Fântâna Albă massacre

The Fântâna Albă massacre took place April 1, 1941, in Northern Bukovina when between 200 and 2,000 civilians were killed when their attempt to cross the border from the Soviet Union to Romania, near the village of Fântâna Albă, now in Chernivtsi Oblast, Ukraine, was met with open fire by the Soviet Border Troops. Although according to some data no more than 48 civilians were killed, local witnesses assert a much higher toll, claiming that survivors were tortured, killed, or buried in mass graves. Other survivors were allegedly taken away to be tortured and killed at the hands of the NKVD, the Soviet secret police.

Background
In June 1940, Romania was forced to withdraw from a territory inhabited by 3.76 million people, submitting to an ultimatum by the Soviet Union. The Romanian administration and military were evacuated, and the Red Army and NKVD quickly occupied the land. Many families were caught by surprise by the rapid unfolding of events, and had members on both sides of the new border. Therefore, many tried to cross the border, with or without official permission. According to official Soviet data, during, in the area patrolled by the 97th Unit of Soviet Border Troops, 471 people had crossed the border illegally from the districts of Hlyboka, Hertsa, Putila, and Storozhynets. The zone assigned to this unit extended from the border to about 7.5 km (2.9 mi) south of Chernivtsi.

From the more remote areas of the Chernivtsi Oblast (northern portion of the acquired territories that was included in the USSR), such as the districts of Vashkivtsi, Zastavna, Novoselytsia, Sadhora, and Chernivtsi-rural, during, 628 people crossed the border to find refuge in Romania. This phenomenon cut across all ethnic and social groups in the occupied territories. A Ukrainian scholar estimated the number of refugees to Romania during the first year of Soviet administration at 7,000.

The Soviet authorities' reaction to this phenomenon was twofold. First, border patrol efforts were strengthened. Second, lists were made of families that had one or more members which had fled to Romania, and thus were considered "traitors of the Motherland", therefore subject to labor camp deportation. On January 1, 1941, the lists made by the 97th Unit of the Soviet Border Guards mentioned 1,085 persons. Tables for other localities included names for 1,294 people (on December 7, 1940). At this point, even people who were merely suspected of intending to flee to Romania began to be included.

On November 19, 1940, 40 families (a total of 105 people) from Suceveni village, also carrying 20 guns, tried to cross the frontier at Fântâna Albă. At night, a battle ensued with the Soviet border guards, during which 3 people were killed, 2 were wounded and captured by the Soviets, while the rest of the group (including 5 wounded) managed to arrive in Rădăuţi, on the other side of the border. However, in short order, the relatives of the 105 people were all arrested and internally deported (to Siberia).

In January 1941, over 100 villagers from Mahala, Ostriţa, Horecea and other villages crossed successfully the border and arrived in Romania. This gave confidence to other villagers. Therefore, a group of over 500 people from the villages of Mahala, Cotul-Ostriţei, Buda, Sirăuţi, Horecea-Urbana and Ostriţa tried to cross to Romania during the night of February 6, 1941. However, they had been denounced to the authorities and were discovered by the border guards at 06:00. Volleys of machinegun fire from multiple directions resulted in numerous dead, including the organizers N. Merticar, N. Nica and N. Isac. About 57 people managed to arrive in Romania, but 44 others were arrested and tried as "members of a counter-revolutionary organization". On April 14, 1941, the Kiev Military District Tribunal sentenced 12 of them to death, while the other 32 were sentenced to 10 years forced labor and 5 years of loss of civic rights each. As had been the case before, all the family members of these "traitors to the Motherland" were also arrested and deported to Siberia.

