Transnistria Governorate

The Transnistria Governorate (Romanian: Guvernământul Transnistriei) was a Romanian-administered territory between the Dniester and Southern Bug, conquered by the Axis Powers from the Soviet Union during Operation Barbarossa. A Romanian civilian administration governed the territory from 19 August 1941 to 29 January 1944. A brief military administration followed, during which the Romanians withdrew from the region by late March 1944. German control became official on 1 April 1944.

This article is about Transnistria during World War II. For other uses, see Transnistria (disambiguation).
Transnistria Governorate
Guvernământul Transnistriei
Governorate of Romania
1941–1944

Administrative map of the Transnistria Governorate
CapitalOdesa
Area 
• 1941[1][2]
39,733 km2 (15,341 sq mi)
Population 
• 1941[3][4]
2,326,226
History
Government
 • TypeMilitary–civilian administration
Governor 
• 1941–1944
Gheorghe Alexianu
• 1944
Gheorghe Potopeanu
Historical eraWorld War II
• Established
19 August 1941
• Disestablished
1 April 1944
Preceded by		Succeeded by
Ukrainian SSR
Moldavian SSR
Ukrainian SSR
Moldavian SSR
Army Group Rear Area Command
Today part ofMoldova (Transnistria)
Ukraine

Limited in the west by the Dniester river (separating it from Bessarabia), in the east by the Southern Bug river (separating it from the German Reichskommissariat Ukraine), and in the south by the Black Sea, it comprised the present-day region of Transnistria (which compared to the World War II whole is only a small strip along the bank of the Dniester) and territories further east (modern Odesa Oblast eastward of the Dniester, southern Vinnytsia Oblast and a small part of eastern Mykolaiv Oblast), including the Black Sea port of Odesa, which became the administrative capital of Transnistria during World War II.

In World War II, the Kingdom of Romania, persuaded and aided by Nazi Germany, took control of Transnistria for the first time in history. In August 1941, Adolf Hitler persuaded Ion Antonescu to take control of the territory as a substitute for Northern Transylvania, occupied by Miklós Horthy's Hungary following the Second Vienna Award. Despite the Romanian administration, the Kingdom of Romania did not formally incorporate Transnistria into its administrative framework; the Nazi-friendly Antonescu government hoped to annex the territory eventually, but developments on the Eastern Front precluded it.[5]

Romanian conquest of Transnistria
1941 Romanian stamp commemorating the Fall of Odessa and the "Crusade against Bolshevism".

Following the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, a strong concentration of Soviet troops became present on the border with Romania. Nazi Germany wanted Romania as an ally in the war against the Soviet Union for fear that the Soviets were a threat to the Romanian oilfields.[6] Romania in turn aligned their foreign policy with Germany for an assurance against the Soviet Union.[7] With regards to Operation Barbarossa, Antonescu accepted Hitler's ideas that the conflict was a "race war" between the Aryans, represented by the Nordic Germans and Latin Romanians on the Axis side vs. the Slavs and Asians, commanded by the Jews on the Soviet side.[8] Romania in turn committed two armies for the invasion of the Soviet Union, totaling over 300,000 troops between them.[9] For their commitment, Romania was promised Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and the area between Dniester and Southern Bug.[10] On 19 August 1941, Germany and Romania signed an agreement placing Transnistria under the authority of the latter. Altogether, the area amounted to 39,733 square km.[11]

Antonescu's personal project

The creation of a separate Romanian occupation area was Ion Antonescu's initiative. German leadership was divided about allowing Romania such privilege. Even Hitler, who encouraged Romanian eastward expansion, originally meant to award eastern territories after the war. However, Antonescu's stubborn insistence eventually swayed the Germans. While refusing to declare Transnistria's annexation, Antonescu instructed its Governor to work in Transnistria "as if Romania had been installed in those territories for two million years". Part of Romania's grand strategy was to use Transnistria as a bargaining chip at the end of the war to obtain various gains, from Russia or Ukraine or possibly from Germany and Hungary. Romania's immediate aims, however, stemmed from Ion Antonescu's acute inferiority complex. His perception was that his beloved country was being looked down upon by other European countries. From his perspective, raising Romania's ranking required it ruling over other peoples, in an orderly, efficient and "civilized" manner, comparable to how other European states ruled over their Asian and African subjects. According to Antonescu's own words: "Yes. The whole prestige of this country is engaged in Transnistria. We have to demonstrate that we are able to administer a larger country.". Civil service in Transnistria would paradoxically surpass in quality its counterpart within Romania itself. On 19 August 1941, Antonescu decreed the creation of the Romanian Administration in Transnistria.[12]

Siege of Odessa

During the first week of the advance, in mid-August 1941, Romanian forces took over all of the region, except for a small area around Odessa, without a fight. At the time, the Romanians had 60,000 soldiers to conquer the city from its 34,000 defenders. However, the organization was so poor, and the command was so superficial, that the initial assault on the city failed, resulting in a siege.[13] Exploiting this success, the Soviets bolstered the cities defenses with naval marines, warships and paratroopers.[14] Multiple attempts by the Romanian Fourth Army failed and a siege ensured.[15] German forces were brought into the reinforce the attackers and eventually in October 1941 after two months of fighting, the Romanian army took control of the city. Casualties were significant with Romanian losses standing at 90,020 casualties.[16]

