Călărași

The presentday town of Călărași is located on the site of the former villages of Tuzora and Călărași. Tuzora was an important Jewish settlement: in 1897, under the Russian Empire, 4,593 residents (comprising 89 percent of the total) of the village’s population were Jewish.

After 1873, when it was connected to the Russian Empire’s railway network, Tuzora became an important commercial center. The local Jewish community traded in agricultural products, especially plums, for which the town was famous. During the early twentieth century the village was known for its cognac production, a vine-grafting workshop, as well as for its nursery of fruit cuttings and fruit trees. The Jews were the main exporters of wines, fruit, and grain to the rest of the Empire. On October 23, 1905, during the failed Russian revolution, local gangs and peasants attacked the Jews, killing 60 of them and wounding 220. They set fire to 500 Jewish homes and destroyed most of the Jewish stores and workshops.

In 1918 Bessarabia became part of Romania and the village was officially known as Călărași-Târg. In the interwar period most of the Zionist youth movements (such as Maccabi Hatzair, Gordonia, Beitar,and Hashomer Hatzair) were active in the town. In 1930 the Jewish population was 3,631 or 76 percent of the total.

As a result of the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, Bessarabia was occupied by the Soviet Union on June 28, 1940. The new Soviet authorities elevated Călărași to the status of a town and it became the administrative center of the newly established Călărași County. All private enterprises were nationalized and all previous parties, including Zionist ones, were banned. In June 1941 the Soviet authorities arrested and deported numerous wealthy Jews, as well as those who were active members of political parties in interwar Romania.

On June 22, 1941 Romania joined Nazi Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union and soon regained control of Bessarabia. The majority of the Jews of Călărași tried to evacuate eastward together with the Soviet authorities. However, some of them were still present in the town when the Romanian troops entered Cǎlǎraşi on July 14, 1941.

In July or August 1941 16 Jews from different localities in the Cǎlǎraşi District were executed by members of the Romanian Gendarmerie in the Dumbrava Forest, near the village of Pǎuleşti.

At the beginning of August all the Jews who had been found in Călărași were shot to death by the Romanian Gendarmerie outside the town, in the Vatamaneasa Forest.

Cǎlǎraşi was liberated by the Red Army on August 23, 1944.