the holocaust under the antonescu government...Antonescu regime, the central and local authorities, and certain extremist elements, which took part in this genocide. So naturally,

1

ASSOCIATION OF ROMANIAN JEWS

VICTIMS OF THE HOLOCAUST

MARCU ROZEN

THE HOLOCAUST UNDER THE

ANTONESCU GOVERNMENT HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL DATA

ABOUT JEWS IN ROMANIA

1940 - 1944

Translated in English by

Alexandra Beris

IVth

Edition, revised and completed

A.R.J.V.H.

Bucharest 2006

Acknowledgment

This book has been published with the support of the Romanian Ministry of

Education & Research and Claims Conference (Rabbi Israel Miller Fund for

Shoah Research, Documentation and Education).

2

PREFACE

Today more than ever, it is necessary to remember the tragic events of the 2

nd World War,

among which the crimes of the Antonescu Government against the Jews.

Polls undertaken by various TV networks indicate that a rather high percentage of the

population is ignorant as to Marshal Antonescu’s historical figure and the predicament of the

Jews during his government. This is compounded by the fact that certain politicians and

historians who make their voices heard in the mass media are falsifying the historical truths of the

period, and concomitantly inoculating the poisonous ideas of extremism and anti-Semitism

among their audience.

We can observe repeatedly how certain individuals auto-proclaim themselves as defenders of

the Romanian people against alleged accusations of war crimes. We, the survivors of those

events, would like to point out that we have never held the Romanian people accountable, or

associated it with these inhuman actions. The guilt for those crimes rests solely with the

Antonescu regime, the central and local authorities, and certain extremist elements, which took

part in this genocide. So naturally, the question arises: If the Romanian people does not stand

accused, why is it necessary to defend it, and against whom?

We consider that the glorification of historical personalities who devised and implemented

the genocide of the Jewish population is extremely dangerous and harmful to the new

generations. A similar negative impact is exerted by numerous books and articles which falsify

the historical truth, going so far as to deny certain events which occurred during the 2nd

World

War.

This is why we deemed it appropriate to support the publication of this book.

The author, Mr. Marcu Rozen, is known by his other publications, “The demographic

involution of the Romanian Jews between 1940 and 2000”, published in 1998 (which also

appeared in Hebrew translation in Israel), “The Jews in the district of Dorohoi during the 2nd

World War”, published in 2000, and “Sixty Years from the deportation of the Jews in

Transnistria”, published in 2001.

Using a rich bibliographical database, as well as his personal experience (as the only survivor

from a family of five deported to Transnistria), the author manages to capture the essence of these

tragic events, and to present concisely and accessibly a large volume of data pertaining to the

complex phenomenon known as the “Holocaust” in Europe, among which the extermination of a

large contingent of Jews under the Antonescu Government in Romania.

Behind the dry numbers and tables presented in this work reside numerous human destinies,

shattered in the course of the events. Each and every statement is based on verifiable facts.

During the entire course of the book, the author lets the facts speak for themselves – and should

the facts accuse, the truth shall not be disguised. Documents long since archived are being

brought to light, in the name of those condemned to death simply for having been born Jews.

This work, which reopens a painful chapter, is being released so that the Romanian reader

may learn the truth about this dark time in history, and may be able to adequately integrate

various attempts at falsifying historical facts and propagating extremist and anti-Semitic

doctrines.

The Management of the Association of Romanian Jews,

Victims of the Holocaust

3

The Author’s Testimony as a Survivor of the Transnistria Holocaust

Stolen Childhood

I was born on the 20th

of March 1930 in the city of Dorohoi in Northern Moldova. I

lived in a modest household, together with my parents (Iancu and Malvina Rozen), a

younger brother (Sorel Rozen) and a grandmother. My family, as all other Jewish

families, respected the ancestral customs and traditions. Both Yiddish and Romanian

were spoken in the household.

The Dorohoi District, the capital of which was the city of Dorohoi, was part of the

Old Kingdom. As such, a large number of Jews from the city of Dorohoi partook in the

War for Independence in 1877, as well as in the great battle for the National Unification

of Romania in 1916-1918. Many of those Jews died fighting for Romania. My

grandfather Meer Perez also fought in the battles of 1916-1918, and later died as a result

of an illness he contracted during the course of the war.

Between the two world wars, the city of Dorohoi counted around 5,800 Jews,

representing roughly 37% of the city’s total population. This relatively high Jewish

presence conferred a pronounced Jewish character to the city, manifested by the presence

of multiple synagogues, an Israeli school, a hospital, a nursing home, a ritual bath and

other institutions of the Jewish community. On the streets of the city, one could hear

people speaking Yiddish as well as Romanian.

The relationships between the Jewish and Romanian population were of mutual

tolerance and understanding; violent anti-Semitic manifestations were quite rare.

The beginning of the year 1938, marked by the instatement of the Goga-Cuza

government, as well as by the promulgation of the first anti-Semitic laws, brought

uneasiness and fear among the Jewish population in the city.

Gradually, as a result of the anti-Jewish campaign of the governments which

succeeded in power, the anti-Semitic manifestations grew, as the Romanian population

was being incited by extremist political elements to Jew-hatred and persecution.

On July 1, 1940, at the age of ten, I witnessed the first anti-Jewish pogrom in

Dorohoi. Various Romanian military detachments, under the leadership of legionary

officers withdrawing from Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the Hertza territory,

atrociously murdered 70 Jews from the city of Dorohoi and the surroundings, and

wounded and tortured many others. The many hideous manifestations of this pogrom

remained burned in my memory for the rest of my life.

Beginning September 1940 – after the proclamation of the National Legionary Statute

– a new wave of anti-Semitic reprisals descended upon the Jews of Dorohoi. Soon I was

expelled from Romanian grammar school, and obliged to complete the 4th

grade at the

Israeli school in the city. I cannot forget how one night in the winter of 1940, the director

of the Israeli school Meer Herscovici was savagely beaten and tortured by the legionaries,

and for many months thereafter struggled between life and death.

The menaces, the terror, and the fear were growing day by day, taking on

progressively more diabolical forms.

On June 22, 1941 the war started, leading to a new wave of persecutions. Thousands

of Jews evacuated from other parts of the district (including Darabani, Saveni, Mihaileni,

Radauti-Prut and the rural areas), arrived in Dorohoi at this time, such that the Jewish

4

population of the city doubled. This led to great difficulties regarding shelter and

supplies, since the evacuated Jews only took along what they could carry, the rest of their

property being left at the disposal of predators.

At the beginning of November 1941, it was announced that the Jewish population of

Dorohoi was to be deported to Transnistria.

The deportation started on November the 7th

, 1941. Thousands of Jews cramped in

freight cars, each one with the luggage he was able to carry, were forced to leave their

homes for a life of vagrancy.

My family, composed of five people – my parents, grandmother, a younger brother

and I – left on November 12, 1941. I was twelve years old at the time. Thus the inferno

started – the road to Holocaust.

The transport in freight train cars, during a cold early winter, was a true nightmare.

Two days into the trip we reached Atachi, on the border of the Dniester, by a totally

destroyed bridge. We were disembarked from the freight cars and transported across the

river on a ferryboat.

Beyond the Dniester was the town of Moghilev. Here we were housed in a camp,

from which we were supposed to leave for the far regions of Transnistria.

The next day, exhausted, hungry and frozen, we started out on foot in a convoy, on a

road that for most of us would prove to be a road of no return. Shortly, people started

dying – the first victims of the deportation. Three days later we reached the town of

Shargorod. My entire family was exhausted. Together with other Jews, we hid and

didn’t leave any further, as the convoy continued its way towards the river Bug.

Shargorod was a small Ukrainian township, counting about 1,800 local Jews, to

which more than 7,000 Jews deported from Basarabia, Bucovina and the Dorohoi District

had been added. Therefore, housing the deportees was a problem. Many of them,

especially the ones from Dorohoi, which arrived among the last, were living in

improvised common shelters, lacking heat and elementary hygienic conditions.

Public health measures were entirely inexistent.

The homes were old, most of them made of clay, with small rooms, windows that

were permanently closed, and ventilation provided by a single outlet. There were all in

all 337 houses, each one containing two or three small rooms, 842 rooms total, which

amounts to 10 or 11 people per room.

The population was malnourished, there was no way of earning a living, and food was

procured by exchanging our clothing for it. As a result, in order not to starve, most of us

were left almost naked.

The winter of 1941-1942 was especially hard. The cold, famine, and plagues,

particularly the typhus epidemic, invaded the entire Jewish community in the ghetto,

which, deprived of any aid, fell victim to despair. Death was showing its ugly face,

taking on progressively more menacing forms.

A sled pulled by a starving horse was going round the ghetto each morning, loading

the cadavers of the ones who had succumbed to suffering and misery.

By February of 1942, hundreds of bodies lay in the cemetery of Shargorod. They

couldn’t be buried because the earth was frozen in its depth, making it impossible to dig a

common grave.

We lived in an unheated room (a former summer store), which now served as home to

roughly 15 people. We slept on the ground, on straw we had collected from the

5

marketplace. Our day clothes were our nightclothes as well, since the rest of our clothing

had gradually been given away to Ukrainian peasants in exchange for food.

Hunger, cold and pestilence (especially typhus), started making victims in our room,

and also in my family.

The first to die was my grandmother. I remember how before the war she often

showed us children the medal her husband (my grandfather) had gotten in the battle of

Marasesti. Her eldest son (my mother’s brother) had also fought in the First World War

as a platoon leader, and had been decorated with the Commemorative War Cross. Before

the war, my grandmother would often hold those medals in her hand, as she told us

children the stories. When she died, there was nothing in her hand but a frozen peel of

potato, which she had been too weak to eat.

Only a month after my grandmother’s death, my mother expired as well. She was

just 38. She was weak and exhausted, since she would always give to us children the

scanty food brought home by my father. In the end, she couldn’t withstand the cold and

disease.

Left alone with two children, my father made desperate efforts to find scraps of food

so we could survive. When the first warm sunrays heralded the onset of spring, my father

took ill and fell in a deep sleep. After three days, he passed on, peaceful in his

knowledge he had saved us children from that terrible winter.

We were left alone in the room – myself, a 12-year old, and my younger brother who

was 6 – since most of our roommates died, and the ones who survived moved to better

rooms vacated by the deaths of their inhabitants.

At that time, an aunt of ours, Dora Peretz, herself in a difficult situation with her two

children, took us in. Her husband, Rubin Peretz (my mother’s brother) had stayed behind

in the country, being concentrated in a forced labor detachment.

In the summer of 1942, our situation – my little brother’s and mine – had become

dramatic. In order not to starve, we had to go out begging, or collect household leftovers

such as potato peels – our food and poison likewise.

At the beginning of September my little brother took ill and could no longer be saved.

He died at the age of only 6, on a cold and gloomy autumn day.

I recall that shortly after the community was notified, a cart pulled by a horse showed

up in front of our broken-down home, and asked for the body of my little brother, to take

it to the graveyard.

He was the only one deceased that day. I put his lifeless body on the cart, and started

out on foot behind the cart, together with my aunt. The cart driver occasionally looked at

me with pity and kept quiet. The road to the graveyard traversed a steep hill, muddy and

difficult to climb. Dark clouds covered the sky, and soon a dense cold rain started

falling. We continued walking slowly, without uttering a word.

At the graveyard, there was only one man present, who together with the cart driver

took the lifeless body and placed it in a common grave, next to other cadavers brought on

previous days. A few hands of dirt thrown over the body concluded the procedure.

There were no prayers, and no other ceremonials. The grave remained open for the dead

to be delivered in the days to come.

Thus the last member of my family vanished. I returned home desperate. This was

the hardest day of my life.

6

Left alone, I was fortunate enough to be accepted in late fall of 1942 in an orphanage,

organized by the Jewish Community of Shargorod with the help of the Jews back in the

country.

In this orphanage, roughly 100 children from Basarabia, Bucovina and Dorohoi were

gathered, who had been left homeless and without hope. Here, thanks to the care of

hearty and skilful educators, we were returned to life.

In this orphanage I forged the first friendships of my deportation – children with

whom I shared the same feelings of suffering and hope. Sometimes, when I look through

a small notebook of memories from the orphanage, I remember the ones I shared my life

with for more than a year, making plans for the future. I don’t know where they are, how

many are left alive, and if among them there are still those who remember me.

Here are a few names: Sidi Picker, Carol Ruhm, Ester Stein, Betti Klein, Betti

Gasner, Pepi Grunfeld, Harry Lessner, Mina Leibovici, Tina Fruth, Misu Shapira, Iosif

Tesler, Iancu Katz, M. Berthal and many others.

In the fall of 1942, when the front was closing in on Transnistria, the Antonescu

government accepted the repatriation of the Jews from Dorohoi. At the railroad station

back home, a large crowd – Jewish as well as non-Jewish – came to welcome the

survivors. There were hugs, and shouts of pain and anguish mixed with joy and hope.

I stopped for a moment as I got off amidst this commotion. Tears came to my eyes,

as I looked at this place from where five of us departed two years back, and where I was

now returning by myself.

This is in short the story of my childhood during the difficult years of the 2nd

World

War. All the ones my age deported to Transnistria have been robbed by the Antonescu

Regime in Romania of the most beautiful time in their life – their childhood. And of so

much more!

Two Significant Documents Belonging to the Author:

1. The Postcard written by the author, at the age of 12, to his uncle Carol (Chaim)

Peretz in Bucharest, in which he informs the latter about the death of his parents

and grandmother, and solicits his support to save him and his younger brother Sorel

Rozen.

This postcard was returned to the author by his uncle, after the author’s return from

Transnistria.

Shargorod 1/6/942

Dear Uncle Carol,

With great pain I have to let you know that father, mother and

grandmother have passed away, and Sorel and I are now on

our own.

Please do all you can to get us out of here.

Regards to everyone. Love,

Marcu and Sorel

7

2. Copy of the petition forwarded by the author’s uncle Carol (Chaim) Peretz to

Marshal Ion Antonescu, through the Central of the Romanian Jews. To this

petition his uncle never received a response.

Marshal Sir,

I, the undersigned Chaim Peretz, residing in

Bucharest, Calea Dorobantilor, Nr. 49, Second

Floor, respectfully dare to submit to Your high

magnanimity the following matter:

During the winter of 1941, together with a part

of the Jewish population of the city of Dorohoi, the

family of my brother in law Iancu Rozen was

evacuated to the Township of Shargorod, District of

Moghilev, Transnistria. The family was composed

of husband, wife, mother, and 2 children: Marcu,

age 11 and Sorel, age 4.

The other day I received a postcard, a copy of

which I dare enclose, from my nephew Marcu

Rozen, an 11 year old child, communicating the sad

news that his father, mother and grandmother have

died, and that he and his younger brother have been

left alone and without support.

The parents and grandparents of these unfortunate

children, as well as the children themselves, are all

born in the Old Kingdom, in the District of Dorohoi, and the maternal grandfather of the children,

Meer H. Peretz, my father, beside being born in this country, also fought in the War of 1916/1918,

as proven by the attached documents, and later died as a result of an illness contracted during the

war.

I myself am also born in this country from parents born in this country, and took part in the

campaign during 1916 – 1918 as a student reserve platoon member, having graduated from the

Military School of Botosani, and being decorated with the Commemorative Cross of War, as

proven by the attached documents.

In the name of these unfortunate children left without any support, I respectfully call on Your

high magnanimity, on Your spirit of fairness and humanity, requesting that you grant my petition

for the repatriation of these children orphaned of both parents,

Marcu Rozen, age 11-12, and

Sorel Rozen, age 4-5,

the children of Iancu Rozen, natives of Dorohoi, now evacuated in the Township of

Shargorod, House Nr. 143, District of Moghilev, Transnistria, and to dispose they be sent to

Bucharest and delivered in my care, who commit to support them, having the ability to do so, as

stated by the enclosed certificate of the Community of Jews of Bucharest.

I implore You, Marshal Sir, to save these poor children left alone among strangers, and I

assure You of our undying gratitude.

Long live the Marshal

To His Honor the Marshal, Leader of the Romanian State

8

HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL DATA

REGARDING THE PREDICAMENT OF THE JEWS

UNDER ANTONESCU GOVERNMENT

1940 – 1944

To the reader’s attention

The events and data contained in this work refer strictly to the territories under

Romanian authority, i.e., under Antonescu government at the respective time.

This work does not refer to the Jews of Northern Transylvania, which territory was

under Horthyst occupation at the time. As such, the responsibility for the crimes

committed against these Jews rests exclusively with the Hungarian authorities in

Budapest during the respective time frame.

By the same token, this work does not refer to the few Jews (below 1,000 persons)

living in the Quadrilater area, since this territory was relinquished to Bulgaria in

September 1940.

The events are being presented in chronological order. The statistical figures cited in

this work are based in their majority on official data of the Romanian State, resulting

from population censuses and other similar records.

Marcu Rozen,

Member in the Romanian Statistics Society

9

I. THE JEWS OF ROMANIA IN THE PERIOD PRECEDING THE

ANTONESCU GOVERNMENT

From a social standpoint, the period between the two World Wars was characterized

by an escalation of the anti-Semitic climate in Romania.

The Iron Guard, the League of Christian National Defense, the ideology of Octavian

Goga, the writings and rhetoric of Nae Ionescu, Nichifor Crainic, Vasile Conta and many

other politicians, writers and reporters with obvious anti-Semitic viewpoints paved the

road for the penetration and application of fascist ideology in our country.

On December 28, 1937 the Government Goga-Cuza assumed power, and became the

first government to promote anti-Semitism as state politics.

This government promulgated in January 1938 the Law of citizenship revision – the

first manifestation of racial persecution against the Jews.

Following the implementation of this discriminatory and bureaucratic law, from the

800,000 Jews of Romania only 391,1911 remained legal citizens of Romania.

The governments succeeding in power during the royal dictatorship of King Carol the

Second continued to promote an anti-Semitic agenda of varying degrees.

At the end of June 1940, during the government of Gh. Tatarascu, the Soviet Union

annexed via ultimatum (based on the secret treaty Molotov-Ribbentrop) the territories of

Northern Bucovina and Hertza. These territories contained, beside Romanian population,

roughly 290,000 Jews2.

The relinquishment without opposition of a part of Romania’s national territory

required a scapegoat, on which blame for this action could be placed. The extremist

elements of the time did not hesitate in finding one: It was the Jewish people. They were

at fault for “selling Basarabia and Bucovina to the Soviet Union”.

Presently, when the secret clauses of the Soviet-German treaty have become public

knowledge, when one of the prime culprits involved in the kidnapping of Basarabia and

Northern Bucovina has proven to be Hitler himself, there are still those who propagate

the idea that the Jews have somehow “called the Soviet Union” to invade the above-

mentioned territories.

In the country, the anti-Jewish atmosphere became depressing, and sometimes

incendiary. In various places, Jews were beaten and even killed. Some were thrown off

trains, especially on the train-routes of Moldova.

During the relinquishment of Basarabia and Northern Bucovina, on July 1, 1940, an

anti-Jewish pogrom took place in Dorohoi.

