The Deportation of Jews in Dorohoi

A letter from March 1941, by Dorohoi police station to the county`s prefecture, shows that in 1941 and 1942, 9701 Jews were deported in Transnistria.

The first deportees were the Jews from Darabani and Rădăuți, on November 7, 1941. The next days, the Jews from Mihăileni and Săveni were deported too.

The Jews living in Dorohoi deportation started on November 12, 1941. Their remaining properties were taken by a committee formed of representatives of local authorities and of the National Bank. Each deportee was able to carry with him only thick clothes and food for several days. About 5000 Jews in Dorohoi county lost their lives by the time of repatriation.

DAVID BRIL

David Bril was born in 1886, and he was a tinsmith in Dorohoi. He fought for Romania during the 1913 campaign of the Balkan War and during WWI when he was part of the 29 ”Dragos Vodă” Infantry Regiment. For his acts of courage, on December 1, 1924, he was awarded ”The Commemorative Cross of 1916-1918 War” with the inscriptions Ardeal, Carpathians, and Tg. Ocna.

A few months earlier, in May 1923, the Bril family received citizenship, enjoying the same rights as the rest of the Romanian citizens. David and Haia Perla had five children together, whom they raised and cared for while working in the family workshop on I.C. Brătianu from Dorohoi. The Bril family was deported to Transnistria in November 1941.

On December 28, 1941, David Bril died in Mogilev, the place where he had been deported by the state authorities for which he had fought 25 years ago and of which he was a citizen. "Senility" appears on his death certificate. David Bril was 55 years old.