Final Report of the International Commission on the - Minority Rights ...

exhausted, worn out; some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m worked on farms, o<strong>the</strong>rs in <strong>the</strong> tobacco factory, but <strong>the</strong> majority lived
on begging.”
The Jews deported from Bessarabia and Bukovina typically died as a result <strong>of</strong> typhus, hunger, and
cold. Food distribution was erratic. Many lived by begging or by selling <strong>the</strong>ir clo<strong>the</strong>s for food, ending up
virtually naked. They ate leaves, grass, and potato peels and <strong>of</strong>ten slept in stables or pigsties, sometimes
not allowed even straw. Except for those in <strong>the</strong> Peciora and Vapniarka camps and in <strong>the</strong> Rabnita prison,
<strong>the</strong> deported Jews lived in ghettos or in towns, where <strong>the</strong>y were assigned a residence, forced to carry out
hard labor, and subjected to <strong>the</strong> “natural” process <strong>of</strong> extermination through famine and disease. This
“natural selection” ceased toward <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> 1943, when Romanian <strong>of</strong>ficials began changing <strong>the</strong>ir
approach toward <strong>the</strong> deported Jews.
In January 1942, <strong>the</strong> typhus epidemic reached major proportions. In Tibulovca (county <strong>of</strong> Balta) 1,140
out <strong>of</strong> 1,200 deportees died during <strong>the</strong> winter <strong>of</strong> 1941–1942. On January 20, 1942, <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 1,200 Jews
interned since November 1941, only 100 men, 74 women, and 4 children survived, most <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se
suffering frozen extremities. With money or clo<strong>the</strong>s some were able to purchase permission to live in <strong>the</strong>
village.
Of <strong>the</strong> 9,000 Jews in Shargorod (county <strong>of</strong> Moghilev), 2,414 caught typhus and 1,449 died <strong>of</strong> it. In
June 1942, <strong>the</strong> epidemic ended, but it broke out again in October. By <strong>the</strong>n, however, <strong>the</strong> community was
prepared for it, taking efficient measures to delouse <strong>the</strong> area. Ninety-two cases <strong>of</strong> typhoid fever appeared,
though with a negligible mortality rate, as well as 1,250 cases <strong>of</strong> severe malnutrition, <strong>of</strong> which fifty
proved irreversible. Hygienic conditions were very bad in <strong>the</strong> town <strong>of</strong> Moghilev, as well. As <strong>of</strong> April 25,
1942, <strong>the</strong>re were 4,491 recorded cases <strong>of</strong> typhus, 1,254 <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m deadly. The Moghilev Health Department
estimated that <strong>the</strong>re were 7,000 cases <strong>of</strong> typhus at a certain point throughout <strong>the</strong> city. During <strong>the</strong> winters
<strong>the</strong> extreme cold made it impossible to bury <strong>the</strong> corpses, which only continued to spread <strong>the</strong> epidemics. In
addition to disease and <strong>the</strong> dearth <strong>of</strong> adequate food, clothing, and shelter, forced labor was <strong>of</strong>ten imposed
on <strong>the</strong> deportees in Transnistria. In Ladijin, for example, 1,800 Jews from Dorohoi and Cernauti were
used for work in a stone quarry under very harsh conditions.
There were two camps in Transnistria, Vapniarka and Peciora. In September 1942 almost 2,000 Jews
(“communist sympathizers” or people who had applied to emigrate to <strong>the</strong> USSR under <strong>the</strong> population
transfer in 1940) were deported to Transnistria. Some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>m were killed upon arrival, but about 1,000
went to <strong>the</strong> Vapniarka camp where <strong>the</strong>y were fed a variety <strong>of</strong> pea (Tathyrus savitus) that is not fit for
humans. As a result, 611 inmates became seriously ill, and some were partially paralyzed. The o<strong>the</strong>r
Transnistrian camp, Peciora, displayed <strong>the</strong> phrase “death camp” on its signpost above <strong>the</strong> entrance.
General Iliescu, inspector <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Transnistria gendarmerie, had recommended that <strong>the</strong> poorest be sent
<strong>the</strong>re, since <strong>the</strong>y were going to die anyway, and it was not intended that anyone survive Peciora. Peciora
was <strong>the</strong> most horrific site <strong>of</strong> Jewish internment in all <strong>of</strong> Transnistria, as Matatias Carp’s research showed:
“Those who managed to escape told incredible stories. On <strong>the</strong> banks <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bug, <strong>the</strong> camp was surrounded
by three rows <strong>of</strong> barbed wire and watched by a powerful military guard. German trucks arrived from <strong>the</strong>
German side <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bug on several occasions; camp inmates were packed into <strong>the</strong>m to be exterminated on
<strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r side…Unable to get supplies, camp inmates ate human waste, and later [fed] on human corpses.
Eighty percent died and only <strong>the</strong> twenty percent who [fled when <strong>the</strong> guard became more lax] survived.”
Testimonies <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Peciora survivors also report cases <strong>of</strong> cannibalism in this camp.
Local Jews
Following <strong>the</strong> first wave <strong>of</strong> executions upon <strong>the</strong> occupation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> province, <strong>the</strong> surviving local Jews
returned to <strong>the</strong>ir destroyed and ransacked houses. According to gendarmerie and government reports, <strong>of</strong>