#Exhibit of the Month

The work In Memoriam. In Memory of the Heroes Who Fell at the Nistru (1992) was developed within the Center for Culture and Military History and published under the auspices of the Government of the Republic of Moldova, the Bureau for Reintegration, and the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Moldova. Authors: Gheorghe Bălan, Vitalie Ciobanu, Gheorghe Cojocaru.

This work provides a retrospective of the events that led to the outbreak of the war on the Nistru, accompanied by photographs of the heroes who lost their lives in the battles to defend the independence and territorial integrity of the Republic of Moldova.

On March 2, 1992, the political conflict in the Nistru region escalated into a true fratricidal war. Under the fabricated pretext of "defending Russia's southern borders," political adventurers from the former Soviet metropolis encouraged Transnistrian separatism by arming secessionist paramilitary groups. At the same time, thousands of mercenary Cossacks and prisoners released early from jails, along with tanks and missiles, were sent against Independent Moldova, in a desperate attempt to revive the fallen empire.

Russia's undeclared war against the Republic of Moldova left behind hundreds of dead and wounded, shattered families, and villages in ruins. More than 50,000 peaceful residents from the conflict zone were forced to flee their homes, seeking refuge from the horrors of war.

For the sake of freedom and the future, Moldova's defenders faced death, enduring the hardships and humiliations of war.

During the Nistru war, 198 soldiers of the National Army and 89 personnel from the Ministry of Internal Affairs lost their lives, while 40 combatants went missing without a trace, and nearly 300 were left disabled.

Virtual Tour

Exhibitions

„Jewish Presence in the History, Culture and Memory of the Republic of Moldova”

October 12, 2021 – May 30, 2022

The exhibition "Jewish Presence in the History, Culture and Memory of the Republic of Moldova" exhibits the items of the Jewish cultural and historical heritage from the collections of the National Museum of History of Moldova.

The exhibition brings together various heritage items: documents, photographs, awards, works of art, books, clothes, memorabilia and other relics that recreate some aspects of the history of the Jewish community of Moldova and remind of famous figures who made a special contribution to the development of Moldavian culture, science and society on the whole.

The exhibits recreate aspects of the life and work of figures from various fields of culture and science: scientists, composers, architects, musicians, writers, sculptors, actors, doctors, etc.

Among the Jews who fully integrated into the Moldovan society, created and left their immortal creations to their descendants, there are sculptors Lazar Dubinovsky, Claudia Kobizeva and Lev Averbukh, architects Valentin Voitsekhovsky, David Palatnik and Valentin Mednek, composers David Gerschfeld, Solomon Loebel, David Fedov and Zlata Tkach, artists Moisei Gamburd and Ada Zevina, actress Ninel Kameneva, filmmakers Mikhail Izrailev, Eugeniu Vengre and Olga Ulitskaya, musical figures Maria Dailis (Braido), Lydia Babich and Gita Stratilevich, writers and playwrights Yechiel Shraibman, Liviu Deleanu and Leonid Corneanu, scientists Pavel Sovetov, Lazar Polevoy and Isaak Rafalovich, doctors Moisei Gekhtman and Dmitry Tumarkin, and many, many others.

The exhibition also presents documentary materials from the Museum of History of the Jews in the Republic of Moldova concerning the Jewish pogroms in Chişinău in 1903 and 1906; some of these testimonies were taken from the National Archives of the Republic of Moldova.

A separate compartment of the exhibition brings shocking pictures of the Holocaust and calls on the public to realize the need to know the truth about the crimes of fascism. Researchers estimate that about 6 million Jews, including 1.5 million children, became victims of the Holocaust. About 270,000 Jews died in ghettos and camps in Bessarabia and Transnistria.

This compartment reminds contemporaries that recovering the memory of Holocaust victims is a social desideratum that must be taken into account by any institution responsible for preserving historical memory.

The exhibition "Jewish Presence in the History, Culture and Memory of the Republic of Moldova" is part of the series of events planned in the Action Plan for the implementation of the Declaration of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova on the adoption of the Report of the International Commission on the Holocaust, chaired by Elie Wiesel.

The opening of the exhibition will take place on October 12, 2021, at 15:00, in room 1 on the ground floor of the National Museum of History of Moldova, 31 August 1989 Street, 121A.