Alternate names: Bălți; Polish: Bielce, Russian: Бельцы, [Byel'tsy] and Бэлць, [Bėlts'], Ukrainian: Бєльці, [Bel'tsi], Yiddish: בעלץ at 47º 46´/27º 56 in Beltsy Raion. 131 km NW of Kishinev. photos [March 2009]
KehilaLink. [October 2012]
Jewish history from Yad Vashem [October 2012]
Jewish history [October 2012]
Pinkas Hakehillot Romania for Balti. [October 2012]
Sefer Beltsi Basarabia: yad ve-zekher le-yahadut Beltsi [December 2012]
Wikipedia [October 2012]
YouTube video of deportation of Jews in WWII [October 2012]
[UPDATE] Photos by Charles Burns [November 2017]
REFERENCES:
Goberman, David. Carved Memories: Heritage in Stone from the Russian Jewish Pale. NY: Rizzoli, 2000.
Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova, Routes to Roots Foundation, Inc. photos
- Main Shteitele Belts, Arkadi Verzub, in Russian.
- Beltsy. Some parts of the website are translated into English.
"In June 1941, much of the town was destroyed by German and Romanian air raids. The Jews fled to the nearby villages, most to Vlad. On July 7, a gang of Vlad peasants murdered occupants of homes sheltering the refugees and set fire to the houses. Some Romanian soldiers found fifty Jews on the road to Beltsy, drove them into the swamps, and shot them to death. " Beltsy was captured by the Germans on July 9 and those Jews who had returned were deported to a concentration camp. The same day ten Jews who had been taken as hostages were executed. The Gestapo also asked the ghetto committee to furnish a list of 20 'Jewish communists' who were to be put to death. When they refused to do so, all the committee members, together with another group of 44 Jews, were forced to dig their own graves and shot. Twenty more Jews were shot by the Germans on July 16. On July 11, 1941 all the surviving Jews were concentrated in the courtyard of the Moldova Bank. The Romanian guards who took over transferred them from their to an internment camp in the Rautel forest, some seven and a half miles (12 km) from the town. Many of the inmates died from starvation and disease. By August 30, 1941, only 8,941 Jews were left in the entire district (as against the 31,916 residing there according to the 1930 census). They were concentrated in three camps, and later on all were deported to Transnistria. Even the Jewish tombstones were removed from the cemetery in Beltsy to erase all traces of the Jewish inhabitants of the town, Jews returned to Beltsy after the war. The only synagogue was closed by the authorities in 1959 and the Jewish cemetery was badly neglected. In 1962 militia broke into a house where Jews had assembled for prayer; those attending were taken to the public square where communist youth had been gathered to jeer them. Their children were expelled from school." Jewish Encyclopedia, 1972. Yizkor: Sefer Beltsi Basarabia: yad ve-zekher le-yahadut Beltsi (Balti Basarabia: a memorial of the Jewish community*) 1993. Yosef Mazor (editor-in-chief), Mishah Fuks (editor)Agudat Yots'e Beltsi. Jerusalem. Hebrew. [March 2009]
CEMETERY:
Cemetery: Gravestones date from the 19th century. photos. Located on flat land and surrounded by a broken wall with a gate that locks, the 800.000 sq. m.site has 25.000 gravestones. The oldest gravestone dates from the 19th century. Vandalism occurred between 1990 and 2004. Many tombstones are broken or fallen. Some graves were opened. Contact: Bondari L. (+373-691)03292 photos [March 2009]
Third phase of the documentation project was completed, and now we have total of 2352 records with 1521 photos. Please see the overview, photos, and more at Beltsy Jewish Cemetery Report. 17 photos from unknown graves. [Sep 2015]
Reconstructed Holocaust memorial by architect Sergey Panchenko dedication: A grant from the European Jewish Fund paid for the reconstruction. Before WWII, almost 20,000 Jews lived in Balti. More than 15,000 died either in the extermination camps or by the harshness. In 1945, 5,000 survived, 3,000 had evacuated to Russia and 2,000 were alive in Transnistria. Covering the monument in granite has been deferred due to difficult weather conditions. The reconstruction work will resume in April 2009. [March 2009]
Beltsy. Cemetery Project, Arkadi Verzub. [Sep 2015]
photos and story [April 2016]
[UPDATE]6 graves vandalized Sept. 8, 2016 [September 2016]
