SEKIRYANY

SEKIRYANY (Rom. Secureni), village in Bessarabia, E. Chernovtsy oblast, Ukraine. Jews began to settle in Sekiryany at the invitation of the owner of the place, who wished to develop his estate after the Russian annexation of Bessarabia in 1812. As a result of Jewish immigration to Bessarabia which continued until the end of the 19th century, the community grew, numbering 5,042 Jews (56% of the total population) in 1897. Thus for all practical purposes, Sekiryany became an urban community even though it formally held the status of a village and it served as a commercial center for all the villages in the area. Jews marketed agricultural products and supplied farmers with their needs. They also were engaged in crafts and agriculture. After Bessarabia was annexed by Romania in 1918 the community developed an active public life. A network of educational institutions was established, including a kindergarten, elementary and high schools, all maintained by the Tarbut Organization, and a talmud torah. In 1920 a Jewish hospital was founded. Jews numbered 4,200 (72.6% of the total population) in 1930. (Eliyahu Feldman) -Holocaust Period Following the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939, Bessarabia passed to   the Soviet Union. On July 6, 1941, Sekiryany was captured by German-Romanian forces. These troops killed all the Jews they found in the villages on the way and in Sekiryany itself they killed 90 Jews in the first two days of the occupation. Many Jews committed suicide. The local peasants were incited to attack and rob the Jews, thus setting a three-day pogrom in motion. On the third day the Jews were driven to the cemetery and tortured by the troops. A few days later all the Jews were sent on a month-long death march. They were first led to brichany , where they spent eight days in the homes of the local Jewish families; then to Koslov where they were left in the open for three days, without food, water, or sanitary facilities. Whoever lifted his head was shot to death on the spot. The survivors were dispersed in the neighboring villages in groups of 200, to be reassembled a few days later and dispatched to Moghilev, transnistria (i.e., Mogilev, Ukraine). From there, still numbering a few thousand at this time, they were transferred to Skazinets, and some returned to their home town. Throughout these wanderings they subsisted on the grass and rotten beets collected along the road. Those unable to carry on were buried alive. The old and the sick were shot to death in a forest near Skazinets, and others succumbed to the cold, hunger, and epidemics. In the woods near Kosouty they underwent a brutal body search, during which a large number were killed. Their next stop was Obodovka, where they were locked in a pigsty and could not leave to bury their dead. The survivors were then taken to the kolkhoz Dubina, and to Bershad. By this time, only a few were still alive. After the expulsion of its native Jews, Sekiryany became a large concentration camp for 30,000 Jews from the entire district. The camp was disbanded on Oct. 3, 1941, and all its inmates deported to Transnistria. (Jean Ancel) -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Z. Iggeret (ed.), Sekuri'an (Bessarabyah) be-Vinyanah u-ve-Ḥurbanah (1954), 89–120; Herz-Kahn, in: Eynikayt (Aug. 23, 1945); M. Carp, Cartea neagrǎ, 3 (1947), index.