Transnistria (World War II)
Encyclopedia
Transnistria Governorate was a Romanian administered territory, conquered by the Axis Powers
from the Soviet Union
during Operation Barbarossa
, and occupied from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944. Limited in the west by the Dniester
river (separating it from Bessarabia Governorate) in the east by the Southern Bug
river (separating it from the German Reichskommissariat Ukraine
), and in the south by the Black Sea
, it comprised the present-day region of Transnistria
(which compared to the World War II whole is only a small strip along the bank of the Dniester) and territories further east (modern Odessa Oblast
eastward of the Dniester and southern Vinnytsia Oblast
), including the Black Sea port of Odessa
, which became the administrative capital of Transnistria during World War II.
In World War II, Romania, persuaded and aided by Nazi Germany
, took control of Transnistria for the first time in history. In August 1941, Adolf Hitler
persuaded Ion Antonescu
to take control of the territory as a substitute for Northern Transylvania
, occupied by Miklós Horthy
's Hungary
following the Second Vienna Award
. Despite the Romanian administration, the Romanian state did not formally incorporate Transnistria into its administrative framework; the Nazi-friendly Antonescu government hoped to annex the territory eventually, but developments on the Eastern Front
precluded it.
, the territory of Romania occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940. Nazi Germany
wanted Romania as an ally in the war against the Soviet Union. However, Romania was complacent with recovering its own territory. To facilitate the persuasion of the then-dictator of Romania Ion Antonescu, Hitler ordered the German Army to advance into Ukraine from north to south, following a route east of the Southern Bug
river, in order to trap Soviet troops between Dniester
and the Southern Bug. Antonescu was thus put in the face of a simple task for his army: conquer from the encircled and retreating Red Army troops a precisely delimited area. Antonescu ordered the Romanian Fourth Army
to undertake this task.
During the first week of the advance, in mid-August 1941, Romanians took over all of the region, except for a small area around Odessa
without a fight. At the time, Romanians had 60,000 soldiers to conquer the city from its 30,000 defenders. However, the organization was so poor, and the command was so superficial, that the attack resulted in a military blunder. Exploiting this success, the Soviets stopped the evacuation of the city by sea and instead sent reinforcements, bolstering the strength of the Soviet forces up to 100,000. Romanians were forced to more-than-double their own numbers as well. Although occasionally on some small portions of front line, low and medium rank Romanian officers showed clear successes, the general organization of the siege was disastrous for the Romanians, and several generals were dismissed afterwards. Eventually, after 2 months of siege, the Romanian army took control of the city at the price of 92,000 casualties. Only in the Battle of Stalingrad
were Romanian casualty figures higher, but then Romanians would face a numerically and technically superior enemy. Although the Soviets eventually left the city, the whole operation was a success for the Soviets, as they were able to block a larger enemy force with a smaller one, and inflict significant casualties on the attackers. This result was especially important, because the Soviet High Command initially ordered the city abandoned. At the end of the war, Odessa received the title of Hero city
.
Once Romanian troops entered Odessa, they established headquarters of two of their divisions in the local NKVD
building. However, the building was mined by the Soviets, who blew it up, killing over 100 members of Romanian divisional headquarters, including almost 50 officers, paralyzing the activity of the two divisions for two weeks. In reprisal, Ion Antonescu ordered the arrest and massacre of civilians suspected of aiding the Red Army. When it became clear that identifying individuals directly responsible for the incident would be almost impossible, Antonescu ordered shooting of Jews. The massacre that followed resulted in 19,000 civilians killed, the majority of whom had nothing to do with the military action. A further number of Odessa Jews were deported to ghettos and concentration camps in the northern half of the region.
A partisan movement, with a strength of 300, was active in the Odessa catacombs
all throughout the occupation. It managed to organize an excellent communication with the partisan headquarters in Moscow. Antonescu was advised to use poisonous gas to clear the catacombs, but afraid of the public implications of such an act decided to abstain from it. Eventually, Romanians were able to inflict a high number of casualties on the partisans with the help of some partisans who switched sides and revealed the movement through the catacombs. Yet, the catacombs were never completely cleared, and the partisans maintained a continuous resistance movement until the return of the Red Army.
Albeit not annexing the region outright, the Romanian Antonescu government organized the territory in the Guvernământul Transnistriei under Romanian governor, Gheorghe Alexianu.
The Nazi-allied Antonescu government hoped to annex the territory eventually, but developments on the Eastern Front precluded it.
Romanian opposition parties were against Romanian operations beyond Bessarabia and Bukovina. Two preeminent political figures of the day, Iuliu Maniu
and Constantin Brătianu
declared that "the Romanian people will never consent to the continuation of the struggle beyond our national borders."
The territory was divided into 13 counties (sing. Judeţ
). Below these were subdivisions named Municipiul, Oraşul and Raionul.
Romania (and the Transnistria Governorate) supplied the Nazi war effort
with oil, grain, and industrial products, but Germany was reluctant to pay for the deliveries either in goods or gold. As a result, inflation skyrocketed in all Romania, and even government officials began grumbling about German exploitation. In February 1943, however, the Red Army decimated Romania's forces in the great counteroffensive at Stalingrad, and the German and Romanian armies began their retreat westward. Allied bombardment slowed Romania's industries in 1943 and 1944 before Soviet occupation, and disrupted transportation flows and curtailed economic activity altogether in all Romania (beginning since early 1944 in Transnistria Governorate).