This pogrom constituted the first major anti-Jewish manifestation in the course of the

entire process of terror, deportation and extermination of the Jews of Romania.

1 Jean Ancel – Contributions to the History of Romania – Volume 1, Part 1, page 81, Hasefer Press,

Bucharest, 2001. 2 See table 1 on page 53.

10

The anti-Jewish pogrom of Dorohoi (July 1, 1940)

On July 1, 1940, Romanian military detachments belonging to the 3rd

Division of

Frontier Troops and the 8th

Division of Artillery (which were retreating from Hertza as

the Soviets invaded), unleashed a pogrom against the Jewish population of the city of

Dorohoi.

Shortly before the onset of brutalities, the lifeless bodies of the Romanian captain

Boros and of the Jewish soldier Iancu Solomon had been brought into the city of

Dorohoi. Note is being made that during those days the Jews were part of the Romanian

army, some of them being on the active duty roster.

The two above-mentioned Romanian militaries had been shot in Hertza during an

encounter with the Soviet army. They were among the first heroes of the Romanian army

to fall in confrontation with the Soviet invaders.

On July 1, 1940, the funeral of the Romanian soldier was scheduled to take place at

the Christian-Orthodox cemetery, and that of the Jewish soldier at the Jewish cemetery in

Dorohoi. Customarily, the Romanian authorities would have sent their official

representatives to attend the funerals of these heroes. But it wasn’t to be that way.

For the funeral of the Jewish soldier, only 7 unarmed Jewish militaries were sent over

from the 29th

Regiment of Infantry stationed in the city. Also, 20 civilian Jews came over

to attend the ceremony, daring to face the anti-Jewish atmosphere in the city.

While the funeral was in progress, subunits of the Romanian army retreating from

Hertza invaded the cemetery and opened fire, without warning, on the participants to this

solemn burial.

Apart from one survivor, all civilian Jews were killed, and so were the seven Jewish

militaries under the command of sergeant T.R. Bercovici Emil, from the 29th

Regiment of

Infantry, who had come to pay tribute to the fallen Jewish hero.

The fire spread rapidly throughout the city, as the unleashed killers made numerous

victims among the Jewish population.

As stated in Report nr. 462 filed on July 4, 1940, signed by captain Duca Mihail

(military prosecutor in the Army Reserves), assistant mayor Ion Pascu and colonel C.

Enachescu (medical doctor in the Army Reserves), a total of 50 Jews were shot, among

which 11 women, 34 men and 5 children.

Pillaging, tortures and bestial scenes took place during the course of the pogrom.

To their credit, some Romanian officers did save Jewish lives. Lieutenants Alexandru

Atanasiu and Ion Gaia, as well as sergeant Gheorghe Olteanu saved the life of architect

Leon Haber, captain Stino prevented the killing of the Jewish soldiers in the barracks of

the 29th

Regiment of Infantry, and lieutenant Nimereanu (the son of the priest from

Trestiana) saved a Jewish family. The documents report other such cases as well.

We would also like to mention that many Romanians hid Jews in their own homes,

thus saving them from the rage of the criminals.

…

11

On July the 4th

, 1940, the Gh. Tatarascu government resigned, and the government of

Ion Gigurtu assumed leadership of the country.

During the Ion Gigurtu government, the situation of the Romanian Jews worsened due

to the promulgation of nazi inspired racial laws.

On August 30, 1940, on the basis of the Vienna Dictate, the Gigurtu government

conceded to Hungary the Northern part of Transylvania, containing roughly 160,000

Jewish inhabitants1.

Following this territorial concession, the political situation in Romania became

explosive.

On September the 4th

, 1940, under the pressure of extremist pro-German factions,

King Carol the Second delegated the formation of a new government to General Ion

Antonescu.

After only two days in his new capacity as prime minister, General Antonescu

requested the king to abdicate in favor of his son, Mihai.

1 See table 1 on page 53.

12

II. THE JEWS OF ROMANIA IN THE PERIOD AFTER THE

INSTAURATION OF THE ANTONESCU GOVERNMENT AND

PRIOR TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR WITH THE SOVIET

UNION (September 1940 – June 22, 1941)


, 1940, General Ion Antonescu assumed political leadership of

Romania. Ten days later Romania was proclaimed, by royal decree, a National-

Legionary State. General Ion Antonescu was named Leader of the State, endowed with

discretionary power, as opposed to the limited prerogatives of the king.

Horia Sima was named leader of the Legionary Movement.

On September 7, 1940, General Ion Antonescu conceded to Bulgaria the Southern

part of Dobrogea (the districts of Caliacra and Durostor), a territory known as the

Quadrilater, containing roughly 850 Jewish inhabitants.

Please note that the total number of Romanian Jews (roughly 800,000 at the

beginning of 1940 – which is considered to be the maximum Jewish population to ever

inhabit Romania), shrunk to roughly 350,000 prior to the onset of the war with the Soviet

Union, due to the territorial concessions made by Romania in the summer and fall of

19401.


, 1940, General Ion Antonescu named the members of his

cabinet.

Except the secretaries of the departments of Finance, National Economy, and

Agriculture, which were trusted men of the general, all other ministers in the Antonescu

government were legionaries.

Among the first measures taken by the national-legionary government of general Ion

Antonescu was a closer affiliation with Nazi Germany, expressed as a tightening of

political, military and economical bonds with Germany, and adherence of Romania to the

tri-party pact Berlin-Rome-Tokyo.

As far as the Romanian Jews are concerned, the Antonescu government expanded and

amplified anti-Jewish legislation and racial terror to the utmost extremes.

As such, during the Antonescu government Jews were entirely barred from military

service, tens of thousands of Jews were deployed to forced labor detachments, Jewish

students were expelled from all Romanian schools, high schools and universities, Jewish

actors were barred from performing in Romanian theaters, Jewish physicians and all

Jewish medical personnel were fired from their positions, Jewish lawyers and

pharmacists were forbidden to service Christians clients, Jewish authors had their books

barred from bookstores and withdrawn from public libraries, etc.

The anti-Jewish measures continued with the confiscation of Jewish shops, businesses

and factories, the seizure of Jewish-owned real estate by the Romanian State, the seizure

of rural farmland owned by Jews, the interdiction to use radios, phones and cameras, the

evacuation of Jews from villages and small towns into the district capitals, and the

assessment of taxes and monetary contributions much above the financial means of the


13

people. These and other measures led to a state of despair and fear for the day to come

among the Jewish population1.

Over the existence of the national-legionary state, the legionaries committed multiple

robberies, crimes and brutalities against the Jews and against several eminent

personalities of the Romanian culture, such as Nicolae Iorga, Virgil Madgearu, Victor

Iamandi, et al.

The Legionary Rebellion, which took place on January 21-23, 1941, made numerous

victims among the military, as well as the civil population.

In Bucharest, the rebels committed criminal acts (pillaging, devastation, arson and

murder), against the Romanian inhabitants, but mostly against the Jewish population

living in the suburbs of Dudesti and Vacaresti, where veritable pogroms took place.

Gangs of legionaries gathered hundreds of Jews in numerous torture centers, such as

the Police Headquarters, legionary headquarters, local police stations, the mill of

Straulesti, the Jilava forest, etc.

Dozens of Jews were tortured and massacred in the slaughter house, in the Jilava

forest, and even in their own homes.

The well-known writer Virgil Gheorghiu notes in his “Memoirs” (Gramar Publishing

House, 1999, pg. 523-524): “In the huge hall of the slaughter house, where oxen used to

hang by hooks to be slashed, naked human corpses were now hanging. It was a horrible

sight, surpassing any cruelty one may imagine… Some of the corpses had the word

“kosher” marked on them. They were corpses of Jews…

My soul is tainted. I’m ashamed of myself. Ashamed to be Romanian, like those

criminals from the Iron Guard.”

The tragic summary of the Legionary Rebellion in Bucharest is as follows: 130 Jews

murdered, 25 temples and synagogues pillaged, 616 Jewish shops and 547 Jewish homes

plundered, devastated or burned2.

Note is being made that after the Legionary Rebellion was stifled, the Antonescu

Government (now without its former legionary members), continued and even augmented

the terror and anti-Jewish measures in Romania.

The extremist and anti-Semitic politics promoted by the Romanian authorities is quite

well illustrated in the memorable phrase spoken by General Antonescu during the

meeting of the Ministers’ Council on April the 8th

, 1941: “That’s the way I grew up:

With hatred against the Turks, Jews, and Hungarians. This sentiment of hatred against

the enemies of our country must be taken to its utmost extremes. I will assume this

responsibility.”3

The situation of the Jews became progressively harder.

Some localities in Moldova mandated the Yellow Star to be worn by Jews. Jews

were allowed to circulate and shop only between certain hours of the day, hostages were

taken by successive turns and their lives threatened, and other demeaning and

discriminatory measures.

1 See – The Jews of Romania between 1940-1944, vol. I – The Anti-Jewish Legislation – Hasefer Press,

Bucharest, 1993, volume edited by Lya Benjamin. 2 The Martyrdom of the Romanian Jews – page 73 – Hasefer Press, Bucharest, 1991.

3 The Jewish issue in the stenographic reports of the Ministers’ Council – Lya Benjamin, Hasefer Press,

1996. See the stenographic reports of the Ministers’ Council from April the 8th

, 1941 – A.S.B., Fond. P.C.

Cabinet, file 474/1941, pages 60, 64, 65, 66, 74. (Lya Benjamin, Stenographic Reports).

14

The Jews deployed in forced labor detachments were subjected to a particularly harsh

and inhuman regimen (insufficient and substandard food, exhausting labor, precarious

living conditions, beatings, torture and humiliations).

III. THE JEWS OF ROMANIA IN THE PERIOD AFTER THE

OUTBREAK OF THE WAR WITH THE SOVIET UNION AND PRIOR

TO THE DEPORTATIONS TO TRANSNISTRIA

(June 22, 1941 – September 1941)

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany unleashes the war against the Soviet Union, to

which Romania partakes as a result of General Antonescu’s insistence.

During the time span preceding the war, as well as after the onset of the war, tens of

thousands of Jews were evacuated from rural settlements and smaller towns, and

concentrated in the capital cities of Romania’s various districts. Additionally, some were

sent to the concentration camps of Targu Jiu and Craiova.

After the onset of the war, the German and Romanian troops liberated in a relatively

short time the territories of Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and Hertza from the Soviet

occupation. Subsequently, based on the pact of Tighina from August 19, 1941, Romania

gained control over the Ukrainian territory between the rivers Dniester and Bug, a

territory known as Transnistria.

Under these circumstances, the territory under Romanian authority, i.e., under

Antonescu Government, now stretches from Arad up to the river Bug, and includes

Southern Transylvania, the Old Kingdom, Northern and Southern Bucovina, Basarabia

and Transnistria.

Thus, the total number of Jews in the territories under Romanian jurisdiction

now reaches the figure of 675,000, among which 540,000 from the former Romanian

State, and 135,000 resident Ukrainian Jews from Transnistria1.

Not included in this figure are the Jews of Northern Transylvania and the Quadrilater.

Instead, included are the local Ukrainian Jews who find themselves under Romanian

jurisdiction after the takeover of Transnistria by the Romanian authorities.

Similarly, not included in this figure are the approx. 100,000 Jews from Basarabia,

Northern Bucovina and the land of Hertza, consisting of:

- Jews deported by the Soviet authorities to Siberia

- Jews who withdrew voluntarily or forcedly with the Soviet authorities

- Jews incorporated in the Soviet army

- Jews killed in the bombings, or caught and assassinated by German troops of

territorial cleansing

- Basarabian Jews who took refuge in Odessa and were killed during the long siege

of this city, etc.

All the above categories of Jews were not taken over by the Romanian authorities

after the liberation of these territories from Soviet occupation, and therefore were not

subject to the jurisdiction of the Antonescu Government.

The well-known researcher Raul Hilberg claims that the number of Jews deported or

evacuated by the Soviets exceeded 100,000 people1. W. Filderman and Sabin Manuila

support the figure of 100,000, while other researchers estimate a figure close to 100,000.


15

The following represents an analysis regarding the fate of the 675,000 Jews in the

territories under Romanian authority, i.e., under Antonescu Government. Veridical

conclusions are formulated based on the facts presented.

After the onset of the war, the situation of the Jews under Antonescu’s authority

worsens even more, due to the institution of new anti-Jewish laws. The Government

establishes that, in order for war expenses to be covered, the Jews have to pay

supplementary taxes in currency and produce, which by far exceed the possibilities of the

people.

On December the 16th

, 1941, the Federation of The Jewish Community Unions is

dismantled, being replaced by the Central of the Jews of Romania, whose mission is the

faithful enactment of the racial laws established by the government.

In the time span between the onset of the war with the Soviet Union and the onset of

the deportations to Transnistria, two major events had a profound impact on the entire

Jewish population of Romania: The pogrom and death train of Iasi, and the mass-

extermination of the Jews from Basarabia, Bucovina and the land of Hertza.

1. The Pogrom and Death Trains of Iasi

Only a week after the onset of the war, between June 29 and July 1, 1941, the city of

Iasi became the scene of a premeditated pogrom against the Jewish population, organized

by the Romanian and German fascists.

A diversion was enacted, by spreading the rumor that Jews allegedly fired on

Romanian and German soldiers and transmitted light signals to Soviet airplanes. Reports

prepared by the police of the city of Iasi itself attest to the unfoundedness of these

allegations, clearly showing there wasn’t even a single Romanian or German soldier

killed or injured.

The official report forwarded to General Ion Antonescu on July 2, 1941, by the head

of the police of Iasi, General Leoveanu Emanoil, states the following:

“No dead or wounded were registered among the Romanian units which have been

fired on, and no signs of bullets were identified in the walls and windows of the buildings.

…The Germans didn’t have any dead or wounded either. It follows therefore that the

attack was a simulation carried out with blank cartridges (some of which have been

found on site), and with firecracker systems imitating machine gum fire.

I deem the aggressors to be legionaries and robbers, who aimed to produce panic in

order to pillage the neighborhood. They managed to get away in the darkness, and thus

could not be discovered. They organized the attack in a suburb inhabited by well-to-do

Jews.”2

But let us follow the way the events unfolded.

Instances of shootings, robberies and crimes against the Jews already started, in an

isolated manner, on June 27 and 28, 1941.

On Sunday morning, June 29, 1941, the loudspeakers of the local authorities were

calling to all Jews to report to the Police Headquarters, allegedly in order to be issued

1 Raul Hilberg – The Extermination of the Jews in Europe, vol.1, page 676, Hasefer Press, 1997.

2 M. Carp – The Black Book – vol. III, page 119 – Diogene Press, 1996.

Dinu C. Giurescu – Historical Magazine Nr. 11(368), November 1997, page 73.

16

some certificates. Part of the Jews presented willingly, while others were brought by

force.

At the Police Headquarters, the Jews (counting several thousand people), were

beaten, tortured, and robbed of their belongings. Then, gunshots started to be fired at

the crowd, making numerous victims in the yard of the Police Headquarters. The

ones who managed to escape were caught, beaten viciously and hauled back, together

with other Jews gathered from the city. Thus, the horrible massacre lasted for hours on

end.

Also, Jews were mugged, tortured and killed in various suburbs and public places in

Iasi. These actions were carried out by Romanian and German militaries, seconded by

lowlife elements of the local population.

Overnight and the following morning, the Jews who survived the massacre at the

Police Headquarters were marched to the railroad station and embarked on two “death

trains”.

Cramped together in freight cars, about 100-150 people per car, on their feet and still

barely fitting body against body, plagued by the choking heat, thirst, and lack of air,

roughly 5,000 people were confined to these railcars for days, traveling on the routes

Podu Iloaiei and respectively Calarasi.

The great majority of those embarked on these trains succumbed in unimaginable

conditions, many of them drinking their own urine or loosing their minds before they

passed on.

Across the European continent, Jews have been exterminated by diverse means: gas-

chambers, shooting, starvation, etc. But the confinement of Jews to hermetically

sealed freight cars with planks hammered in place over the windows, causing them

to die by asphyxiation and dehydration, was unique to Romania. In contrast to the criminals of Iasi, we have to mention the name of Viorica Agarici,

who managed to convince the guards in the railroad station of Roman to open the train

doors, and gave water to the dying Jews.

As pointed out by the Great Rabbi of Geneva Dr. Alexandru Safran, this woman –

same as many other Romanian saviors – represented the “Romanian soul during those

times of hardship for the Jews.”

Ironically, among the survivors of the death train from Podu Iloaiei, was a Romanian

citizen by name of Marcu Traian, a Christian whom the criminals threw by mistake on

this train. After establishing his identity on the basis of his wedding certificate (nr. 47-

1940), the gendarmes allowed him to return home.

Also a survivor of the death train Iasi-Podu Iloaiei was Iancu Tucherman, currently

residing in Bucharest. This witness describes the events in his railcar as follows:

“We were cramped in freight cars meant for cattle, about 100-150 people per car. I

was put on a freight car with another 137 persons.

In my car, as well as many other railcars, the floor was covered by a layer of manure,

on top of which lye powder had been sprinkled.

Noting that the small air-outlets of the railcar were open to the inside, a railroad

employee, wearing the customary uniform and red beret, procured a ladder and rope-

slings and closed these tiny windows from the outside, thereby reducing the possibility for

air to enter the railcar.

17

Then the train was set in motion. The manure and lye started giving off plenty of

heat. All of us locked in the railcar started taking off our garments, to the point of even

remaining naked after a while. It was then we realized something tragic was going to

happen to us. The train continued on its way, making numerous maneuvers and halts on

side-lines. It was midsummer, and the heat in the railcar was becoming unbearable.

Without air and water, the first victim succumbed after half an hour. The situation

became downright infernal.

Many started drinking their own urine to appease their thirst, some went berserk and

threw themselves blindly over others, in agony and delirium, searching the railcar from

one end to the other for a drop of water or an air-outlet. It was hard to tell who was a

cadaver and who was still alive.

At 14.00 hours, after 9 hours of torture which seemed like an eternity, the train

stopped in the rail station Podu Iloaiei. The doors of the railcars were opened. From

my railcar, only 8 survivors descended. The rest of 129 had died suffocated and dehydrated.”

Note is being that the train to Calarasi reached its destination after almost 7 days,

therefore making many more victims.

The survivors of these death trains were placed in the concentration camps of Podu

Iloaiei and Calarasi, being able to return home only 6 months later.

The total number of victims killed in the pogrom of Iasi and the death trains was – as

established by judiciary investigation – almost 8,000 souls1.

2. The mass assassinations of Jews in Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the

land of Hertza during the first months after the outbreak of the war (June 22

– September 1941)

After the onset of the war, the Romanian and German armies managed to liberate

Basarabia, Bucovina and the land of Hertza from the Soviet occupation in a relatively

short time.

Subsequently, subunits of the Romanian army together with indigenous population

incited by the new Romanian authorities in the region, unleashed a generalized massacre,

murdering tens of thousands of men, women, children and elders with equal contempt,

for the sole fault of being born Jews.

Most were driven like cattle from one place to another, shot, robbed and subjected to

unimaginable torture.

