Murder Story of Otaci Targ Jews at Antonina Aizikova's Estate in Otaci Targ

The [ChGK committee] of the Otaci County… has compiled the following report: The committee has obtained materials indicating that, in early July 1941, [some] residents of the town of Otaci were villainously shot to death by the German-Romanian occupiers, and the graves of the executed [residents] are located in the town of Otaci, …[including] the estate of the civilian Antonina Aizikova. There are ten graves in total. An exhumation of four graves has revealed the following: There are ten bodies in the first grave, four [bodies] in the second grave, two bodies in the third grave, and one body in the fourth grave. Altogether, there are forty-three murdered Soviet civilians, two of whom were buried alive. Based on the testimonies of the eyewitnesses…, the [ChGK] committee has established that the residents of the town of Otaci were arrested on July 25, 1941 and held under arrest until early August of the same year. In the first days of August 1941, [they] were shot dead by Romanian soldiers [i.e., gendarmes], who were under the command of Dumitrevici, chief of the [Gendarmerie] post of Ataci. None of the executed civilians were members of the [Communist] Party. In terms of nationality, they were Moldovans, Jews, and Ukrainians. Prior to the Great Patriotic War, they had worked in Soviet economic enterprises and in the rail network. Based on eyewitness [testimonies] and the medical examination, the following has been established: Prior to the shooting, the civilians were severely beaten by the German-Romanian executioners; the bodies show skull fractures, [as well as] lung ruptures, …and fractures of the hips and other bones….