Evidence Registers of Jews in Cahul Camp 22-Jul-1941

This data base contains 525 records for Jewish prisoners from the Cahul camp in Romania.

Background

Following the June 22, 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, the Germans moved quickly across Bessarabia and Bucovina into Ukraine, leaving control of these two former Romanian territories to Romanian Prime Minister, Ion Antonescu.  Antonescu was intent on cleansing his land of the Jews, and in late July 1941 started assembling the Jews into transit camps in preparation for their eventual deportation across the Dneister River.  Of course, many Jews were killed along the way, or died in the transit camps of hunger, exposure and disease.  By the time Ion Antonescu ordered the deportation of all Jews from Bessarabia and Bucovina on October 8, 1941 more than half of the Jewish population of Bessarabia had perished.  The survivors were sent across the Dneister River into Transnistria.

Of the approximately 525 people interned at Cahul Camp, only two are known to have survived: nine-year-old Shifra Barash and her seven-year-old sister, Mina. In December 1993, Shifra—later known as Mrs. Yevdokiya Lipovich—contacted Yad Vashem to nominate the two women who saved her and Mina as Righteous Among the Nations, an honor bestowed on non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. In two letters totaling 33 pages, she recounts in detail the circumstances of her internment and the events that led to her and her sister’s rescue.  You can read her testimony at the Holocaust Testimony of Yevdokiya Lipovich (AKA Shira Barash)

Database

This database includes 525 records transcribed from a document entitled "Evidence Register of Jew in Cahul camp", held in the Archives of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington DC.  This document includes of two lists:

List #	Title	Description	Records
1	List of Jews interned in Cahul Camp	People primarily from Cahul city and surrounding villages	136
2	List of Jews from Leova interned in Cahul Camp	People primarily from Leova city and surrounding villages	389

Note: A very small discrepancy exists between the reported camp population (524) and the number of people listed in this database (525), but one might assume that this database documents all people interned at this camp.  Also several small children of a few days to a few months old are not listed separately (not included in the 525), but instead are noted in the comments next to their mother's record.

The fields for this database are as follows:

• Surname
• Given name
• Age
• Town of residence
• Occupation
• Gender
• Source
• Comments

Acknowledgments

The information contained in this database was indexed from files entitled "Evidence Register of Jews from Cahul Camp" obtained at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum (RG 14.036M, Reel 3).  The original source of this document is the Moldovan State Archives in Chişinău, Moldova.  Special thanks to Michlean Amir - USHMM Reference Archivist, and to Yocheved Klausner for translation assistance.

In addition, thanks to JewishGen Inc. for providing the website and database expertise to make this database accessible.  Special thanks to Warren Blatt and Michael Tobias for their continued contributions to Jewish genealogy.  Particular thanks to Nolan Altman, coordinator of Holocaust files.

Nolan Altman
Coordinator - Holocaust Database
March 2011

Searching the Database

This database is searchable via JewishGen's Holocaust Database, JewishGen's Romania Database, and JewishGen's Ukraine Database.