00:00Every year, at the beginning of April, Irina Shehova visits the Jewish cemetery in the Moldovan capital, Kisinau.
00:07For her, it's an encounter with her family's past.
00:10Her great-grandparents are buried here.
00:13They were witnesses to one of the darkest chapters in the city's history.
00:23In April 1903, Irina's great-grandfather, Skaria Kleitman,
00:27witnessed what is known as the Kishinev pogrom, one of the most violent anti-Jewish riots
00:32in what was then Kishinev in the Russian Empire and is now Kishinau.
00:36Over the course of three terrifying days, 49 Jews were killed and more than 500 injured.
00:43Their homes and shops were plundered.
00:46Authorities were slow to intervene, allowing the violence to escalate.
00:50Irina's great-grandparents survived.
00:52They were saved by a neighbor who hid them in his cellar.
00:55My father told me that it was a house on two families, or a house on two halves,
01:04where lived our Jewish family of Kleitman, and the second one,
01:09he said, a Moldav family, a Christian family, exactly.
01:13When the war began, this non-Jewish neighbor opened his grave,
01:21and said to the Jews, let's all go here.
01:24Irina's great-grandparents remained hidden in that cellar for three days.
01:28It saved their lives.
01:30The 1903 pogrom was triggered by anti-Semitic rumors that spread in the press,
01:35claiming that Jews had killed a Christian child and used his blood for religious rituals,
01:40an anti-Semitic trope often used as a legitimation for violent pogroms against the Jewish population.
01:47The bodies of the murdered Jews were buried in this cemetery,
01:50which is also home to the crypt of the oldest Jewish grave in Kisinau.
02:13The Jewish Museum is situated on the site of the former Jewish hospital complex in Kisinau.
02:18Julian Palichowicz works at the museum.
02:22He says that this is where those who were wounded in the pogrom were brought and treated.
02:27Here we are in front of a building that seems to be authentic, as we can see in the pose
02:34that I will show you right now.
02:38Here we are in front of the people's head.
02:49If you observe well, the majority of the men are bandaged, and the arms are bandaged, so they are protected
03:04by not being held in the head.
03:06Today, Kisinau commemorates the events of Easter 1903 throughout the month of April.
03:11This year, the President of the Republic of Moldova, Maya Sandu, came to the Jewish cemetery to pay tribute to
03:18the victims.
03:22It is important to know the history, to recognize the mistakes we have made.
03:30If we don't know them, we risk to repeat them.
03:33I want to remind everyone that there is nothing more precious than the life of a man.
03:40Every person needs to feel safe, where we live in our community, in our society.
03:48For this, we need to do everything, so that we don't want to be repeated.
03:54For Irina Shehova, this is not just a chapter in a history book.
03:59It's a trauma, a pain that has left an indelible mark on her entire family.
04:04I always knew this. I don't remember how many years ago they told me.
04:11It was not said to be afraid of people. I don't fear people.
04:16But I remember how Yankala said that there was a house on the ground.
04:22And Yankala, and there were walls on the walls.
04:25And Yankala always said that you need to close the walls at night.
04:29Let the walls of the walls will be closed.
04:32This is what remains somewhere in the country.
04:38In 1903, around 50,000 Jews lived in Kisinau, making up nearly half of the city's population.
04:45Afterwards, many left the city for good.
04:48Tens of thousands more were killed in the Holocaust.
04:51Today, only a few thousand remain in the city.
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