Bender (also called Tighina, Russian: Bendery) is the fourth-largest city in Moldova. Located on the west bank of the river Dniester, it is part of the mostly Russian-speaking breakaway region of »Transnistria« established in 1992. Since 2003, a memorial has been dedicated to the Jews from Bender who perished during the Holocaust.
The city of Bender, previously mostly known as Tighina, lies in the historic region of Bessarabia on the west bank of the river Dniester. In June 1940, Soviet troops occupied Bessarabia (which had been part of Romania since 1918) as agreed in the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. At the time, there were about 8,200 Jews residing in Bender, comprising approximately a third of the overall population. The Soviet authorities deported wealthy Jews and leaders of the Jewish community - considered »public enemies« - to Siberia.
When German and Romanian troops invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and advanced towards Bender, only few of the remaining Jews managed to flee to the Soviet Union. The city was taken at the beginning of August 1941, after which SS Sonderkommando 11b (mobile killing unit) under command of Bruno Müller took up quarters in Bender. Members of the Sonderkommando immediately began chasing down Jews and locking them in a school building. That same week, members of Sonderkommando 11b shot about 155 of the Jews they had captured, including women and children. The Sonderkommando then moved on to Odessa. On August 30, 1941, German Wehrmacht general Arthur Hauffe and Romanian general Nicolae Tătăranu signed the so-called Treaty of Tighina, granting Romania sole control of a part of occupied Ukraine east of Bessarabia - the region of »Transnistria«. (This former occupation zone situated between the rivers Dniester and Bug, which included the port city of Odessa, shares only its name with today's breakaway region.) The treaty also dealt with the fate of the Jews: Romanian authorities were to concentrate all Jews from Bukovina and Bessarabia in ghettos and camps in Transnistria and deploy them in forced labour until their further deportation to the east into German hands.
When German and Romanian troops invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941 and advanced towards Bender, only few of the remaining Jews managed to flee to the Soviet Union. The city was taken at the beginning of August 1941, after which SS Sonderkommando 11b (mobile killing unit) under command of Bruno Müller took up quarters in Bender. Members of the Sonderkommando immediately began chasing down Jews and locking them in a school building. That same week, members of Sonderkommando 11b shot about 155 of the Jews they had captured, including women and children. The Sonderkommando then moved on to Odessa. On August 30, 1941, German Wehrmacht general Arthur Hauffe and Romanian general Nicolae Tătăranu signed the so-called Treaty of Tighina, granting Romania sole control of a part of occupied Ukraine east of Bessarabia - the region of »Transnistria«. (This former occupation zone situated between the rivers Dniester and Bug, which included the port city of Odessa, shares only its name with today's breakaway region.) The treaty also dealt with the fate of the Jews: Romanian authorities were to concentrate all Jews from Bukovina and Bessarabia in ghettos and camps in Transnistria and deploy them in forced labour until their further deportation to the east into German hands.
Sonderkommando 11b murdered about 155 Jewish men, women and children. The further fate of the Jewish community in Bender remains unknown.
In 2003, the Jewish community of Bender erected a memorial to the victims of the Holocaust. It is located on the promenade along the banks of the river Dniester. The Russian inscription reads: »Not all victims of Nazism were Jews, but all Jews were victims of Nazism...«. Adjacent to the monument, the inscription on a memorial stone reads: »In the memory of the shot and tortured inhabitants of Bender of Jewish nationality who did not live until the day of victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945«.
A memorial plaque affixed on the historic fort and a monument on the Jewish cemetery further commemorate the Jews of Bender who were shot in the summer and fall of 1941.
A memorial plaque affixed on the historic fort and a monument on the Jewish cemetery further commemorate the Jews of Bender who were shot in the summer and fall of 1941.
- Name
- Monumentul Victimelor Holocaustului
- Open
- Accessible at all times.