Dorohoi

Dorohoi is a town in northern Moldova in Romania on the border with Bukovina. In 1930, there were 5,820 Jews. In WWII, Jews in Dorohoi suffered more than Jews in "old Romania (within the pre-1918 borders), because of Dorohoi's proximity to the new border with the Soviet Union established with the annexation of northern Bukovina by the Soviets in late June 1940, and because it was an important center for Jews in northern Moldova. On July 1, 1940, the first pogroms in Romania took place in Dorohoi, when a military unit that retreated from Bukovina shot dozens of Jewish soldiers in its ranks and murdered Jewish residents of Dorohoi, including women and children. 200 Jews were killed. In addition to being the first pogroms in Romania, the pogroms in Dorohoi were notable because they were conducted before an alliance was concluded between Romania and Germany, and before a single German soldier set foot in Romania. When Romania jointed the German invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, a new wave of persecution arose. Jewish residents of nearby villages of Saveni, Darabani, Mihaileni, and Radauti were expelled to Dorohoi. Jews from Dorohoi, with the community leaders at their head, were sent to prison camps in western Romania, most of them to Jiu-Tirgu, as suspected Communists. Dorohoi Jews were forced to wear yellow badges. In late August and early September 1941, 2,000 Jewish men were brought to Dorohoi from the district , and 300 Jews who were sent to camps in western Romania were returned to Dorohoi. All of the Jews in Dorohoi had to contribute to a war loan. On November 5, 1941, the authorities told the community leaders that a decree had been issued for the deportation of the Jews from Dorohoi. For this purpose, the Dorohoi district was administratively attached to Bukovina, from where the Jews had been deported to Transnistria. The order actually came from Bucharest in the framework of a plan to diminish the Jewish population in northern Moldova. The Jews had to "sell" their property to the Romanian national bank, and their Romanian neighbors looted their homes. On November 7, 1941, the Jews were deported from Darabani and Radauti. The next day, on November 8, Jews were deported from Saveni and Mihaileni, and on November 12, the deportation of the Jews from Dorohoi began. 450 Jews who paid bribes received permits allowing them to remain in Dorohoi as being economically essential, but some of them joined the 8,000 Jews who had been expelled from Dorohoi and the surrounding area in two batches, because they did not wish to part from their families who had not been included in the permit for residing in Dorohoi. Many of the deportees died on trains before crossing the Dniester. In many families, only the women and children were deported, while the men remained in labor camps in Romania. The community leadership formed from the Jews who had not been deported and the leaders of Romanian Jewry made many efforts to have the Dorohoi district included again in "old Romania," so that the return of the deportees could be requested. With the advance of the Soviet army, this approval was granted. A delegation of the autonomous assistance committee went to Transnistria to bring back the deportees, and 6,350 of the 10,683 Jews who had been deported from the district and 2,000 of the 3,470 who had been deported from the city returned to Dorohoi in December 1943. The local authorities harassed and persecuted the deportees until the city was liberated by the Red Army in April 1944.