Once Romanian troops entered Odessa, they established the headquarters of two of their divisions in the local NKVD building. However, the building was mined by the Soviets, who blew it up, killing over 61 troops, including 16 officers and one general.[17] In reprisal, Ion Antonescu ordered the arrest and massacre of civilians suspected of aiding the Red Army. When it became clear that identifying individuals directly responsible for the incident would be almost impossible, Antonescu ordered the shooting of Jews. The massacre that followed resulted in 100,000 civilians killed, the majority of whom had nothing to do with the military action. A further number of Odessa Jews were deported to ghettos and concentration camps in the northern half of the region.[18]

A Soviet partisan movement was active in the Odessa catacombs from October 1941 to 1944 with varying levels of activity. Romanian troops attempted to flush the partisans out with chemical weapons and by sealing off as many exits as they could. The catacombs were never completely cleared, however the impact of these partisan movements were not significant.[19][20]

Diplomatic clashes with the Germans

The borders of Transnistria were for the most part natural and self-evident: the Black Sea (south) along with the rivers Bug (east) and Nistru (west). The problem of Transnistria's northern border caused some friction between the Germans and Romanians. The latter wanted to push the border north of the town of Zhmerynka (Romanian: Jmerinca), a strategically important railway hub. The Germans resisted at first, but ultimately conceded. Another point of contention was Antonescu's decision to create a civil administration for the region, directly subordinated to himself. This effectively removed the region's administration from Wehrmacht control. Although consternated, the Germans could only acquiesce. Initially, the railways in the region remained under German control. After months of negotiations, the railways were taken over by the Romanian State in March 1942. The Romanians initially agreed to leave the port of Odessa under German control. This was because there were not enough Romanian engineers to repair the Soviet-inflicted damage. According to Antonescu, Hitler asked his permission to let the Germans use the port, implying recognition for Romania's sovereignty. On 10 June 1942, the Romanians gained control of the port of Odessa from the Germans. From early October 1942 to the end of their rule over the region, the Romanians had no major problems with the Germans.[21]

Status with respect to Romania proper
Romanian stamps from late 1941 issued for Transnistria

Albeit not annexing the region outright, the Romanian Antonescu government organized the territory in the Guvernământul Transnistriei under Romanian governor, Gheorghe Alexianu.[5]

The Nazi-allied Antonescu government hoped to annex the territory eventually, but developments on the Eastern Front precluded it.[5]

Romanian opposition parties were against Romanian operations beyond Bessarabia and Bukovina.[5] Two eminent political figures of the day, Iuliu Maniu and Constantin Brătianu, declared that "the Romanian people will never consent to the continuation of the struggle beyond our national borders."[22]

Administrative divisions
The counties and lower level administrative divisions of Romania, Transnistria included.

The territory was divided into 13 counties (sing. Judeţ). Below these were subdivisions named Municipiu, Oraş and Raion.

Counties

Raions and towns
  • Judeţul Moghilău (Moghilău)
    • Oraşul Moghilău
    • Oraşul Şmerinca
    • Raionul Balchi
    • Raionul Copaigorod
    • Raionul Crasnoe
    • Raionul Iarişev
    • Raionul Sargorod
    • Raionul Şmerinca
    • Raionul Stanislavcic
  • Judeţul Tulcin (Tulcin)
    • Oraşul Moghilău
    • Raionul Şmerinca
    • Raionul Braslav
    • Raionul Spicov
    • Raionul Trostineţ
    • Raionul Tulcin
  • Judeţul Jugastru (Iampol)
    • Oraşul Iampol
    • Raionul Cernovăţ
    • Raionul Crijopol
    • Raionul Iampol
    • Raionul Tomaspol
  • Judeţul Balta (Balta)
    • Oraşul Balta
    • Oraşul Berşad
    • Raionul Balta
    • Raionul Berşad
    • Raionul Cicelnic
    • Raionul Obadovca
    • Raionul Olgopol
    • Raionul Pesceana
    • Raionul Savrani
  • Judeţul Râbniţa (Râbniţa)
    • Oraşul Bârzula
    • Oraşul Râbniţa
    • Raionul Bârzula
    • Raionul Camenca
    • Raionul Codâma
    • Raionul Piesceanca
    • Raionul Râbniţa
  • Judeţul Golta (Golta)
    • Oraşul Golta
    • Raionul Crivoe-Oziero
    • Raionul Domaniovca
    • Raionul Golta
    • Raionul Liubaşovca
    • Raionul Vradievca
  • Judeţul Ananiev (Ananiev)
    • Oraşul Ananiev
    • Raionul Ananiev
    • Raionul Cernova
    • Raionul Petroverovca
    • Raionul Sfânta Troiţca
    • Raionul Siraievo
    • Raionul Valea Hoţului
  • Judeţul Dubăsari (Dubăsari)
    • Oraşul Dubăsari
    • Oraşul Grigoriopol
    • Raionul Ciorna
    • Raionul Dubăsari
    • Raionul Grigoriopol
    • Raionul Ocna
    • Raionul Zaharievca
  • Judeţul Tiraspol (Tiraspol)
    • Municipiul Tiraspol
    • Raionul Grosulova
    • Raionul Razdelnaia
    • Raionul Selz
    • Raionul Slobozia
    • Raionul Tebricovo
    • Raionul Tiraspol
  • Judeţul Ovidiopol (Ovidiopol)
    • Oraşul Ovidiopol
    • Raionul Balaevca
    • Raionul Franzfeld
    • Raionul Ovidiopol
    • Raionul Vigoda
  • Judeţul Odesa (Odesa)
    • Municipiul Odesa
    • Raionul Antono-Codincevo
    • Raionul Blagujevo
    • Raionul Ianovca
    • Raionul Odesa
  • Judeţul Berezovca (Berezovca)
    • Oraşul Berezovca
    • Raionul Berezovca
    • Raionul Landau
    • Raionul Mostovoi
    • Raionul Veselinovo
  • Judeţul Oceacov (Oceacov)
    • Oraşul Oceacov
    • Raionul Crasna
    • Raionul Oceacov
    • Raionul Varvarovca

