The Jews in Domaniovca during the Holocaust

In the middle of the 19th century, there was a small Jewish community in Domaniovca. In 1939, 369 Jews lived here.

After the occupation of the locality by German and Romanian troops in August 1941, it was put under Romanian administration, becoming part of Transnistria. It was the capital of Golta County. From September 1941, Colonel Modest Isopescu was appointed lieutenant prefect at the head of the county. Initially, in Domaniovca, a labour camp was set up, the purpose of which was to provide a labour reserve for the projects of the Romanian administration. The camp was improvised in dilapidated stables, pig pens, and several houses destroyed by bombing, which had no floors or roofs. Hygiene was completely missing. 

Within a few weeks, the camp became overcrowded, as about 20,000 Jews had been brought here. Due to the conditions in Domaniovca, the typhus epidemic broke out shortly after. Dozens of Jews died every day. The dying were not given any medical care. Many of them were completely naked. The bodies of some of them were eaten by worms and rats. The sick were crammed into two stables in the city centre. 

In January 1942, executions began in the Domaniovca camp. At the origin of the decision, there was also the fear of the Germans that the typhus epidemic could have spread over the Bug, where German troops were located. Therefore, the Germans put pressure on the prefect Isopescu to proceed with the execution of the Jews in the camp by shooting.

The executions began on January 10th, 1942 and lasted until March 18th, 1942. The executions were carried out at the order of Lieutenant Colonel Isopescu by members of the Ukrainian police and soldiers of the Romanian army. The victims were Jews from Ukraine and Bessarabia.

Before being executed, the Jews were robbed of their property. A few months after the assassinations, the bodies of those killed were burned, and their remains were buried in a ravine a few kilometres from the camp. However, the smell of burnt meat reached the camp. Between January 10th and March 18th, 1942, 18,000 Jews were shot dead.

After the assassinations, other deported Jews were brought to Domaniovca, and in August 1942, 8,000 Roma deported from Romania were transported here. The camp was dismantled in March 1944, after the region was occupied by the Soviets, and the detainees were released. At that time, there were about 500 surviving Jews, most of them deported from Romania.

Sources: 

Jean Ancel, Transnistria, vol. I, București, Editura Atlas, 1998, pp. 167, 202-204, 208-209, 214. 

Radu Ioanid, Holocaustul în România [The Holocaust in Romania], ediția a II-a, București, Editura Hasefer, 2006, pp. 275-276. 

Ovidiu Creangă, Domancova, în Geoffrey P. Megargee (general editor), Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos 1933-1945, Bloomington and Indianapolis: Indiana University Press, 2018, pp. 670-671.

***, DOMANEVKA, accessible online at http://iajgscemetery.org/eastern-europe/ukraine/domanevka