Many Jews were deported to Transnistria from Bessarabia
and Bukovina
. During the period 1941–1944, 200,000 Roma people and Jews became victims of the Romanian occupation of Transnistria. Not being Romanian territory, Transnistria was used as a killing field
for the extermination of Jews. Survivors say that in comparison with the Holocaust
of Nazi Germany
, where deportations were carefully planned, the Romanian government did not prepare to house thousands of people in Transnistria, where the deportees stayed. The people were instead placed in crude barracks without running water, electricity or latrines. Those who could not walk were simply left to die.
In Odessa, between 80,000 and 90,000 of the city's roughly 180,000 Jews remained at the time the Germans and Romanians captured the city on October 16, 1941. Six days later, a bomb exploded in the Romanian military headquarters in Odessa, prompting a massacre of Jews; many were burned alive. In October and November 1941 alone, Romanian troops in Odessa killed about 30,000 Jews. Transnistria was the site of two concentration camps and several de facto ghettos (which the Romanian wartime government referred to as "colonies"). In addition, most of the remaining Jews in Bessarabia (84,000 of 105,000) and northern Bukovina (36,000 of 60,000) were herded into these as well. The Holocaust Encyclopedia (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
) writes that "Among the most notorious of these ghettos… was Bogdanovka
, on the west bank of the Bug River… In December 1941, Romanian troops, together with Ukrainian auxiliaries, massacred almost all the Jews in Bogdanovka; shootings continued for more than a week." Similar events occurred at the Domanevka and Akhmetchetkha camps, and (quoting the same source) "typhus
-devastated Jews were crowded into the 'colony' in Mohyliv-Podilskyi
." Other camps, also with very high death rates, were at Pechora and Vapniarka
, the latter reserved for Jewish political prisoners deported from Romania proper. Many Jews died of exposure, starvation, or disease during the deportations to Transnistria or after arrival. Others were murdered by Romanian or German units, either in Transnistria or after being driven across the Bug River into the German-occupied Ukraine. Most of the Jews who were sent to the camps in Transnistria never returned. Those who survived, around 70,000, returned to Romania in 1945 to find that they had lost their houses.
Even for the general population, food in Transnistria was very scarce, through lack of Romanian planning. According to one survivor's account, people would gather outside a slaughterhouse and wait for scraps of meat, skin and bones to be thrown out of the slaughterhouse after the cleaning each morning. He remembers that they were fighting for the bones "just like dogs would" and that people were starving to death. Among the survivors were Liviu Librescu
and Norman Manea
.
if it would be possible: "I have about 10,000 Jews left in Bessarabia, who in a few days will be taken across the Dniester, and if circumstances will allow, they will be taken beyond the Urals".
, including the capital, Bucharest
. In addition, most of the products sent to Germany were provided without monetary compensation. As a result of these "uncompensated exports", inflation
in Romania skyrocketed, causing widespread discontent among the Romanian population, even among groups and individuals who had once enthusiastically supported the Germans and the war.
Transnistria was relatively spared by these air bombings, but soon the Red Army (always victorious after the Battle of Stalingrad
) destroyed all the Romanian presence in the region. During the Uman–Botoşani Offensive
the Soviet troops crossed the higher Bug river on March 11 and in twenty days more the Transnistria Governorate "disappeared". By the end of March 1944 there were no more Axis troops east of the Dniester river, save for the encircled capital Odessa
. Meanwhile the replacement of Governor Alexianu has happened on February 1, 1944, by the military governor, Lt General Potopeanu (formerly Romanian Economy Minister). The name Transnistria dropped out of use, and the authorities were increasingly referred to as Military Government between Dniester and Bug.
On March 28, the Red Army took Nikolaev and the next day crossed the lower Bug river in force. On April 5, Razdelnaia fell, and therewith the Odessa-Tiraspol highway was cut. On the 19th, after a brief but bitter fight, the Red Army re-entered Odessa. On the April 12, Tiraspol
was occupied, and four days later all Transnistria was again in Soviet hands.
During the final days, the Germans concentrated on destruction in Odessa, since evacuation was impossible. Port installations, some industrial facilities, and transportation junctions were blown up (even the electric power plant, various mills, stores of bread, sugar, and other foods were destroyed). Of Odessa’s population, scarcely 200,000 remained; many had hidden in the vicinity while some had sought safety in the countryside. And some had left westward with the Romanians and Germans: only those most compromised had left; the bulk of the residents had stayed in the region. People feared Soviet repressions, but "there was no other way out", according to German sources.
left, a small percentage of the overall population of the region. Most of them in the actual Transnistria break-away republic. But historically they were the majority: according to the results of the Russian census (quoted in Romanian sources) of 1793 AD, 49 villages out of 67 between the Dniester and the Bug
were Romanian.
And furter east of the Transnistria Governorate there were many neo-latin communities: indeed the Romanians/Moldavians in Ukraine -east of the Bug river- were calculated by a German census to be nearly 780.000 (probably an excessive number), and were made plans to move them to Transnistria in 1942/43. But nothing was done.
Probably there were only about 100,000 Romanians/Moldavians in the German occupied Ukraine -called Reichskommissariat Ukraine
- and nearly all of them "disappeared" (because killed, escaped to Romania or deported to Siberia/Caucasus by Joseph Stalin
), when the Soviets reconquered the area in early 1944.