In Balti, a part of the Jews were made to dig their own graves, then ordered to lie on

the ground face-down, after which each of them received a bullet in the head. In the

county of Tataresti from the sector Cetatea Alba, 451 Jews were executed by order of

sub-lieutenant Heinrich Frolich, with the contribution of gendarme captain Vetu Gh. Ioan

– who took possession of all valuables belonging to the deceased. On the night of August

the 4th

to August the 5th

, 1941, 210 Jews from the district of Storojinetz were shot to

death. They were part of a convoy of 300, under the command of caporal Sofian Ignat.

On the 6th

of August, at 18.00 hours, gendarmes from the 23rd

Police Company shot 200

1 The Martyrdom of the Romanian Jews – page 7 – Hasefer Press, 1991.

18

Jews, which they threw into the Dniester. Numerous such circumstances are documented

by the official reports of the time1.

In those terrible days, convoys of homeless Jews were wandering the roads of

Basarabia. Everywhere, one could see terrifying scenes, corpses of children, women and

elders, plundered homes, devastated synagogues.

O convoy of 300 men from Edinetz, among which Rabbi Iehosua Frenkel, was being

marched to Hotin, flanked by soldiers bearing guns and horsewhips. When they reached

their destination, the Rabbi’s beard was lit on fire, after which he was subjected to

unimaginable torture and humiliation, dying on the same day like a martyr.

Regarding the instigation of the population to pogroms against the Jews, we

reproduce a fragment from the report found in the Archives of the Military High

Command, prepared by lieutenant colonel Al. Ionescu, chief of the Second Bureau:

“In reference to the execution of your telephone order received on 07/8/1941, I have

the honor of submitting the attached plan. We have implemented this plan beginning

July the 9th

. The mission of these teams is to create an atmosphere unfavorable to the

Judaic element in villages, so that the population itself strives to remove this element,

using the means most suitable to their circumstances. Upon arrival of the Romanian

troops, this atmosphere should be already present and should lead to action.”2

In this context, in Banila (on the banks of the river Siret), mayor Muscaliuc organized

and led gangs of killers who committed numerous crimes against the Jews. The

Romanian priest Stefanovici refused to enter the church for liturgy. He said to his

parishioners: “I’m ashamed to step inside the church, while my co-believers lend

themselves to crimes. Ashamed.”

Gangs of Romanians and Ukrainians organized crimes and robberies in the village of

Milie next to Vijitza, in Stanestii de Jos from the district of Storojinetz, in the townships

of Sadagura, Siret and Seletin, in Lipscani and Briceva, and many other localities in

Basarabia and Bucovina. Thousands of Jews were savagely murdered with shovels and

axes, cut apart with saws, or killed in other barbarous ways.

In Hertza – according to the testimony of witness Dr. Liviu Beris, currently residing

in Bucharest – after the arrival of Romanian troops on the morning of July 5, 1941, the

roughly 1,800 Jews left in the city are rounded up brutally in four synagogues and two

dungeons. The homes of the Jews are plundered and young Jewish girls are raped by the

militaries. The city takes on a pathetic aspect of doom and disaster, with furniture and

other objects tossed out in the streets, with broken doors and windows.

The newly appointed administration prepares lists of suspects, who are picked up

from their places of detention and marched in a convoy to be executed.

In these convoys there were elders, children, and women holding babies in their

arms.

About 100 Jews were taken to the Kislinger mill (next to the little river running

through town), and other 32 were taken to Chirulescu’s garden. The Jews were made to

dig their own graves, and then executed by shooting. All Jews from the villages around

Hertza were assassinated.”

1 M.Carp – The Black Book – Vol. 3 – page 63-67 – Diogene Press, 1996 (according to the report of the

investigative committee formed by order of Marshal Ion Antonescu). 2 The Archive of the High Command of the Romanian Army – Collection of the 4

th Army (from July 11,

1941) – Copy in USHMM, RG 25003, Rall 7810144

19

Within a short time of the onset of the war, a large number of Jews from Basarabia

were dispatched by the Romanian troops beyond the Dniester. The German troops

however sent these Jews back, since they were hindering the movement of the German

army in its ongoing offensive. In this peregrination, thousands of Jews were shot or

perished due to exhaustion.

The instructions given by Mihai Antonescu (ad-interim president of the government)

during the Council of Ministers’ session from July 8, 1941, regarding the attitude of the

army towards the Jewish population of Basarabia and Bucovina, are frighteningly clear:

“It is indifferent to me whether history will regard us as barbarians… Let’s take

advantage of this historic moment and cleanse the Romanian soil… If necessary, fire the

machine-guns… I formally assume responsibility and declare that there is no law… For

two-three weeks I won’t make any law for Basarabia and Bucovina… So therefore,

without forms, with total liberty.”1

After the initial terror waned, the Jews still alive across Basarabia, Bucovina and the

land of Hertza were gathered and confined to transit camps and ghettos.

The largest transit camps were organized in Secureni, Edinetz, Vertujeni and

Marculesti, and the largest ghettoes in Chisinau and Cernauti.

In these camps and ghettoes numerous Jews died as a result of misery, disease and

starvation, and thousands of Jews were taken to various work sites and then shot.

According to a statistical calculation by the well-known historian Dinu C. Giurescu,

between the onset of the war and the date of September 1, 1941, a total of 19,419 Jews

disappeared in this region.2

The balance performed by the author indicates a figure of roughly 55,000 Jews

who disappeared during this time period.3

At the beginning of September 1941, the Antonescu government takes the decision to

deport beyond the Dniester all surviving Jews from Basarabia, Bucovina and the land of

Hertza, as well as those from Southern Bucovina and the district of Dorohoi.

In contrast to the chaotic deportation of July 1941, the deportations in the fall of

1941, beginning with the month of September, proceeded systematically across the

various deportation centers (transit camps and ghettos), itineraries and crossing points of

the Dniester, and involved almost the entire Jewish population from the northeastern

territories of Romania.

1 See the stenographic report of the Ministers’ Council from July 8, 1941 – A.S.B., Fund P.C.M. Cabinet,

file 475/1941, pages 103-128 – Lya Benjamin – Stenograms. 2 Historical Magazine – Nr. 11 (368) November 1997, page 75.

3 See table nr. 3 on page 55.

20

IV. THE DEPORTATION OF THE ROMANIAN JEWS TO

TRANSNISTRIA

For the Antonescu government, the deportation of the Jews from Basarabia, Bucovina

and the district of Dorohoi had the sole purpose of ethnic cleansing by forced expulsion

of the Jewish element from these territories.

During the session of the Ministers’ Council from July 8, 19411, Mihai Antonescu

declared among others:

“… … I am in favor of the forced migration of the entire Jewish element from

Basarabia and Bucovina, which must be tossed over the border.

… … I don’t know how many more centuries could go by before the Romanian

people encountered once again such total liberty of action, with the possibility of ethnic

purification and national revision…”

The mass-deportation of the Jews from Basarabia, Bucovina and the district of

Dorohoi took place in the period September – November 1941. In 1942, another roughly

4,000 Jews were deported from the ghetto of Cernauti, another group of 450 Jews from

Dorohoi, and several thousand from the Old Kingdom.

1. The Deportation of the Jews from Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the

land of Hertza

Based on the order received from the Grand Praetor’s service, the Gendarme

Inspectorate of Basarabia elaborated instructions regarding the deportation of the Jews

from Basarabia.

According to these instructions, approved by the Grand Praetor, “the evacuation of

the 22,150 Jews from the camps of Vertujeni-Soroca would begin on the 12th

of

September, 1941, at 8 o’clock precisely, in order for them to be transported across the

Dniester into the Ukraine.”

The deportation proceeded on two itineraries: One to the north through Cremenea,

Gura Camenca, Soroca, Cosauti, and the second one through Telemeuti, Vascauti,

Cusmirca, Mateuti, Rezina.

At the beginning of October, the deportation continued with the Jews from the camps

of Edinetz and Secureni. Part of the convoys from these camps crossed the Dniester at

Atachi.

The camp at Marculesti was transformed into a gathering point for some of the

convoys arriving from Bucovina and from other camps, which were intended to cross the

Dniester at Rezina.

1 See the stenographic report of the Ministers’ Council from June 8, 1941 – A.S.B., Fund P.C.M. Cabinet,

file 475/1941, pages 103-128 – Lya Benjamin – Stenograms.

21

We have to mention that the Jews deported from this region were marched on foot,

during harsh weather conditions (rain, cold and sometimes snow). Many were only

dressed in light clothes, and were deprived of any supplies whatsoever, during a trip

lasting at least 6-8 days.

During this journey, the Jews were robbed of their belongings, beaten, driven like

cattle, and the ones unable to keep up with the were shot.

Investigation report nr. 2 of the Committee instituted per Marshal Antonescu’s order

shows literally that lieutenant Rosca Augustin, entrusted with the evacuation of the Jews,

reported that “by order of the High Command, the Jews who couldn’t keep up with the ,

be it out of weakness or disease, should be executed.” In view of this, a hole was to be

dug every 10 kilometers, capable of holding roughly 100 persons, where the ones lagging

behind the s were to be assembled and shot. Lieutenant Rosca A. declared before the

committee that he carried out his orders to the letter, which resulted in the shooting of

roughly 500 Jews from the convoys evacuated on the route Secureni – Cosauti.1

Incredible scenes took place during this deportation journey. Some of the gendarmes

sold to the local peasants the corpses of the victims who had been shot, for the clothes

they had on them. After undressing the corpses, the peasants would throw them on the

side of the roads. All across, the region offered such infernal views.

Witness Dr. Liviu Beris describes the deportation of the Jews from the transit camp of

Edinetz into Transnistria as follows:

“That autumn we continued on, we were marched towards the Dniester. Then the

rains started, and the mud barely allowed one to walk. Some were lagging behind, and

the ones lagging behind a lot were shot. These eyes looking at you now saw how those

people were being shot.

The most horrible scene was that of an old man who stopped to empty his bladder,

was shot and then immediately stripped of his clothes by some peasants waiting on the

side of the road. It was a scene which unfortunately repeated itself, and which often

keeps me awake at night.

After reaching the county of Corbu, not far away from the Dniester’s shores, we

camped out on a hill overnight – wet to the bone, beaten up and exhausted as we were, in

the deepest misery. Overnight the frost settled in, and we all knew we couldn’t afford to

fall asleep, or else we’ll freeze to death. I didn’t fall asleep, but in the morning, I can

still see the boots of the gendarmes kicking at the ones who could no longer stand up, I

can still see the terrified eyes of those around me and the rifle butts crashing down. They

were left on that hill inert, passed into a land of shadows, very many, I cannot tell you

their names, but there were many.”

During the month of October, the Jews in the large ghettos of Cernauti and Chisinau

were also deported.

In Cernauti, the number of the Jews was about 50,000.

Due to the efforts of Traian Popovici (the mayor of the city) and his collaborators,

on the date of October the 15th

, Marshal Antonescu’s approval was obtained for 20,000

Jews to be exempted from the deportation, due to the fact they were needed for the

economical activity of the city.

This is how the ex-mayor describes the deportation of the balance of over 30,000

Jews who were forced to become homeless wanderers:

1 M. Carp – The Black Book – Vol. 3 – page 68 – Diogene Press, 1996.

22

“Heart wrenching scenes took place on the embarkation ramp and upon departure of

the trains. The separation of members of the same family, children leaving and parents

staying behind or vice-versa, the separation of brothers and sisters, or even spouses,

filled the air with wailing and touched even the coldest hearts.

It was a separation forever – the departure of some for suffering and death, while

others stayed behind in slavery and pain.

The dispossession of the deportees of all their residual belongings at the gathering

points, the confiscation and destruction of their documents so that their trail would be

lost, their transport across the Dniester in ferryboats, the marches on foot through wind,

rain, mud and snow, barefoot and starving, are pages of Dantesque tragedy and

apocalyptic savagery. In one of the transports, out of 60 infants, only one survived.

Exhausted, the ones lagging behind were abandoned to die on the side of the roads, prey

to destiny, vultures and dogs.”1

In Chisinau, the fate of the Jews was likewise unforgiving.

At the census of 1930, the city counted 41,405 Jews, representing 36% of the total

population. According to certain authors, the number of Jews in Chisinau around the

time of the war had reached over 50,000 inhabitants.

After the onset of the war, the city was bombed by German airplanes, making

numerous victims, among which many Jews.

Because of the bombardments and the ensuing chaos, many Jews ran away in horse

carts or on foot, heading towards the Dniester.

A large part of these were killed in the frontline fire, or caught by the German and

Romanian troops and shot by special territory-cleansing units.

The Romanian army entered Chisinau on July 16, 141. The Jews remaining in town

were robbed of their belongings, and part of them were assassinated.

As events started winding down, some of the former fugitives returned to Chisinau,

such that the total number of Jews in the city now exceeded 11,000.

On July 24, 1941, by order of governor Voiculescu, the ghetto of Chisinau was

founded.

For more than 2 months, prior to their deportation, the Jews in the ghetto of Chisinau

were subject to terror, assassination and robbery.

Hundreds of men and women were sent to various work sites (Visterniceni,

Ghidighici, etc), where most were shot by Romanian and German militaries after the

completion of their labor.

In the ghetto, many Jews succumbed to the inhuman living conditions, dying of

disease or starvation.

Although Jews were brought in from neighboring localities as well, the total

population decreased due to the large number of victims.

The deportation of the Jews from the Chisinau ghetto started on October the 8th

, 1941,

with most of the convoys crossing the Dniester at Rezina.

After an interruption of several days, the deportations resumed on October 14, and

concluded on October 30, 1941.

All in all, roughly 10,000 Jews were deported from the ghetto of Chisinau, many of

which met their death before crossing the Dniester.

1 M. Carp – The Black Book – vol. III, page 164, Diogene Press, 1996 (from the confession of the former

mayor of the district of Cernauti, Dr. Traian Popovici).

23

On November the 14th

, 1941, colonel Dumitrescu sent to the governor of Basarabia

two lists of Jews, counting 44 and respectively 16 persons, which were to be exempted

from deportation. These included ex-members of the local Parliament which proclaimed

the Unification with Romania in 1918, invalids and ex-combatants in the first World

War, as well as Jews married to Christian spouses.

The petition was rejected, with the mention that in Basarabia the Jewish problem

would be solved by deporting all Jews.

When deportations concluded, there were 16,794 Jews in Cernauti, 60 in Storojinetz

and 227 in Basarabia who escaped deportation1.

In July 1942, another roughly 4,000 Jews were deported from Cernauti.

All in all, 113,000 Jews were deported from Basarabia, Bucovina and Hertza into

Transnistria.2

2. The deportation of the Jews from Southern Bucovina

As deportations proceeded in Basarabia, Bucovina and the land of Hertza, the

Antonescu government decided to start deporting the Jews of Southern Bucovina as well

(the former districts of Suceava, Campulung and Radauti), beginning October the 9th

,

1941.

It must be noted that the population in these districts was never under Russian or

Soviet occupation.

The deportation started in the district of Suceava. As mentioned in the directives of

the city hall, the Jewish population from the counties of Itcani and Burdujeni, as well as

from the city of Suceava (the first deportation lot), “will be present on the military ramp

of the railway station Burdujeni on the day of October 9, 1941, 16.00 hours. Each

Jewish inhabitant may take with him warm garments, clothing and footwear, as well as

food for as many days as possible, not to exceed the amount that each one can carry on

himself.”

In this ordinance, it is also shown that prior to departure, the head of each family was

supposed to put together an inventory of the goods he was leaving in the city of Suceava.

The house keys and this inventory were supposed to be placed in an envelope and

handed over to a commission in the railway station Burdujeni.

As indicated by Dr. Meier Tech, the president of the community of Jews from

Suceava, the deportees were put in dirty cattle cars, which were crowded beyond

capacity.

Per order of colonel Zamfirescu, elders and people too sick for transport were brought

to the railway station as well, wrapped in sheets and without any luggage.

Chief physician Dr. Bona kicked all Jewish patients out of the local hospital, even the

ones in critical condition. For instance, Isac Mayer, who had had his leg amputated, died

one hour after the train’s departure, and 70 year-old Dr. Bernard Wagner (colleague of

Dr. Bona), gravely ill at the time, died upon arrival in Moghilev.

On October the 10th

, the second convoy leaves from Suceava and Gura Humorului,

and the deportation continues until October the 13th

, when the last trains carrying

deportees from the districts of Radauti and Campulung leave for Transnistria.

1 According to the Jewish population census of May 1942.


24

After several days of travel, each deportee train reached the town of Atachi, on the

banks of the Dniester, where chaos and despair ruled.

Here, many Jews were robbed of their belongings by the ones designated to

coordinate the crossing of the Dniester.

Witness Friedrich Antschel, currently residing in Bucharest, describes his family’s

deportation from Suceava:

“On October 9, 1941, the Jewish population of Suceava was notified, by drumbeat, of

the order regarding evacuation and deportation.

I was deported with my family – father, mother and sister – on October the 11th

, 1941,

respectively with the 3rd

transport. We were shoved in dirty cattle cars, crowded in the

utmost.

Among other deportees, Isac Tenenhaus was brought, who was suffering from typhoid

fever and died right after we reached Moghilev.

On October the 13th

we arrived in Atachi, where we found thousands of people

without food and shelter. The same day, a convoy from Edinetz (Basarabia) passed by –

barefoot people, beaten up and starved. After a thorough search by the gendarmes, our

valuables were robbed and our group was escorted under tight guard across the

Dniester, using rafts for transport.”

To fully describe the situation in Atachi, we quote below an extract from the letter of

Mr. Isidor Pressmer, president of the Jewish community in Radauti, written on October

the 22nd

, 1941 and addressed to Dr. W. Filderman, president of the Federation of Jewish

Community Unions in Romania:

“You are of course informed… that we have all been brought here to be transported

over the Dniester and sent somewhere in the Ukraine, aimlessly and without a

destination.

The majority of the ones crossing the Dniester are left homeless, under the open sky,

in rain, cold and mud. A small contingent of people is still here in Atachi. Hundreds of

persons have already died here, many more are on the point of dying, and others have

committed suicide.

One thing is for certain. If we are not promptly saved, none of these unfortunates will

survive. In our estimate, there are roughly 25,000 souls which are currently either in

route for the Ukraine, or at Moghilev, or still here at Atachi.”

The statistical data available indicate that 23,800 Jews were deported from Southern

Bucovina. Only 179 were left behind, deemed to be indispensable for the economy of the

region.1

3. The deportation of the Jews from the district of Dorohoi

On November the 5th

, 1941, the authorities inform the Jewish population of the city of

Dorohoi that they will be evacuated to Transnistria.

At this time, the city of Dorohoi also included the entire Jewish population previously

evacuated from other localities of the district (Darabani, Mihaileni, Radauti-Prut, etc.),

such that the total Jewish population of the city prior to evacuation counted roughly

12,000 people.


25

The deportation started on November 7, 1941, and took place under the same

conditions as in Southern Bucovina.

The first to be deported were the Jews of Darabani, who, having been evacuated from

their little town back in June, were dressed lightly, in summer clothes, and had only

limited luggage.

On November the 8th

, the Jews from Saveni and Mihaileni were deported under

similar conditions.