Population

In December, 1941 Romanian authorities conducted a census in Transnistria and the ethnic structure was as follows:[23]

Population structure in Romania (Transnistria included) according to the 1941 Romanian census.
Ethnicity Number  % Rural Urban
Ukrainians 1,775,273 76.3 79.9 57.4
Romanians 197,685 8.4 9.3 4.4
Russians 150,842 6.5 2.4 27.9
Germans (namely Black Sea Germans) 126,464 5.4 5.9 2.7
Bulgarians 27,638 1.2 1.1 1.4
Jews 21,852 0.9 0.7 2.0
Poles 13,969 0.6 0.3 2.3
Lipovans 968 – – 0.1
Tatars 900 – – 0.1
Others 10,628 0.5 10.2 1.7
Total 2,326,224* 100 1,956,557 369,669

Romanian urban population (December, 1941 census)[24]
Name Status Total population Romanian population Romanian proportion
Moghilǎutown13,131610.5%
Șmerincatown10,502290.3%
Iampoltown5,075200.4%
Tulcintown3,83350.1%
Bârzulatown8,8123143.6%
Rîbnițatown6,9981,57522.5%
Baltatown9,5381561.6%
Berşadtown4,3611nil%
Dubăsaritown4,0331,16528.9%
Grigoriopoltown8,5536,18272.3%
Ananievtown11,5621,96317.0%
Goltatown6,436610.9%
Tiraspolcity17,0141,2857.6%
Ovidiopoltown4,3241062.5%
Odesacity244,5723,2241.1%
Berezovcatown6,090721.2%
Oceacovtown4,83540.1%
Total–369,66916,2234.4%

Romanian population by county (December, 1941 census)[25]
Name Total population Romanian population Romanian proportion
Moghilău293,8841760.1%
Jugastru240,40674nil%
Tulcin147,18411nil%
Râbnița217,40354,66025.1%
Balta255,1071,1110.4%
Dubăsari138,86156,25740.5%
Ananiev142,40119,74813.9%
Golta139,0134,6213.6%
Tiraspol189,80948,42725.5%
Ovidiopol64,5766,0369.4%
Odesa331,3693,5431.1%
Berezovca89,1562,8203.2%
Oceacov76,8222030.3%

Romanian authorities used Transnistria as an "ethnic dump" for Jews and Roma from other regions of the country. Beginning in June 1942, Romanian authorities deported over 25,000 ethnic Roma from Bessarabia and Romania proper to Transnistria. During this same time period, over 90,000 Jews were deported from Bessarabia to Transnistria.[26][27]

Organization
Romanian soldier reading an opera house advert in Odesa, 1942. The photo also demonstrates the spelling of Odesa in 1942.

Civilian life

The Romanian administration of Transnistria attempted to stabilize the situation in the region during the occupation. To this end, it opened all churches, previously closed down by the Soviets. During 1942–1943, 2,200 primary schools were organized in the region, including 1,677 Ukrainian, 311 Romanian, 150 Russian, 70 German, and 6 Bulgarian. 117 middle and high schools were opened, including 65 middle schools, 29 technical high schools, and 23 academic high schools. Theaters were opened in Odessa and Tiraspol, as well as several museums, libraries, and cinemas throughout the region. On 7 December 1941, the University of Odessa was reopened with 6 faculties – medicine, polytechnical, law, sciences, languages and agricultural engineering.[28]

The Romanian policy of security during 1942–1943 was successful in keeping Transnistria pacified. The ruthless methods applied by the Germans elsewhere were less successful, as evidenced by the attempts of refugees to escape from German to Romanian jurisdiction. Romanian policies in Transnistria amounted to the best food, health and education situation within Axis-occupied Eastern Europe. Under Romanian rule, religious and cultural revivals were permitted, prisoners of war were released and many local Communists were amnestied. This leniency eased local hostility to Romanian occupation after the terror of 1941, also undermining Soviet attempts to recruit partisans. Even while the retreating Romanians were looting Transnistria in March 1944, the local partisans were unable to mobilize civilian support.[29]

Orthodox churches of Transnistria fell into the jurisdiction of the Romanian Orthodox Church. Under the leadership of Metropolitan bishop Visarion Puiu, the Romanian Orthodox Church in addition to opening all churches closed by Soviet authorities, set up three hundred new churches across Transnistria.[30] Romanian clergy removed all Church Slavonic material and implemented the revised Julian calendar.[31]

Economy

The uncertain political status of Transnistria throughout the Romanian occupation meant no clear economic policy was implemented across Transnistria. In addition to the looting of industrial and agricultural resources, Transnistria served as a colony for cheap labor to be used in mines and to rebuild destroyed infrastructure.[32][33]

