This post documents the site at Chudei, (also known as Ciudin by the Jews in 1940) Ukraine (formerly Romania) based on a visit by me, Philip Moses of Vancouver, Canada and my brother Richard Moses of Ottawa, Canada on May 10, 2018.
There is a memorial on the site of the mass murder, located about a block or two from the town centre, next to a Primary School.
We were transported by 2 guides, originating In Suceava Roumania and driving to the border where we walked into Ukraine and met a Ukrainian driver. The border has long waits and therefore the idea to walk across the border both ways.
The road from Storozhynets direction is in much better shape, and although Google shows the more direct route as shorter time-wise, it is in very bad condition and actually takes longer. So, we recommend the longer route.
Not far from the centre of the village is a school for young children. Just behind the school there is a playground and next to it is a large memorial with a base in the shape of a Magen David.
The Memorial
The school. In 1941 – courthouse and jail
In that school site, in 1941 there was a courthouse and jail. Sometime between July 3-5, 1941, the 650 Jews of the town were locked into the main jail. Then our grandfather, aunts and uncles and cousins were shot and thrown into a mass grave behind the building.
My father Asiu Moses was hiding in the woods and escaped. His full story can be found at https://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Chudyn/chu001.html
The original Jewish cemetery of Chudei is out of the village along the road, in the same direction from town as the memorial, a kilometre or two opposite to the Christian cemetery. It is very overgrown and many of the tombstones would require a large cutting tool to chop down the overgrowth. The writing on many of the stones is difficult or impossible to discern. Many are in better shape and identifiable.
