Obj. ID: 40110
Modern Jewish Art Holocaust memorial in Bălţi, Moldova, 1997
Who is Commemorated?
Jewish victims of Bălţi killed in the Holocaust
Description
The monument is in two parts set on a paved area within a grassy park. In front is a vertical stele in the shape of the menorah, with a commemorative inscription. It is painted white, and the inscription in Romanian is on an attached plaque. Behind, is a semi-circular area, a tall stele in the shape of a round-headed gravestone set on a low concrete and stone platform. In the center of the stele is a Magen David, through which runs a crack, exposing an inner level of red tiles. On the left of the crack is an inscription in Russian, and on the right side of the crack is the date “1941," this date is considered to be the beginning of the war with Nazi Germany in the former Soviet areas.
The monument was renovated in 2009 the commemorative plaque on the menorah was replaced with a plaque with the same inscription but in Hebrew, Russian, and Romanian.
Inscriptions
On the stele in Russian:
МИР ВАМ И ВЕЧНАЯ ПАМЯТЬ
Translation: Peace to you and eternal memory
On the original 1997 plaque affixed to the front of the concrete menorah in Romanian:
Evreilor victime ale
genocidului fascist
in anii celui de -al
Doilea Război
Mondial.
Translation: Jewish victims of the / fascist genocide / during the years of / World War II
The plaque affixed to the front of the concrete menorah during the renovation in 2009 is inscribed in Hebrew, Russian and Romanian. The inscription in Hebrew reads:
יהודים-הקורבנים של הגנוציד
הפשיסטי בשנות מלחמת העולם השניה
Translation: Jewish victims of the fascist genocide during the years of World War II
In Russian:
Евреи-жертвы фашистского геноцида
в годы Второй мировой войны
Translation: Jewish victims of the fascist genocide / during the years of World War II
In Romanian:
Evreilor victime ale genocidului fascist
in anii celui de-al Doilea Război Mondial
Translation: Jewish victims of the fascist genocide during the years of World War II
Commissioned by
Jewish community of Bălţi
9 image(s)
sub-set tree:
Bălţi, Romania (today Moldova) was "the second-largest populated city in Bessarabia, with the second largest number of Jewish inhabitants after Kishinev, and the economic center of the region. In the official 1930 census, Bălţi was listed as having 14,229 Jewish residents, about 60% of its total population. Following the Molotov-Ribbentrop Agreement, Bălţi was absorbed into the Soviet Union in the summer of 1940, coming under Soviet rule. On 22 June 1941, the Germans invaded the USSR. On 9 July, Bălţi was occupied by German and Romanian armies." By September 1941, there were no Jews in Bălţi anymore as they were either killed or deported [The story of Bălţi, Yad Vashem].
According to Lev Shvartsman, a former head of Bălţi's Jewish community, the history of the monument started in 1989, when an Israeli rabbi David Ben Haim arrived in the city for the High Holidays of 1989 (5750) and arranged a mass bar and bat-mitzvah ceremony for 28 boys and 25 girls. As a part of the ceremony boys, girls and their parents put flowers at the place "near a church," where "Jewish hostages" were shot in July 1941. For the next several years the local Jewish organization made attempts to get a permit for a memorial sign at the place or near it. Finally, the Holocaust monument was erected on a different spot in 1997.
In 2009, the monument was renovated by the Jewish community. In August 2013, the municipality named the park around the monument Park of Memory (in Russian "сквер Памяти"). The monument is a meeting ground on the International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27).
The monument and site are recognized as a protected historical site and kept in good condition.
Gruber, Samuel D. (ed.), Jewish Heritage Sites and Monuments in Moldova (Washington, DC: U.S. Commission for the Preservation of America’s Heritage Abroad, 2010)., https://www.heritageabroad.gov/Portals/0/Reports%20and%20Surveys/Moldova_Report_FINAL.pdf (accessed December 16, 2021)
"Kak v Bel'tsakh 30 let nazad vozrozhdalas' Evreiskaia obshchina. Vospominaniia L'va Shvartsmana," SP, December 31, 2019, https://esp.md/ru/podrobnosti/2019/12/31/kak-v-belcah-30-let-nazad-vozrozhdalas-evreyskaya-obshchina-vospominaniya-lva# (accessed February 10, 2022)
Saffer, Stuart. "Monument to the Holocaust Victims in Beltsy" in “Survey of Jewish History and Holocaust-Related Sites in Moldova,” Unpublished report, 2003, https://cja.huji.ac.il/external_texts_db/Moldova_Beltsy_Monument.pdf (accessed February 10, 2022)
"The Story of Bălţi, a Jewish Community in Romania (today Moldova)," Yad Vashem, https://www.yadvashem.org/yv/en/exhibitions/communities/balti/index.asp (accessed February 13, 2022)
“Holocaust Memorial Bălţi,” Gedenkstättenportal zu Orten der Erinnerung in Europa (The Information Portal to European Sites of Remembrance), https://www.memorialmuseums.org/denkmaeler/view/411/Holocaust-Memorial-B%C4%83l%C5%A3i (accessed February 10, 2022)