If we add those 100,000 probably living east of the Bug river to the 197,000 registered by the 1941 census inside the Transilvania Governorate, we get a total of nearly 300,000 Romania/moldavian speaking population. That means that since 1944 there has been a huge reduction of the romance-speaking population living east of the Dniester.
Indeed when the Soviet Union regained the area in spring 1944, and the Soviet Army
advanced into the territory driving out the Axis
forces, many thousands of Romanians/Vlachs of Transnistria were killed in those months and deported to gulags in the following years. So, a political campaign was directed towards the rich Moldavian peasant families, which were deported to Kazakhstan
and Siberia
as well. For instance, in just two days, July 6 and July 7, 1949, over 11,342 Moldavian families (more than 40,000 inhabitants of Ukraine Oblasts) were deported by the order of the Minister of State Security, I. L. Mordovets, under a plan named "Operation South".
The Census statistics for romance speaking population in territories east of the Dniester river are the following:
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
during Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa
Operation Barbarossa was the code name for Germany's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II that began on 22 June 1941. Over 4.5 million troops of the Axis powers invaded the USSR along a front., the largest invasion in the history of warfare...
, and occupied from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944. Limited in the west by the Dniester
Dniester
The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
river (separating it from Bessarabia Governorate) in the east by the Southern Bug
Southern Bug
The Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh), is a river located in Ukraine. The source of the river is in the west of Ukraine, in the Volyn-Podillia Upland, about 145 km from the Polish border, and flows southeasterly into the Bug Estuary through the southern steppes...
river (separating it from the German Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine , literally "Reich Commissariat of Ukraine", was the civilian occupation regime of much of German-occupied Ukraine during World War II. Between September 1941 and March 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Reichskommissar Erich Koch as a colony...
), and in the south by the Black Sea
Black Sea
The Black Sea is bounded by Europe, Anatolia and the Caucasus and is ultimately connected to the Atlantic Ocean via the Mediterranean and the Aegean seas and various straits. The Bosphorus strait connects it to the Sea of Marmara, and the strait of the Dardanelles connects that sea to the Aegean...
, it comprised the present-day region of Transnistria
Transnistria
Transnistria is a breakaway territory located mostly on a strip of land between the Dniester River and the eastern Moldovan border to Ukraine...
(which compared to the World War II whole is only a small strip along the bank of the Dniester) and territories further east (modern Odessa Oblast
Odessa Oblast
Odesa Oblast, also written as Odessa Oblast , is the southernmost and largest oblast of south-western Ukraine. The administrative center of the oblast is the city of Odessa.-History:...
eastward of the Dniester and southern Vinnytsia Oblast
Vinnytsia Oblast
Vinnytsia Oblast is an oblast of Ukraine. Its administrative center is Vinnytsia.-Geography:The area of the region is 26,500 km²; its population is 1.7 million....
), including the Black Sea port of Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
, which became the administrative capital of Transnistria during World War II.
In World War II, Romania, persuaded and aided by Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, took control of Transnistria for the first time in history. In August 1941, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
persuaded Ion Antonescu
Ion Antonescu
Ion Victor Antonescu was a Romanian soldier, authoritarian politician and convicted war criminal. The Prime Minister and Conducător during most of World War II, he presided over two successive wartime dictatorships...
to take control of the territory as a substitute for Northern Transylvania
Northern Transylvania
Northern Transylvania is a region of Transylvania, situated within the territory of Romania. The population is largely composed of both ethnic Romanians and Hungarians, and the region has been part of Romania since 1918 . During World War II, as a consequence of the territorial agreement known as...
, occupied by Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy
Miklós Horthy de Nagybánya was the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary during the interwar years and throughout most of World War II, serving from 1 March 1920 to 15 October 1944. Horthy was styled "His Serene Highness the Regent of the Kingdom of Hungary" .Admiral Horthy was an officer of the...
's Hungary
Hungary during World War II
Hungary during World War II was a member of the Axis powers. In the 1930s, the Kingdom of Hungary relied on increased trade with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany to pull itself out of the Great Depression. By 1938, Hungarian politics and foreign policy had become increasingly pro-Fascist Italian and...
following the Second Vienna Award
Second Vienna Award
The Second Vienna Award was the second of two Vienna Awards arbitrated by the Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy. Rendered on August 30, 1940, it re-assigned the territory of Northern Transylvania from Romania to Hungary.-Prelude and historical background :After the World War I, the multi-ethnic...
. Despite the Romanian administration, the Romanian state did not formally incorporate Transnistria into its administrative framework; the Nazi-friendly Antonescu government hoped to annex the territory eventually, but developments on the Eastern Front
Eastern Front (World War II)
The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...
precluded it.