In spite of popular demand, the Romanian administration, following the German example, refused to disband the reviled kolkhozes. Nevertheless, former de-kulakized peasants did get back their houses, although in the cities real estate was not returned to its previous owners. The kolkhoz was renamed obște, and the sovkhozes were renamed "ferme de stat" (state farms). Most of Transnistria's agricultural output was produced by the kolkhozes. Roughly 53,000 railway cars of grain were brought from Transnistria to Romania between September 1942 and June 1943. Without these, as Ion Antonescu admitted, Romania "would have had an enormous crisis". By the end of March 1944, the Romanian administration had reopened 335 of the 946 prewar factories, their products being directed primarily towards the Romanian war effort. By the fall of 1943, a total of 1,593 km (990 miles) of railway tracks had been restored. The Romanian policy encouraged private enterprise. By 31 August 1943, Odessa alone had issued 8,610 licenses for economic activity, including: 1,256 groceries, 1,062 restaurants/cafes and 171 "small industries" such as soap factories. An Odessan named Mikhail Dmitrievich Manuilov was a financial specialist employed by the Soviets and Romanians alike. Although he despised both, he asserted in his postwar memoirs that "life in Odessa gradually improved and its situation was in stark contrast to the situation in the other cities, which were under the German occupation". In their zones of occupation, the Germans practiced a policy of isolating bigger cities from the countryside. This had the dual purpose of increasing German military supplies and depriving millions of supposedly racially inferior Eastern Europeans. The Romanians never even thought along these lines. Odessa was never cut off from its rural hinterland.[34] Such abundance relative to German-occupied areas was not necessarily limited to Odessa. In early January 1944, Tiger Tank Battalion 503 assembled at Zhmerynka, a town in Transnistria. The Germans were pleasantly surprised to find beer in the local bazaar, along with other wares that they had not seen in a long time.[35] In 1943, Transnistrian factories, located mainly in and around Odessa, reported a 76% increase in their industrial output. Roughly 37% of this industry was privatized. A shortage of cash along with inflation resulted in the emergence of barter as the primary form of trade.[36]

Borders, territory, and administrative hierarchy

On 14 August 1941, Hitler wrote to Antonescu, asking the latter to take over the administration between the Dniester and the Dnieper. Antonescu replied three days later, stating that he could only assume responsibility for the area between the Dniester and the Bug, due to lacking "the means and trained staff". The Romanian leader was however willing to supply security troops for the area between the Bug and the Dnieper. The German-Romanian agreement for the creation of Transnistria was signed on 19 August, at Tiraspol. It is known as the Tiraspol Agreement. This treaty was consolidated by a convention signed at Tighina on 30 August (the Tighina Agreement), which however did not clearly define the northern borders of Transnistria. Antonescu claimed the northern towns of Mohyliv-Podilskyi, Zhmerynka and Tulchyn, a request to which Hitler acceded. The final borders were recognized on 4 September, in a German order establishing a boundary between Transnistria and the rear of Army Group South.[37] The resulting territory was divided into 13 counties, each ruled by a high-ranking officer with the role of prefect. A county was further divided into raions, each raion being ruled by a praetor (pretor), who had much broader powers than the prefect. The entire region, forming a single Governorate, was led by one Governor, Gheorghe Alexianu. Transnistria's administrative configuration was only settled fully in November 1941. For two months (3 August to 28 October), all of Pervomaisk was under German occupation. On 28 October, Romania took over the part of Pervomaisk located on the western bank of the river Bug and restored its old name (Golta). In November, the seat of Golta County was moved from Kryve Ozero to Golta.[38]

Air section
SET 7K

Transnistria had budgetary autonomy and as such made use of its own aircraft, separate from the rest of the Royal Romanian Air Force. The following aircraft comprised the Transnistrian air section:[39]

Model Origin Number
Fw 58 Germany1
SET 7K Romania3
RWD 13 Poland5
Ju 52 Germany2

The Holocaust

Responsibility for the Holocaust in Odessa and Transnistria at large was squarely Romania's, the only country aside from Germany to administer a major Soviet city during World War II. Odessa – at the time, one of the greatest centers of Jewish life and culture in Europe – had been rendered virtually judenrein, despite its population being one third Jewish at the start of World War II.[40]

Map of the Holocaust in Ukraine and Romania. Massacres marked with red skulls.

Many Jews were deported to Transnistria from Bessarabia and Bukovina.[41][42] During the period 1941–1944, 200,000 Romani people and Jews became victims[43] of the Romanian occupation of Transnistria.[44] Not being Romanian territory, Transnistria was used as a killing field for the extermination of Jews. Survivors say that in comparison with the Holocaust of Nazi Germany, where deportations were carefully planned, the Romanian government did not prepare to house thousands of people in Transnistria, where the deportees stayed. The people were instead placed in crude barracks without running water, electricity or latrines. Those who could not walk were simply left to die.[45] In total, around 150 ghettos and camps functioned in Transnistria.[46]

In Odessa, between 80,000 and 90,000 of the city's roughly 180,000 Jews remained at the time the Germans and Romanians captured the city on October 16, 1941. Six days later, a bomb exploded in the Romanian military headquarters in Odessa, prompting a massacre of Jews; many were burned alive. In October and November 1941 alone, Romanian troops in Odessa killed about 30,000 Jews.[47] Transnistria was the site of two concentration camps and several de facto ghettos (which the Romanian wartime government referred to as "colonies").[48] In addition, most of the remaining Jews in Bessarabia (84,000 of 105,000) and northern Bukovina (36,000 of 60,000) were herded into these as well.[49] A striking paradox is the fact that most of Romanian Jews (375,000) under Antonescu regime survived WW2.[50] The Holocaust Encyclopedia (United States Holocaust Memorial Museum) writes that "Among the most notorious of these ghettos… was Bogdanovka, on the west bank of the Bug River… In December 1941, Romanian troops, together with Ukrainian auxiliaries, massacred almost all the Jews in Bogdanovka; shootings continued for more than a week." Similar events occurred at the Domanevka and Akhmetchetkha camps, and (quoting the same source) "typhus-devastated Jews were crowded into the 'colony' in Mohyliv-Podilskyi." Other camps, also with very high death rates, were at Pechora and Vapniarka, the latter reserved for Jewish political prisoners deported from Romania proper.[48][51] Many Jews died of exposure, starvation, or disease during the deportations to Transnistria or after arrival. Others were murdered by Romanian or German units, either in Transnistria or after being driven across the Bug River into the German-occupied Ukraine. Most of the Jews who were sent to the camps in Transnistria never returned. Those who survived, around 70,000, returned to Romania in 1945 to find that they had lost their houses.[45]

