Mayn shtetele Soroke

Soroca (Сороки in Russian, Сороки in Ukrainian, Soroki in Polish, םאָראָקע in Yiddish) is the district capital and namesake port on the Dniester River in present-day Republic of Moldova. The first documentary reference to the town dates from 1499. It was home to one of the oldest Jewish communities of Moldavia. The most ancient Jewish tombs are from the 16th century. The main synagogue was built in 1775. In 1772, a dozen Jewish families (of a total of 170 families) lived in Soroca, which belonged to the Principality of Moldavia till 1812.

Situated in one of the most fertile areas of the world, Soroca - which from 1812 belongs to Russia as part of Bessarabia - became a center of rapid growth of Jewish settlements since the creation of the first Jewish agricultural colonies in 1836. In 1817, 157 Jewish families lived in Soroca, in 1847 there were 343; in 1864 they were 4135 and, in 1897, 8783 (representing 57% of the population). In 1861, already considered a major center of Jewish farming in Russia, Soroca and its peripheral agricultural settlements produced tobacco, grapes and various fruits.

In 1900, at the point of utmost prosperity of Jewish life in Soroca, the city had 17 synagogues [in the picture, the Tailors' Synagogue ca. 1920]. Emigration, however, mainly to the United States and Argentina, began with the adoption of restrictive laws in May 1882 by the Tsar Alexander III and the resulting economic hardship. With the end of II WW, Soroca and all of Bessarabia will make part of Romania. In 1930, the city had 5,462 Jews (36% of the population).

When German forces entered Romania and Soroca in July 1941, the systematic annihilation of the Jews began. A concentration camp was established in the vicinity, in Vertujeni, where 26,000 Jews were arrested. From September until late December 1941, the survivors were deported on foot to camps in Transnistria. Many were killed or died from hunger and exhaustion during the journey. Few survived the war.

It is estimated that, after the war, perhaps there were 1000 Jews in Soroca. About 200 Jews lived there in 2004.

In the 1990s, Arkady Gendler, a native of Soroca, wrote the song Mayn shtetele Soroke.

Source: Soroca article, written by Wolf Moskovich, published in YIVO.

Gitenstein

In June 2009, US President Barack Obama announced his intent to nominate Mark Gitenstein as the U.S. ambassador to Romania.

I am really flattered to be asked by President Obama to take on this assignment, Gitenstein said. It’s not only an important national security assignment to undertake, as Romania is an important ally to the U.S., but also if I am confirmed, I will be in a sense returning to the home of my forefathers.

Gitenstein explained that his paternal grandfather, Israel Gitenstein or “Mr. G” as he was known to Florala residents, emigrated to the U.S. from today's Moldova Republic, which was at one time part of Romania, also known as Bessarabia. His grandmother’s parents were from Romania, making him the first U.S. Ambassador to Romania with Romanian heritage.

In September, 2009, he presented his credentials to Romanian President Traian Basescu.

Source: Andalusia Starnews and US Embassy in Bucharest

Mein shtetele Belz

The city of Bălţi (Bielce, Бельцы, Бэлць, Бєльці, בעלץ) appears in documents of the 15th century as an important center of horse trade, it's no wonder that its first crest showed a horse's head. Gradually, the city also became a center for craftsmen - blacksmiths, saddlers, chariot-makers, furriers. The Russian Empire, which in 1812 incorporated the eastern part of Moldavia, which then was known as Bessarabia, increased the administrative autonomy of the town that, once connected to the rail network, became a collect center of grain that was transported to Odessa .

Due to the economic development, many Russians, Ukrainians and Jews joined the local population. The number of immigrants continued to grow, especially after the union of Bessarabia with Romania in 1918, because of the influx of refugees across the river Dniester fleeing the Soviet collectivization, the famine known as Holodomor (1932-33) or the secret police of the Soviet communist party (NKVD).