Romanian conquest of Transnistria
Until 26 July 1941, Romanian Army had pushed the Soviet Army out of BessarabiaBessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
, the territory of Romania occupied by the Soviet Union in June 1940. Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
wanted Romania as an ally in the war against the Soviet Union. However, Romania was complacent with recovering its own territory. To facilitate the persuasion of the then-dictator of Romania Ion Antonescu, Hitler ordered the German Army to advance into Ukraine from north to south, following a route east of the Southern Bug
Southern Bug
The Southern Bug, also called Southern Buh), is a river located in Ukraine. The source of the river is in the west of Ukraine, in the Volyn-Podillia Upland, about 145 km from the Polish border, and flows southeasterly into the Bug Estuary through the southern steppes...
river, in order to trap Soviet troops between Dniester
Dniester
The Dniester is a river in Eastern Europe. It runs through Ukraine and Moldova and separates most of Moldova's territory from the breakaway de facto state of Transnistria.-Names:...
and the Southern Bug. Antonescu was thus put in the face of a simple task for his army: conquer from the encircled and retreating Red Army troops a precisely delimited area. Antonescu ordered the Romanian Fourth Army
Romanian Fourth Army
The 4th Infantry Division Gemina is one of three major units of the Romanian Land Forces, with its headquarters in Cluj-Napoca. Until June 15, 2008 it was designated as the 4th Territorial Army Corps "Mareşal Constantin Prezan" .-Structure in April 2007 :This structure was in force when the...
to undertake this task.
During the first week of the advance, in mid-August 1941, Romanians took over all of the region, except for a small area around Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
without a fight. At the time, Romanians had 60,000 soldiers to conquer the city from its 30,000 defenders. However, the organization was so poor, and the command was so superficial, that the attack resulted in a military blunder. Exploiting this success, the Soviets stopped the evacuation of the city by sea and instead sent reinforcements, bolstering the strength of the Soviet forces up to 100,000. Romanians were forced to more-than-double their own numbers as well. Although occasionally on some small portions of front line, low and medium rank Romanian officers showed clear successes, the general organization of the siege was disastrous for the Romanians, and several generals were dismissed afterwards. Eventually, after 2 months of siege, the Romanian army took control of the city at the price of 92,000 casualties. Only in the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
were Romanian casualty figures higher, but then Romanians would face a numerically and technically superior enemy. Although the Soviets eventually left the city, the whole operation was a success for the Soviets, as they were able to block a larger enemy force with a smaller one, and inflict significant casualties on the attackers. This result was especially important, because the Soviet High Command initially ordered the city abandoned. At the end of the war, Odessa received the title of Hero city
Hero City
Hero City is a Soviet honorary title awarded for outstanding heroism during the German-Soviet War of 1941 to 1945. It was awarded to twelve cities of the Soviet Union. In addition the Brest Fortress was awarded an equivalent title of Hero-Fortress...
.
Once Romanian troops entered Odessa, they established headquarters of two of their divisions in the local NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
building. However, the building was mined by the Soviets, who blew it up, killing over 100 members of Romanian divisional headquarters, including almost 50 officers, paralyzing the activity of the two divisions for two weeks. In reprisal, Ion Antonescu ordered the arrest and massacre of civilians suspected of aiding the Red Army. When it became clear that identifying individuals directly responsible for the incident would be almost impossible, Antonescu ordered shooting of Jews. The massacre that followed resulted in 19,000 civilians killed, the majority of whom had nothing to do with the military action. A further number of Odessa Jews were deported to ghettos and concentration camps in the northern half of the region.
A partisan movement, with a strength of 300, was active in the Odessa catacombs
Odessa Catacombs
The Odessa Catacombs are an estimated 2,500 kilometres of labyrinths stretching out under the city and surrounding region of Odessa, Ukraine. The majority of the catacombs are the result of stone mining....
all throughout the occupation. It managed to organize an excellent communication with the partisan headquarters in Moscow. Antonescu was advised to use poisonous gas to clear the catacombs, but afraid of the public implications of such an act decided to abstain from it. Eventually, Romanians were able to inflict a high number of casualties on the partisans with the help of some partisans who switched sides and revealed the movement through the catacombs. Yet, the catacombs were never completely cleared, and the partisans maintained a continuous resistance movement until the return of the Red Army.
Status with respect to Romania proper
The Nazi-allied Antonescu government hoped to annex the territory eventually, but developments on the Eastern Front precluded it.
Romanian opposition parties were against Romanian operations beyond Bessarabia and Bukovina. Two preeminent political figures of the day, Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu
Iuliu Maniu was an Austro-Hungarian-born Romanian politician. A leader of the National Party of Transylvania and Banat before and after World War I, he served as Prime Minister of Romania for three terms during 1928–1933, and, with Ion Mihalache, co-founded the National Peasants'...
and Constantin Brătianu
Dinu Bratianu
Dinu Brătianu , born Constantin I. C. Brătianu, was a Romanian politician, who led the National Liberal Party starting with 1934.-Early career:...
declared that "the Romanian people will never consent to the continuation of the struggle beyond our national borders."
Administrative divisions
Judet
A județ is an administrative division in Romania, and was also used for some time in Moldova, before that country switched to raions.Județ translates into English as jurisdiction, but is commonly mistranslated as county .The territory of Romania is divided for administrative purposes into 41...
). Below these were subdivisions named Municipiul, Oraşul and Raionul.
Counties
- Ananiev (AnanivAnanivAnaniv is a town in Odessa Oblast, Ukraine. It stands on the Tiligul River. Population is 8,723 . The town belonged to MASSR from 1924 to 1940....
) - Balta (BaltaBalta, UkraineBalta is a small city in the Odessa Oblast of south-western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Baltsky Raion , and located approximately 200 kilometers from the oblast capital, Odessa...
) - Berezovca (Berezovka)
- DubăsariDubasariDubăsari is a city in Transnistria, with a population of 23,650. The city is under the administration of the breakaway government of the "Transnistrian Moldovan Republic", and functions as the seat of the Dubăsari sub-district, Transnistria, Moldova.-Name:The origin of the town name is the plural...