Even for the general population, food in Transnistria was very scarce, through lack of Romanian planning.[45] According to one survivor's account, people would gather outside a slaughterhouse and wait for scraps of meat, skin and bones to be thrown out of the slaughterhouse after the cleaning each morning. He remembers that they were fighting for the bones "just like dogs would" and that people were starving to death.[45] Among the survivors were Liviu Librescu[52] and Norman Manea.

Position of Antonescu government
Tiraspol in 1941

Antonescu, in a government meeting showed intentions to deport all Jews behind the Ural Mountains if it would be possible: "I have about 10,000 Jews left in Bessarabia, who in a few days will be taken across the Dniester, and if circumstances will allow, they will be taken beyond the Urals".[53]

End of the governorate

The process of disintegration of Romanian rule in Transnistria started to unfold almost as soon as 1944 began. German operative troops entered northern Transnistria in January 1944. By the end of the month, the Romanians had lost control over the region's northern counties. Partisans, along with the Germans and their Cossack auxiliaries, frequently attacked Romanian officials of all ranks and commandeered their vehicles. Romanian gendarmes, severely outnumbered and in fear for their lives, remained in their quarters. The pretor of Trostineț raion was killed by German soldiers. On 29 January 1944, on account of Transnistria's transformation into a de facto military rear area, Ion Antonescu ended the civilian administration of the region and dismissed Governor Alexianu. At the same time or roughly two weeks later (15 February 1944[54]), the very name "Transnistria" was dropped; the region – now under General Gheorghe Potopeanu (from 1 February 1944[55]) – officially became a territory under military administration. On 15 March 1944, Potopeanu ordered the withdrawal of all remaining personnel from the region.[56] The last Romanian-perpetrated massacre during the Holocaust in Transnistria also took place on 15 March 1944, when Romanian gendarmes killed 4 Jews in Slobidka.[57] Shortly before being liberated by the Red Army, Transnistria's urban centers were transferred from Romanian to German control: Bershad roughly 1 week before its liberation,[58] Balta and Zhmerynka both on 16 March[59][60] and Tiraspol on 19 March.[61] The Romanian mayor of Odessa was deposed by the Germans on 24 March, being replaced by a Russian engineer and German collaborator named Petrushkov.[62] The Germans officially took over the region on 1 April 1944.[63]

The Red Army entered Transnistria on 14 March 1944, taking the town of Bershad. Tulchyn followed on 15 March, Mohyliv-Podilskyi on 20 March, Balta on 29 March and Rîbnița on 30 March.[64] Yampil was liberated on 17 March 1944.[65] Zhmerynka was liberated by the Red Army on 21 March.[66] Pervomaisk (of which Golta was a part) was taken on 22 March, followed by Ochakiv on 31 March.[67] The Soviets reached Berezivka on 31 March.[68] On 1 April, Governor Potopeanu was deposed by the Germans and what remained of Transnistria (the 5 administrative centers not yet liberated by the Red Army as of 1 April: Ananiv, Odessa, Ovidiopol, Tiraspol and Dubăsari[69][70]) came under official German control.[71][72]

On March 28, the Red Army took Nikolaev and the next day crossed the lower Bug river in force. On April 5, Razdelnaia fell, and therewith the Odessa-Tiraspol highway was cut. On the 19th, after a brief but bitter fight, the Red Army re-entered Odessa. On the April 12, Tiraspol was occupied, and four days later all Transnistria was again in Soviet hands. During the final days, the Germans concentrated on destruction in Odessa, since evacuation was impossible. Port installations, some industrial facilities, and transportation junctions were blown up (even the electric power plant, various mills, stores of bread, sugar, and other foods were destroyed). Of Odessa's population, scarcely 200,000 remained; many had hidden in the vicinity while some had sought safety in the countryside. And some had left westward with the Romanians and Germans: only those most compromised had left; the bulk of the residents had stayed in the region. People feared Soviet repressions, but "there was no other way out", according to German sources.[73] It is worth noting however, that there was still a very small piece of Transnistrian territory still left under Romanian rule as late as August 1944, according to an OKH map depicting the situation on the Romanian front as of 20 August. This area comprised a Westwards salient created by the Dniester river, centered around Coșnița (today part of the Dubăsari District of the Republic of Moldova).[74]

Reduction of the Transnistria neo-Latin population

Today east of the Dniester there are only 237,785 Romance-speaking residents left, a small percentage of the overall population of the region, most of whom live in the actual Transnistria break-away republic. But historically they were the majority: according to the results of the Russian census (quoted in Romanian sources) of 1793, 49 villages out of 67 between the Dniester and the Southern Bug were Romanian.[75]

And further east of the Transnistria Governorate there were many neo-Latin communities: indeed the Romanians/Moldavians in Ukraine – east of the Bug river – were calculated by a German census to be nearly 780.000 (probably an excessive number), and were made plans to move them to Transnistria in 1942/43. But nothing was done.

