October 1941: The Deportation from Bukovina to Transnistria

Within a few days in October 1941, almost all the Jews of southern Bukovina were deported from their homes in freight trains to the far side of the Dniester. From the stations of Suceava, Rădăuți, Gura Humorului, Câmpulung and Vatra Dornei they were sent to Transnistria, the territory between the Dniester and the Bug under Romanian rule. Many did not return.

Bukovina in the Summer of 1941

Southern Bukovina had been part of Romania since 1918. Northern Bukovina, with Czernowitz, was annexed by the Soviet Union in June 1940 and retaken by Romania in July 1941. The Wiesel Commission report notes that the first killings in southern Bukovina took place in Siret in July 1941. According to Pinkas HaKehillot, as early as 20 June 1941 the Jews of Siret were marched 12 km to Dornești, and 18 sick people left behind were murdered.

The Order

In Suceava, according to the Yizkor Book, the deportation order was presented at a secret meeting at the prefecture on 8 October 1941; at six in the morning on 9 October the head of the community, Dr. Meir Teich, was informed. In Rădăuți, Jews were ordered on 11 October to leave within 48 hours.

From Five Stations

• Suceava: 9–11 October, from Burdujeni station, in cattle cars of 40–50 people: 3,253 from the town and another 1,634 from Burdujeni. Twenty-seven Jews remained.
• Rădăuți: on 12–13 October about 6,000 were taken to Mărculești in Bessarabia; according to Pinkas HaKehillot, 90% of them were murdered. The last transport, of about 4,000, left on 13 October for Atachi.
• Gura Humorului: on 10 October, “in one day”: 2,945 according to Hugo Gold, 2,954 according to another source.
• Câmpulung Moldovenesc: nearly 2,000 Jews, from 13 October according to G4Media; Gold dates the deportation from the southern towns to 9–10 October.
• Vatra Dornei: according to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, the area’s Jews were concentrated in a ghetto in the town; of 2,029, 21 remained. Gold counts 2,650 deportees from Dorna and the surrounding villages.

The Route

The trains went to Atachi, on the Romanian bank of the Dniester. From there the deportees crossed the river to Mogilev, on rafts or over a pontoon bridge. From Mogilev they were dispersed to ghettos and camps; the Jews of Suceava were sent mainly to Shargorod and Murafa. About 800 people arrived at Shargorod, instead of the 500 agreed.

How Many: Three Figures, Three Areas

Sources give different figures, each for a different area:

• 91,845 — Jews deported from all of Bukovina, including the Hotin and Dorohoi districts, according to the official reports cited by the Wiesel Commission; the same figure appears on the memorial plaques placed in 2016.
• About 40,000 — the Jews of Rădăuți, Suceava, Gura Humorului, Câmpulung and Vatra Dornei, deported on 9–10 October 1941, according to Hugo Gold; it appears to cover all of southern Bukovina.
• 21,229 — a figure in the Wiesel Commission report for Jews deported “in 1941 and 1942”; the exact area it covers is unclear.

According to Gold, about half of Bukovina’s roughly 120,000 Jews died in the Holocaust. According to the Wiesel Commission, by autumn 1943 about 47,000 of at least 155,000 Jews deported to Transnistria were still alive.

The Return

According to Gold, the survivors of southern Bukovina were repatriated in April 1944. The Wiesel Commission describes a gradual return: the Dorohoi deportees on 20 December 1943, 1,846 orphans on 6 March 1944, and 2,538 people between 17 and 30 March 1944. In Gura Humorului, Gold says “about a hundred” returned in spring 1944, while another source speaks of about 1,500 allowed to return. Many survivors later emigrated to Israel.

The Memorial Plaques

In 2016, on the 75th anniversary, the Federation of Jewish Communities and the local communities placed memorial plaques at the stations and synagogues of the towns — for example at the station and the synagogue of Gura Humorului. In Suceava, the Gah synagogue was rededicated in the same days. Travellers on the Bukovina heritage route pass through the same stations the trains left from.

A Town That Was Not Deported

Fălticeni, the neighbouring Moldavian town, was not part of Bukovina, and its Jews were not included in the mass deportation to Transnistria. According to the Encyclopaedia Judaica, about 1,000 Jewish men were sent from there to forced labour in Bessarabia.