- Golta (Golta)
- Jugastru (Yampil)
- Movilău (Mohyliv-PodilskyiMohyliv-PodilskyiMohyliv-Podilskyi is a city in the Mohyliv-Podilskyi Raion of the Vinnytsia Oblast , Ukraine. It is located at , on the border with Bessarabia, Moldova.-History:The first mention of the town dates from 1595...
) - Oceacov (OchakivOchakivOchakiv is a city in the Mykolaiv Oblast of southern Ukraine. Serving as the administrative center of the Ochakivsky Raion , the city itself is also designated as a separate raion within the oblast, and is located on a peninsula in the Black Sea, at the entrance to the Dnieper Rivers's estuary,...
) - Odesa (OdessaOdessaOdessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
) - Ovidiopol (OvidiopolOvidiopolOvidiopol is a coastal town in Odessa Oblast, Ukraine. It is located at around .The town was named after Ovid, the Roman poet, based on the claim of Dimitrie Cantemir in his Descriptio Moldaviae that a local lake near Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi was named in Romanian Lacul Ovidului Ovidiopol is a...
) - RîbniţaRîbnitaRîbnița, also spelled Râbnița is a city in Moldova. The city is under the administration of the breakaway government of the Transnistria. According to the 2004 Census in Transnistria, it has a population of 53,648. Rîbniţa is situated in the northern half of Transnistria, on the left bank of the...
- TiraspolTiraspolTiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and is the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic . The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River...
- Tulcin (TulchynTulchynTulchin , Latin Tulcinum, ) is a small city in the Vinnytsya Oblast of western Ukraine, former Podolia. It is the administrative center of the Tulchynsky Raion , and was the chief centre of the Southern Society of the Decembrists, Pavel Pestel was located there during planning of the rebellion...
)
Raions and towns
- Judeţul Moghilău (Moghilău)
- Oraşul Moghilău
- Oraşul Şmerinca
- Raionul Balchi
- Raionul Copaigorod
- Raionul Crasnoe
- Raionul Iarişev
- Raionul Sargorod
- Raionul Şmerinca
- Raionul Stanislavcic
- Judeţul Tulcin (Tulcin)
- Oraşul Moghilău
- Raionul Şmerinca
- Raionul Braslav
- Raionul Spicov
- Raionul Trostineţ
- Raionul Tulcin
- Judeţul Jugastru (Iampol)
- Oraşul Iampol
- Raionul Cernovăţ
- Raionul Crijopol
- Raionul Iampol
- Raionul Tomaspol
- Judeţul Balta (Balta)
- Oraşul Balta
- Oraşul Berşad
- Raionul Balta
- Raionul Berşad
- Raionul Cicelnic
- Raionul Obadovca
- Raionul Olgopol
- Raionul Pesceana
- Raionul Savrani
- Judeţul Râbniţa (Râbniţa)
- Oraşul Bârzula
- Oraşul Râbniţa
- Raionul Bârzula
- Raionul Camenca
- Raionul Codâma
- Raionul Piesceanca
- Raionul Râbniţa
- Judeţul Golta (Golta)
- Oraşul Golta
- Raionul Crivoe-Oziero
- Raionul Domaniovca
- Raionul Golta
- Raionul Liubaşovca
- Raionul Vradievca
- Judeţul Ananiev (Ananiev)
- Oraşul Ananiev
- Raionul Ananiev
- Raionul Cernova
- Raionul Petroverovca
- Raionul Sfânta Troiţca
- Raionul Siraievo
- Raionul Valea Hoţului
- Judeţul Dubăsari (Dubăsari)
- Oraşul Dubăsari
- Oraşul Grigoriopol
- Raionul Ciorna
- Raionul Dubăsari
- Raionul Grigoriopol
- Raionul Ocna
- Raionul Zaharievca
- Judeţul Tiraspol (Tiraspol)
- Municipiul Tiraspol
- Raionul Grosulova
- Raionul Razdelnaia
- Raionul Selz
- Raionul Slobozia
- Raionul Tebricovo
- Raionul Tiraspol
- Judeţul Ovidiopol (Ovidiopol)
- Oraşul Ovidiopol
- Raionul Balaevca
- Raionul Franzfeld
- Raionul Ovidiopol
- Raionul Vigoda
- Judeţul Odessa (Odessa)
- Municipiul Odessa
- Raionul Antono-Codincevo
- Raionul Blagujevo
- Raionul Ianovca
- Raionul Odessa
- Judeţul Berezovca (Berezovca)
- Oraşul Berezovca
- Raionul Berezovca
- Raionul Landau
- Raionul Mostovoi
- Raionul Veselinovo
- Judeţul Oceacov (Oceacov)
- Oraşul Oceacov
- Raionul Crasna
- Raionul Oceacov
- Raionul Varvarovca
Population
In December 1941 Romanian authorities conducted a census in Transnistria, and ethnic structure was following:| Ethnicity | Number | % | Rural | Urban |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ukrainians Ukrainians Ukrainians are an East Slavic ethnic group native to Ukraine, which is the sixth-largest nation in Europe. The Constitution of Ukraine applies the term 'Ukrainians' to all its citizens... |
1,775,273 | 76.3 | 79.9 | 57.4 |
| Romanians Romanians The Romanians are an ethnic group native to Romania, who speak Romanian; they are the majority inhabitants of Romania.... |
197,685 | 8.4 | 9.3 | 4.4 |
| Russians | 150,842 | 6.5 | 2.4 | 27.9 |
| Germans Germans The Germans are a Germanic ethnic group native to Central Europe. The English term Germans has referred to the German-speaking population of the Holy Roman Empire since the Late Middle Ages.... |
126,464 | 5.4 | 5.9 | 2.7 |
| Bulgarians Bulgarians The Bulgarians are a South Slavic nation and ethnic group native to Bulgaria and neighbouring regions. Emigration has resulted in immigrant communities in a number of other countries.-History and ethnogenesis:... |
27,638 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.4 |
| Jews | 21,852 | 0.9 | 0.7 | 2.0 |
| Poles | 13,969 | 0.6 | 0.3 | 2.3 |
| Lipovens | 968 | - | - | 0.1 |
| Tatars | 900 | - | - | 0.1 |
| Others | 10,628 | 0.5 | 10.2 | 1.7 |
| Total | 2,326,224* | 100 | 1,956,557 | 369,669 |