A far more likely figure was that given by a Romanian daily in March 1943. It reported that, as of the summer of 1942, 23,000 Moldavian families had been located in Soviet territory east of the Bug (under German occupation). A group of these had been made to make records of their folk music "in order to preserve proof of the permanence of the Romanian element in the distant East" (Universul, March 15, 1943).[76]

Indeed, when the Soviet Union regained the area in spring 1944, and the Soviet Army advanced into the territory driving out the Axis forces, many thousands of Romanians/Vlachs of Transnistria were killed in those months and deported to gulags in the following years.[77] So, a political campaign was directed towards the rich Moldavian peasant families, which were deported to Kazakhstan and Siberia as well. For instance, in just two days, July 6 and July 7, 1949, over 11,342 Moldavian families (more than 40,000 inhabitants of Ukraine Oblasts) were deported by the order of the Minister of State Security, I. L. Mordovets, under a plan named "Operation South".[78]

The Census statistics for Romance-speaking population in territories east of the Dniester river are the following:

  • 1939: 230.698 (according to the 1939 Soviet census),[79] of which 170.982 in the Moldavian ASSR[80] and 26.730 in Odessa Oblast.[81]
  • 1941: 197,685 inside Transnistria Governorate
  • 2001: 307,785 (177,785 living in actual Transnistria zone + 60,000 living in Odesa Oblast + 70,000 living in the rest of Ukraine)