The deportation of the Jews native to the city of Dorohoi took place on the days of

November 12 and 13, 1941.

Although the district of Dorohoi belonged to the Old Kingdom, it was assigned to the

jurisdiction of Bucovina according to an arbitrary administrative decision, wherefrom

stemmed the calamities which struck the Jewish population of this district.

Among the Jews deported from the district of Dorohoi, there were many war

veterans, invalids, war widows and orphans. Also among the deportees were the wives

and children of Jews concentrated in forced labor detachments in other parts of the

country.

Due to the intervention of the Community of Jew in Bucharest and the personal

intervention of Dr. W. Filderman, the government dispatches an order to stop the

deportation.

According to declarations of several public functionaries of the time, this order was

initially hidden by the authorities of the district of Dorohoi, and registered only after

departure of the deportee train that day, to take effect starting November 14, 1941.

Among the anti-Semitic personalities of the district of Dorohoi who insisted that the

Jews be deported and petitioned the authorities in Bucharest in this sense, are colonel

Barcan (prefect of the city), engineer Jean Pascu (the mayor of the city), pharmacist

Gheorghe Timus (president of the triage commission), Dr. Felix Nadejde (surgeon

general of the district), counselor Adam and others.

At the railway station, prior to boarding the train, the deportees were searched and

part of their belongings were confiscated.

The railcars were locked and guarded by gendarmes for the entire duration of the

journey. The deportees had to empty their bladder and bowels inside the railcars.

Since part of the elders froze to death underway, future transports were equipped with

shovels and hatchets for burying the dead.

In the railway station in Cernauti, a young Jewish man who broke the door of the

train car and tried to descend to get some water was shot by the gendarmes.

Upon their arrival in Atachi, by the Dniester, the Jews were disembarked from the

trains and allowed to take with them only the items they could carry in their hands. The

rest of their belongings left on the trains were pillaged.

The Dniester was crossed by ferry, since the bridge had been destroyed by the war.

Beyond the Dniester was the town of Moghilev. Some deportees stayed in Moghilev;

the most, however, were marched on foot, in convoys, to various localities of

Transnistria.

The Jewish men previously deployed in forced labor detachments found their houses

empty upon their return to Dorohoi in December 1941. Their wives and children had

been deported to Transnistria.

26

They solicited, in a petition addressed to Marshal Antonescu and to the government,

to have their families brought back to Dorohoi.

The resolution on this petition reflects the politics of ethnic purification

exercised by the Romanian authorities: “The Jews should follow their evacuated

families”, in other words, they should be deported to Transnistria.

The Central of the Jews in Romania put together a dossier, containing the names of

those deployed in forced labor detachments while their families were deported to

Transnistria.

This dossier contained 818 men, who during the deportation of their families had

been working in various detachments such as Braila dam constructions, Lipcani

embankment and bridge, Zvoristea, Craiova, Bucharest, Serpenitza, Battalion 7 Edinitza,

and Confections Iasi.

Next year, on June 14, 1942, a new lot of 450 people was deported from Dorohoi –

largely Jewish men from forced labor detachments whose families had been deported in

November 1941. The fate of these last deportees was exceptionally tragic.

Their train pulled in Serebria (near Moghilev) on the day of June 20, 1942, but they

were not allowed to descend from the train. However, it was granted for their families

from Moghilev to join them on their continuing journey towards the river Bug, the

convoy thus growing to 950 people.

On the 3rd

of July, the convoy reached Oleanitza, Tulcin district, from where they

were sent to the stone quarries of Ladijin, on the banks of the Bug.

In August of 1942, at the request of the German organization Todt, colonel Loghin,

prefect of the Tulcin district, sent 3,000 Jews across the Bug, among which the Jews from

Dorohoi. These Jews were assigned to the concentration camp of Tarasivka, used for

various exhausting labor chores, and gradually killed by the criminals.

On December the 10th

, 1943, the last survivors from this group were shot by the

Germans and thrown into a common grave. Out of the 450 Jews deported in June 1942,

only about 50 Jews from Dorohoi survived, managing to flee from the camp.

Altogether, there were roughly 10,000 Jews deported to Transnistria from the district

of Dorohoi (not including the land of Hertza).1

It must be pointed out that during the deportations in the fall of 1941, according to the

secrete note nr. 8597 from October the 5th

, 1941, sent by the chief of the Military Cabinet

to the governors of Bucovina and Basarabia, all Jews were obliged to deposit in the

National Bank the foreign currency they owned, as well as their gold, jewelry, valuable

metals and money in domestic currency.

They received in exchange, at an utterly unfavorable rate, German occupation marks

(Kassenscheine), a powerless coin which was generally refused by the local population in

Transnistria.

4. The deportation in 1942 of certain categories of Jews from the Old

Kingdom and Southern Transylvania

In 1942, the Antonescu government decides that Jews suspected of having left-wing

political convictions were to be deported to Transnistria.


27

As such, 407 Jews were deported from the Tirgu Jiu camp, 85 from various

penitentiaries, and 554 who had retained their freedom up to this point, but were

suspected of sympathizing or being connected to left-wing parties or organizations. Also,

578 Jews who in 1940 requested to be repatriated to Basarabia are being deported at this

time. On September the 22nd

, 1942, this last group reached Mostovoi, Berezovka district.

Here, the majority were handed over to the Germans, and shot by the SS troops in this

locality. Only 16 deportees escaped and returned to Romania at the end of 1943.

During the same timeframe, hundreds of Jews are being deported in multiple

convoys, allegedly for being absent from mandatory labor assignments. Jews accused of

various delinquent acts share the same fate.

Also, 1,500 Jews from the Old Kingdom and Southern Transylvania were deployed to

Transnistria for forced labor, in the well-known Battalion 120 Balta, which functioned for

almost two years.

Altogether, roughly 4,000 Jews were deported from the Old Kingdom and Southern

Transylvania into Transnistria.1 The deportation of the Jews from the Old Kingdom and

Southern Transylvania was curtailed due to the resolute intervention of the Queen-

Mother, Elena.

According to the report of SS Hauptsturmfuhrer Richter, the physician Victor

Gomoiu, after witnessing how the deportation of the Jews from Bucharest into

Transnistria was being carried out, reported his experience to Queen-Mother Elena.

The Queen-Mother relayed to King Mihai she considers the hardship inflicted on

these people a national shame which she cannot tolerate any further, and as such requests

him to intervene.

Without delay, the king called his ad-interim prime minister Mihai Antonescu, who

summoned a Meeting of the Counsel of Ministers as a result.

An important role was also played by Bishop N. Balan of Sibiu, who in the presence

of Chief Rabbi Al. Safran, telephoned Mihai Antonescu and asked him to stop the

deportations to Transnistria.

The role played by this great servant of church and justice is even more important, as

he directly appealed to Marshal Antonescu to prevent the deportations of Jews from the

Old Kingdom and Southern Transylvania into the German concentration camps in

Poland.

On October 15, 1942, the Counsel of Ministers announces their decision to cease

deportations to Transnistria, pending the creation of an institution for the organization of

this action. Thereafter, deportations to Transnistria still occurred, however sporadic and

insignificant as far as numbers are concerned.

5. The total number of Romanian Jews deported to Transnistria

In Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the land of Hertza, the total number of Jews

before the deportation, as shown by the census undertaken by the Romanian authorities at

the end of August and beginning of September 1941 (i.e., after the massacres committed

during the liberation of these territories), was roughly 126,434 souls. If we add to this

number the roughly 24,000 Jews living in Southern Bucovina, and the roughly 12,000


28

Jews from the district of Dorohoi (Hertza excluded), it follows that prior to the massive

deportations in the fall of 1941, the total number of Jews was 162,434 souls.

According to an ulterior census of the Jewish population in May 1942, there were

19,576 Jews remaining in this region at this time (227 in Basarabia, 16,854 in Northern

Bucovina, 179 in Southern Bucovina and 2,316 in the district of Dorohoi).

It follows that the total number of Jews deported to Transnistria in the fall of

1941 was of 142,858 persons.

To this figure, one must add the Jews deported in 1942 – respectively 4,000 from

Cernauti (deported between June 7 and June 28, 1942), 450 from the district of Dorohoi

(deported on June the 14th

, 1942), and 3,968 from the Old Kingdom and Southern

Transylvania.

Hence, the total number of Jews deported to Transnistria comes to 151,276

persons.1

This figure includes the ones who were shot or died underway.

There are several takes regarding the total number of Jews deported to Transnistria:

According to a report released by the Ministry of Internal Affairs in 1943, the total

number of the ones deported to Transnistria was supposed to be 110,033 souls. This

figure, as pointed out by researcher M. Carp, is incomplete, not including all Jews

deported in the fall of 1941 and in 1942.

Conversely, an article published by the newspaper “Bukarester Tagsblatt” (nr. 4700

from August 1942) indicates that 185,000 Jews were deported to Transnistria, a figure

adopted by certain Jewish researchers as well.

I consider this figure to be exaggerated, merely representing the subjective impression

of a reporter and uncorrelated with the number of Jews living prior to the deportation in

the areas affected by massive evacuations of Jewish population.

It can therefore be considered that the real figure, supported by statistical data,

is of roughly 150,000 Jews deported from Romania to Transnistria.


29

V. TRANSNISTRIA – A PLACE OF SUFFERANCE AND DEATH

On August 19, 1941, a pact is signed at Tighina between Germany and Romania, by

which the territory between the Dniester and Bug is entrusted to Romanian authority. As

a result, on October the 17th

, 1941, the Romanian government officially proclaims the

province of “Transnistria”, with capital city Odessa.

This territory, stretching from Nikolaev to the Black Sea along the river Bug, passing

through Voznesensk, Konstantinovka, Govoron and Bar, up to Moghilev on the Dniester,

had a surface area of 41.4 square kilometers (comparable to the surface area of Oltenia

and Banat together), and a population of 2.2 million people, in their majority Ukrainians

and Russians.1

Note is being made that before the war, there were 200,000 Romanians and 300,000

Jews living in Transnistria. (Transnistria of 1941 must not be confused with today’s

Transnistria, an integral part of the Republic of Moldova, formed by a narrow strip of

land along the Dniester, from Tiraspol to Rabnitza).

From an administrative standpoint, Transnistria included 13 districts:

To the north, the districts of Moghilev, Tulcin and Iugastru.

In the center, the districts of Balta, Golta, Ananiev, Dubasari, Rabnitza.

To the south, the districts of Berezovka, Tiraspol, Ovidiopol, Oceakov and Odessa.

In view of ethnic purification of Romania, the Antonescu government designates

Transnistria as the place where the Romanian Jews were to be deported.

According to a deliberate and well-organized program, this region was transformed

into an immense concentration camp for the extermination of tens of thousands Jews.

Prof. Gh. Alexianu, who was named governor of Transnistria, carried out these

politics to the letter.

The Jews deported from Romania were placed in fairly compact groups in the

districts of Moghilev, Balta, Tulcin and Golta, being forced to live in ghettos, work

colonies and concentration camps.

The largest ghettos were constituted in the localities of Moghilev, Lucinetz,

Copaigorod, Murafa, Shargorod, Djurin (Moghilev district), Obodovca and Bershad

(Balta district), Nesterovka (Tulcin district), and others.

The authorities didn’t provide even the most basic survival conditions. The majority

of deportees were afflicted by hunger, cold and disease, being cramped in common

housing with the local Jews, in homes which couldn’t accommodate all deportees. Tiny

rooms would serve as shelter to 8-10 people. Others would live in synagogues, various

depots, barracks, pig stalls and other improvised housing.

In order to procure food, the majority sold their last belongings to the Ukrainians.

Many became beggars, while others subsisted on potato peels and other household

leftovers.

The winter of 1941-1942 was especially harsh. Extremely low temperatures,

inhuman living conditions, starvation and diseases made thousands and thousands of

1 Schechtman Iosif – Transnistria – Mosaic Cult Magazine, nr. 766-sept. 1993.

30

victims, primarily elders and children. The dead were collected and thrown into common

graves, without their heirs ever knowing their burial place.

Due to the misery reigning in the ghettos, a devastating typhus epidemic broke out.

Many Jewish doctors, among others, died while trying to contain this epidemic.

Most families paid a heavy casualty tribute, and many were extinguished altogether.

Ruth Glasberg lives currently in the USA, in the city of Miami, Florida.

In November 1941, at the age of 11, she was deported by the Romanian authorities

from Cernauti to Transnistria, along with her parents and older brother.

After they were transported by train, in cattle cars, to the transit camp Marculesti in

Basarabia, they had to endure a torturous journey on foot for two weeks, during an early

winter, to the ghetto of Bershad in the district Balta, close to the river Bug.

Many sick or exhausted people, who couldn’t keep pace with the convoy, were shot

underway by the gendarmes accompanying the transport.

Below is a summary of this witness’ description of the ordeal she endured in this

ghetto:

“Bershad was the largest and most ill-famed among the ghettos and concentration

camps of Transnistria, the number of which exceeded one hundred. In a short time, it

earned the reputation of having the toughest conditions, the largest number of victims,

and the most sadistic administrator, Florin Ghinararu.

My family was obliged to occupy the rear room of a partially demolished house.

Even the most vivid imagination would have difficulty visualizing the inhuman

conditions we found ourselves in.

There were twenty people cramped in a tiny room of a house which was half-

destroyed, with roof portions missing, without doors or windows.

Our sole comfort was a so-called fireplace called “trinicika”, improvised from two

bricks laying on the ground, approximately half a meter apart, in between which we

would light a fire.

Apart from the terrible frost and the exhaustion caused by two weeks of marching on

foot, we were plagued by famine.

Slowly, silently, one after the other, the ones around us were dying.

Days in a row, their lifeless bodies would remain with us, until the buriers arrived to

pick them up.

The inhuman conditions we lived in were favorable to the outbreak of diseases.

Typhus was invading us at a frightening rate, becoming the number one killer, followed

by starvation, dysentery, frostbite and periodic executions.

My father was an easy prey. He died in silence, unnoticed, like a candle whose flame

is extinguished, with his gentle expression forever frozen on his face.

Initially, as the mortality rate increased, the buriers were dropping by once every few

days. As time went by, however, it could take weeks before they showed up. A part of the

room became an improvised morgue, with cadavers from the entire house piled up next to

the wall.

Waiting for the buriers became an obsession for the living.

Nobody accompanied the dead to their grave, nobody knew what happened to them

once they left us.

Few among us had the physical strength to walk on foot behind the sled to the edge of

town.

31

Nearly two weeks after my father’s death, my elder brother, who for days hadn’t

uttered a word or shown any movement, passed into the beyond.

Day by day, mortality was rising in the house. In our room, from the initial total of

twenty, only four people survived at one month’s interval.

With an iron will, I struggled to stay awake for two weeks in a row to keep my mother

alive.

In the fourteenth night of vigil, my will gave in and I fell asleep.

Wincing, I woke up and shook her, shouting: Mother! Mother!

Silence. She had chosen to die the moment I stopped calling her and let her die in

peace.

She used that moment to leave this insane world.

I felt a stab in the chest, as I realized I had become no one’s child. There was no one

left to love me unconditionally, there was no one left to care about me. A sort of

emptiness invaded my soul.

The 27th

of January 1942 – At the age of eleven, I was alone in the world.”1

In ghettos, many Jews were shot by the gendarmes.

On March the 20th

, 1942, six Jews heading towards Moghilev to search for their

families were shot in the cemetery of Shargorod, by order of praetor Dindelegan.

In the ghetto of Bershad, the shooting of Jews on various grounds invented by the

gendarmes was a current practice, and there are numerous such examples.

From the ghettos, a large number of Jews capable of physical labor were sent to

various construction sites and subjected to a harsh regime of torturous labor, with entirely

inadequate sustenance and living conditions.

The ones deployed to German work camps beyond the Bug were for the most part

shot by the Germans after completing their work assignment.

In Transnistria, extermination camps were organized by the Antonescu government,

the most notable being the ones at Peciora, Scazinetz, Vapniarca, Bogdanovka,

Domanovka, Akmecetka, besides many others.

Among others, numerous Jews from the ghetto of Moghilev were deported to the

camp of Peciora, also called “the death camp”. This camp, located on the very banks of

the Bug, was surrounded by three rows of barbwire and kept under tight guard.

Oftentimes, German trucks would cross the Bug to pick up prisoners from the camp and

transport them to extermination sites. The conditions in this camp were among the most

barbarous. As shown by M. Katz, ex president of the Jewish Committee of Moghilev,

“the prisoners of this camp, deprived of the possibility of procuring sustenance, were

feeding on human corpses.”

Numerous mothers, in order to save their children from starvation, would secretly

cook cadaver meat in a sort of broth and feed it to their little ones, telling them this was

beef.

The number of dead in this camp reached 80%, while the balance of 20% escaped by

running away to various ghettos in other localities.

Bety Petrescu-Schechter from Dorohoi, (currently residing in Bucharest), was

evacuated from Moghilev in October 1942, along with her mother, younger brother and

other Jews from Dorohoi, to the camp of Peciora.

Below is the testimony of this surviving witness:

1 Ruth Glasberg-Gold – A time of dry tears – Hasefer Press – Bucharest 2003, page 107-134.

32

“There was no organization whatsoever in the camp. The territory was surrounded

by barbwire, and sentinels guarded it day and night, so that no one would escape from

this hell.

There was nothing to sleep on, everyone tried to retrieve something they could lie on.

Some would sleep on cadavers that were waiting to be taken out the next day.

There was no way of procuring sustenance. People were ragged, dirty and starved to

death. To keep alive, many would feed on the meat of cadavers lying around.

At nighttime, one could hear the desperate screams of inmates suffering horrible

pains from starvation or other diseases ravaging the camp.

Sometimes Ukrainian peasants came by, and taking pity on us, threw over the fence

various vegetable leftovers, which to us were veritable delicacies.

The situation was desperate and hopeless, each one of us awaiting his end.”

The camp at Peciora was among the few places in Europe where some of the

Jews, desperate due to the famine they were subjected to, were forced to become

cannibals.

The camp at Scazinetz was founded in the spring of 1942, and destined for Jews

evacuated from the town of Moghilev. During the months of May and June 1942, nearly

400 Jews from the town of Moghilev were brought to this camp.

The misery reigning here, unforgiving famine and diseases of all kinds, particularly

scabies and dysentery, made hundreds of victims.

Some of the Jews were shot for trying to jump the barbwire fence surrounding the

camp.

In the fall of 1942, the camp of Scazinetz was dismantled and the surviving Jews

were marched on foot towards the Bug, to the villages of Voroshilovka, Tivrin and

Crasna, where more than half of them died of hunger and disease.

The camp at Vapniarca was created for the imprisonment of those suspected of

having connections with the socialists or communists, or those having left-wing

ideological convictions.

Even though initially, in August of 1942, the camp had just 100 inmates, by the

middle of September 1942 the number of inmates had risen to 1135, and later it reached

the figure of 1500.

The camp exhibited an utter lack of hygiene, the inmates were plagued by hunger and

thirst, the sick were denied care, and some of the inmates were subjected to torture.