Organization
The Romanian administration of Transnistria attempted to stabilise the situation in the region during the occupation. To this end, it opened all churches, previously closed down by the Soviets. In 1942-1943, 2,200 primary schools were organized in the region, including 1,677 Ukrainian, 311 Romanian, 150 Russian, 70 German and 6 Bulgarian. 117 middle and high schools were opened, including 65 middle schools, 29 technical high schools, and 23 academic high schools. Theaters were opened in Odessa and Tiraspol, as well as several museums, libraries, and cinemas throughout the region. On 7 December 1941, the University of Odessa was reopened with 6 faculties - medicine, polytechnical, law, sciences, languages and agricultural engineering.Romania (and the Transnistria Governorate) supplied the Nazi war effort
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
with oil, grain, and industrial products, but Germany was reluctant to pay for the deliveries either in goods or gold. As a result, inflation skyrocketed in all Romania, and even government officials began grumbling about German exploitation. In February 1943, however, the Red Army decimated Romania's forces in the great counteroffensive at Stalingrad, and the German and Romanian armies began their retreat westward. Allied bombardment slowed Romania's industries in 1943 and 1944 before Soviet occupation, and disrupted transportation flows and curtailed economic activity altogether in all Romania (beginning since early 1944 in Transnistria Governorate).
The Holocaust in Transnistria under Romanian occupation
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
and Bukovina
Bukovina
Bukovina is a historical region on the northern slopes of the northeastern Carpathian Mountains and the adjoining plains.-Name:The name Bukovina came into official use in 1775 with the region's annexation from the Principality of Moldavia to the possessions of the Habsburg Monarchy, which became...
. During the period 1941–1944, 200,000 Roma people and Jews became victims of the Romanian occupation of Transnistria. Not being Romanian territory, Transnistria was used as a killing field
Killing field
A killing field, in military science, is an area in front of a defensive position that the enemy must cross during an assault and is specifically intended to allow the defending troops to incapacitate a large number of the enemy. Defensive emplacements such as anti-tank obstacles, barbed wire and...
for the extermination of Jews. Survivors say that in comparison with the Holocaust
The Holocaust
The Holocaust , also known as the Shoah , was the genocide of approximately six million European Jews and millions of others during World War II, a programme of systematic state-sponsored murder by Nazi...
of Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany
Nazi Germany , also known as the Third Reich , but officially called German Reich from 1933 to 1943 and Greater German Reich from 26 June 1943 onward, is the name commonly used to refer to the state of Germany from 1933 to 1945, when it was a totalitarian dictatorship ruled by...
, where deportations were carefully planned, the Romanian government did not prepare to house thousands of people in Transnistria, where the deportees stayed. The people were instead placed in crude barracks without running water, electricity or latrines. Those who could not walk were simply left to die.
In Odessa, between 80,000 and 90,000 of the city's roughly 180,000 Jews remained at the time the Germans and Romanians captured the city on October 16, 1941. Six days later, a bomb exploded in the Romanian military headquarters in Odessa, prompting a massacre of Jews; many were burned alive. In October and November 1941 alone, Romanian troops in Odessa killed about 30,000 Jews. Transnistria was the site of two concentration camps and several de facto ghettos (which the Romanian wartime government referred to as "colonies"). In addition, most of the remaining Jews in Bessarabia (84,000 of 105,000) and northern Bukovina (36,000 of 60,000) were herded into these as well. The Holocaust Encyclopedia (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum is the United States' official memorial to the Holocaust. Adjacent to the National Mall in Washington, D.C., the USHMM provides for the documentation, study, and interpretation of Holocaust history...
) writes that "Among the most notorious of these ghettos… was Bogdanovka
Bogdanovka
Bogdanovka was a concentration camp for Jews that was established by the Romanian authorities during World War II as part of the Holocaust.- Location :...
, on the west bank of the Bug River… In December 1941, Romanian troops, together with Ukrainian auxiliaries, massacred almost all the Jews in Bogdanovka; shootings continued for more than a week." Similar events occurred at the Domanevka and Akhmetchetkha camps, and (quoting the same source) "typhus
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
-devastated Jews were crowded into the 'colony' in Mohyliv-Podilskyi
Mohyliv-Podilskyi
Mohyliv-Podilskyi is a city in the Mohyliv-Podilskyi Raion of the Vinnytsia Oblast , Ukraine. It is located at , on the border with Bessarabia, Moldova.-History:The first mention of the town dates from 1595...
