1 Execution site(s)
Serafima K., born in 1933, remembers: “One day, it was at the beginning of the war, I was walking not far away from the railway station. At that moment I saw a train full of people. It was going in the direction of Moldova, but it made a stop in Mamalyha for a couple of hours. There were only cattle wagons and as far as I could see from about 2km there were plenty of people inside of them. I could see them through the small windows. There were men, women and children. They were screaming and begging for food and water. We could not do anything. We could not even come close to the place because it was guarded by the Germans. I did not understand what was happening but afterwards I was told that those people were Jews. “(Testimony n°1897, interviewed in Mamalyha, on June 28th, 2015)
Mamalyga is located 60 km east of Chernivtsi, on the border with Moldova. In the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century, Mamalyha was a part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. In 1918, the village fell under the control of Romania. Back then the majority of the population was Romanians and Moldavans. There were a small percentage of Jews. The majority of them lived off small trade and shops. In 1940 Romania ceded the northern part of Bukovyna to the USSR.
The village was occupied by Romanian troops on July 5th, 1941. The anti-Jewish measures were implemented straight after the occupation. The local Jews were rounded-up and taken by cart to the nearby village of Kuchulyany where they were most likely shot. During the field research trip, Yahad identified an execution site of about 8 non-local Jews who were shot in the village. There were three women and five men among the victims. According to the witness they were murdered by Germans in dark uniforms in spring 1942. During the field research trip we found out that the village was an important transit point, as the deported Jews were taken by train or by cart by the village to be deported to the camps located on the Moldovan territories.
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