By order of the commander of the camp, colonel I. Murgescu, the inmates were fed

almost exclusively bean feedstuff, which caused them to develop lathyrism1.

In April 1942, a total of 427 Jews from this camp were sent to the districts of Balta

and Golta to be used for labor.

After the camp at Vapniarca was dismantled, the remaining Jews were placed in the

camps of Grosulovo and Slivina.

In the district of Golta, the well-known camps of Bogdanovka, Domanovka and

Akmecetka were organized, containing for the most part native Ukrainian Jews and

Basarabian Jews.

By order of Modest Isopescu, prefect of the Golta district, tens of thousands of Jews

were massacred in these camps between December 1941 and February 1942 by

1 Disease of human beings and animals characterized by spastic paralysis.

33

Romanian gendarmes and Ukrainian police officers of German ethnicity, enrolled in the

SS troops.

The sick and the invalid were put in stables which were set on fire; the rest of the

inmates were massacred in groups of three to four hundred, using explosive

cartridges to accomplish the task. The cadavers of those shot were burned, an

operation which lasted almost two months and was executed by a group of roughly

200 other Jews.

Esther Golbelman, a native of Chisinau, is among the 120 survivors from a total of

roughly 60,000 Jews deported to Bogdanovka by the Antonescu regime.

After exhausting peregrinations through various camps in Transnistria, she arrived at

Bogdanovka, along with her mother, an older brother and a twin brother, at the end of

November 1941.

Presented below are fragments from the testimony of this survivor:

“What was Bogdanovka? Under Soviet rule, it was a “model” sovhoz which was

raising pigs. Now, the pigs were gone, and the empty barracks, without doors or

windows, were awaiting the Jews. It was cold – an early winter brought frost and

blizzard. Underway, we were stepping over human bodies who had succumbed to cold

and exhaustion. At Bogdanovka, removal from the barracks of those who had died

overnight was a daily routine. Again the ground was paved with cadavers. The

Ukrainians could barely wait for the bodies of the dead to be thrown out of the yard of

the sovhoz. They darted upon them like vultures, to strip them of their clothes. The more

desirable clothing items were taken by Romanian soldiers, the rags were left for the

Ukrainians.

…On the morning of December 21, 1941, a harsh winter day, we heard the sound of

shooting. In our barrack, no one knew where they came from. Who was shooting, at

whom..

About an hour later, our buildings were surrounded by Ukrainian policemen and

Romanian soldiers. Up on the hill, several Romanian and German officers were

watching us, carrying on a heated debate about the orders to be given.

From every barrack, people were being chased out in the open. The plaza adjacent

to the lower buildings of the sovhoz appeared dark with people.

From up the hill – where the pigsties housing tens of thousands of Jews were located

– smoke was rising. Nobody knew anything.

On December 22 we remained locked in our barracks. The killers were busy with the

Jews up on the hill, in the pigsties. About 2,000 people were killed each day: women,

men, elders. They no longer bothered to shoot the children, they were throwing them

alive into the ditch, over the fire. The adults were being killed by shooting. Ukrainian

policemen and Romanian gendarmes stood at the edge of the ditch, taking turns at

shooting. Groups of eight officers would relieve the previous eight, exhausted from all

that shooting…

Teams of Jews would strip the dead and push them into the ditch behind the little

forest, next to the banks of the Bug. Their bodies would drop into the fire lit at the

bottom of the ditch. Previously, the Romanian soldiers had ordered the Jews to gather

dry sticks, logs and tree trunks. They sprinkled gasoline over this layer and set it on fire.

The bodies of the Jews killed up there, on the edge of the ditch, were thrown into those

flames. Therefore the smoke!

34

Up there, at Bogdanovka, Jews were killed until the 25th

of December. It was

Christmas day. The Romanian soldiers went on a drinking spree. The Ukrainians were

firing their rifles at random, a few bullets here and there, for the sole purpose of scaring

the surviving kikes…

The killers’ “vacation” lasted until January 7 or 8, 1942. In the interim, many of

those in the barracks died of famine, cold and exhaustion.

On January the 18th

or maybe the 20th

, 1942, an order came in from the Romanian

Command to stop the killings.

In the ditch next to the Bug the cadavers of the killed Jews were still smoldering…

One hundred twenty of us were left alive…

After the war, a trial took place at Domanovka, where a few dozen Ukrainian

policemen, in their majority of German origin, were tried as war criminals.

I traveled to Domanovka to witness the trial. I recognized the greater part of those

who had been the killers of Bogdanovka. Absent, of course, from the bench of the

accused were the Romanian officers and gendarmes, and the German officers.”

………………………………………………………………………………………

Those tried at Domanovka for war crimes were sentenced to death by the Soviet

Tribunal. The sentence was executed.

A few years ago, before immigrating to Israel, I returned once more to Bogdanovka.

I felt the need to revisit the places where my loved ones had been killed.

I went into shock. The ditch was still there. From beneath the bushes, along the

abrupt banks, bones were sticking out from the earth – the bones of those who had been

killed. White, clean, washed by rains and snow, dried by wind and sun. I cried bitterly.

The soil of Bogdanovka is soaked with blood, the blood of our Jewish brothers. A few

of us are still alive… Shortly, the veil of oblivion will envelop these martyrs,

assassinated for the sole “fault” of being born Jewish… And maybe tomorrow, in this

insane world, women will bear and raise children who may become ferocious assassins

or innocent victims.

It all depends on the demon or angel in our souls.

But also on the education we receive…”1

…

There have been instances where Romanian officers and soldiers helped Jews

deported to Transnistria, saving their lives.

This is the case of lieutenant Ioan D. Popescu, quaestor of the city of Tiraspol, who

on the evening of August the 18th

received the order to machinegun roughly 4,300 Jews,

gathered in barracks.

At the risk of loosing his life, the lieutenant refused to execute this diabolical order,

and the life of these innocent was thus saved.2

1 From Sonia Palty’s book: “Jews, cross the Dniester!”, page 225-242 – Libra Press – Bucharest, 2002

(containing the full testimony of the survivor). 2 Ilisei Ilie, Popescu D. Ioan – The files of suffering – Musatinii Editorial Group, The future Bucovina,

1999.

35

Major Orasanu of the gendarme legion Moghilev, hearing about the desperate

predicament of the Jews in the camp at Capusterna (living in cattle stables and pigsties of

a former colhoz), traveled in person to that location and ordered the camp to be

dismantled, and the Jews to be housed in the homes of local Ukrainian peasants, thus

saving the 347 Jews who were still alive at that time.

After numerous insistent interventions, especially from the Queen-Mother Elena and

other Romanian personalities, the Antonescu government agreed to send humanitarian

aids to the Jews deported to Transnistria.

As such, under the direct leadership of Dr. Alexandru Safran, the Great Rabbi of

Romania, along with other personalities (Jews and non-Jews), an important relief action

was organized to assist the deportees.

Collective and individual monetary aids, food supplies, medication, clothing items

and footwear, etc., were shipped to Transnistria despite all obstacles and difficulties.

These items eased the suffering of the deported Jews and oftentimes saved human

lives.

In Transnistria, thousands of orphans were left homeless, starving and doomed to

perdition.

The aid sent from inside the country made it possible to organize orphanages, where a

large part of these orphans were gathered and thus saved.

Monetary aid was sent by the Jews left inside the country through various Christian

local inhabitants, citizens of great integrity, who risked their life and liberty to help

the Jews through their ordeal in Transnistria.

This was the case of lieutenant junior Vlad Beiu and adjutant Petru Muraru. The

latter, upon his return to Dorohoi, was denounced, tried and convicted.

Also from the district of Dorohoi, we must mention the lawyer Panait Panaitescu,

who, using his role as an officer in army reserves, brought money and food to the Jews in

Moghilev, being seconded in his entire activity by the grammar-school teacher Nae

Nemteanu.

Colonel Alex. Marino went of his own initiative to the ghetto of Moghilev, where he

distributed to Jews known and unknown to him large sums of money from his own

pocket, and such cases have been numerous.

In the latter half of 1943, as the Antonescu government realized the war was lost, it

started negotiations with the Central of the Jews of Romania and other Jewish leaders,

regarding the repatriation of certain categories of deportees.

As a result of these difficult negotiations, the surviving Jews of Dorohoi (over 6,000

persons), roughly 1,850 orphaned children and several thousand Jews from the Old

Kingdom – altogether 10,000 to 12,000 people – were repatriated at the end of 1943 and

beginning of 1944.

The balance of over 50,000 survivors remaining in Transnistria were liberated by the

Soviet troops after March 20, 1944, and arrived home over the following months,

traveling in the harsh conditions of the front.

36

How many Romanian Jews (form the former Unified Romania) disappeared in

Transnistria?

According to a report prepared by the Ministry of Internal Affairs based on the

registry of the General Gendarmerie Inspectorate for the respective districts and

localities, at the beginning of September 1943 there were 50,741 surviving Jews in

Transnistria (among which 13,980 Jews from Basarabia and 36,761 from Bucovina).1

Colonel Radulescu’s population census shows 61,000 survivors. Dr. W. Filderman,

on the other hand, indicates roughly 70,000 surviving Jews, and the report of I.

Stanculescu 75,000.2

One can therefore presume there were roughly 60,000 – 70,000 surviving Jews by the

end of the year 1943.

It follows that, from the total of 150,000 deported Jews, roughly 80,000 – 90,000

were exterminated in Transnistria.

This number includes the Jews who were killed or died during the journey, which

rises to at least 5,000 victims.

The extermination percentage of the deported Jews was 54-60%.

The highest extermination degree was registered among Basarabian Jews (roughly

90%), followed by that of Dorohoian Jews (almost 50%). The extermination percentage

of Bucovinian Jews was between 35 and 40%.

1 M. Carp – The Black Book, vol. 3, page 455-458 – Diogene Press, 1996.

2 M. Carp – The Black Book, vol. 3, page 511 – Diogene Press, 1996.

37

VI. THE FATE OF THE NATIVE UKRAINIAN JEWS

As Transnistria changed over to Romanian administration (according to the pact of

Tighina from August 19, 1941), the Romanian authorities took over a large number of

local Ukrainian Jews. Prior to the war, there were roughly 300,000 native Ukrainian

Jews living in this region, from which 153,194 in Odessa (according to the Soviet

population census of 1926). After the onset of the war, more than half of these withdrew

along with the Soviet authorities (including the Jews enrolled in the Soviet army), others

disappeared during the long siege of the city, or were killed by German troops of

territorial cleansing (Einsatzgruppe D). From the available data, it follows that the

Romanian authorities took over roughly 135,000 local Ukrainian Jews.1

Odessa fell on October 16, 1941, after a prolonged siege.

The exact number of Jews from Odessa taken over by the Romanian authorities is

unknown. This number is estimated to be around 80,000 souls. Among these, there was

a significant number of Jewish refugees from Basarabia.

On October the 22nd

, 1941, 17.45 hours, there was an explosion in the building

containing the ex-Headquarters of the NKVD, which now served as Headquarters for the

Romanian Military Command in Odessa. Due to the highly violent explosion, the

building collapsed, killing Romanian and German militaries and civil population.

The published data show that a general lost his life in this explosion, along with 16

officers, 35 soldiers and 9 junior officers and clerks – altogether 61 persons.

It is presumable that such a massive explosive charge, with delayed detonation, could

only have been installed by highly skilled Soviet technicians.

The Romanian authorities reacted quite violently, unleashing reprisals against the

local population and primarily against the Jews. These reprisals were carried out without

ever determining the perpetrators of the explosion.

As a result, thousands of Jews are hung in public places or shot without

discernment and without trial.

In Bucharest, the gravest order of the entire governing period of Marshal Ion

Antonescu (registered as nr. 563/October 24, 1941), is being issued and sent out:

“To the attention of General Macici:

As retaliation, Marshal Antonescu orders:

1. The execution of all Basarabian Jewish refugees in Odessa.

2. All individuals not executed as yet falling under the provisions of order

302858/3161 from 10/23/1941, along with others that can be added, shall be

placed in a mined building, which shall be detonated ulteriorly. This shall be

done on the day our victims are buried.

3. This order shall be destroyed after it has been read.”

Regarding the gruesome events in Odessa, the Romanian mayor of the city, Gherman

Pantea, installed by the Antonescu government, wrote to Marshal Ion Antonescu a letter,

from which we quote the following extracts:


38

“I woke up this morning (October 23 – author’s note) with a horrible scene before

my eyes, specifically: On all main roads and at each corner there 4-5 bodies hanging,

and the terrified populace was running all over town. Outraged, I asked who committed

this atrocity, this shameful act, from which we will never be exonerated in the eyes of the civilized world. The ones in charge told me they knew nothing. On the other hand, a

communiqué was posted on the walls in Odessa, without the signature of the Military

Command, disposing that all Jews shall leave the city on the day of October 23 and head

in convoys to Dalnic. The terrified Jews left their homes and belongings and headed

towards Dalnic by the thousands, while the population remaining in the city set out to

pillage their homes.

…………………………………………………………………………………….

I left for Dalnic to return the Jews to the city. Odessa currently counts roughly

50,000 Jews remaining in the city. Catching up with the convoys of thousands of people,

I stopped them and talked to them in Russian, telling them there has been an error and

that the Marshal has ordered your return to your homes.

Heart-breaking scenes took place at this point.

They rushed toward us, kissing our hands and shouting: “Long live Marshal

Antonescu, our savior!”

It was a fair act, since the population had nothing to do with the catastrophe on October 22. The advanced convoys of evacuees were, however, detained by the military

organs. I was told these people will be executed, as a means of retaliation, in conformity

with your order.”1

The events taking place in the city and at the Dalnic barrier, as described by

documents of the time, are presented by Mr. Cristian Troncota in his well-known book

“Glory and tragedies”:

“That same morning (October 23 – author’s note) gallows appear on the streets and

public squares of Odessa, while others are shot at random, such that on the same

morning about 5,000 people were executed in Odessa. Around noontime, the executions

stop, but the gendarmes and the police start rounding up tens of thousands of people,

which are locked up in the main prison of Odessa.

On October 24, 1941, The 2nd

Division of the 10th

Machine Gun Battalion receives

the order of escorting these unfortunates to a place where they had no idea what awaited

them, namely to the edge of the city, at the Dalnic barrier, where there were four depots,

each approximately 25-30 meters long and 10-15 meters wide.

The detainees – children, women, elders and sick people of all ages – are brought out

of jail, lined up in formation and driven like cattle to the slaughter house, toward those

depots… The transport lasted until October the 24th

, 1941, 14.00 hours.

During the transport, many of those in the line-up were falling down due to

exhaustion, and were being shot by the gendarmes on the spot, such that the way from the

prison to the execution spot, approximately 3 kilometers long, was paved with cadavers

of the sick, women and children…

The first lot brought to the execution spot was formed of 50 people, tied up tightly

elbow to elbow with ropes. They were put in an anti-tank trench and forced to face the

earth which formed the wall of the trench. Lieutenant-colonel Deleanu Nicolae

1 Cristian Troncota – Glory and tragedies, page 76 – Nemira Press, 2003.

39

personally gave the order to open fire, directing the soldiers to each fire one well-aimed

shot, so as to save time and ammunition.

Realizing that this procedure doesn’t satisfy the desired goal, it was decided to move

on to mass execution. Thus, the men and a few women who refused to leave their

husbands were put in the first three depots, and the other women and children in the forth

depot. Altogether, according to the testimony of eye witnesses, more than 5,000 people

were put in the four depots.

In view of their mass execution, wholes were made in the walls of the depots, through

which the machine guns were inserted. On the command of lieutenant-colonel Niculescu

M. Coca, the weapons were fired point-blank. Heart-wrenching screams covered the

sound of the machine guns, creating a terrible noise. However, the bullets failed to

penetrate to the last man.

Thus, it became apparent that this procedure likewise failed to satisfy the criminal

wish to terminate this macabre operation as fast as possible. Since it was the month of

October and the dusk descended at about 17.00 hours, an even more horrifying

procedure was resorted to, specifically extermination by burning, a means which was

hoped to obliterate any trace of these savage horrors.

In order to accomplish this, the wholes made by the soldiers were plugged up, as

were the exits from the depots. Straw was stuffed in the attics and on the roofs of the

depots, and gasoline was sprinkled on the walls and roofs and pumped inside the depots

be means of a hose.

After which, on command, the depots were set on fire..

Huge tongues of fire rose toward the sky, the dead and the living melded together in

the consuming flames, turning all to ashes, but not to the point of covering the traces of

the crime.

Through the roofs one could still see people, much like living torches, trying to

escape the terrible fire which had engulfed them.

The gendarmes, however, at the order of lieutenant-colonel Niculescu M. Coca, were

shooting the ones who desperately tried to save themselves by this last means of escape.

In the descending dusk, the spectacle of naked burning people, trying to save

themselves with the last bits of their strengths, constituted a mortifying and hallucinatory

scene, surpassing any fantasy of the most imaginative writers in this world.

……………………………………………………………………………………..

In this way, the extermination of those locked in the first two depots was

accomplished by nightfall. The operation was supposed to continue the next day for the

two remaining depots, including the one containing the women and children.

That entire night and a large part of the next morning, the women, children and

elders locked in those last depots struggled between the horrible agony of their looming

death, and the weak hope that the thousands victims sacrificed the previous day could

somehow have appeased the blood thirst of the merciless and cruel executants of the

reprisal order.

Vain hopes, since the crimes appeared not to have diminished the zeal of the

infamous perpetrators. As such, the same process was repeated all over again the next

day.

40

Moreover, in order for the reprisals to make a lasting impression on the population of

Odessa, at 17.35 hours, October 24, 1941, the depot containing the men was blown up,

after the ones inside had been machine-gunned.”1

On October 27, 1941, at 21.00 hours, the Commander of the 4th

Romanian Army in

Odessa transmits the following telegraphic message: “We report that the ciphered order

nr. 563 from October 24, 1941 has been executed.”

On November the 13th

, 1941, during the meeting of the Ministers’ Council with the

governors of Basarabia, Bucovina and Transnistria, Marshal Antonescu pointed out

among others:

“I ordered 200 Jews to be shot for each one of our dead, and 100 Jews for each one

of our wounded. Has this been carried out?”

To which Professor Gh. Alexianu, the governor of Transnistria, replied:

“They were shot and hung on the streets of Odessa.”2

As pointed out by researchers, at least 25,000 native Ukrainian Jews and Jewish

refugees from Basarabia were killed during the reprisals in Odessa.

Retired Colonel Ovidiu Anca states the following during a videotaped interview

given in September 2003, at the venerable age of 95:

“In the years 1941-1942, I was performing active duty on the Eastern Front, with the

degree of Major. After the explosion in the building of the Romanian Military Command

in Odessa, I personally delivered from the post office the reprisal order from Bucharest,

which was deciphered by the decoder before me and General Trestioreanu. What

particularly impressed me – and I shall never forget this fact – was that, at the end, the

order established a figure of 22,500 (which were to be executed – author’s note),

specifying that these must be Jews from Odessa.”3

Gheorghe Alexianu, the governor of Transnistria, declared at his trial that,

“according to information received from the persons I talked to, there were 15,000 –

20,000 people executed.”

