Memorials of Bălţi

Soviet deportations and political imprisonments

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Holocaust

Mass deportation of Jews in 1941-1942. In the three-day period following the takeover the city by the Romanian and German armies, while the troops were moving through the city in the pursuit of the Red army units, and before the Romanian administration moved in, the approximately two-dozen-strong SS Einsatzkommando unit, attached to the 11th German Army, hunted and assassinated over 200 Jews from the city. The German army was strictly ordered by Berlin not to interfere in "non-military matters", and was sometimes obliged to hand in Jews in the houses of which they temporarily installed.

Fortunately, the majority of Jews from the city fled with the retreating Russians (many to Uzbekistan), and survived the war unharmed. By the time German troops entered, only 1,300 of the 20,000 Jews were in the city. Thousands of others simply hid in the neighboring villages, thinking they would be safe once the frontline had passed. The Romanian authorities, however, decided to deport all Jews from the territories occupied by USSR in 1940, as well as from two other Romanian counties, to Transnistria, across the river Dniester (Nistru). They were motivated in this by the fact that Jews had welcomed the Russian takeover a year earlier. Although some Jews did indeed become Soviet Communist activists, they were a tiny minority among the total Jewish population of the city, and those have certainly retreated along with the Russian troops.

In the towns in the north and middle of Transnistria the Romanian authorities decided to deport the remaining Jewish population of Bessarabia (Basarabia), Northern Bukovina (Bucovina), and two other counties of Romania (Suceava and Botoşani) – a total of 90,000 people. Jews were organized in columns and marched to crossing points. No regular food supply, overnight housing, transportation, or additional clothing were organized, and many died on the road, or were shot by guards on the pretext of slowing down the movement.

In towns such as Mohyliv-Podilskyi (Movilău in Romanian), Yampil (Iampol in Romanian), Bershad and others, ghettos were fenced out, and Jews were settled in. Being deprived of the right to own agricultural land, and having very few job opportunities, often without clean water and having insufficient housing, many became ill from malnutrition and infections. Interestingly, the Jews from Romania that were not affected by the deportation were treated quite tolerantly by the Romanian authorities, and even were allowed to visit the ghettos to deliver food and clothing. Unfortunately, because of fear, few ventured to do this. In several of these places the retreating German troops in 1944 shot every Jew in order to cover up the existence of the ghetto camps. Despite the fact that 70% of Jews that survived on the Soviet territory under occupation during World war II were in Transnistria, over 70% of those deported did not survive 1944.

Bălţi POW Camp

From March to August 1944, the World War II frontline stabilized along a west-east curve passing 40 km south of the city. After gathering enormous quantities of troops (3.4 million) and artillery (370 units per km of frontline) the Red Army penetrated the German-Romanian defenses (600,000 troops) in the Iaşi-Chişinău operation, partly surrounding them.

Before the operation, the Soviets had established two POW camps in Bălţi, a simple camp on the location of the present-day military unit, and a concentration camp by fencing out several streets in the southeast limits of the city, next to the small airport situated there. During the night, lights were arranged inside the camp in a way to resemble those of the airport. Heavily bombed by the German aviation, they would produce havoc inside the POW camp, while the airport would be left intact. The holes produced by the bombs were used as common graves for the dying prisoners. In the outcome of the Iaşi-Chişinău operation, around 45,000 prisoners, including up to 40,000 Romanians (including many locals), 5,000 Germans, 2,000 Hungarians, 3,000 Italians, Czechs, and Poles were gathered in the POW camp in Bălţi, the main transit POW camp for this operation. Some prisoners ended in the camp as late as September-October 1944, after fighting in the Romanian army on the Allies side, but being injured, were sent to hospitals close to their homes, and were arrested by the Soviets.

Many POWs died in the camp from malnutrition, infections, or were shot by guards, and then were buried in the bomb holes. Prisoners were kept in the camp anywhere from two months to over a year. On one occasion, a brake was made through a wall, and a major escape took place. By the end of 1945, all surviving prisoners were moved out to the interior of the Soviet Union to work. The site of the camp was leveled, and no buildings were ever erected in the area. Rumors about the POW camp and the conditions inside it were quickly silenced, and even by the 1980s the vast majority of the inhabitants of the town did not know about its existence. Consequently, during the Perestroika time, laborers were astonished to run upon thousands of human skeletons while working on straightening a road, and were so disturbed they refused to continue the work.

The political changes of the end of the 1980s allowed the remaining survivors of the camp to come out and relate the truth. Fortunately for these individuals, they were originally from the north of Moldova. By simply approaching the inner barbed wire on the side facing the city, and crying out in Romanian when the guards were not near, they were able to pass the word about their fate to friends and relatives in their home villages. The latter would come to the camp – bribe and feed the Soviet guards for a spared life. Unfortunately Germans, as well as the majority of Romanian POWs who were not locals, could not use this method to escape. Many German officers died of malnutrition, refusing the black bread. The more physically fit were then transferred for work throughout the former USSR. The Soviet archives have preserved considerable information about the POW camps in Bălţi, although they were kept a secret before 1989. Apparently, a study in 1992 on a sample of 800 POWs came up with only 13 survivors by 1953.

In 1992, many locals took part in the unveiling of one of the common graves. Sculs and bones were gathered in a piramid on a dry ground and covered with "fresh earth", A cross has been erected on the site on May 7, 1992. The name of the first prisoner discovered in the Soviet archives was decided to be the first written on the cross: "Tudor, son of Nicolae, Glavan from the village Sofia, Drochia district", i.e happened to be a local from just 20 km north of the city. The building of an "Ossuary Church" is in progress, despite the lack of financial possibilities and political will from the still Communist-dominated municipal authorities. Even the exact extent of the camp is not known, with only a small portion being unveiled so far (the field is approx. 1 km² in size).