See also

Notes and references
  1. Stancu, Vasile (2012). "O pagină uitată din Istoria Românilor Administraţia civilă românească din Transnistria, în timpul celui de-al II-lea război mondial (I)". No. 242. condeiulardelean.ro. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  2. "Transnistria Then and Now". romaniancoins.org. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  3. Stancu, Vasile (2012). "O pagină uitată din Istoria Românilor Administraţia civilă românească din Transnistria, în timpul celui de-al II-lea război mondial (I)". No. 242. condeiulardelean.ro. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  4. "Transnistria Then and Now". romaniancoins.org. Retrieved 19 April 2021.
  5. (in Romanian) Ottmar Traşcă, Ocuparea orașului Odessa..., "George Bariţiu" Institute of History's Annual, Series Historica , 2008.
  6. Ellman, James (2019). Hitler's Great Gamble – A New Look at German Strategy, Operation Barbarossa, and the Axis Defeat in World War II. United States: Stackpole Books. p. 64. ISBN 978-0811768481.
  7. Deletant, Dennis (2006). Hitler's Forgotten Ally – Ion Antonescu and His Regime, Romania 1940–1944. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. p. 14. ISBN 978-1-349-54401-1.
  8. Ancel, Jean (2011). The History of the Holocaust in Romania. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. ISBN 978-973-681-799-1.
  9. Stahel, David (2009). Operation Barbarossa and Germany's Defeat in the East. New York: Cambridge University Press. p. 357. ISBN 978-0521768474.
  10. Veidlinger, Jeffrey (2013). In the Shadow of the Shtetl – Small-Town Jewish Life in Soviet Ukraine. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. p. 187. ISBN 978-0253011527.
  11. Diana Dumitru, Cambridge University Press, 2016, The State, Antisemitism, and Collaboration in the Holocaust: The Borderlands of Romania and the Soviet Union, p. 176
  12. Vladimir Solonari, Cornell University Press, Dec 15, 2019, A Satellite Empire: Romanian Rule in Southwestern Ukraine, 1941–1944, pp. 24, 29, 31–32, & 131–132
  13. Solonari, Vladimir (2019). A Satellite Empire – Romanian Rule in Southwestern Ukraine, 1941–1944. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-1501743191.
  14. Kuchin, Valentin (1982). Soviet Military Review. USSR: Krasnaya Zveda Publishing House.
  15. Zabecki, David T. (2015). World War II in Europe. United States: Taylor & Francis. p. 638. ISBN 978-1135812423.
  16. Solonari, Vladimir (2019). A Satellite Empire – Romanian Rule in Southwestern Ukraine, 1941–1944. Ithaca, New York: Cornell University Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-1501743191.
  17. Ioanid, Radu (2000). The Holocaust in Romania – The Destruction of Jews and Gypsies Under the Antonescu Regime, 1940–1944. United States: Ivan R Dee. p. 178. ISBN 978-1461694908.
  18. Deletant, Dennis (2006). Hitler's Forgotten Ally – Ion Antonescu and His Regime, Romania 1940–1944. United Kingdom: Palgrave Macmillan. pp. 171–172. ISBN 978-0230502093.
  19. Crenshaw, Martha; Pimlott, John (1997). International Encyclopedia of Terrorism. United Kingdom: Taylor & Francis. p. 88. ISBN 978-1135919665.
  20. Cooke, Phillip; Shepherd, Ben H. (2013). European Resistance in the Second World War. United Kingdom: Pen & Sword Books. ISBN 978-1473831629.
  21. Vladimir Solonari, Cornell University Press, Dec 15, 2019, A Satellite Empire: Romanian Rule in Southwestern Ukraine, 1941–1944, pp. 34–39
  22. Charles King, The Moldovans: Romania, Russia, and the Politics of Culture, Hoover Institution Press, Stanford, CA, 2000. ISBN 0-8179-9792-X
  23. Publikationstelle Wien, Die Bevölkerungzählung in Rumänien, 1941, Vienna, 1943 (in German)
  24. Publikationstelle Wien, Die Bevölkerungzählung in Rumänien, 1941, Vienna, 1943 (in German)
  25. Publikationstelle Wien, Die Bevölkerungzählung in Rumänien, 1941, Vienna, 1943 (in German)
  26. Ioanid, Radu (2022). The Holocaust in Romania – The Destruction of Jews and Roma Under the Antonescu Regime, 1940–1944. United States: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 3154. ISBN 978-1538138090.
  27. Weiss-Wendt, Anton (2013). The Nazi Genocide of the Roma – Reassessment and Commemoration. United Kingdom: Berghahn Books. p. 132. ISBN 978-0-85745-843-8.
  28. (in Romanian) Anatol Petrenci, "Basarabia în timpul celui de-al doilea război mondial (1939–1945)", Ed. Prut Internaţional, 2006
  29. James Ciment, Routledge, 2015, World Terrorism: An Encyclopedia of Political Violence from Ancient Times to the Post-9/11 Era, p. 118
  30. Clark, Roland (2015). Holy Legionary Youth Fascist Activism in Interwar Romania. United States: Cornell University Press. ISBN 978-0801456336.
  31. Kalkandjieva, Daniela (2014). The Russian Orthodox Church, 1917–1948 – From Decline to Resurrection. New York: Taylor & Francis. p. 268. ISBN 978-1-138-78848-0.
  32. Stiazhkina, Olena (2021). Zero Point Ukraine. Germany: Ibidem. p. 119. ISBN 978-3838215501.
  33. Goldman, Wendy Z.; Trotter, Joe W. (2017). The Ghetto in Global History – 1500 to the Present. New York: Taylor & Francis. ISBN 978-1-315-09977-4.
  34. Vladimir Solonari, Cornell University Press, 2019, A Satellite Empire: Romanian Rule in Southwestern Ukraine, 1941–1944, pp. 29, 148–150, 154–156, & 170–171
  35. Franz-Wilhelm Lochmann, Alfred Rubbel, Richard Freiherr von Rosen, Rowman & Littlefield, 2021, The Combat History of German Tiger Tank Battalion 503 in World War II, pp. 158–160
  36. Olga Kucherenko, Routledge, 2008, Reluctant traitors: the politics of survival in Romanian-occupied Odessa in European Review of History, 15:2, p. 146
  37. David Stahel, Cambridge University Press, 2017, Joining Hitler's Crusade, p. 71
  38. Geoffrey P. Megargee, Joseph R. White, Indiana University Press, 2018, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, vol. III: Camps and Ghettos under European Regimes Aligned with Nazi Germany, pp. 575 and 680
  39. Mark Axworthy, London: Arms and Armour, 1995, Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945, p. 281
  40. Charles King, W.W. Norton & Company, 2011, Odessa: Genius and Death in a City of Dreams, p. 203
  41. Thaler, Henri Lustiger (2017). Witnessing Unbound: Holocaust Representation and the Origins of Memory. Wayne State University Press. ISBN 978-0-8143-4302-9.
  42. Kremer, S. Lillian (2003). Holocaust Literature: Lerner to Zychlinsky, index. Taylor & Francis. p. 1433. ISBN 978-0-415-92984-4.
  43. Roma Holocaust victims speak out, BBC News, January 23, 2009
  44. (in Russian) Юлиус Фишер (Julius Fischer), Транснистрия. Забытое кладбище Archived 2007-09-26 at the Wayback Machine (Transnistria. Forgotten graveyard), Шоа. Информационно-аналитический портал (Shoa. Information-analysis portal), shoa.com.ua, 20 November 2005. The Holocaust Encyclopedia, USHMM, estimates that 150,000 and 250,000 Romanian and Ukrainian Jews were killed in Transnistria.