We must point out that the Romanian authorities turned over to the Germans 3,000

Jews in exchange for their 15 dead. These were shot and buried in an antitank trench

outside Odessa.

In the meeting of the Ministers’ Council on December 16, 1941, Marshal Antonescu

gives the following directive to Professor Gh. Alexianu, governor of Transnistria:

“Stick them in catacombs, stick them in the Black Sea, but get them out of Odessa. I

don’t want to know anything. A hundred can die, a thousand can die, all of them can

die…

Bottom line, get me all the kikes out of Odessa.”4

Governor Gh. Alexianu carried out to the letter this order received from Marshal Ion

Antonescu. In fact, he had implemented deportations even prior to this order.

1 Cristian Troncota – Glory and tragedies, page 79-80 – Nemira Press, 2003.

2 See the stenographic report of the Ministers’ Council from November 13, 1941 – A.S.B. Fund P.C.M.

Cabinet, file 477/1941, pages 10, 11, 52, 53 (Lya Benjamin – Stenograms) 3 Dr. Harry Kuller – An inedited document regarding the anti-Jewish reprisals in Odessa (October 1941) –

F.C.E.R.-C.S.L.E.R. – Bulletin of the Center, Museum and Historic Archive of the Jews of Romania, nr.

10/2004, page 36. 4 See the stenographic report of the Ministers’ Council from December 16, 1941 – A.S.B. Fund P.C.M.

Cabinet, file 478/1941, pages 110, 112, 120, 153, 158 (Lya Benjamin – Stenograms).

41

During the months of October and November 1941, thousands of Jews from the city

and district of Odessa were deported on foot to the Golta district, and placed in the

concentration camps at Bogdanovka, Domanovka and Akmecetka.

In the beginning of 1942, per order of Gh. Alexianu, governor of Transnistria, other

tens of thousands of Jews from Odessa, who had been spared by the reprisals, were

deported to the district of Berezovka. The deportation proceeded aboard trains during the

months of January and February.

Regarding the deportation of the Jews from Odessa during the months of January and

February 1942, the mayor of the city, Gherman Pantea, wrote to the governor of

Transnistria, Gh. Alexianu, on January the 20th

, 1942, a letter stating among others:

“I have already reported to you, verbally and in writing, that this evacuation is unjust

and inhuman, and done now, in the heart of winter, it becomes downright barbarous.

Moreover, on December 3, 1941, I reported to you in writing that the Jewish population

of Odessa doesn’t pose any risk whatsoever to the safety of Odessa. To the contrary, they

have gone to work, toiling for the rebuilding of the city, and no one is thinking of plots or

mutiny.”1

Many of the Jews deported from Odessa, cramped in cattle cars, through the windows

of which the wind blew fiercely, exhausted and sick, died on their feet and the dead

continued to stand thus, frozen, since there was nowhere to fall. Upon their arrival at

Berezovka a few days later, the gendarmes forced the survivors to unload the corpses

from the train. The sick and frozen were separated from the rest and taken to a place

from where none would return. The surviving Jews started out on foot, in convoys,

driven by the gendarmes towards various camps. On this “journey of death” (passing

through Mostovoi and Lidovici), the fields were sprinkled with the corpses of those

collapsing as their strength failed them, or those shot by the gendarmes for not being able

to keep up with the convoy. After reaching their destination and being placed in

concentration camps, most died from starvation, frost, or disease, or were simply picked

up and killed by Ukrainian policemen of German ethnicity, enrolled in the SS troops.

A meaningful note of the Military Cabinet nr. B2, from May 12, 1942, reads as

follows: “The High Command reports that in the timeframe March 10 – April 24, 1942,

a number of 4047 Jewish inmates from various concentration camps in the Berezovka

district have been shot by the German policemen. After the execution, the German

policemen have set the corpses on fire. The High Command requests to be informed if

the German policemen should be allowed such initiatives in a territory under Romanian

administration.”

Marshal Antonescu issues the following resolution to this note: “It is not in the

attributions of the High Command to concern itself with this matter.” As shown, tens of

thousands of native Ukrainian Jews were killed in the camps of Bogdanovka,

Domanovka and Akmecetka in the Golta district.

It must be pointed out that in the districts of Golta and Berezovka, the Romanian

authorities concentrated the majority of native Ukrainian Jews who survived the events in

Odessa and other districts. Most found their death by shooting, burning alive, starvation,

frost and diseases. The Saraga report, prepared in 1943, shows that as of that date there

were only 13,000 local Jewish survivors. Radu Lecca, commissary for the Jewish

matters, claims that as of November 20, 1943, there were roughly 20,000 native

1 Cristian Troncota – Glory and tragedies – page 77 – Nemira Press.

42

Ukrainian Jewish survivors.1 If we are to believe this last figure, it follows that from the

roughly 135,000 native Ukrainian Jews, roughly 115,000 were exterminated under

Romanian authority.

1 Radu Ioanid – The Jews under the Antonescu Regime – page 302 and 348, Hasefer Press, Bucharest 1997.

43

VII. TRAGIC BALANCE FOR THE JEWS UNDER ANTONESCU

GOVERNMENT

The number of Jews exterminated in the territories under Romanian authority during

the Second World War is reflected by the following synthetic table:

Jews exterminated (persons)

A. ROMANIAN JEWS - TOTAL 155,000

- Pogrom of Dorohoi 70

- Legionary Rebellion 130

- Pogrom and Death Trains of Iasi (June 29 – July 6,

1941)

8,000

- Mass Assassinations of the Jews from Basarabia,

Northern Bucovina and the Hertza territory (June

22 – September 1, 1941)

55,000

- Transnistria (Sept. 1941 – March 1944) 80,000

- Other victims 11,8001

B. NATIVE UKRAINIAN JEWS – TOTAL 115,000

C. JEWS EXTERMINATED – TOTAL 270,000

Altogether, in the territories under Antonescu government roughly 270,000 Jews

were exterminated (155,000 Romanian Jews from the former Unified Romania and

115,000 native Ukrainian Jews).

The largest number of victims was registered in Transnistria. From the total of

270,000 exterminated Jews, roughly 200,000 disappeared in the territory between the

Dniester and the Bug, respectively over 80,000 Romanian Jews (from the former

Unified Romania) and roughly 115,000 local Ukrainian Jews.

Roughly 55,000 Jews were killed in Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the land of

Hertza in the first months after the outbreak of the war, and another roughly 5,000 died

during the death-journey to Transnistria.

The balance of over 100,000 Jews were killed in the Old Kingdom and Southern

Transylvania, respectively in the pogrom and death trains of Iasi, the pogroms of Dorohoi

and Bucharest, and other places of sad remembrance.

From the global figure of 675,000 Jews in the territories under Antonescu

government, the total degree of extermination was 40%.

1 Includes the Jews killed or deceased during the journey to Transnistria, the Basarabian Jewish refugees

killed during the reprisals in Odessa, as well as other war-victims.

Note: With the exception of the Jews killed during the pogrom in Dorohoi, under the Gh. Tatarascu

government, all other victims were killed during the Antonescu government.

44

VII. CONCLUSIONS

During the Second World War, one can define two separate regions for the Jews in

the territories under Antonescu government:

Region 1. The Old Kingdom and Southern Transylvania, a territory also known

as the “survival zone”, where Jews were subjected to harsh and inhuman persecution, but

where the Antonescu government did not apply a generalized program of deportation

and extermination.

However, it must be pointed out that the anti-Jewish pogrom in Bucharest occurred in

this region, unleashed by the legionaries on the days of January 21-23, 1941. Also in this

region occurred the pogrom and the death trains of Iasi in the period June 29 – July 6,

1941 (causing roughly 8,000 victims), the deportation of roughly 4,000 Jews into

Transnistria, the deployment of tens of thousands of Jews to forced labor units, and the

implementation of numerous anti-Semite laws and measures, which drove the Jewish

population to despair and the uncertainty of their survival in the days to come.

The most lethal danger which threatened the Jews in this region was their possible

deportation to the German death camps of Poland.

As part of their extermination plan of the Jewish population of Europe, the German

authorities made great pressures on the Antonescu government, going as far as to

establish the train routes and schedules, as well as the number of Romanian Jews that had

to be transported every two days by these trains.

In order to address the danger of mass deportation of the Jews in this area, attenuate

the racial persecution and assist the deportees from Transnistria, a clandestine council

was constituted under the leadership of Dr. Alexandru Safran, Chief Rabbi of Romania,

with the participation of W. Filderman, M. Benvenisti, F. Froimescu, A. Schwefelberg

and other Jewish leaders.

This council periodically came together to determine how the decisions of the

government could be counteracted – either directly, but mostly by means of various

personalities of Romanian public life.1

Interventions before the government or before Marshal Antonescu himself of certain

personalities such as the Queen-Mother Elena, Bishop N. Balan of Sibiu, Iuliu Maniu,

Ion Mihalache, Dr. Nicolae Lupu and Ghita Pop – reputable members of the Peasants’

National Party, Constantin I.C. Bratianu – leader of the Liberal National Party, Patriarch

Nicodim, Andrea Casullo – the papal envoy to Bucharest, Traian Popovici – the mayor of

Cernauti and others, contributed in large measure to the discontinuation of deportations

and the attenuation of racial persecution.

A special credit in this regard goes to Dr. W. Filderman, who as the former president

of the Federation of Jewish Community Unions in Romania, and as a well-known

political figure, stood up courageously and tactfully to the leaders of the Antonescu

Regime, achieving positive results on numerous occasions.

1 Alexandru Safran – A cinder snatched from the flames – page 96-107 – Hasefer Press, 1996.

45

In the summer of 1942, Filderman forwarded to Iuliu Maniu a detailed memorandum

containing the main arguments against the deportation, from the standpoint of Romanian

national well-being, rather than a favor to be granted to the Jews.

Maniu and Antonescu met on September 11, 1942. During this meeting, Maniu

presented to Antonescu “arguments” in favor of canceling the deportation plan, which, of

course, must have influenced the Marshal to some degree.1

The deciding role, however, was of course played by the failure of Hitler’s

“Blitzkrieg” and his ulterior defeat at Stalingrad, which caused Marshal Antonescu to

categorically decline Germany’s request of deporting the Jews from the Old Kingdom

and Southern Transylvania to the Nazi extermination camps in Poland.

As a matter of fact, following the defeat at Stalingrad, the attitude of the Antonescu

government towards the Jews changes, i.e. the intensity of persecution diminishes, to the

point of even planning to repatriate certain categories of Jews deported to Transnistria.

In consequence, in this region more than 300,000 Jews survived – a decidedly

positive fact, considering that many neighboring countries, with the exception of

Bulgaria, applied the provisions of the “final solution” of the Nazi government in Berlin

in the most radical manner.

This region also ensured the salvation of certain Jewish refugees from Northern

Transylvania. From here, a limited number of Jews were able to immigrate to Israel.

The extermination percent in this region was only 3.5%.

Region 2. The Northeastern territories of Romania, respectively the district of

Dorohoi, Northern and Southern Bucovina, Basarabia and Transnistria.

In this region, designated by some authors as “the death zone”, the Antonescu

government applied a deliberate and generalized program of mass deportation and

extermination of the Jews.

Under the pretext of punishing the Jews from Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and

Hertza for the “inappropriate behavior” of certain Jews during the withdrawal of the

Romanian troops and during the time of the Soviet occupation, the Antonescu

government unleashed a veritable campaign of mass extermination of the Jews

during the first months following the outbreak of the war, and deported the

survivors of this campaign almost in their entirety to Transnistria.

As pointed out by the well-known historian Dinu C. Giurescu, the responsibility for

these inappropriate acts and behaviors is “borne by individual parties”.2 It cannot be

generalized under any circumstances to the entire collective of almost 200,000 Jews

taken over by the Romanian authorities after the liberation of Basarabia and Northern

Bucovina. It mustn’t be forgotten that tens of thousands Jews were deported by the

Soviet authorities to Siberia.

As a matter of fact, many of the anti-Romanian acts mentioned above were

committed not by Jews, but rather by persons of Russian, Ukrainian and even Romanian

ethnicity.

The deportations to Transnistria extended to encompass the Jews in Southern

Bucovina and the district of Dorohoi, which had never been under Soviet

occupation.

1 Jean Ancel – Contributions to Romanian History, vol. 2 – second part – page 242-248 – Hasefer Press.

2 The Hebrew Reality nr. 51 (851) from May 16-31, 1997.

46

The real cause behind the deportations was ethnic purification, i.e. the elimination of

the Jewish element from these territories, and any other justification is pure aberration,

given credence just by the naïve.

As a result, in this region, the degree of extermination reached 63.2% for the

Romanian Jews in Basarabia, Bucovina and the district of Dorohoi, and 85.2% for

the native Ukrainian Jews in Transnistria.

In absolute numbers, it represents more than a quarter million Jews

exterminated.

This is the region where the Antonescu Holocaust preeminently took place.

Certain commentators present almost exclusively the situation of the Jews in the

“survival zone”, seeking to avoid or intentionally omitting the events in the “death zone”.

The Antonescu government and the Romanian authorities of the time are being presented

as saviors, to the point that rehabilitation is being sought for certain personages

condemned of crime and genocide.

As far as we know, there is no legislation in the world to provide for absolution of

crimes against humanity, even though the respective persons may have ulteriorly

contributed to saving human lives.

…

The extermination of the Jews in certain territories and localities of Romania, in

the general process of the Holocaust, presents certain peculiarities.

In the majority of countries occupied by or allied with the Nazis, the newly installed

local authorities collaborated to identify the Jews and have them deported by train to the

German extermination camps in Poland.

The gassing and burning of the corpses in these camps, however, were exclusively

executed by German Nazis.

From Romania under Antonescu government, not one train departed for the Nazi

extermination camps.

In exchange, the Romanian authorities planned, organized and implemented, on

their own initiative, their own program of territorial cleansing, i.e. of extermination

of the Jews.

In the meeting of the Ministers’ Council on September 5, 1941, Marshal Antonescu

declares clearly and unequivocally: “Do not think I’m unaware of the consequences. Do

not think that, when I decided to cleanse the life of the Romanian nation of all Jews, I

didn’t realize I am producing a great economic crisis. But I told myself this is a war I’m

fighting. And therefore, as during any war, there will be damages to the nation.

………………………………………………………………………………………

If we miss this historic moment of the present, we have missed it forever.”1

In consequence, the Romanian authorities proceeded to the mass deportation and

extermination of the Jews, especially in the Northeastern parts of Romania, employing

barbarous methods (some unique in Europe) for their physical elimination.

1 See the stenographic report of the Ministers’ Council from September 5, 1941 – A.S.B., Fund P.C.M.

Cabinet, file 476/1941, pages 107-109, 115, 116, 127-129, 143-144 (Lya Benjamin – Stenograms).

47

During the implementation of this program, in order not to miss “this historic

moment”, all methods of extermination were resorted to: mass executions by shooting;

pillaging and deportation followed by starvation, frost and disease; hanging; burning

alive; dynamiting; dehydration and asphyxiation in death trains; drowning in the Dniester

and Bug, etc.

The gas chambers were absent, but the ordeal and brutal death of the victims in

Transnistria and other places shown in this work were just as barbarous and inhuman as

the ones in the Nazi extermination camps.

As indicated, the implementation of this politics in the territories under Antonescu

government led to the extermination of at least 270,000 Romanian Jews and native

Ukrainian Jews.

The extermination of Jews in the territories under Romanian authority was not an

isolated occurrence. It took place in the conditions of terror, deportation to concentration

camps and obliteration of the Jews almost all across Europe, carried out by the leaders of

Nazi Germany.

From this standpoint, we can affirm that the genocide of the Romanian Jews is an

integral part of the European Holocaust.

In Europe, Jews were not killed in the countries fighting against fascist Germany,

respectively Great Britain, the unoccupied territory of the Soviet Union, the neutral

countries (Switzerland, Sweden, Liechtenstein, Ireland and Turkey), as well as Spain and

Portugal, which, although countries with fascist regime, did not adopt Hitler’s politics of

racial extermination.

In Finland, which was allied with Germany and fought against the Soviet Union, the

leader of the country, Gustav Emil Mannerheim, did not permit the extermination of one

single Jew.

In the rest of European countries, allied with or occupied by fascist Germany, the

Jews paid a heavy tribute of blood.1

In Romania, “the historic moment that should not be missed”, so fervently advocated

by Marshal Ion Antonescu, was created by temporary victories on the front and

expectations of winning the war, and had as final goal the purging of the Jews from the

country.

But the change of the situation on the front, due to failure of Hitler’s “Blitzkrieg” and

the ulterior defeat at Stalingrad and reversal of the power balance in favor of the allies,

rendered the Antonescu government unable to carry out its plan of “cleansing and ethnic

purification.”

Beginning with the year 1943, the leaders of Romania are increasingly confronted

with the dark specter of defeat and, implicitly, with the moment they would be held

accountable for their acts.

The political discourse of the Marshal changes radically. During the meeting of the

Ministers’ Council on April 20, 1943, Marshal Antonescu declares: “I am fighting to win

this war, but it’s possible the democracies will prevail. And then, should I put the next

generations of our nation in harm’s way, because by this disposition of mine the Jews

were removed from the country?”2


2 See the stenographic report of the Ministers’ Council from April 20, 1943 – A.S.B., Fund 103,

microfilms, roll 1-106 (Lya Benjamin – Stenograms).

48

As a result, beginning with the year 1943, the deportations to Transnistria were

curtailed almost entirely, any plans of deporting the Jews from the Old Kingdom and

Southern Transylvania to the extermination camps in Poland were abandoned, and the

racial persecution decreased in intensity.

Currently, during meetings of Romanian and foreign specialists in this field,

contradictory discussions continue to take place regarding the existence of a Holocaust in

Romania, as well as the extent of this phenomenon.

There are those who accredit the idea that there was no Holocaust in Romania, but

rather that Romania participated in the Holocaust in Basarabia, Bucovina and

Transnistria, which point of view is erroneous.

The Antonescu government did not participate in the Holocaust in Basarabia,

Bucovina and Transnistria, but rather organized and concretely implemented the

Holocaust, since these territories were under Romanian administration at the time.

In Basarabia, Bucovina and Transnistria the governors, prefects, praetors,

commanders of gendarme legions and other responsible parties represented the Romanian

authority, having the right to rule over Jew’s lives and being therefore responsible for the

crimes committed on these territories.

No one denies the fact that some of the crimes in these territories were committed by

German SS police units, but this has been done in collaboration or with tacit accord of the

Romanian authorities.

The Romanian people have a right to know the truth and draw the inherent

conclusions.

We once more affirm that the Romanian people is not guilty and cannot be held

responsible for these events. The moral and juridical responsibility rests with the

authorities of the Antonescu government at the time, as well as certain criminal and

extremist elements that participated in this genocide.

The road to the truth and the assumption of responsibility is long and difficult. But

walking it to the end ensures the certainty that such reprehensible events will never again

occur on Romanian soil.

49

MEMORABLE CALENDARISTIC DATA DURING THE

RACIAL PERSECUTION AND THE GENOCIDE IN THE

TERRITORIES UNDER ROMANIAN AUTHORITY

December 28, 1937 – February 10, 1938 – The Goga-Cuza government, the first

government to transform anti-Semitism in national politics.

