The Jews in Darabani during the Holocaust

With their settlement in the locality, the Jews set up their own cemetery. From the earliest years, they built their religious, social and educational institutions. The first synagogue was opened in 1853. In the same year, the first ritual bath began to function. Towards the end of the 19th century, in 1883, there were 20 denominational schools in Darabani, a Talmud Torah school, and six synagogues. Their number reached eight in the interwar period. At the same time, Zionist organizations and even a section of the Romanian Jewish Party appeared in the city.

Located in a border town and in the vicinity of the Soviet Union, one of Romania’s main enemies, which also had territorial claims for some Romanian regions, the Jews of Darabani were suspected of communist sympathies. In general, the suspicion hung over the entire Jewish population, being propagandistically maintained by the Romanian state. Thus, in June 1940, after the Soviet ultimatum and the surrender of Bessarabia, Northern Bukovina and Herța County, the Jews of Darabani became victims of violent actions undertaken by the Romanian authorities. They were searched, then detained and beaten by Romanian police and army employees.

At the local level, some of the Romanian civil servants had initiatives that preceded certain practices that became widespread after Romania’s entry into the war, on June 21st, 1941. Thus, in June 1940, Nicolae Dimitriu, the Darabani chief of police, banned, on his own responsibility, the movement of Jews on the streets, also ordering searches and arrests.

With the coming of the legionaries to power, they initiated actions to demolish several buildings owned by Jews, including a synagogue. As an argument, they advanced “the proximity of the toilets […] to the church building”. Also in the years of the national-legionary government, between September 1940 and January 1941, other measures of a coercive-repressive nature were taken against the Jews of Darabani: the commercial licenses were cancelled, and they could no longer carry out commercial activities, and the employees in the field of education and for the army were fired. At the same time, they were sent to forced labour and their properties were taken into state ownership.

On June 19th, 1941, a few days before Romania entered the war, the Jews of Darabani were subjected to an “action of purification” of the territory, probably also as a result of the existing belief among the leaders of the Romanian state that they had communist sympathies. Thus, on that day, about 2,000 Jews from Darabani were evacuated from their homes and interned in the camps in Oltenia; men in Târgu Jiu, and women in Turnu-Severin. After three months, they were brought to Dorohoi, from where they were deported on November 7th, 1941 to Transnistria. The deported Jews were searched by representatives of the National Bank, and the money and valuables, such as gold and jewellery, were confiscated. In return, they received Transnistrian money, that was worthless. During the years of deportation, many of the Jews in Darabani died of starvation, cold, and disease.

After the end of the war, in 1947, about 1,000 Jews lived in Darabani. Over time, most of them emigrated. So, in 1992 no Jews lived in the city.

Ana Bărbulescu, Darabani, accessible online at http://www.inshr-ew.ro/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Darabani.pdf 

Theodor Lavi, Lucian-Zeev Herscovici, Darabani, accessible online at https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/darabani