During the 2nd World War the city was severely destroyed and suffered major deportations. First (1940-41), the Soviets deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia priests and Moldavian civil servants working for the Romanian State and then (1941-44), Romanians and Germans deported Jews - who constituted at least half the local population and that were confined to a ghetto - and citizens suspected of supporting the Soviet system. Soviet deportations were resumed between 1945 and 1954.

During the communist regime, the city became the most important industrial center of northern Moldavia, with an almost entirely transplanted population, comprising Russian, Ukrainian and Moldavian peasants.

Bălţi, who was once wistfully evoked in the famous Yiddish song Mein shtetele Belz, in 1928, is today the "northern capital" of the Republic of Moldova, the second most important city in the country and boasting a population of nearly 150 000 people , of which about 400 make up the local Jewish community, currently led by Mr. Lev Bonder.

Photo: Jaime Serebrenic (São Paulo) in front of the only remaining synagogue in Bălţi, May 2010.

Serebrenic & Bitelman

At the end of May 2010, I guided the couple Tatiana and Jaime Serebrenic (São Paulo) in a journey to their Bessarabian roots. After visiting Bucharest and southern Bukovina, with its impressive monasteries - UNESCO World Heritage Sites - we crossed the Romanian border near Iasi towards Chisinau. 

In the capital of the Republic of Moldova, besides being able to visit with her husband a Chabad synagogue and old buildings belonging in the past to the large Jewish community, Tatiana could find, in the local Jewish cemetery, the graves of several relatives, especially the uncle of his father, Michel Bitelman (photo).

Then we drove to northern Bessarabia, visiting Orhei, Balti, Edinet and Briceni. Jaime's father left Edinet in 1930 towards Brazil; visiting the city of his origins was an old dream that, as the photo shows, has come true.

Visit to Edinet

While visiting Edinet in northern Bessarabia, in May 2010, while guiding the family Serebrenic from São Paulo, I was able to photograph the house of one of the four drunk Jews of the town, now in ruins, as Leon Akkerman, one of the few Jews who remained there, showed me:

And below, the house that in the past was one of the many synagogues of that city which, according to the census of 1930, from a total of almost 6,000 inhabitants, had a population of about 5,300 Jews:

  

Across the street, it stands the house of the family Akkerman, in an architecture typical of the region. In such traditional house, like many others, there lived Jewish families who were almost completely wiped out in July 1941, when the joint German and Romanian forces repelled the Soviets and took the city:

Briceni

Briceni (Brichon, Brichany, Бричень, Бричаны, Briceni Târg, Briceni Sat) is a small town in the north of Bessarabia, now part of Republic of Moldova. (In the picture, the division into districts of the province of Briceni, the northernmost in Moldova, whose capital city is Briceni.)

In 1817, it had 137 Jewish families. In 1897, turned already into one of the largest Jewish communities of Bessarabia, Briceni housed 7,184 Jews, which meant 96.5% of the population.

In the late 19th century, there were 972 Jewish artisans, mostly furrier, who produced and exported about 25,000 furs a year; in addition to them, 25 Jewish families were devoted to horticulture and tobacco culture, while 700 Jews were day laborers.

In 1924, there were 125 Jewish farmers whose crops were extended by 64 sqm, some of them leased.

In 1940, when its Jewish population reached about 10,000 people, the city was occupied, along with all of Bessarabia, in the context of World War II, by Soviet forces, who confiscated the most part of private and community property, used the synagogue as a barn and deported 80 Jewish community leaders to Siberia.

In 1941, the Romanian troops regained Bessarabia with the support of the German army, killing many Jews. Jews from neighboring towns of Lipcani and Secureni were concentrated in a ghetto in Briceni and, in July, dispatched to a death march from which few returned in 1945.

According to the 2004 census, 8,765 people now live in Briceni, of which a tiny number is composed by Jews.