This government promulgates on January 1938 the Law of citizenship revisal, the

first manifestation of racial persecution, which would continue to increase in the times to

come, especially in the years of the Second World War, during the Antonescu

government.

November 24, 1939 – July 4, 1940 – The Gh. Tatarascu Government, during which

the territorial concession of Basarabia, Bucovina and the land of Hertza to the Soviet

Union takes place, as well as the anti-Jewish pogrom in the city of Dorohoi (causing 70

dead). Concomitantly, the first criminal anti-Jewish acts occur in the country (Jews being

thrown off trains and Jews being killed in various localities).

July 4, 1940 – September 4, 1940 – The Ion Gigurtu government. On August the

30th

, 1940, based on the Dictate of Vienna, the Gigurtu government concedes Northern

Transylvania to Hungary. During the Gigurtu government, the situation of the Romanian

Jews worsens, due to promulgation of racial laws of Nazi inspiration.

September 4, 1940 – General Ion Antonescu takes over political power in Romania.

September 6, 1940 – King Carol the Second is obliged to abdicate in favor of his

son, Mihai.

September 7, 1940 – General Ion Antonescu concedes to Bulgaria the territory of

Southern Dobrogea, also known as the “Quadrilater”.

September 14, 1940 – Romania is proclaimed, by royal decree, a National Legionary

State. By this royal decree, the Legionary Movement is recognized as the only

movement in the new state, and General Ion Antonescu is named Leader of the Legionary

State and Chief of the Legionary Regime. Horia Sima is named leader of the Legionary

Movement.

September 14, 1940 – January 21, 1941 – The period of the Legionary Government.

Numerous anti-Jewish laws are adopted, and cases of Jews abused or murdered by the

legionaries occur throughout the country. Concomitantly, the legionaries assassinate

various important Romanian personalities.

January 21 – 23, 1941 – The Legionary Rebellion takes place, aiming a total

takeover of power by the legionaries. This results in massacres, pillaging and

destruction.

For the Jewish population of Bucharest, the rebellion yields a balance of 130 Jews

murdered, 25 temples and synagogues desecrated or set on fire, 616 Jewish shops and

547 Jewish homes pillaged and devastated, and some set on fire.

50

The rebellion is stifled by the army, the legionary movement is banned from

leadership of the country and outlawed, and the power is seized exclusively by General

Ion Antonescu.

January 28, 1941 – A new government is formed, presided over by General Ion

Antonescu, formed exclusively of militaries and technicians, which would continue and

escalate the racial persecution against the Jews by promulgating anti-Jewish laws.

June 22, 1941 – Fascist Germany unleashes the war against the Soviet Union, in

which Romania is involved as well.

In the period preceding and following the outbreak of the war, tens of thousands of

Jews are evacuated from rural areas and smaller towns, and concentrated in the district

capital cities. Some are evacuated to the concentration camps in Tirgu Jiu and Craiova.

June 22, 1941 – September 1941 – The period of terror and mass assassination of

the Jewish population in Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the land of Hertza (roughly

55,000 dead).

June 29 – July 6, 1941 – The pogrom and death trains of Iasi (roughly 8,000 dead).

July 8, 1941 – Mihai Antonescu, ad-interim president of the Ministers’ Council,

presents to the Government his plan of “ethnic purification, by forced migration of the

entire Jewish element from Basarabia and Bucovina, which must be thrown over the

border.”

August 19, 1941 – The pact of Tighina is signed between Romania and Germany, by

which the territory between the Dniester and Bug (also known as Transnistria) is

entrusted to Romanian authority.

September 12 – November 10, 1941 – The deportation to Transnistria of the

surviving Jews from Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the land of Hertza proceeds

according to a well-defined plan, featuring specific deportation centers (transit camps or

ghettos), itineraries, crossing points of the Dniester and final destination districts in

Transnistria.

October 9 – 13, 1941 – The deportation of the Jews from Southern Bucovina to

Transnistria.

October 16, 1941 – The fall of Odessa, after a prolonged siege.

October 22, 1941 – The Building of the Romanian Military Command in Odessa

(established in the ex-headquarters of the NKVD) is blown up. As a result of this act, 61

persons were killed (a general, 16 officers, 35 soldiers, and 9 junior officers and clerks).

October 23 – 26, 1941 – The gruesome assassinations in Odessa, during which, as

retaliation, tens as thousands of native Ukrainian Jews and Jewish refugees from

Basarabia were exterminated.

November 1941 – The concentration of the native Ukrainian Jews from southern and

central Transnistria and of part of the Basarabian Jews in concentration camps in the

Golta district (Bogdanovka, Domanovka and Akmecetka), as well as in other camps and

ghettos.

November 7 – 13, 1941 – The deportation of the Jews from the district of Dorohoi to

Transnistria.

November 17, 1941 – The completion of the deportation program of the Jews from

Basarabia, Bucovina and the district of Dorohoi into Transnistria, in the fall of 1941

(roughly 142,000 Jews deported).

51

December 16, 1941 – The Federation of Jewish Communities of Romania is

dissolved, and replaced with the Central of the Jews of Romania.

The winter of 1941-1942 – During this harsh winter, tens of thousands of Jews in the

ghettos and concentration camps of Transnistria die of hunger, cold, disease and

insalubrity. A horrible typhus epidemic breaks out, claiming thousands of human lives.

December 21, 1941 – January 20, 1942 – The massacre of the Jews in the

concentration camp of Bogdanovka, Golta district (in their majority native Ukrainian

Jews and Basarabian Jews).

January – February 1942 – The deportation of the surviving Jews of Odessa to the

concentration camps and ghettos in the Berezovka district and other districts in

Transnistria.

February 1942 – The massacre of the Jews in the concentration camps of

Domanovka and Akmecetka, Golta district (in their majority native Ukrainian and

Basarabian Jews).

February 27, 1942 – The sinking of the vessel Struma (769 dead).

June 7 – 28, 1942 – The deportation to Transnistria of a new lot of roughly 4,000

Jews from Cernauti.

June 14, 1942 – The deportation to Transnistria of a new lot of 450 Jews from the

district of Dorohoi.

The year 1942 – The deportation to Transnistria of roughly 4,000 Jews from the Old

Kingdom and Southern Transylvania.

October 15, 1942 – The Ministers’ Council communicates its decision to stop all

deportation of Jews, pending the creation of an institution for the organization of this

action.

November 19, 1942 – The Soviet offensive at Stalingrad surrounds and destroys the

Fourth German Army, changing the course of the war. This leads to a significant change

in Marshal Antonescu’s attitude towards the fate of the Romanian Jews.

January 1, 1943 – The Assistance Committee of the Central of the Jews sends its

first delegation to Transnistria, in view of organizing an assistance program for the

surviving Jewish deportees.

December 20 – 26, 1943 – The repatriation of the surviving Jews deported from the

district of Dorohoi, and of certain categories of deportees from the Old Kingdom.

March 9, 1944 – The repatriation of 1,846 orphans from Transnistria.

March 29, 1944 – The Soviet troops reach the Dniester, liberating the entire northern

part of Transnistria, including roughly 50,000 Jews deported from Basarabia and

Bucovina, which were surviving in the region as of that date.

August 3, 1944 – The sinking of the vessel Mefkure (416 Jews dead).

August 23, 1944 – The end of the racial persecution and of the Holocaust unleashed

against the Jews in the territories under Romanian authority (exterminated: 155,000

Romanian Jews and 115,000 native Ukrainian Jews from Transnistria).

52

STATISTCAL DATA AND CALCULATIONS

REGARDING THE JEWS OF ROMANIA DURING THE

SECOND WORLD WAR

The statistical data used in this work are based in their great majority upon official

data of the Romanian state, resulting from population censuses and other special

registries:

- The general Romanian Population Census from December 29, 1930.

- The population census from April 6, 1941.

- The inventory of Basarabia and Northern Bucovina from August-September 1941.

- The census of inhabitants of Jewish origin from May 1942.

- The registry of the surviving Jews in Transnistria executed by the General

Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie in September 1943.

- Other special registries.

53

1. The number of Romanian Jews in the years 1930 and 1940

Note: The data for the year 1930 represent the persons of Mosaic religion registered by the General

Romanian Population Census from December 29, 1930.

The data for the year 1940 were calculated considering the natural growth and the migration of Jewish

population from and to other countries.

As indicated in a Memorandum prepared by the Central Institute for Statistics (Studies Office) signed

by Anton Golopentia, during the time period 1930-1940 the natural growth of the Jewish population was of

6,786 souls. It must be pointed out, however, that the variation in Jewish population due to territorial

migration cannot be known precisely, due to the absence of data regarding Jews entering the country

clandestinely. In conclusion, as shown in the report, it can be estimated that the growth of the Jewish

population in Romania in the time period 1930-1940 did not exceed 50,000.

According to the table above, the Jewish population grew in the time period 1930-1940 by 43,070

persons.

SPECIFICATION 1930 1940 UNIFIED ROMANIA – TOTAL 756,930 800,000

1. Romania (minus the conceded territories) 329,841 350,000

2. Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and Hertza (USSR) 277,949 290,000

3. Northern Transylvania (Hungary) 148,294 159,000

4. Quadrilater (Bulgaria) 846 1,000

54

2. The number of Jews in the territories under Antonescu government

after the outbreak of the war

SPECIFICATION

Jews

after the

outbreak

of the war

– persons –

JEWS – TOTAL (1 + 2) 675,000

1. ROMANIAN JEWS (minus Northern Transylvania and

the Quadrilater) 540,000

a) In the Old Kingdom and Southern Transylvania 312,000

b) In Basarabia, Bucovina and the district of Dorohoi 228,000

among which: - in Basarabia, Northern Bucovina

and the land of Hertza

192,000

- in Southern Bucovina and the

district of Dorohoi

36,000

2. NATIVE UKRAINIAN JEWS FROM TRANSNISTRIA 135,000

Note: The data from the table above refer to Jews in the territories under Romanian authority after the

liberation of Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the land of Hertza, and institution of the Romanian

administration in Transnistria.

The 160,000 Jews from Northern Transylvania and the Quadrilater were not included, nor were the

roughly 100,000 Jews from Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the land of Hertza who withdrew voluntarily

or forcibly with the Soviet authorities (including those deported to Siberia, killed during bombardments or

by the German territorial cleansing units, those enrolled in the Soviet army, killed during the siege on

Odessa, etc.)

Included were 135,000 native Ukrainian Jews, which were taken over by the Romanian authorities

after institution of the Romanian administration in Transnistria.

55

3. The number of Jews in Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the land of Hertza

exterminated during the period between the onset of the war and the

deportations to Transnistria

- Statistical calculation -

Specification

Jews – Total

(persons)

1. Taken over by the Antonescu government 192,000

2. Registered by the inventory fro January 9, 1941

prior to the deportation

126,434

3. Basarabian Jewish refugees in Odessa taken over

by the Romanian authorities

10,000∗∗∗∗

4. Jews from Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and

the land of Hertza exterminated during the

period June 22, 1941 – September 1, 1941

55,566

∗

A large part of these refugees were killed during the reprisals in Odessa.

4. The number of Jews in Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the land of Hertza

prior to the deportation

Specification Persons

JEWS - TOTAL 126,434

Northern Bucovina - Cernauti

- Storojinetz

53,809 49,497

4.312

Basarabia

a) – in cities

b) – in camps and ghettos

- Secureni and Edinetz (Hotin)

- Marculesti (Soroca)

- Tg. Vartajeni (Soroca)

- Chisinau ghetto

72,625

6,883

65,742

20,909

10,737

24,000

10,096

From the Jewish World Congress – Section Romania – The Jewish population in numbers – Statistical

Memento – 1945, page 37-38 (based on the inventory of Basarabia and Northern Bucovina in August-

September 1941).

The data was also verified against other sources, revealing similar values.

56

5. The number of Romanian Jews deported to Transnistria

- Statistical calculation -

Specification

JEWS

- TOTAL -

1. Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the land of Hertza

- Registered by December 1, 1941 126,434

- Registered by May 20, 1942 17,081

- Deported (in 1941) – The balance 109,353

- Deported from Cernauti 7-28 June 1942 4,000

Total Deported 113,353

2. Southern Bucovina

- Before the deportation 24,000

- Registered by May 20, 1942 179

Total Deported (the balance) 23,821

3. District of Dorohoi (without the land of Hertza)

- Before the deportation 12,000

- Registered by May 20, 1942 2,316

- Deported (in 1941) – The balance 9,684

- Deported on June 14, 1942 450


4. The Old Kingdom and Southern Transylvania


TOTAL DEPORTED FROM ROMANIA 151,276

57

6. The number of Jews from the Old Kingdom and Southern Transylvania

deported to Transnistria

Specification Deportees

Total

- persons -

DEPORTED JEWS – TOTAL 3,968

From which:

1. Suspected of having left-wing political idea 1,046

a) From the concentration camp Tirgu Jiu 407

b) From penitentiaries 85

c) At large 554

2. Those who requested to be repatriated to Basarabia 578

3. Accused of being absent from labor of national benefit∗

594

4. Convicted for various delinquencies and others 250

5. From the work battalion 120 Balta (which functioned for

almost two years in Transnistria)

1,500

∗ Note: This was the situation as of October 12, 1942. The deportations continued even after this date.

7. The number of Romanian Jews deported and exterminated in Transnistria

SPECIFICATION

Jews Total

- persons -

%

JEWS DEPORTED TO TRANSNISTRIA – TOTAL 150,000 100

JEWS SURVIVNG – TOTAL 60-70,000 40-46

JEWS EXTERMINATED IN TRANSNISTRIA – TOTAL 80-90,000 54-60

Note: The total number of Jews deported and exterminated in Transnistria includes those who were

killed or died underway, at least 5,000 victims.

58

8. Native Ukrainian Jews taken over by the Antonescu government

– as of November 1941 –

SPECIFICATION

JEWS

TOTAL

- persons -

Native Ukrainian Jews from Transnistria

taken over by the Romanian authorities 135,198

1. Killed during the reprisals in Odessa (October 23-26, 1941) 20,000

2. Survivors by the end of November 1941 in Odessa 30,000

3. Ukrainian Jews in the North and South of Transnistria

in November 1941 – total 85,198

a) In the North and West of Transnistria - total 15,198

- Moghilev 3,733

- Shargorod 2,000

- Rabnitza 1,467

- Tulcin 118

- Spicov 27

- Peciora concentration camp 3,005

- Rogozna concentration camp 848

- Balta and other localities 4,000

b) Deported to the districts Golta and Berezovka

(from other areas of Transnistria) 70,000∗

∗ Gathered in the concentration camps Bogdanovka, Domanovka and Akmecetka, as well as other

concentration camps and ghettos in the Golta and Berezovka districts, including the ones dead underway.

Note: The data has been established based on M. Carp’s “Black Book”, vol. 3, page 207 – Diogene

press, 1996.

9. The number of native Ukrainian Jews under Antonescu government,

exterminated during the Second World War

∗ According to Radu Lecca, commissary for the Jewish problems

SPECIFICATION

Jews Total

- persons -

%

Native Ukrainian Jews - Total 135,000 100

Surviving by the end of the war 20,000 14,8

Exterminated 115,000 85.2

59

10. The total number of Jews from the territories under Antonescu government,

exterminated during the Second World War

SPECIFICATION

JEWS

EXTERMINATED

A. ROMANIAN JEWS 155,000

- The pogrom in Dorohoi 70

- The legionary rebellion 130

- The pogrom and death trains of Iasi (June 29 – July 6, 1941) 8,000

- Exterminated between June 22 and September 1, 1941 in

Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the land of Hertza.

55,000

- Transnistria (September 1941 – March 1941) 80,000

- Other victims 11,800∗

B. NATIVE UKRAINIAN JEWS 115,000

TOTAL JEWS EXTERMINATED 270,000

∗ Includes the Jews killed or dead during the journey to Transnistria, the Basarabian Jewish refugees in

Odessa killed during the reprisals, as well as other war-victims.

11. The degree of extermination and survival of the Jews in the territories under

Antonescu government during the Second World War

SPECIFICATION

Jews at the onset

of the war

- persons -

Jews

exterminated

- persons -

Degree of

extermination

%

Degree of

survival

%

1. ROMANIAN JEWS

TOTAL

540,000 155,000 28.7 71.3

a) From the Old Kingdom

and

Southern Transylvania

312,000 11,000 3.5 96.5

b) From Basarabia,

Bucovina and the

district of Dorohoi

228,000 144,000 63,2 36.8

2. NATIVE UKRAINIAN

JEWS – TOTAL

135,000 115,000 85.2 14.8

TOTAL (1+2) 675,000 270,000 40.0 60.0

60

12. The demographic balance of the Jews under Antonescu government

Romanian Jews (from the former Unified Romania)

SPECIFICATION Jews – Total

1. Jews in Unified Romania, according

to the population census from 1930 (minus

Northern Transylvania and the Quadrilater)

607,970

2. Jews in Unified Romania (minus

Northern Transylvania and the Quadrilater) 640,000

3. Jews that withdrew with the Soviet authorities

after the outbreak of the war, were deported to

Siberia, killed in bombardments or by the

German troops of territorial cleansing,

refugees killed during the siege on Odessa, etc.

100,000

4. Jews surviving under Antonescu government 540,000

5. Jews surviving by the end of the war, among which:

- From the Old Kingdom and Southern Transylvania

(minus the district of Dorohoi)

- From Basarabia (repatriated from Transnistria)

- From Northern and Southern Bucovina

(repatriated from Transnistria + un-deported)

- From the district of Dorohoi

(repatriated from Transnistria + un-deported)

385,000

310,000

14,000

53,000

8,000

6. Exterminated (the balance) 155,000

Note: Adding the 115,000 native Ukrainian Jews of Transnistria, killed during

the period of the Romanian occupation, the total number of Jews exterminated

under Antonescu government comes up to 270,000 people.

Specifications regarding certain statistical data in table 12: The number of Romanian Jews surviving in Transnistria was determined by the General

Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie by means of a district- and locality-based registry on September

1, 1943. According to this registry, only 13,980 of the Jews evacuated from Basarabia and only

36,761 Jews evacuated from Bucovina (Northern and Southern) survived by this date. To the

number of surviving deportees from Bucovina, one must add the figure of more than 16,000 un-

deported Jews (in their majority from Cernauti). In sum, therefore, there were roughly 53,000

survivors from Bucovina (Northern and Southern).

In the district of Dorohoi, more than 6,000 Jews were repatriated from Transnistria, which,

added to the roughly 2,000 un-deported Jews, yields a total survivor number of roughly 8,000

Jews.

61

13. The European Jews exterminated during the Holocaust

Note: Excepting the data for Romania, Hungary and the Soviet Union, the figures above

were extracted or calculated from Jacob Lestchinsky’s work “Bilance de l’extermination”.

For Romania, the table includes only Jews from the territories under Antonescu government –

including Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and the land of Hertza after their liberation from Soviet

occupation, as well as Transnistria after this territory was taken over by Romanian administration.

