Testimony of Chaya Klara (Minster) Ovich Katvan, born in Cernauti, Romania, 1927, regarding her experiences in Cernauti, Bessarabia and Mogilev

Testimony of Chaya Klara (Minster) Ovich Katvan, born in Cernauti, Romania, 1927, regarding her experiences in Cernauti, Bessarabia and Mogilev Her childhood in a family of Vizhnitz hasidim, including attending a Beit Yaakov school and Bnei Akiva activities; attends a Romanian high school in Cernauti. Outbreak of the war; Red Army occupation of Cernauti, 1940; deportation of wealthy people to Siberia; her father is in hiding; meets refugees from Poland; Romanian Army occupation of Cernauti, 1941; life under Romanian occupation including the looting of property; executions; assembly of the remaining Jews in a courtyard; deportation of approximately 2,000 people on foot without food, including separation of the men and the women; transfer to Bessarabia; murder of the rabbi and his family members; typhus disease; drowning of people in the Dniester River; arrival to Mogilev; life in Mogilev including hunger, lack of food, and overcrowding; meets other deportees; death of her father; betrayal of people to the Romanians by the Jewish police; giving of bribery; help from the JDC; end of the war. Move back to Romania; hospitalization in a hospital; illegal aliya attempt to Eretz Israel with Aliya Bet; detention in Cyprus; aliya to Israel, 1948.