"We are Bessarabians!"

Through one of the Historians attached to Mamaliga Blues, I was able to reach Mr. Levit in New York. In his 90's, he didn't speak any English, so his son helped us out. Mr. Levit is a scholar originally from Chisinau and knew that 613 people were exterminated in the Edinitz area in July 19, 1941 - among them was Yeshaya and Sioma Tolpolar, direct relatives. He also knew of a Tolpolar in the Philosophy department of the Academy of Science of Moldova, in Chisinau in the 70's-80's. This Tolpolar was a short, young man, Mr. Levit could not remember the first name. I wonder if this could have been Volodya Tolpolar, who passed away few years before we went to Moldova in 2008.

Both Mr. Levit and his son were excited to talk. I told them about the film project, and because neither one of them has access to e-mail, I'm supposed to mail some material.

When we were saying good-bye, his son repeated several times "we are Bessarabians!". What did he want to say? I thought about it for a while. That didn't only mean they were from Bessarabia, that I knew very well. It meant, I think, that we shared a common History, me and them. They were born in Bessarabia, but I was from there as well.

SOROCCA AND VOLODYA TOLPOLAR

This was a much more relaxing day. We left at 10AM, which gave us plenty of time to rest and get prepared to go to the Sorocca fortress, one of Moldova’s main’s sight. That would be our first “tourism only” day, and we were definitely happy about it. Going after your roots is fantastic, but it takes a lot from you, and we needed a day like this.

BUT… Before getting on the road, we came back to the Jewish Community Center in Chisinau. People there had found one of the few images of Volodya Tolpolar, who had just died a few years ago and could be a relative. It was a video image, and a very quick one, so we had to pause it to see his face better. But they couldn’t find the remote and therefore we couldn’t pause it. So Kerley had to take the picture on the go, with the VCR playing. She did a good job and now we have a digital picture of this Tolpolar we never knew existed. This time there was no time to talk at all as we needed to get going to Sorocca, in the very north of Moldova. But I promised to search for Volodya’s family, possibly living in Ukraine.

The fortress is a niece piece of History, but nothing very impressive. Cool thing was to see Ukraine right on the other side of the river.

There’s also a Jewish community there and a gipsy village, but we didn’t have much time to investigate it, only to drive by the synagogue. I do have much more images in my video camera.

For lunch we went to this restaurant across the fortress park. Kerley was happy to eat varenikes. I think I got some chicken.

It was our last day with Natasha and Sergei. We came back fairly early, compared to the other days, if I remember. We said our goodbyes and Sergei drove us to the hotel. He said he had a lot of fun, and we got his e-mail address. I promised to send some pictures.

I don’t remember what we did at night. As time passes by, I forget things.

(Apart from this trip, I wanted to share my excitement with a recent discovery. The sister-in-law of Sioma Tolpolar - my cousin who was killed in Cepleutz, is still alive, 91 years-old and living in New York. I am going there next week to meet her.)

Next: going to the famous winery Milestti Mici.