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1 Execution site(s)
Cira E., born in 1931: "Before the war In Burlăneşti, there were five or six Jewish families. I remember Mikhail, Astra, Rufle, Schlomo, Micha, Chapcha and Avrom, as well as Astra and Ruhla who lived on the other side of the village. There was also Tzupa who was a local doctor. When the Romanian gendarmes arrived, they assembled all the Jews in a local house. They would go from house to house arresting all the Jews. I remember them taking my Jewish neighbors with their seven children. They wanted to arrest me too because they thought I was Jewish.” (Witness N°84, interviewed in Zăbriceni, on May 13, 2013)
Burlăneşti is a village in Edineț District in northern Moldova. Before the outbreak of WWII, the village was mainly inhabited by Moldovans (1,225 inhabitants) and several Jewish families (2% of the total village population.) YIU’s witness Cira E., born in 1931, remembers almost all the Jewish inhabitants of Burlăneşti. They were mainly merchants and would sell all sorts of items in their little shops. She also remembers Tzupa who was a local doctor. According to Ciara, the Jewish community didn’t have a synagogue in Burlăneşti. They would use the local orthodox church to pray in on Saturdays.
The Romanian soldiers arrived in Burlăneşti in July 1941. On their arrival, they arrested about thirteen to fifteen Jews from five local families and assembled them in one of the local houses where they were guarded by Romanian soldiers. After some time, the group of Jews was brought to the nearby forest located on the outskirts of the village. All the Jews were shot, most likely on July 10, 1941. After the execution, the Jewish shops and houses were looted by local peasants. After the war, the victims’ bodies were exhumed and reburied in the Jewish cemetery in Edineț.
Today, there is a memorial to the Jews of Burlăneşti commemorating the execution site. However, according to Cira E., born in 1931, the memorial was erected about 100m from the actual mass grave.
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