• Holocaust Memorial at the Jewish Cemetery
A memorial at the Jewish cemetery in Rădăuţi (German: Radautz, Hungarian: Radóc), located in southern Bukovina in the north-east of Romania, honours the Jews from Rădăuţi who were deported to ghettos and labour camps in Transnistria in October 1941.
Image: Rădăuţi, undated, Pre-war postcard depicting the synagogue, Privatsammlung Peter Elbau
Rădăuţi, undated, Pre-war postcard depicting the synagogue, Privatsammlung Peter Elbau

Image: Rădăuţi, 2006, Rădăuţi Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Rădăuţi, 2006, Rădăuţi Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Rădăuţi is situated in the historic region of Bukovina, an area which had until the First World War been part of the Austro-Hungarian empire and subsequently came under Romanian rule. Jews had been living in Rădăuţi since the end of the 18th century. In 1930, there were about 5,600 Jews living in the town, constituting just over a third of the population of Rădăuţi. In the summer of 1941, Romania joined forces with the German Reich and took part in the invasion of the Soviet Union. Anti-Semitic attacks had already previously taken place in Rădăuţi and other towns in Bukovina. In the autumn of 1941, Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu ordered the deportation of all Jews from Bukovina to Transnistria. This region, east of the river Dniestr in southern Ukraine, had been under Romanian occupation since 1941; SS Einsatzgruppe D (SS mobile killing squad) had already shot most of the 130,000 Jews living there in the summer of 1941. Between October 12 and 14, 1941, Romanian authorities deported at least 8,000 Jews from Rădăuţi and surrounding areas to labour camps and ghettos in Transnistria. From 1944 on, when the Red Army was approaching, the Jews who had been deported to Transnistria could return to Bukovina. Most of the Jews from Rădăuţi returned to their home town and settled there once again.
Image: Rădăuţi, undated, Pre-war postcard depicting the synagogue, Privatsammlung Peter Elbau
Rădăuţi, undated, Pre-war postcard depicting the synagogue, Privatsammlung Peter Elbau

Image: Rădăuţi, 2006, Rădăuţi Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Rădăuţi, 2006, Rădăuţi Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
At least 8,000 Jews from Rădăuţi and vicinity were deported to Transnistria in 1941. They had to conduct forced labour and living in atrocious conditions. How many Jews from Rădăuţi perished in Transnistria is not known.
Image: Rădăuţi, 2006, At the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Rădăuţi, 2006, At the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold

Image: Rădăuţi, 2006, Synagogue, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Rădăuţi, 2006, Synagogue, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
After the end of the Second World War, a large Jewish community came together again in Rădăuţi. In 1947, there were about 6,000 Jews living there, including many refugees from northern Bukovina, which had become part of the Soviet Union after the war. In the following years, many Jews emigrated to Israel. By 1962, the Jewish community had shrunk to only about 800 members; in 2002, it consisted of 62 members.
A monument at the Jewish cemetery in Rădăuţi commemorate the victims of the Holocaust. An inscription on the tombstone explains that soap has been buried on this site, having been produced »in the German camps out of the martyrs' fat«. Already during the Holocaust a rumour spread concerning the mass production of soap from the corpses of murdered Jews. The acronym »R.I.F.« (Reichsstelle für Industrielle Fettversorgung, Reich Centre for Industrial Fat Provisioning) was believed to stand for »Reines Jüdisches Fett« (»Pure Jewish fat«). This myth lived on after the war and was exploited for propaganda purposes by the Soviet Union, even though there was no evidence for an industrial-scale production of soap made from human fat. Yet this belief prompted many survivors to bury pieces of soap, including in Rădăuţi, and set up tombstones referring to the supposed origin of »R.I.F.« soap.
Image: Rădăuţi, 2006, Holocaust memorial at the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Rădăuţi, 2006, Holocaust memorial at the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold

Image: Rădăuţi, 2006, Inscription on the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Rădăuţi, 2006, Inscription on the memorial, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold
Name
Monumentul Victimelor Holocaustului
Address
Strada Ștefan cel Mare
725400 Rădăuţi