  45. Kathryn Nelson, "The miracle of survival" Archived 2007-09-30 at the Wayback Machine, Minnesota Daily, December 7, 2006.
  46. Geoffrey P. Megargee, Joseph R. White, Indiana University Press, 2018, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, vol. III: Camps and Ghettos under European Regimes Aligned with Nazi Germany, p. 575
  47. USHMM.org – Odessa: 1941–1944 timeline Archived 2007-06-22 at the Wayback Machine
  48. USHMM
  49. A further 150,000 Bessarabian and Bukovinian Jews retreated (in terrible conditions) from Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in June–July 1941, before the departure of the Soviet troops. They survived the war, but did so in miserable conditions. 12,000 Jews were also killed in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina during the military action in June–July 1941, mostly, but not solely, by German Einsatzkommando D units attached to the 11th German Army.
  50. "The Antonescu Paradox". Foreign Policy. 5 February 2016.
  51. Goldenshteyn, Maksim Grigoriyevich (2022). So they remember : a Jewish family's story of surviving the Holocaust in Soviet Ukraine. Norman. ISBN 978-0-8061-7606-2. OCLC 1273121512.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  52. Matti Friedman, Holocaust survivor killed in Va shooting, AP, April 17, 2007
  53. (in Romanian)
  54. Ray Brandon, Wendy Lower, Indiana University Press, May 28, 2008, The Shoah in Ukraine: History, Testimony, Memorialization, p. 179
  55. Rand Corporation, 1957, Research Memorandum, Issues 1875–1883, p. 372
  56. Vladimir Solonari, Cornell University Press, Dec 15, 2019, A Satellite Empire: Romanian Rule in Southwestern Ukraine, 1941–1944, pp. 42–44, 227
  57. Radu Ioanid, Rowman & Littlefield, Apr 20, 2022, The Holocaust in Romania: The Destruction of Jews and Roma Under the Antonescu Regime, 1940–1944, p. 364
  58. Jeffrey Veidlinger, Indiana University Press, Nov 1, 2013, In the Shadow of the Shtetl: Small-Town Jewish Life in Soviet Ukraine, p. 228
  59. David Patterson, Transaction Publishers, Jun 1, 2003, The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry, p. 27
  60. Felicia Steigman Carmelly, Abbeyfield Publishers, 1997, Shattered! 50 Years of Silence: History and Voices of the Tragedy in Romania and Transnistria, p. 432
  61. Shmuel Spector, Geoffrey Wigoder, NYU Press, 2001, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust: Seredina-Buda-Z, p. 1308
  62. Yad Vashem, 1967, Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, Volume 6, p. 153
  63. Mark Axworthy, London: Arms and Armour, 1995, Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945, p. 156
  64. Geoffrey P. Megargee, Joseph R. White, Indiana University Press, 2018, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, vol. III: Camps and Ghettos under European Regimes Aligned with Nazi Germany, pp. 580, 598, 607, 716, 747, 808
  65. Guy Miron, NYU Press, 2010, The Yad Vashem Encyclopedia of the Ghettos during the Holocaust, p. 953
  66. David Patterson, Transaction Publishers, Jun 1, 2003, The Complete Black Book of Russian Jewry, p. 27
  67. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990, Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938–1945, pp. 249–250
  68. Aleksander A. Maslov, Routledge, 2016, Fallen Soviet Generals: Soviet General Officers Killed in Battle, 1941–1945, p. 133
  69. Geoffrey P. Megargee, Joseph R. White, Indiana University Press, 2018, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945, vol. III: Camps and Ghettos under European Regimes Aligned with Nazi Germany, pp. 593, 676, 796
  70. Greenwood Publishing Group, 1990, Chronology and Index of the Second World War, 1938–1945, p. 254
  71. Yad Vashem, 1967, Yad Vashem Studies on the European Jewish Catastrophe and Resistance, Volume 6, p. 153
  72. Mark Axworthy, London: Arms and Armour, 1995, Third Axis, Fourth Ally: Romanian Armed Forces in the European War, 1941–1945, p. 156
  73. OKH/GenStdH/FHO (IIIa), “Kgf. Vernehmung,” CRS, H3/690, pp. 245–246.
  74. Karl-Heinz Frieser, Oxford University Press, 2017, The Eastern Front, 1943–1944: The War in the East and on the Neighbouring Fronts, p. 791
  75. E. Lozovan, Romanii orientali…(Eastern Romanians…), ,,Neamul Romanesc”, 1/1991, p. 32. Vlachs/Romanians east of the Dniester river and up to the Bug river area]
  76. Dallin, Alexander. Odessa, 1941–1944: A Case Study of Soviet Territory Under Foreign Rule.Chapter 2. Note # 113
  77. Nationalities policy in Soviet Moldavia 1944–1989, by Igor Casu (in Romanian)
  78. Stalinist terror in Soviet Moldavia, by Igor Casu. p.49
  79. All-Union 1939: Ethnic composition by republic
  80. All-Union census 1930: Ethnic composition of raions, cities and large villages; Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic
  81. /ssp/ussr_nac_39_ra.php?reg=335 All-Union census 1930: Ethnic composition of raions, cities and large villages; Odessa Oblast
  • Rumania in World War II, 1939–1945, World History at KMLA. Accessed 11 November 2007.
  • (in Russian) I. Altman Глава 3 Гетто и Лагеря на Территории СССР at the Wayback Machine (archived October 21, 2004) ("Chapter 3: Ghettoes and Camps on the territory of the USSR") in "Холокост и Еврейское Сопротивление на Оккупированной Территории СССР" ("Holocaust and Jewish Resistance in the Occupied Territory of the USSR"). TOC at the Wayback Machine (archived October 11, 2004). Originally on history.pedclub.ru/shoa; page is encoded in Win-1251.
  • Romania, Holocaust Encyclopedia, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Accessed online 19 December 2006
  • Alexander Dallin – Odessa, 1941–1944: A Case Study of Soviet Territory Under Foreign Rule
  • Map
  • Igor Niculcea, Rumynskii okkupatsionnyi rezhim v Transnistrii [Romanian occupation of Transnistria], in Записки Iсторичного Факультету, Odesa, Ukraine, 1997, pp. 182–187.
  • Igor Casu, Istoriografia şi chestiunea Holocaustului: cazul Republicii Moldova [Historiography and the question of Holocaust: The case of Republic of Moldova] (in Romanian) in Contrafort, Chisinau, 11–12, 2006 and 1, 2007 (www.contrafort.md)
  • Diana Dumitru, The Use and Abuse of the Holocaust: Historiography and Politics in Moldova, Holocaust and Genocide Studies 2008 22(1):49–73.
  • Vladimir Solonaru, "Patterns of Violence: Local Population and the Mass Murder of Jews in Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina, July–August 1941," in Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History 8 (4: 2007), 749–787.
  • Vladimir Solonaru,"'Model Province': Explaining the Holocaust of Bessarabian and Bukovinian Jewry," Nationalities Papers, Vol. 34, No. 4, September 2006, pp. 471–500.
  • Interview with Chava Wolf, a survivor of the camps in Transnistria, in Yad Vashem website.

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