Reference Type: Journal Article
Author: Ofer, Dalia
Year: 1996
Title: Life in the ghettos of Transnistria
Journal: Yad Vashem Studies
Issue: 25
Pages: 229-274
Language: English
Keywords: Jewish minority, authorities, Jewish ghettos, labor camp, language use, social groups, antisemitism, deportation, holocaust, World War II, health, holocaust rescuers, persecutions, Transnistria, Antonescu regime, refugees
Abstract: (En) From August 1941 to March 1944, Transnistria was under Romanian administration; it was used as a dumping ground for the Jews of Bessarabia and Bukovina. Romanian policy toward the Jews in Transnistria was influenced by Nazi Germany (e.g. the establishment of ghettos and labor camps). The article discerns three groups in the Jewish population. The first, deportees from Bukovina, were sent to ghettos in northern Transnistria, especially Mogilev; they managed to establish fair relations with the Romanian administration. The second group, Jews deported from Bessarabia, and the third, the local Jews in Transnistria (who were especially despised by the Romanian authorities) suffered great losses in the summer of 1941, but succeeded in establishing relations with the local population, whose language they spoke. The relations of the Jews with the non-Jews were complex. The peasants, although antisemitic, sometimes helped the Jews. A complex social network emerged in the ghettos in 1942; despite harsh social disparities in the ghettos, this network helped the Jews to survive