Țepilova (Tepilova) | Soroca

/ Zinaïda L., born in 1932: “There was only one Jewish family in Țepilova before the war, but they managed to escape before Romanian troops arrived in the village.”© Victoria Bahr - Yahad-In Unum Zinaida L., born in 1932: “Columns of Jews would pass through Țepilova during the occupation. They were guarded by Romanian gendarmes on horses.”© Victoria Bahr - Yahad-In Unum Zinaida L., born in 1932: The column I saw came from the direction of Cosăuți. There were hundreds of men, women, and children in it. Exhausted or sick people were thrown into a mass grave and buried alive.” © Victoria Bahr - Yahad-In Unum At the side of this road in Țepilova, exhausted Jews from a column were buried alive in a mass grave. © Victoria Bahr - Yahad-In Unum Zinaida L., born in 1932 showed YIU’s team the mass grave of an unknown number of Jews from the column buried alive by requisitioned premilitaries from Țepilova and nearby villages. The site has no memorial. © Victoria Bahr - Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jews in Țepilova

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Field
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims:
At least 4

Witness interview

Zinaida L., born in 1932: “Several columns of Jews passed through the village during the occupation. I saw one of them. It was guarded by gendarmes on horses. There were very many Jews in it. There were men, women, and children. Some carried bundles with them. They were hungry and thirsty so they would try to drink water from the nearby stream but when a gendarme saw them, they were severely beaten, and they had to rejoin the column. Local people would throw them food. Carts were requisitioned for those who were too weak to walk. But those carts would stop at the outskirts of the village where a huge pit had been dug by local premilitaries. From those carts, Jews were directly thrown into the pit. They were still alive; they were screaming but they were buried anyway (…)” (Witness N°112, interviewed in Rublenita, on May 21, 2013)

Historical note

Țepilova is a small village in Soroca District in northern Moldova. It is located about 6km from Soroca. Soroca was home to one of the oldest and largest Jewish communities in Bessarabia. In 1930, 36% of Soroca’s total population was Jewish. According to YIU’s witness Zinaida L., born in 1932, there was only one Jewish family living in Țepilova before the war. The family owned the only shop in the village. There was no synagogue or cemetery in the village

Holocaust by bullets in figures

According to YIU’s witness Zinaida L., born in 1932, the one Jewish family from Țepilova managed to leave the village before the arrival of Romanian troops. Its fate remains unknown. During the occupation, several columns of Jews passed through Țepilova. Zinaida recalls one column came from the direction of Cosăuți. It was escorted by Romanian gendarmes on horses. There were hundreds of people in the column: women, men, and children. They carried some bundles with them. Those who were unable to walk were loaded on carts driven by requisitioned premilitaries from Țepilova and surrounding areas. At the outskirts of the village, near the main road, a large pit had been dug by the requisitioned premilitaries. Exhausted people from the carts were thrown into the pit and buried alive by the premilitaries, while the column advanced. The bodies of the victims remain in that mass grave till today. There is no memorial at the site.

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