Bessarabia

Bessarabia or Bessarabiya (Basarabia in Romanian, Besarabya in Turkish) was the name by which the Imperial Russia designated the eastern part of the principality of Moldavia annexed by Russia in 1812. The remaining Moldavia united with Wallachia in 1859 in what will become the Kingdom of Romania. Bessarabia declared independence from Russia and united with the Kingdom of Romania in 1918 at the end of World War I. USSR annexed Bessarabia in the beginning of WW II (see Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact) and again at the end of WW II and reorganised it as Moldavian SSR, reducing its territory by assigning its southern and northern parts to Ukrainian SSR. In 1991 the Moldavian SSR declared independence from USSR as Republic of Moldova.

External Links

• Bessarabia Germans from Russia Web Site
• Camps, Ghettos and Massacre sites in Romania-Bessarabia 1941-1942
• Jews in Bessarabia on the eve of WWII
• Massacres, deportations & death marches from Bessarabia, from July 1941
• Scholtoi - a village in the North of Bessarabia
• Hannowka - a German village in Bessarabia 1896-1940 (website in German)