up to 11,000 Jews from Chișinău had to move into the ghetto, about 1,000 were held hostage in the camp. On August 1, 1941, members of Sonderkommando 11a forcibly gathered 550 Jewish men and women from the ghetto and from the camp under the pretence of »retribution« for an arson attack in the city. The men and women were separated, registered and shot on the outskirts of the city. Shortly afterwards, the Sonderkommando left Chișinău, advancing towards the front. The ghetto remained under Romanian administration. At the beginning of October 1941, the Romanian authorities began deporting the Jews from the ghetto across the river Dniester to the Romanian-occupied region of Transnistria. In 1942, there were no Jews left in Chișinău.

Chișinău, October 1941, Romanian soldiers during the »resettlement« of Jews, Westermann Unternehmensarchiv

Victims

In July 1941, presumably 10,000 Jews from Chișinău perished at the hands of the advancing Romanian army and the Wehrmacht. Up to 11,000 Chișinău Jews had to move into a ghetto, including 2,300 children. Approximately 1,000 Jews were held in a concentration camp. SS Sonderkommando 11a shot about 550 Jewish men and women on August 1, 1941. The remaining Jews from the Ghetto were deported by Romanian authorities to Transnistria in October 1941; many died on the way. The Jews had to live in ghettos in Transnistria and were deployed in forced labour; many died of hunger, illnesses and of the effects of the backbreaking labour.

The country now known as the Republic of Moldova comprises the majority of the historical province of Bessarabia to the east of the River Prut as well as a small area east of the Dniester River belonging to the region of Transnistria (meaning »beyond the River Dniester«). The country is Romanian-speaking. It was formerly part of the Russian Empire but after the First World War it became part of the Kingdom of Romania, with the exception of the Transnistrian area. There were around 205,000 Jews living here in 1939. Following the so-called Hitler-Stalin Pact, a secret agreement between the Third Reich and the Soviet Union defining their »spheres of interest« from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea, the Red Army invaded Bessarabia in summer 1940. The Soviet secret service NKWD subsequently deported 11,000 »undesirables« to Siberia, including over a thousand Jews. As a consequence of these substantial territorial losses, Romania sought an alliance with Nazi Germany. In summer 1941, Romanian troops joined the German Wehrmacht in the invasion of the Soviet Union. Bessarabia and the entire Ukrainian region of Transnistria as far as the Bug River came under Romanian control. Between July and August 1941, members of the Wehrmacht and SS Einsatzgruppe D together with Romanian special commandos and police units murdered over 150,000 Jews from the region and looted the abandoned houses and shops. Any survivors were crammed into ghettos and camps. From September 15 they were deported via the River Dniester to Transnistria, along with political prisoners accused of having collaborated with the Soviet authorities. Between 7,000 and 10,000 Jews who had fled or been deported to the Soviet Union returned to the country after 1945. After the war, Bessarabia again became part of the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic. Liberation by the Red Army and the »victory« in the Great Patriotic War were commemorated. Everything »Romanian« was systematically removed. After the Republic of Moldova gained independence in 1991 there were lengthy discussions about a possible reunification with Romania. However, the majority Russian population in Transnistria blocked reunification. The fundamental conflict between the larger Romanian-speaking region in Bessarabia and the smaller, Russian-speaking region in Transnistria, since a short civil war in 1992 a separatist territory, coupled with major economic and social problems, have marginalised memory of the Holocaust and the Second World War. However, since the early 1990s a number of towns in Moldova have put up monuments, plaques or memorial stones to remember the massacre in summer 1941 and the murdered Jews. Examples can be seen in Dubossary, in today’s capital Chişinău, in the Jewish cemetery in Tighina or in villages such as Vertujeni and Pepeni.

Remembrance

After the war, Chișinău was home to about 5,500 Jews, almost all of them refugees who had lived elsewhere before the war. The community grew rapidly: in 1959, there were over 42,000 Jews in the city. Over two thirds of them emigrated in the 1970s and the following decades, mostly to Israel.

The memorial to the victims of the Chișinău ghetto was erected in 1993. It was designed by sculptor Haum Epelbaum and architect Şoihet Simeon. The memorial is situated on the corner of Grigore Vieru boulevard and Ierusalim street, close to where the entrance to the ghetto once was. It consists of two red granite slabs, notches at the sides form a Star of David. In front of the granite elements is a bronze sculpture. A Hebrew, Romanian and Russian inscription on the granite slabs reads: »Martyrs and victims of the Chișinău ghetto! We, those who are alive, shall remember you!« Later, a plaque informing about the history in three languages (Romanian, Russian and English) was put up by the Ministry for Education and Culture and the Jewish Community of the Republic of Moldova.

A further memorial is located on the northern outskirts of Chișinău, on the supposed site of the August 1941 shooting. The »Monument to the Victims of Fascism« (Romanian: Monumentul Victimelor Fascismului) was designed by artist David Aurel and dedicated already in 1982. Today, this is an industrial area, and the monument is close to a car dealer in Calea Orheiului Street. In 2015, the memorial – which had previously been in dire need of renovation – was restored.

Chișinău, 2012, Detailed view of the ghetto memorial, Stiftung Denkmal

Chișinău, 2026, Detailed view of the »Memorial to the victims of fascism«, Stiftung Denkmal

Open

The memorial is accessible at all times.

Contact

http://www.jcm.md

office@jcm.md

+373(22) 509689

Str. Ierusalim
Chişinău

Chișinău, 2026, »Memorial to the victims of fascism« on the site of the mass shootings, Stiftung Denkmal

Chișinău, 2012, Rear view of the ghetto memorial, Stiftung Denkmal

Chișinău, 2026, View of the memorial and an information plaque, Stiftung Denkmal

Chișinău, 2026, Ghetto memorial, Stiftung Denkmal

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