Khotyn

In a prime position on the river Dniester, Khotyn (Chotyn, Chocim, Hotin, Хотин) soon became an important commercial center, known mainly for its military fortress (photo), scene of bloody clashes between Moldavians, Turks, Austrians and Poles, that today can be visited by tourists.

In the past, the town belonged to the Principality of Moldova (1359-1812), to the Tsarist province of Bessarabia (1812-1917), to the Democratic Republic of Moldova (1917-1918), to the Kingdom of Romania (1918-1940, 1941-1944) and to the Soviet Union (1940-1941, 1944-1991), now part of the administrative Ukrainian region of Chernivtsi.

In 1897, it amounted 23,800 inhabitants. Most of them were Jews and Russians. It is possible that the Jews have begun to settle in the city since the 15th century, at the invitation of the Moldavian prince Stephen the Great, who, interested in developing the economy, drew significant communities of Jews, Armenians and Greeks.

After World War I, Khotyn became the northernmost city of Romania, 283km from Chisinau and 554km from Bucharest.

In 1930, Khotyn had 15,287 inhabitants, out of which 37.7% Jewish, 36.6% Russians 14.8% Ukrainians and 8.8% Romanians. Although industrialized, the city, not connected to the railroad, became a center of trade for products from nearby villages: cereals, livestock and livestock products.

Khotyn had a power plant, a brewery, a factory of brandy, five oil mills, two factories of fondant, a soap factory, 12 mills, a limestone quarry, three brick factories, an abattoir, seven bank branches, a Jewish hospital and 17 synagogues.

The Soviet regime imposed changes in the ethnic composition of the city. In 1959, its population was composed of 72% Ukrainians,  16% Russians, 8% Jews and 4% Romanians. While the Romanian population was deported by Stalin's orders in 1940 to Kazakhstan, much of the Jewish population was exterminated during World War II.

It is estimated that in 2007 the city had 10,438 inhabitants, of whom only about 10 Jews.

Novoselytsya

In August 2009 I was in Noua Suliţă (Suliţa Târg, Suliţa, Novoselytsya, Новоселиця, Новоселица, Nowoselyzja, Nowosielica, Nowosielitza), in the historic region of Bessarabia, since 1991 in the territory of independent Ukraine, near the border with Romania, where I visited the large and ancient Jewish cemetery site [see my picture].

On the banks of the Prut River, Novoselytsya was first mentioned in a document in 1456, having belonged to the Principality of Moldova until 1812. With the transfer of Bessarabia to the Russian Empire, its eastern half went under Russian rule, while its western half, since 1775, belonged to the Austro-Hungarian province of Bukovina.

In 1905, the local train station was inaugurated, along an existing line from the last quarter of the 19th century and which became the main transit point for cattle leather exported to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The station became famous thanks to the famous American journalist John Reed, who started there, in 1915, his trip to Russia in order to witness the Bolshevik Revolution.

With the end of World War I, the whole city became part of Romanian territory and, with World War II, of the Soviet Union.

In 1930, the city, the second largest in the Romanian province of Hotin and important commercial center, had a population of 5000 inhabitants, of whom about four-fifths were Jews. The city had several banks, a Jewish hospital, a synagogue, a post office and telegraph, a commercial high school, a court, two cinemas and airport.

Currently the city has around 8000 inhabitants, of whom about half a dozen Jewish families.

Secureni

The city of Secureni (Târgu Secureni, Sokyriany, Sokiriany, Sekuryany, Sekurian, Sikuran, Sekureni, Sekuron, Sokorone, Sekurjany, Sokiryany, Sekiryani) in northern Bessarabia, lies today in the Ukrainian province of Chernivtsi.

In 1904, the town had 783 houses and 4166 inhabitants, of whom 2590 were Jews. On the eve of World War II, Jewish population amounted 4216 inhabitants. According to the census of 2007, the town's whole population comprise 9683 inhabitants.

