On July 13, 1941, on the orders of Ion Bordei, chief of the Romanian Gendarmerie, all Jews who were present in the village of Pepeni at the time (including some Jewish refugees from the towns of Bǎlți and Teleneşti) were locked in the town hall building in the center of Pepeni, on the pretext of having their documents checked. A total of 200-350 Jews – most of them women, elderly people, and children – were rounded up. They were all held separately – i.e., the men were kept apart from both the women (some of whom were pregnant) and the children, while the little children were separated from the women – for three days, without food or water. Toward the evening of the third day, July 15, the Romanian gendarmes herded all the Jews into the courtyard of the town hall, where they were mercilessly beaten, and then forced them back into the building. After the town hall had been completely encircled, Ion Bordei and his gendarmes tossed several hand grenades into the building. This was the signal to begin the massacre. The gendarmes fired through the windows into the rooms where the people were held. Some Jews who were staying in the rooms at the back of the building tried to escape through the windows, but were killed in the courtyard by local villagers and conscripts. The killing went on until dawn. On the next morning, the bodies of the victims were taken out of the building and buried in four pits at a stone quarry about 5 kilometers from the village. After the massacre, Ion Bordei ordered the floors of the town hall to be scrubbed clean, while the walls were whitewashed to remove the bloodstains. All the property of the Jews was confiscated by the local authorities; some of it was sent to Romania, and some was distributed to those who had taken part in the killing. The rest was sold at local shops.

More information: Yad Vashem