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 : 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 .