." Other camps, also with very high death rates, were at Pechora and Vapniarka
Vapniarka
Vapniarka , also known as Vapniarca, Vapnyarka, Wapnjarka or Wapniarka, is a town in Vinnytsia Oblast, Ukraine, known since 1870 as a railroad station. Its name from the Ukrainian language translates as a lime settlement...
, the latter reserved for Jewish political prisoners deported from Romania proper. Many Jews died of exposure, starvation, or disease during the deportations to Transnistria or after arrival. Others were murdered by Romanian or German units, either in Transnistria or after being driven across the Bug River into the German-occupied Ukraine. Most of the Jews who were sent to the camps in Transnistria never returned. Those who survived, around 70,000, returned to Romania in 1945 to find that they had lost their houses.
Even for the general population, food in Transnistria was very scarce, through lack of Romanian planning. According to one survivor's account, people would gather outside a slaughterhouse and wait for scraps of meat, skin and bones to be thrown out of the slaughterhouse after the cleaning each morning. He remembers that they were fighting for the bones "just like dogs would" and that people were starving to death. Among the survivors were Liviu Librescu
Liviu Librescu
Liviu Librescu was a Romanian-Israeli-American scientist and academic professor whose major research fields were aeroelasticity and aerodynamics...
and Norman Manea
Norman Manea
Norman Manea is a Jewish Romanian writer and author of short fiction, novels, and essays about the Holocaust, daily life in a communist state, and exile. He is a Francis Flournoy Professor of European Culture and writer in residence at Bard College...
.
Position of Antonescu government
Antonescu, in a government meeting showed intentions to deport all Jews behind the Ural MountainsUral Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
if it would be possible: "I have about 10,000 Jews left in Bessarabia, who in a few days will be taken across the Dniester, and if circumstances will allow, they will be taken beyond the Urals".
End of Transnistria Governorate
By early 1944, the Romanian economy was in tatters because of the expenses of the war, and destructive Allied air bombing throughout RomaniaBombing of Romania in World War II
The bombing of Romania in World War II comprised two series of events: until August 1944, Allied operations, and, following the overthrow of Ion Antonescu's Fascist dictatorship, operations by Nazi Germany....
, including the capital, Bucharest
Bombing of Bucharest in World War II
The Bucharest World War II bombings were primarily Allied bombings of railroad targets and those of the Oil Campaign of World War II, but included a bombing by Nazi Germany after the royal coup. Bucharest stored and distributed much of Ploiești's refined oil products....
. In addition, most of the products sent to Germany were provided without monetary compensation. As a result of these "uncompensated exports", inflation
Inflation
In economics, inflation is a rise in the general level of prices of goods and services in an economy over a period of time.When the general price level rises, each unit of currency buys fewer goods and services. Consequently, inflation also reflects an erosion in the purchasing power of money – a...
in Romania skyrocketed, causing widespread discontent among the Romanian population, even among groups and individuals who had once enthusiastically supported the Germans and the war.
Transnistria was relatively spared by these air bombings, but soon the Red Army (always victorious after the Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of Stalingrad
The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle of World War II in which Nazi Germany and its allies fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in southwestern Russia. The battle took place between 23 August 1942 and 2 February 1943...
) destroyed all the Romanian presence in the region. During the Uman–Botoşani Offensive
Uman–Botosani Offensive
The Uman–Botoşani Offensive or Uman-Botoshany Offensive was a part of the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive, carried out by the Red Army in western Ukrainian SSR against the German Army Group South...
the Soviet troops crossed the higher Bug river on March 11 and in twenty days more the Transnistria Governorate "disappeared". By the end of March 1944 there were no more Axis troops east of the Dniester river, save for the encircled capital Odessa
Odessa
Odessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
. Meanwhile the replacement of Governor Alexianu has happened on February 1, 1944, by the military governor, Lt General Potopeanu (formerly Romanian Economy Minister). The name Transnistria dropped out of use, and the authorities were increasingly referred to as Military Government between Dniester and Bug.
On March 28, the Red Army took Nikolaev and the next day crossed the lower Bug river in force. On April 5, Razdelnaia fell, and therewith the Odessa-Tiraspol highway was cut. On the 19th, after a brief but bitter fight, the Red Army re-entered Odessa. On the April 12, Tiraspol
Tiraspol
Tiraspol is the second largest city in Moldova and is the capital and administrative centre of the unrecognized Pridnestrovian Moldavian Republic . The city is located on the eastern bank of the Dniester River...
was occupied, and four days later all Transnistria was again in Soviet hands.
During the final days, the Germans concentrated on destruction in Odessa, since evacuation was impossible. Port installations, some industrial facilities, and transportation junctions were blown up (even the electric power plant, various mills, stores of bread, sugar, and other foods were destroyed). Of Odessa’s population, scarcely 200,000 remained; many had hidden in the vicinity while some had sought safety in the countryside. And some had left westward with the Romanians and Germans: only those most compromised had left; the bulk of the residents had stayed in the region. People feared Soviet repressions, but "there was no other way out", according to German sources.
