Isacova | Orhei

/ Trofim C., born in 1931: “When I heard that the Jews were shot in a local Jewish house, I want there after the execution to look.” © Victoria Bahr - Yahad-In Unum Trofim C., born in 1931: "There were dead bodies of Jews all around the house: in the basement, on the first floor.They were buried in the courtyard of that same house. I don’t know who buried them.” © Victoria Bahr - Yahad-In Unum Courtyard where Jews shot inside of the local house were buried after the killing. There is no memorial on the site. © Victoria Bahr - Yahad-In Unum A ravine at the outskirts of the village; mass grave of about sixty Jewish victims from Isacova killed by Romanian soldiers in July 1941. The site is mentioned in the JewishGen publication “Jewish heritage sites and monuments in Moldova” ©JewishGen The Jewish cemetery in Orhei where the bodies of the victims shot in Isacova were buried after their exhumation in 1944. It contains monuments to Jewish soldiers and Holocaust victims© Markel Redondo - Yahad-In Unum The Jewish cemetery in Orhei. The cemetery is approximately 400,000 square meters and it is surrounded by a broken fence with a gate.© Markel Redondo- Yahad-In Unum

Execution of Jews in Isacova

1 Killing site(s)

Kind of place before:
Courtyard of a local house
Memorials:
No
Period of occupation:
1941-1944
Number of victims:
60

Witness interview

Trofim C., born in 1931: “About twelve Jewish families lived in Isacova before the war. The Jews were mainly traders, almost every family owned a store. Their shops and houses were located in the center of the village. I remember my Jewish neighbors: Hanna, Fiega and Moishe. Moishe had a store, but he was also a farmer. He had his own piece of land and some livestock. When the occupation started, the Germans and Romanians arrived in Isacova, while the town of Orhei was still occupied by Russians. The local Jews were afraid of the German and Romanian soldiers. About a week after their arrival, they started to massacre the Jews (…)” (Witness N°193M, interviewed in Isacova, on November 25, 2014]

Historical note

Isacova is an old village in Orhei County, located 50km north of Chisinau. According to the locals, the village was a Jewish agricultural colony. Before the outbreak of the WWII, the village was mostly inhabited by Moldovans. According to local testimonies, there were also about twelve Jewish families living in Isacova (about sixty people) as well as about ten sedentary Roma families. The Jews from the village were mainly traders. They occupied the center of the village, where they owned many shops. Trofim C, born in 1931, remembers that Jewish children would go to the same school as Moldovan children. There was no synagogue in the village. The Jews from Isacova most probably went to one of the synagogues in Orhei, located about 13km from Isacova. The synagogues in Orhei, already in the early 1900’s, served over 7.000 Jews living in the city (668 Jews) and surrounding area. In Orhei, there was also a Jewish cemetery, a very important place for the Jewish community of the district. The first burials probably occurred in the first half of the 18th century, making it one of the oldest Jewish cemeteries in the area.

Holocaust by bullets in figures

Romanian and German soldiers arrived in Isacova in July, 1941. About a week after their arrival in the village, they started to massacre the Jews. About sixty Jewish inhabitants were forced to dig a large pit at the edge of the village by the occupiers, where they were duly executed. According to Trofim C., born in 1931, some of the Jews, trying to avoid the killing, had hidden in one of the houses that belonged to “the oldest Jewish man from the village”. The perpetrators found them and shot them on the spot. Among the victims, there were men, women and children. The bodies of the Jews were buried in the courtyard of the house after the shooting. In 1944, when the Russians arrived, the bodies of Jewish victims from Isacova were exhumed from both mass graves and reburied at the Jewish cemetery in Orhei. Today, both execution sites remain without any memorial.

 

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