The massacre
On April 1, 1941, approximately 2,000 2,500 –3,000 unarmed people from several villages (Pătrăuţii-de-Sus, Pătrăuţii-de-Jos, Cupca, Corceşti, Suceveni), carrying a white flag and religious symbols, walked together towards the new Soviet-Romanian border. There were rumors circulating that the Soviets would now permit crossing to Romania. At the border they were warned by the Soviet troops to stop. After the group ignored the warning, the border guards began to shoot. Casualty figures from just six Bukovina villages amounted to 44 people (17 from Pătrăuţii-de-Jos, 12 from Trestiana, 5 each from Cupca and Suceveni, 3 from Pătrăuţii-de-Sus, 2 from Oprişeni). A partial listing of those victims which were later identified:
 * From Carapciu: Nicolae Coduban, Cosma Opaiţ, Gheorghe Opaiţ, Vasile Opaiţ, Cosma Tovarniţchi, Gheorghe Tovarniţchi, Vasile Tovarniţchi.
 * From Cupca: Ioan Belmega, Ioan Gaza, Arcadie Plevan, Mihai Ţugui.
 * From Dimca (Trestiana):  Nicolae Drevariuc, Petre Cimbru, Vasile Cimbru, Petre Jianu.
 * From Suceveni: Dragoş Bostan, Titiana Lipastean, Gheorghe Sidoreac, Constantin Sucevean.
 * From Iordăneşti: Dumitru Halac, Ion Halac, Nicolae Halac, Dumitru Opaiţ, Constantin Molnar.
 * From Pătrăuţii de Jos: Zaharia Boiciu, Ana Feodoran, Gheorghe Feodoran, Nicolae Feodoran, Teodor Feodoran, Maftei Gavriliuc, Ion Pătrăuceanu, Ştefan Pavel, Rahila Pojoga.
 * From Pătrăuţii de Sus: Constantin Cuciureanu, Gheorghe Moţoc, Arcadie Ursulean.
 * Other peasants shot and killed that day: Ion Cobliuc, Petru Costaş, Ion Hudima, Petru Palahniuc.

The exact death toll remains a matter of controversy. Eyewitnesses to the incident estimate that around 200 people were killed directly by gunfire, many more wounded. Some of the wounded were allegedly caught afterwards, tied to horses and dragged to previously excavated common graves, where they were killed with shovels or buried alive. Other wounded were brought to the Hlyboka NKVD headquarters, where they were tortured and many died. Some of the latter were taken after the torture to the city's Jewish cemetery, and thrown alive into a common grave, over which quicklime was poured.

An account of the events is given by one of the few surviving eyewitnesses, Gheorghe Mihailiuc (born in 1925, now a retired high-school teacher), in his book, "Dincolo de cuvintele rostite" (Beyond spoken words), published in 2004 by Vivacitas, in Hlyboka. Mihailiuc describes what happened at Fântâna Albă on April 1, 1941 as a "massacre", a "genocide", and a "slaughter".

There is some controversy whether the Soviet border guards warned or not the column of people to stop before firing upon it. Some sources say that the Soviets summoned the column to halt, but that a flag-bearer in front of the column reassured the people that the guards were forbidden to open fire upon groups of over 20. One way or the other, seconds later machine gun fire hit the group of unarmed civilians in full force.

Aftermath and larger context
During 1940–1941, between 12,000 and 13,000 Bukovinians (mostly, but not only ethnic Romanians) were deported to Siberia and the Gulag. As a result of emigration and killings, the Romanian population of Chernivtsi region dropped by more than 75,000 between the Romanian 1930 census and the first Soviet census of 1959. It has been claimed that these persecutions were part of a program of deliberate extermination, planned and executed by the Soviet regime.

References and sources

 * Vasile Ilica, "Martiri şi mărturii din nordul Bucovinei (Fântâna-Albă-Suceveni-Lunca-Crasna-Ijeşti...)", Oradea, 2003
 * Lavinia Betea, "Masacrul din Fântâna Albă", Jurnalul Naţional, August 29, 2005
 * Ion Creţu, 1 aprilie—64 de ani de la masacrul românilor la Fântâna Albă: Varniţa, o tristă amintire, Crai Nou, April 1, 2005
 * Gabriel Gherasim, "Românii bucovineni sub cizma străină", Ziua, August 16, 2005
 * Vasile Mănescu, "Masacrul de la Fîntîna Albă", Monitorul de Neamţ, April 4, 2006
 * Ion Popescu, "Crearea regiunii Cernăuţi", Obsevatorul, February 13, 2005
 * Genocidul din România: Repere în Procesul Comunismului
 * Vasile Târâţeanu, “Scriitorul nu poate exista în afara cetăţii” (interview with Emanoil Toma), Luceafărul Românesc, May 2007.