Limbenii Noi | Glodeni

/ Father Patrick Desbois with YIU’s team in Limbenii Noi, during the interview with Ivan B., born in 1929. © Markel Redondo - Yahad-In Unum Ion I., born in 1924: “The villagers went to barter with the Jews in the camp. People brought them food in exchange for clothes. The guards said nothing because the Jews were starving.” © Markel Redondo - Yahad-In Unum Paraskovia L., born in 1928: “Moldovans could ask the village mayor to employ prisoners fit to work to exploit them in their fields. They would pay them with food for their work.” © Kate Kornberg - Yahad-In Unum Lena B.: “One day, a Jewish woman from the camp came to our house. Her clothes were completely torn at the chest, she had scratches on her body. I think she had been raped.” © Markel Redondo - Yahad-In Unum Vasile C., born in 1927: "When the Jews died in the camp, Limbenii Noi residents were requisitioned to dig pits near the river and to transport the cadavers on their carts with ten-fifteen bodies on each to bury them." © Kate Kornberg - Yahad-In Unum Milia C., born in 1927:“All the Jews I knew perished in that camp. Once they were taken from the village, their shops and properties were looted by locals. The gendarmes told people that they could take whatever they wanted.” © Kate Kornberg - Yahad-In Un Vasile L., born 1921, was ordered to guard the transit camp in Limbenii Noi. Thousands of Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina came through the camp. Among the prisoners Vasile recognized his father’s friend, Iancu Vasserman. ©Emma Foussat/Yahad-In Unum Mass grave of Jewish victims that perished in the camp at Limbenii Noi during the German-Romanian occupation. There is no memorial at the location. © Markel Redondo - Yahad-In Unum Second mass grave of Jewish victims that perished in the camp of Limbenii Noi during the German-Romanian occupation. There is no memorial at the location. © Markel Redondo - Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jews of Limbenii Noi

2 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Field (1,2)
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1941-1944

Witness interview

Ivan B., born in 1929: “A camp for the Jews was created in the village during the occupation. I saw the Jews being brought to the camp in columns several times, they would pass through the village. They were brought here for many days, from all directions, mainly on foot. The elderly, women, and children were driven on carts. They all had hand luggage with them. They were brought to a field where they were kept in the open air. They were guarded by Romanian gendarmes. People from the village could take Jews from the camp to work in their houses. They would give them food in exchange. The Jews stayed in the camp for about two to three months. Once all the Jews from the region were assembled, they were taken elsewhere, in the direction of the Dniester.” (Witness N°46Mo, interviewed in Limbenii Noi on November 29, 2012)

Soviet archives

“In July 1941, the Romanian authorities created a camp for the Jews in Limbenii Noï. Jews from other districts were brought to this camp. 7,000 Jews (men, women, children and the elderly) lived in this camp. They were starving and had nothing to drink for 5 or 6 days. When they were taken to a well in order to drink, they were beaten and humiliated. Furthermore, Jewish girls were raped during the night.” [RG22.022M:7021-96/101]

Historical note

Limbenii Noi is a village in Glodeni District located in north-west of Moldova. We don’t know much about the Jewish community from Limbenii Noi but thanks to the testimonies of YIU’s witnesses we’ve managed to ascertain that there were several Jewish families living in the village. They were merchants. They owned stores in which they sold food, clothes and cooking tools.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

During the German-Romanian occupation, a transit camp for Jews was established in Limbenii Noi on the territory of a former kolkhoz. According to the Chisinau Gendarme Inspectorate report, the number of detainees was 3,000 on August 19, 1941. In September there were 2,634 Jews in the camp. Jews were brought to the camp from different localities, such as Fălești (1,500 persons), Sculeni, Balatina and many other surrounding towns and villages before being deported to Transnistria. Ivan B., born in 1929, remembers seeing several convoys of Jews being escorted to the camp through the village. Men, women, and children were brought to the camp on foot and with carts for several days from different directions. The camp was fenced with wire and walled with clay stone. It was guarded by Romanian gendarmes. In the camp, the Jews were kept in lamentable conditions. Some were put in the few cattle barns but most of them slept on the bare earth in the open air. Young girls were systematically raped. Daily, about fifteen to twenty people died in the camp because of the harsh living conditions, different diseases, and hunger. The sick were loaded onto carts and shot in a nearby wood. In total, about 800 Jews perished in the Limbenii Noi camp. After a few months, 2,654 Jews (877 men, 908 women and 869 children) from Limbenii Noi camp were deported to Mărculeşti camp (Fălești District). Dozens of them died on the way.

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