A World War II Tragedy. Albota de Sus, a Bessarabian German Village in Moldova

Until 1940, right before the war, one hundred and fifty-seven families lived in Albota. Apart from a Russian postman and a shopkeeper of Jewish faith, everyone was German.

Victor Piculschi, the mayor of Albota de Sus since 1984, was born in central Ukraine, in Khmelnytskyi. He studied at the University of Tiraspol and after marrying his wife, he was directed by the Soviet authorities in Albota. He has lived here since 1975. “My life is very comfortable in Albota. People have chosen me here but I don’t forget my homeland Ukraine. I am saddened by what is going on there.”

His mother is old and still lives in Khmelnytskyi. The mayor regularly goes there, five or six times per year, despite being six hundred kilometres away from the village, but he proudly remarks: “I spent most of my life in Albota as the representative of the Moldovan local authority, so if people ask me where I am from, I say: ‘I am from Moldova.’”

Albota is a village with an almost forgotten past. It was created as a Bessarabian German colony in 1880. Bessarabian German colonies have a long history in the region. In 1812, after the war between the Russian and Ottoman empires, an agreement was made and Bessarabia (an area broadly corresponding to the now Republic of Moldova and parts of South West Ukraine) was annexed to Russia. Elisabeta Alexeievna, wife of Tsar Alexander I and Empress of Russia at the time, was German. The Russian Empire was in need of settlers to populate the region and Germans were invited to occupy these lands. Starting from 1814, Germans started to colonise Moldova.

Being part of a colony brought a lot of privileges for the inhabitants. They didn’t have to pay taxes for ten years, there was no army conscription for men, and the land was given to them for free.

In 1918, Bessarabia became a Romanian province. Until 1940, right before the war, one hundred and fifty-seven families lived here. Apart from a Russian postman and a shopkeeper of Jewish faith, everyone was German. Piculschi shows us a detailed map: it is the land register of that period. All the houses and lands were registered under German names. It is still possible to read the profession of the people living in every single household. The neighbouring village, Albota de Jos, was created only thirty years later and not by the Germans.

A Bessarabian German association is still active in Germany. Its headquarters are in Stuttgart and the mayor was once invited there. After this meeting, tours have been organised for the relatives of the people who used to live in Albota. In front of the town hall, a brand new stone in black marble reminds the visitors that this used to be a German village.

Dozens of similar villages in the Southern Bessarabian region were German colonies before being emptied by the Ribbentrop- Molotov Pact and the war, between 1940 and 1941. Suddenly the region became part of the Soviet Union and Hitler ordered that all the ethnic Germans had to be moved to Germany-controlled territories and fight for the Third Reich.

Dozens of similar villages in the Southern Bessarabian region were German colonies before being emptied by the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact and the war, between 1940 and 1941.

After the war, Stalin, to inflict further suffering to an already doomed community, sent all the Bessarabian German returning families to Siberia, accusing them of being traitors of the Soviet Union. Not until Stalin’s death in 1956 were they granted safe return to their land. It was too late though: most of their lands and houses had already being taken over by other people.

Piculschi presents some data: in 1975, when he arrived here, there were people from twenty-three different nationalities in the village, coming from all over the Soviet Union, including a few surviving German families. After Brezhnev’s death in 1982, they were all allowed to leave for Germany. Almost nothing is left from their presence. Only the local church vaguely brings some resemblance to a Protestant church, despite being obviously Orthodox.

Unfortunately, even the old German cemetery was destroyed in 1974. No one used to take care of it and under Soviet rules, a cemetery not used for burials for more than thirty years had to be demolished. The location is still known: it is right where the mayor currently lives. Coffins were found few years ago during some excavation works.

Currently Albota de Sus is still a multi-ethnic village, like many in this region stretching between Gagauzia, Taraclia and Cahul. 60% of the people are Bulgarians, 30% Gagauzians, and 10% Moldovans.