Climăuți Area Related Communities
ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST
RESEARCH & COLLECTIONS
COMMEMORATION
EDUCATION & E-LEARNING
MUSEUMS & EXHIBITIONS
RIGHTEOUS
Murder story of Climăuți Jews in the Climăuți Area
Murder Site
Climăuți Area
Romania
One day in late July 1941, the Romanian gendarmes, led by the local gendarmerie chief Ivan Darynga, arrested several dozen Jewish residents of Climǎuți (along with some non-local Jews from the vicinity of Edineț and Briceni). They were all forced into the house of Brenstein, a resident of the town. Guards were posted to watch over the house. Over the next several days, the detainees were denied food and water; some Jewish girls were raped. Then, the arrested Jews – elderly people, women with nursing infants, and teenagers – were separated from the rest and taken to the outskirts of the town, where they were forced to dig several pits (according to another testimony, the pits had been prepared in advance). They were then ordered to stand at the edge of the pits and shot with machine guns. When the shooting was over, some victims who had only been wounded were buried alive alongside the dead.
untoldStories.relatedResources
Resources.tabstitle.soviet Reports
Resources.tabstitle.chgk Soviet Reports
Andrey Kivirich, who lived in Climǎuți during the war years, testified at the Soviet juridical proceedings against Alexey Russu, who was accused of collaborating with the German-Romanian occupation authorities:
…On July 27, 1941, while I was kept under guard at the Gendarmerie post, I was summoned for an interrogation by the chief of the [Gendarmerie] post. During my stay in the chief's office, [the following persons] arrived there:
Alexey Russu, Feodor Lay… [and others].… Alexey Russu… turned to the chief of the Gendarmerie and stated: "Yesterday evening, we took 77 (or 78) people outside the town and shot them. We buried the victims on the spot." …When the chief of the Gendarmerie had heard Russu out, he said: "I'll give you a few more Jews to shoot." Russu replied: "Give [them] to us, we will shoot them to the last one, no matter how many there are." After the conversation with the chief of the Gendarmerie… those persons left the office….
USHMM RG-54.003
Yefim Ryzhak, who lived in Climǎuți during the war years, testified at the Soviet juridical proceedings against Alexey Russu, who was accused of collaborating with the German-Romanian occupation authorities:
On July 26, 1941, the German-Romanian forces entered our town. On the evening of the same day, the German-Romanian military authorities arrested 20 local Jews, who were then kept under guard for 10 days.… On the tenth day after the arrest of the Jews, all 75 of them [apparently, many of them were non-local Jews] were taken outside the town and shot. I wasn't on guard duty that night, so I don’t know who took part in the shooting of the 75 Jews. However, I was personally told by the civilian Alexey Russu… that, during the night, they and the Romanian soldiers had shot the Jews. He told me about it on the day after the shooting.
USHMM RG-54.003
Climăuți Area
Murder Site
Romania
48.310;27.607