Reduction of the Transnistria neo-Latin population
Actually east of the Dniester there are only 237,785 romance-speaking residentsMoldovans
Moldovans or Moldavians are the largest population group of Moldova...
left, a small percentage of the overall population of the region. Most of them in the actual Transnistria break-away republic. But historically they were the majority: according to the results of the Russian census (quoted in Romanian sources) of 1793 AD, 49 villages out of 67 between the Dniester and the Bug
Bug River
The Bug River is a left tributary of the Narew river flows from central Ukraine to the west, passing along the Ukraine-Polish and Polish-Belarusian border and into Poland, where it empties into the Narew river near Serock. The part between the lake and the Vistula River is sometimes referred to as...
were Romanian.
And furter east of the Transnistria Governorate there were many neo-latin communities: indeed the Romanians/Moldavians in Ukraine -east of the Bug river- were calculated by a German census to be nearly 780.000 (probably an excessive number), and were made plans to move them to Transnistria in 1942/43. But nothing was done.
Probably there were only about 100,000 Romanians/Moldavians in the German occupied Ukraine -called Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine
Reichskommissariat Ukraine , literally "Reich Commissariat of Ukraine", was the civilian occupation regime of much of German-occupied Ukraine during World War II. Between September 1941 and March 1944, the Reichskommissariat was administered by Reichskommissar Erich Koch as a colony...
- and nearly all of them "disappeared" (because killed, escaped to Romania or deported to Siberia/Caucasus by Joseph Stalin
Joseph Stalin
Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was the Premier of the Soviet Union from 6 May 1941 to 5 March 1953. He was among the Bolshevik revolutionaries who brought about the October Revolution and had held the position of first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union's Central Committee...
), when the Soviets reconquered the area in early 1944.
If we add those 100,000 probably living east of the Bug river to the 197,000 registered by the 1941 census inside the Transilvania Governorate, we get a total of nearly 300,000 Romania/moldavian speaking population. That means that since 1944 there has been a huge reduction of the romance-speaking population living east of the Dniester.
Indeed when the Soviet Union regained the area in spring 1944, and the Soviet Army
Red Army
The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
advanced into the territory driving out the Axis
Axis Powers
The Axis powers , also known as the Axis alliance, Axis nations, Axis countries, or just the Axis, was an alignment of great powers during the mid-20th century that fought World War II against the Allies. It began in 1936 with treaties of friendship between Germany and Italy and between Germany and...
forces, many thousands of Romanians/Vlachs of Transnistria were killed in those months and deported to gulags in the following years. So, a political campaign was directed towards the rich Moldavian peasant families, which were deported to Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan , officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a transcontinental country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. Ranked as the ninth largest country in the world, it is also the world's largest landlocked country; its territory of is greater than Western Europe...
and Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
as well. For instance, in just two days, July 6 and July 7, 1949, over 11,342 Moldavian families (more than 40,000 inhabitants of Ukraine Oblasts) were deported by the order of the Minister of State Security, I. L. Mordovets, under a plan named "Operation South".
The Census statistics for romance speaking population in territories east of the Dniester river are the following:
- 1941 : 300.000 (197,685 inside Transnistria Governorate + 100,000 in German occupied Ukraine)
- 2001 : 237,785 (177,785 living in actual Republic of Transnistria + 60,000 living in Odessa Oblast)
External links
- Rumania in World War II, 1939-1945, World History at KMLA. Accessed 11 Nov 2007. I. Altman Глава 3 Гетто и Лагеря на Территории СССР ("Chapter 3: Ghettoes and Camps on the territory of the USSR") in "Холокост и Еврейское Сопротивление на Оккупированной Территории СССР" ("Holocaust and Jewish Resistance in the Occupied Territory of the USSR"). TOC. Originally on history.pedclub.ru/shoa; archived on the Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
21 October 2004; page is encoded in Win-1251. - Romania, Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Accessed online 19 December 2006
- Alexander Dallin - Odessa, 1941-1944: A Case Study of Soviet Territory Under Foreign Rule
- Map
- Igor Niculcea, Rumynskii okkupatsionnyi rezhim v Transnistrii [Romanian occupation of Transnistria], in Записки Iсторичного Факультету, Odessa, Ukraine, 1997, p. 182-187.
- Igor Casu, Istoriografia şi chestiunea Holocaustului: cazul Republicii Moldova [Historiography and the question of Holocaust: The case of Republic of Moldova] (in Romanian) in Contrafort, Chisinau, 11-12, 2006 and 1, 2007 (www.contrafort.md)
- Diana Dumitru, The Use and Abuse of the Holocaust: Historiography and Politics in Moldova, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 2008 22(1):49-73.
- Vladimir Solonari, "Patterns of Violence: Local Population and the Mass Murder of Jews in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, July–August 1941," in Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 8 (4: 2007), 749-787.
- Vladimir Solonari,"'Model Province': Explaining the Holocaust of Bessarabian and Bukovinian Jewry," Nationalities Papers, Vol. 34, No. 4, September 2006, pp. 471–500.
See also
- History of TransnistriaHistory of TransnistriaThis is the history of Transnistria.See also the history of Europe.-Antiquity:In ancient times, the area was inhabited by Thracian and Scythian tribes...
- History of Romania
- Siege of Odessa (1941)
- Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive
- Romania in World War II
- Demographic history of TransnistriaDemographic history of TransnistriaA demographic history of Transnistria shows that actual Transnistria has been home to numerous ethnic groups, in varying proportions, over time. Until the early 19th century, it was sparsely populated...