Passover Liberation
tee
The freeing of Odessa 60 years ago is remembered in Detroit's Russian communi
bC
that 200 hostages be executed for
each officer who had been killed
and 100 for each soldier. He also
. ° n April 10, the people of our Russian-
ordered the taking of one mem-
ber of every Jewish family as
Jewish community will celebrate a great
hostage.
holiday — the 60th anniversary of the lib-
eration of the city of Odessa from the
On Oct. 25, 1,900 Jews were
German-Romanian occupation. It is also the holiday
taken to the square at the harbor,
of the liberation of the inmates of the numerous ghet- where gasoline was poured on
tos and death camps in that area.
them and they were burned to
death. Among them were
Odessa is known to many people. It is from this
Southfield resident Leonid
area and the nearby towns and shtetls that one of the
Ehrlikh's sister and her family —
biggest influxes of immigrants came to America dur-
ing the first waves of immigration — they were flee-
her husband and three little chil-
dren.
ing the tragic pogroms that were raging in the cities
of Kishinev and Odessa at the very beginning of the
The next day, the Romanians
Clockwise from above:
last century.
assembled 20,000 Jews in the
The first pogrom was in 1871. Some of the Jews
local jail and escorted them to
Survivor Haim Rosenthal of
the village of Dalnik, where
that fled the pogroms came to the United States, to
Oak Park
Texas, and in 1881 founded there, together with rail-
some of them were shot and oth-
road workers, a city, and, in nostalgia, named it
ers shut down in warehouses that The Opera House in Odessa
Odessa.
were later set on fire. Following
Odessa is a port on the Black Sea. This area was
this massacre many Jews were
The Stairs to the Sea in
joined to the Russian Empire at the end of the 18th
sent from Odessa to the death
Odessa
century, and Odessa marked its bicentennial in
camps in some of the villages.
August 1994. Since the foundation of the city, its
Between Oct. 25 and Nov. 3,
population, especially the Jewish one, grew rapidly —
1941, the remaining 35,000-
.zar.404'
the families came from the near and far shtetls of
40,000 Jews of Odessa were
Ukraine and Bessarabia.
assembled in the ghetto of
Very soon the city became an important center of
Slobodka near the city, where many elderly people,
of the war in his native town in Bessarabia. Before the
the Jewish culture. On the eve of the World War II,
women and children froze to death. The remaining
liberation, he had to suffer three long years of hard
the Jewish population of the city was about 200,000
people 19,582 Jews, were later, in February 1942,
work, fear and humiliation in various camps, the loss
— close to 40 percent of the population.
deported to various camps of Transnistria.
of close relatives..
The war in that region began on June 22, 1941,
These tragic events were described in the book by
Isak Buksdorf of Southfield was 13 years old when
and days later the German and Romanian troops
prominent writers I. Ehrenburg and V. Grossman in
he first got into the ghetto. Later, he found himself in
occupied the areas west of Odessa. There appeared
The Black Book of Soviet Jewry.
a "skilled-labor ghetto."
the first ghettos, the first massacres. On Aug. 5, 1941,
Every year, on April 10, visitors from the United
Lyuba Sherman of Southfield, a young girl at that
they laid siege to the city, which lasted 73 long days
States and Israel — former inmates of the ghettos of
time, managed to escape from the ghetto, assisted by
and nights. The residents heroically defended their
Odessa — come to the city. They take part in the
a young Ukrainian peasant. After long nightly wan-
city, and their feat went down in history of the war.
march from one site of former ghettos and camps to
derings in the fields and groves between mostly hos-
Luckily, when the siege began, at least half of the
another along the roads that became for the inmates
tile villages, she found her way to a partisan unit.
city's Jews had managed to leave.
the roads of death. The organizer is the president of
She became a soldier and together with her unit she
the All-Israel community of the immigrants from
took part in the liberation of villages and towns of
Odessa, Jacob Maniovich.
the area. For her bravery, she was decorated with
Brutal Occupation
The liberation began on the first days of April
medals.
The occupation of Odessa began on Oct. 16, 1941.
1944. Those were the days that symbolically coincid-
Olga Stuttman of Southfield was 13 years old
On the day of occupation, there were about 90,000
ed with the holiday of Passover when the Jewish peo-
when she got into the ghetto; she was rescued by a
Jews in the city. Immediately, the German
ple celebrate their liberation from slavery. For the first Ukrainian family.
"Einsatzkommando 11 b" together with the
time since the beginning of the war, the inmates of
At the beginning of this century, the population of
Romanian intelligent service slaughtered more than
the death camps could breathe freely and peacefully.
Odessa counted 1,100,000 people, of them only
8,000 residents, mainly communists and Jews. A new
On April 10, the city of Odessa was liberated and the
30,000 are Jews. They are taking an active part in the
administrative region — Transnistria (the land
residents could return to their native city.
Jewish life of the city. There are two synagogues and
beyond the Dniester River) — was established. It was
four Jewish schools in the city. Two Jewish newspa-
handed over to Romanian rule.
pers are published there. The famous synagogue that
Local Survivors
On Oct. 22, 1941, the Romanian military head-
was founded by the philanthropist Brodsky is now
quarters was blown up. Sixty-six officers and soldiers
Among those who survived those tragic days are some
being renovated, and Odessa continues to be one of
were killed, including the military governor. In
members of our community. Haim Rosenthal of Oak
the most important centers of Jewish culture in
reprisal, Ion Antonescu, the Romanian ruler, ordered
Park was put into one of the ghettos on the first days
Ukraine.
LEV PARANS KY
Special to the Jewish News
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2004
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