Several monuments on the Jewish cemetery in the Moldovan town of Orhei commemorate the Orhei Jews who perished during the Holocaust.
The small town of Orhei (Russian: Orgeyev) lies in the historical region of Bessarabia in what is today Moldova, about 50 kilometres north of the capital Chişinău. Jews had lived in Orhei since the 16th century and the community quickly grew. In 1930, there were about 6,300 Jews living in Orhei, just under half of the total population. In 1940, Bessarabia - which had since 1918 been part of Romania - was occupied by the Soviet Union, including Orhei. Many leaders of the Jewish community were deported to Siberia by the Soviet authorities.
At the beginning of July 1941, following the invasion of the Soviet Union, German and Romanian troops occupied Orhei. The Romanian authorities immediately gathered the Jews at several sites: in a school, a synagogue, a residential house, and at a police station. A total of over a thousand Jews was held captive. On July 21, Romanian constabulary brought the 200 Jews who had been held at the synagogue to the village of Siliştea where they were shot. Later, Romanian units shot at least 500 more Jews from Orhei. Those who were exempt from the shootings were later crowded into a ghetto and eventually deported to Transnistria.
At the beginning of July 1941, following the invasion of the Soviet Union, German and Romanian troops occupied Orhei. The Romanian authorities immediately gathered the Jews at several sites: in a school, a synagogue, a residential house, and at a police station. A total of over a thousand Jews was held captive. On July 21, Romanian constabulary brought the 200 Jews who had been held at the synagogue to the village of Siliştea where they were shot. Later, Romanian units shot at least 500 more Jews from Orhei. Those who were exempt from the shootings were later crowded into a ghetto and eventually deported to Transnistria.
At least 700 Jews from Orhei were shot on site by Romanian units. The remaining Jews were forced into a ghetto from autumn 1941 on and were later deported to Transnistria, where they too had to live in ghettos and conduct forced labour. The exact number of victims is not known.
There are several Holocaust monuments and memorial stones on the Jewish cemetery of Orhei. The main memorial bears the names of over one hundred Jewish victims from Orhei.
- Name
- Monumentul Victimelor Fascismului din Cimitirul Evreilor
- Address
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str. Unirii
3505 Orhei