The first document attesting the town's existence dates 1666. Until 1711, Secureni was part of the Principality of Moldova. From 1711 to 1812, it belonged to the Ottoman province of Hotin and, from 1812 to 1918, to the Russian province of Bessarabia. From 1918 to 1944 - with a brief break during World War II, when the area was invaded by Soviet troops later repeled by the Romanians with Nazi support - Secureni was the capital of a district with the same name, covering 23 villages in the Romanian province of Hotin (see the map), having been an important commercial center with post and phone office, private school, court, a public hospital and a Jewish hospital.

In late July 1941, it was inaugurated in Secureni a transit concentration camp, where there were initially interned Jews originating mainly from Hotin. During the first days, about 35% of the prisoners died because they were fed with raw grain, though later this figure has fallen to one tenth. Jews imprisoned in Secureni, however, were in a better position than the ones at the camp of Edinet, which, originating mainly from Bukovina, had been looted during the trip. Both camps together amounted nearly 21 000 prisoners.

Apparently unfair or mistaken interpretations of higher orders received by a certain Romanian officer would have cost the death of 500 Jews who were deported from the transit camp Secureni in October 1941 to the extermination camp of Cosauti, managed by the Romanians in Transnistria.

With the end of the war, Secureni joined the USSR until its disintegration and the subsequent proclamation of the republic of Ukraine in 1990.

Understanding the borders

One of the first problems of genealogical research is to geographically locate the roots of the family. Having been Eastern Europe the scene of continuous and several military conflicts, some confusion is common.

The map beside (click it to enlarge) may explain more than any text that seeks to establish the borders of Bessarabia, Moldavia and Bukovina.

It corresponds entirely to the historical territory of Moldavia, during the time it was a principality until the 19th century, when, uniting with Wallachia, they formed together Romania.

The blue part belongs, since the end of World War II, to Romania (Moldavia and southern Bukovina). The pink part belongs to Ukraine today (northern Bukovina, northern Bessarabia, Herta and Budjak) and the green part is the territory of Republic of Moldova.

As one can see, Bessarabia itself is formed by the green and two pink zones, north and south, territories detached by Khrushchev out of the SSR Moldova and then transferred to the SSR Ukraine. 

 

Bukovina (Austrian province between 1775 and 1918) is now split between Romania and Ukraine. The area shaded in green corresponds to the self-proclaimed Republic of Transnistria, an area of great geopolitical tension between Russia and NATO, while the area shaded with pink, now part of Ukrainian territory, corresponds to the former Moldavian Autonomous SSR (1924-1940), Stalinist complex maneuver in geopolitics.

Gandelman

 

Attorney Henrique Gandelman (Rio de Janeiro), father of saxophonist Leo Gandelman, came to Romania in 1998, from where I guided him to the Republic of Moldova. His parents came from a small village called Trinka, northern Bessarabia, having emigrated to Brazil before World War II. I drove him through Chisinau, Edinet, Briceni and Secureni (Ukraine), searching for traces of his family. During the trip, he (in the picture, second from left to right, in Briceni) got acquainted with new friends and heard heartbreaking stories about his own family and the fate of the Bessarabian Jews.

Aiklender

In May 2002, I visited the village of Oklanda in the administrative division of Soroka, Bessarabia, now the Republic of Moldova, in order to visit the place where supposedly originated the family of my great-grandfather Solomon Aiklender. Although my grandmother was born in the Ukrainian city of Zhitomir, there are indications that at least his father or his father's family come from that small village near the banks of the Dniester river.

Batusanski

In April 2002, I drove Silvio Batusanschi (São Paulo), along with his French cousins David and Serge Batusanski, to the land of their ancestors: Bessarabia. Chisinau (in the picture, Serge on the other side of the monument to the Holocaust, in the downtown) and Briceni were the main places, where they visited the local Jewish community and the cemeteries. In Briceni they found a distant cousin, whose existence was previously unknown. On the way back to Romania, we crossed the town of Botosani, toponym which probably lies at the origin of their surname.