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The first Soviet occupation of the area lasted from 1940 until the beginning of hostilities between Germany and Russia in June of the following year. Rumania was an ally of Germany. Bessarabia was reconquered by German and Rumanian troops by July 23, 1941, and remained under Rumanian authority until August 1944, when it was reoccupied by the Russians. Central and northern Bessarabia, as well as a narrow strip on the west side of the Dniester, became the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic with the capital in Kishinev. When Bessarabia was reoccupied by the Soviets, only a few Jews were still alive. The great majority had been massacred by the Einsatzkommandos and by the German and Rumanian soldiers, while others were deported to Transnistria, where more than half of them died. Many of the deported Jews preferred to slip back into Rumania, and from there to leave for Israel.
For further information on the Holocaust in Bessarabia see articles on Russia and the various towns.
[Theodor Lavi]
Emigration in 1989 was 4,304 (3,702 from Kishinev). Immigration to Israel in 1990 amounted to 12,080 (7,578 from Kishinev); the corresponding figures the following year were 17,305 and 9,487.
The Jewish organizations in Moldova include the Moldova-Israel Friendship Association (established in November 1991), the Moldova-Israel Foreign Trade Association, and the Jewish Museum. The monthly Jewish newspaper Nash golos began appearing in March 1990. In June of that year the paper printed an interview with Prime Minister Mircea Druk, who stated that he had never concealed his revulsion for anti-Semitism and stressed the need to normalize relations between Moldovans and Jews. The prime minister also came out in favor of education in Hebrew for Jews in the republic.
Moldovan Jews appear to be worried about their future. Not a single Jew was elected to the Supreme Soviet in 1990. A law was passed making knowledge of the Moldovian language mandatory: this created difficulties for the basically Russian-speaking Moldovan Jews. lntensive Jewish emigration was renewed in mid-1992 in the wake of fighting in Trans-Dnistria.
Both the Joint Distribution Committee and the Jewish Agency have begun operating in Kishinev. Direct flights from Moldova to lsrael started in January 1992.
[Michael Beizer]
Source:
www.heritagefilms.com See details of:
* History: Moldova
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