Saturday, January 26, 2008

Keeping the Memory of the Beltsy Jewry Tragedy




August 7, 2006 was 65 years from 1941, when a tragedy took place for Beltsy Jewish people between Tammuz 17 and Av 9. Over 3,500 Jews who lived in Beltsy were driven to Reutsel Forest, 22 kilometers from the town. The elderly, women and children were thrown by Romanian Nazis behind the barbed wire. Hundreds of them were shot or died of starvation and thirst. Others were driven off to concentration camps and ghettos outside Moldova. Romanian generals reported that Beltsy was “Judenfrei”.
65 years passed. Dozens members of today’s Beltsy Jewish community and inhabitants of Reutsel village gathered at the memorial stone laid on the place of the future monument.

78-years old Philip, who lives in Reutsel, was a witness of the tragic events. “My brother and I tried to help people behind the wire. We threw them ears of corn and the guards lashed us.”
After saying Kadish (a Jewish memorial prayer) and singing “Atikva” (the National Anthem of the State of Israel) people lit candles. Then, witnesses of the tragedy led the groups and showed where the barracks of the concentration camp stood and the places where prisoners dug graves for themselves.
People walked in the forest listening to the leaves rustle, a voice of their hearts and an echo of the tragedy that is never gone.

From the below web site:
http://jewish.md/en/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=130&Itemid=2

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