Northern Transylvania was included with Hungary, since in this temporarily occupied

territory the Jews were deported to extermination camps by the Hungarian state.

Specifications regarding certain statistical data in table 13: ∗ Including the Jews of Great Britain and of the neutral countries (which were not affected by

the Holocaust), the Jewish population of Europe exceeded 9.5 millions inhabitants.

∗∗ The Baltic countries (Lithuania, Latonia, Estonia) were not included as part of the Soviet

Union, nor were Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and Transnistria. The specified Jewish

population of the Soviet Union prior to the war includes population from both the unoccupied

region and the region occupied by the Germans. Considering the fact that the Jewish population

COUNTRY

Jewish

population

prior to

the war

- persons -

Jews

exterminated

during the

Holocaust

- persons -

Percent

of

extermination

%

EUROPE 9,211,000∗ 5,933,000 64.4

1. Poland 3,300,000 2,800,000 84.8

2. Soviet Union∗∗ 3,025,000 1,475,000 48.8

3. Hungary 564,000 335,000 59.4

from which: Northern Transylvania 160,000 135,000 84.4

4. Romania (under Antonescu government) 675,000 270,000 40.0

- Romanian Jews 54,000 155,000 28.7

- Native Ukrainian Jews 135,000 115,000 85.2

5. Czechoslovakia 315,000 260,000 82.5

6. Germany 210,000 170,000 81.0

7. Lithuania 150,000 135,000 90.0

8. France 300,000 90,000 30.0

9. Holland 150,000 90,000 60.0

10. Latonia 95,000 85,000 89.5

11. Greece 75,000 60,000 80.0

12. Yugoslavia 75,000 55,000 73.3

13. Belgium∗∗∗ 90,000 40,000 44.4

14. Austria 60,000 40,000 66.7

15. Italy∗∗∗ 57,000 15,000 26.3

16. Bulgaria 50,000 7,000 14.0

17. Other countries∗∗∗∗ 20,000 6,000 30.0

62

in the occupied region was roughly two million inhabitants, the losses for the areas of the Soviet

Union under German occupation represent a ration of 73.8%.

∗∗∗ Including the refugees.

∗∗∗∗ Denmark, Estonia, Luxemburg, Norway and Danzig.

63

GENERAL DEMOGRAPHIC BALANCE OF THE JEWS

FROM THE FORMER UNIFIED ROMANIA

AND TRANSNISTRIA DURING THE

SECOND WORLD WAR

64

GENERAL DEMOGRAPHIC BALANCE OF THE

JEWISH POPULATION FROM THE FORMER UNIFIED

ROMANIA AND TRANSNISTRIA

A. ROMANIAN JEWS FROM THE FORMER UNIFIED ROMANIA

IN THE YEAR 1940 – TOTAL

from which:

800,000

1. ROMANIAN JEWS SURVIVING 410,000

2. ROMANIAN JEWS EXTERMINATED UNDER THE HORTHYST

GOVERNMENT IN NORTHERN TRANSYLVANIA

135,000

3. ROMANIAN JEWS FROM BASARABIA AND NORTHERN

BUCOVINA WHO WITHDREW OR WERE KILLED PRIOR TO

THE ARRIVAL OF THE ROMANIAN TROOPS

100,000

4. ROMANIAN JEWS EXTERMINATED

UNDER ANTONESCU GOVERNMENT

155,000

B. NATIVE UKRAINIAN JEWS FROM TRANSNISTRIA TAKEN

OVER BY THE ANTONESCU GOVERNMENT

from which:

135,000

1. Survivors 20,000

2. Exterminated by the Antonescu government 115,000

JEWS EXTERMINATED UNDER ANTONESCU GOVERNMENT

TOTAL

from which:

270,000

- Romanian Jews (point A4) 155,000

- Native Ukrainian Jews (point B4) 115,000

65

SPECIFICATIONS REGARDING THE

METHODOLOGICAL CONTENT OF THE STATISTICAL

INDICATORS PRESENTED IN THE BALANCE

I. REGARDING THE ROMANIAN JEWS FROM THE FORMER UNIFIED

ROMANIA

A. The figure of 80,000 persons representing the Romanian Jews (from the former

Unified Romania) in the year 1940, was established on the basis of the population census

from the year 1930 (756,930), to which the figure of roughly 43,000 persons was added,

representing natural growth and immigration from the neighboring countries invaded by

the German army. The memorandum prepared by the Central Institute for Statistics

(Studies Office), signed by the well-known Anton Golopentia, shows that the growth in

Romanian Jewish population in the interval 1930-1940 did not exceed 50,000 (The

General Population Census of Romania from 1941, page 241-253).

1. The figure of 410,000 Jews surviving from the former Unified Romania includes

roughly 51,000 Basarabian and Bucovinian Jews who survived Transnistria (according to

the registry of the General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie on September 1, 1943) plus

16,000 un-deported Jews from this region, 6,000 surviving Jews and 2,000 un-deported

Jews from the district of Dorohoi, 310,000 Jews from the Old Kingdom and Southern

Transylvania, as well as 25,000 surviving Jews from Northern Transylvania.

This figure is confirmed by the registry of the Jewish World Congress of 1947, which

establishes the number of 428,312 Jewish inhabitants living on Romanian territory as of

that year.1

Also, it is being confirmed by the number of the Jews who immigrated from Romania

and the Republic of Moldova (roughly 350,000 to Israel and roughly 70,000 to Western

Europe), to which one must add the roughly 20,000 Jews surviving in these two countries

by the end of the year 2000.

2. The figure of 135,000 Jews disappeared under the horthyst government in

Northern Transylvania (deported to the mass extermination camps in Poland and

Germany) was established by researchers who studied this issue (F.C.E.R. Archive – The

map of Northern Transylvania).

3. The figure of 100,000 Romanian Jews from Basarabia, Northern Bucovina

and the land of Hertza, who withdrew, were killed or disappeared before the arrival

of the Romanian troops, includes:

- Jews deported to Siberia by the Soviet authorities;

- Jews enrolled in the Soviet army;

- Jews who withdrew voluntarily or forcibly with the Soviet authorities (many of

which, being overtaken by advancing German troops, were either killed in

1 The Jewish World Congress – Romanian Section – “The Settlements of the Jews in Romania” – Statistical

Memento, page 30 – Bucharest, 1947.

66

bombardments on the front line, or shot by special German territory-cleansing

units);

- Basarabian Jewish refugees in Odessa who died during the long siege of this city:

- Jews killed during bombardments in Chisinau and other localities, etc.

All these categories of Jews never came to live under Antonescu jurisdiction and as

such, cannot be counted as having been exterminated under Romanian authority.

This figure has been determined based on estimates of well-known researchers in this

field.

In this regard, Raul Hilberg points out in his famous work “The extermination of the

Jews in Europe”, vol. I, page 676, that the number of Jews deported or evacuated from

Northern Bucovina and Basarabia during the last weeks of Soviet occupation exceeded

100,000.

Radu Ioanid, in his work “The Jews under Antonescu regime”, page 398, shows that

“according to various estimates, roughly 100,000 Jews from Basarabia and Bucovina

withdrew with the Soviet authorities or were deported by them.”

A report of OSS estimates that “100,000 to 130,000 Jews fled from the troops

entering Basarabia and Bucovina.” (American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, JAFFIS

OSS).

Dr. Sabin Manuila and Dr. Filderman, in a study published in 1957, also indicate the

figure of 100,000 Jews from Basarabia and Northern Bucovina withdrawing voluntary or

forcibly with the Soviet authorities. Many other documents indicate a number close to

the above regarding the large number of Jews from Basarabia and Northern Bucovina

deported by the Soviet authorities or withdrawing along with these, prior to the arrival of

the Romanian troops.

Solely in the city of Chisinau, which counted roughly 50,000 Jews prior to the war,

roughly 40,000 from this number disappeared prior to the entry of Romanian troops.

From the city of Cernauti, roughly 10,000 Jews were deported to Siberia (Jean Ancel,

Contributions to Romania’s history, vol. I, part II, page 230), and such examples abound.

This leads us to conclude that the figure of 100,000 Jews withdrawing, killed or

disappeared before the arrival of Romanian troops represents a valid estimate.

4. The figure of roughly 155,000 Romanian Jews exterminated under Antonescu

government is derived by subtracting from the total number of Jews living in the former

Unified Romanian as of 1940 (800,000 persons) the number of survivors (410,000) plus

the number of those exterminated under horthyst authority (135,000), and the 100,000

that withdrew with the Soviet authorities (800,000 – 645,000 = 155,000).

It must be pointed out that the figure of 155,000 Romanian Jews exterminated

under Antonescu government established by the above calculation corresponds with

the figure established using the direct method previously presented in this work, a

fact which confirms the authenticity of this figure.

II. REGARDING THE NATIVE UKRAINIAN JEWS FROM TRANSNISTRIA

The situation of the native Ukrainian Jews from Transnistria under Antonescu

authority during the Second World War appears as follows:

67

1. Number of Jews taken over by the Antonescu authorities

TOTAL (a + b + c)

from which:

135,000

a) killed during the reprisals in Odessa 20,000

b) deported to the concentration camps and ghettos

in the Golta and Berezovka districts.

100,000∗

c) remaining in the North and West of Transnistria 15,000

2. Surviving by the end of the war 20,000

3. Exterminated (135,000 – 20,000) 115,000

∗ Includes the roughly 30,000 Jews from Odessa deported during January-February 1942, as well as

those shot or dead underway.

The number of Jews killed during the reprisals in Odessa was of roughly 25,000,

among which roughly 20,000 native Ukrainian Jews and roughly 5,000 Jewish refugees

from Basarabia.

Roughly 150,000 Jews were deported by the Romanian authorities to the districts of

Golta and Berezovka, among which roughly 100,000 native Ukrainian Jews and

roughly 50,000 Basarabian and Bucovinian Jews.

The native Ukrainian Jews remaining under Romanian authority in various localities

in the North and West of Transnistria (15,000 Jews), are mentioned by M. Carp in the

Black Book, vol.3, page 207, Diogene Press, 1996.

The rest of roughly 165,000 Ukrainian Jews, (representing the balance to the limit of

300,000 Jews living in Transnistria prior to the war) withdrew with the Soviet Authorities

(including those enrolled in the Red Army), disappeared during the long siege on Odessa,

or were killed by special German territory-cleansing troops (Einsatzgruppe D) or during

bombardments, before the Romanian authorities gained control of the region.

It follows that the total number of Jews exterminated in the territories under

Antonescu authority, established by demographic statistical balance, adds up to

roughly 270,000 victims, from which roughly 155,000 Romanian Jews and roughly

115,000 native Ukrainian Jews.

This being said, we must admit that no one counted the victims and no one can

therefore establish their exact number.

However, we can affirm with certainty that in the territories under Antonescu

government, more than a quarter million people were exterminated, for the sole

fault of being born Jews.

68

THE LIST OF GHETTOS AND CONCENTRATION CAMPS

IN TRANSNISTRIA

1. Alexandrovka 34. Chianovka

2. Ananiev 35. Clocotma

3. Akmeceka 36. Crivoje-Ozero

4. Arva 37. Dubasari

5. Balanovka 38. Djurin

6. Balta 39. Dimidovka

7. Balki 40. Derebcin

8. Bar 41. Domanovka

9. Bogdanovka 42. Frunza

10. Budi 43. Golta

11. Bondarovka 44. Gorai

12. Bucov 45. Grabivtz

13. Birzula 46. Grosolovo

14. Britovka 47. Hrinovka

15. Brailov 48. Halcintzi

16. Bershad 49. Ivascautza

17. Briceni 50. Israilovka

18. Cetvarinovka 51. Iampol

19. Cicelnic 52. Iaroga

20. Cernevtz 53. Iarishev

21. Cazaciovka 54. Kolosovka

22. Capustiani 55. Kopaigorod

23. Capusterna 56. Ladija (stone quarries)

24. Carlovka 57. Lohova

25. Cariskov 58. Lozova

26. Codima 59. Lucinetz

27. Cuzmintz 60. Lucinik

28. Comotcautzi 61. Malo-Kiriuka

29. Cucavka 62. Manikovka

30. Crijopol 63. Marinovka

31. Chirnasovka 64. Murafa

32. Crasnoje 65. Mishcovka

33. Ciorna 66. Moghilev

69

67. Moloknia 93. Slidi

68. Mostovoi 94. Tatarovka

69. Nikolaevka 95. Tulcin

70. Nimratz 96. Tivrin

71. Nesterovka 97. Tiraspol

72. Obodovka 98. Tridubi

73. Odessa 99. Trihat

74. Ozarinetz 100. Tzibulovka

75. Olgopol 101. Trostinetz

76. Olianitza 102. Tropava

77. Ostia 103. Vazdovka

78. Pavlovka 104. Vapniarka

79. Pasiuka 105. Vitovka

80. Popivitz 106. Vorosilovka

81. Pankovka 107. Vigoda

82. Peciora 108. Vinduieni

83. Rabnitza 109. Vinozi

84. Raschstadt 110. Vladislavka

85. Savrani 111. Verhovka

86. Sumilova 112. Vaslinovo

87. Shargorod 113. Vendiceni

88. Suha-Balka 114. Varvarovka

89. Stanislovcek 115. Zabokirit

90. Stefanka 116. Zatisia

91. Slivina 117. Zemrinca

92. Scazinetz

LIST OF THE CONCENTRATION CAMPS BEYOND THE BUG

1. Bratlav 10. Narajevka

2. Bogokov 11. Nimierov

3. Berezovka 12. Nikolaev

4. Ciucov 13. Ordovka

5. Corievka 14. Seminka

6. Gaisin 15. Talalaievka

7. Ivangorod 16. Taplic

8. Mateevka 17. Zarodnitza

9. Mihailovka

∗ The list of the ghettos and concentration camps in Transnistria was reproduced from the

work of writer Sonia Palty – “Jews, cross the Dniester!” – pages 223-224, Libra Press, Bucharest,

2002.

70

ROMANIAN CITIZENS AWARDED BY THE STATE OF

ISRAEL THE DISTINCTION AND MEDAL “THE JUST OF

THE PEOPLES”

In 1953, the Israeli parliament (Kneset) voted in a special law by which the Institute

Yad Vashem was entitled to institute a memorial for “The Just of the Peoples”,

individuals who risked their lives to save Jews.

In Romania, a few dozen people have earned this honorific title so far:

Agarici Viorica Pelungi Stefan

Antal Rozalia Peter Gheorghe

Anutoiu T. Anghel Pocorni Egon

Baias Maria Pocorni Nicolina

Baias Vasile Pop Aristina

Beceanu Dumitru Pop Maria

Catana Maria Pop Nicolae

Cociuba Traian and his son Pop Valer

Cojoc Gheorghe Popvici Traian

Craciun Ana Profir Gheorghe

Craciun Pavel Puti Alexa

Demusca Letitiana Puti Maria

Dumitru Adrian Puti Tudor

The Queen-Mother Elena Simionescu Constantin

Farcas Rozalia Sion Micea Petru

Farcas Stefan Stoenescu Ioana

Florescu Constanta Stoenescu Pascu

Ghitescu Alexandru Strauss-Tiron Gabriela

Grosz Bandi Stroe Magda

Grosz Rozalia Strul Elizabetha

Hij Metzia Suta Ioan

Hij Simion Szakadati Ianos

Manoliu Florian Sorban Raul

Marculescu Emilian Toth Jozsef

Moldovan Valeriu Tubak Maria

Motora Sabin Vass Gavril

Muranyi Rozalia Zaharia Iosif

Onisor Ioana

Pantea Nona

71

Lya Benjamin – Memorial of the Jewish martyrs from Romania – page 69, Hasefer Press,

Bucharest, 2003.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Ancel Jean – Transnistria – Vol. 1-3, Atlas Press, Bucharest, 1998

Ancel Jean – Contributions to Romanian History – The Jewish Problem 1933-1944,

vol. 1 – Hasefer Press, 2001 and vol. 2 – Hasefer Press, 2003

Benjamin, Lya – Persecution and Resistance in the History of the Romanian Jews,

1940-1944, Studies – Hasefer Press, Bucharest, 2001.

Bines Carol – From the history of immigrations to Israel 1882-1995, Hasefer Press,

Bucharest 1998.

Carmelly Felicia – Shattered! 50 Years of Silence, History and Voices of the

Tragedy in Romania and Transnistria. Ontario, Canada, 1996.

Carp Matias – The Black Book – The Ordeal of the Romanian Jews vol. 1-3 –

Diogene Press, 1996.

Giurescu C. Dinu – The Romanian Jews 1939-1944 – Historical Magazine, Nr. 11

(368), November 1997

Glasberg Ruth-Gold – A time of dry tears – Hasefer Press, Bucharest, 2003

Hillberg Raul – The extermination of the Jews in Europe – vol. I-II – Hasefer Press,

Bucharest, 1997

Ilisei Ilie – Popescu D. Ioan – The Files of Sufferance – Musatinii Editorial Group,

The Future Bucovina, 1999.

Ioanid Radu – The Jews under Antonescu Regime – Hasefer Press, Bucharest, 1997.

Korber Bercovici Miriam – Ghetto Journal – Criterion Press, Bucharest, 1995.

Litani Dora – Transnistria – Tel Aviv, 1981.

Mezincescu Edward – Marshal Antonescu and the catastrophe in Romania – Artemis

Press, Bucharest, 1993.

Palty, Sonia – Jews, cross the Dniester! – 4th

Edition, Libra Press, Bucharest, 2002.

Pelin Mihai – The massacres committed by the Romanian militaries in Odessa – the

“Ora” newspaper nr. 223 from July 27, 1993 and nr. 224 from July 30, 1993.

Pelin Mihai – Legend and Truth – Edart Press – Bucharest, 1994.

Regenstreif Dan – Les juifs de Roumanie, a l’approche du XXI siècle. Une

communauté très éprouvée en voie de disparition – Les Nouveaux Cahiers –

Paris, 1998.

Regenstreif Dan – Roumanie, antisémitisme sans juifs – Information Juive – Paris,

2000.

Rozen Marcu – The demographic involution of the Jews in Romania in the period

1940-2000, Bucharest, 1998.

Rozen Marcu – The Jews in the district of Dorohoi during the Second World War –

Matrix Rom Press, Bucharest, 2000.

Rozen Marcu – Sixty years from the deportation of the Romanian Jews to

Transnistria – Matrix Rom Press, 2001.

72

Rozen Marcu – The Holocaust under Antonescu’s Government – Historical and

Statistical Data about Jews in Romania 1940-1944 – A.R.J.V.H., Bucharest, 2004.

Schechtman Iosif – Transnistria – article published in the Magazine of the Mosaic

Cult nr. 766 – September 1993.

Stoenescu Alex Mihai – The army, the marshal and the Jews – RAO International

Publishing Company, 1998.

Stoian Mihai – The last trap. From Struma to Mefkure – Hasefer Press, Bucharest,

1995.

Safran Alexandru – A cinder snatched from the flames – Memoirs – Hasefer Press,

Bucharest, 1996.

Safran Alexandru – Speech in the Romanian Senate – The Jewish Reality nr. 1 (801),

April 1-15, 195.

Safran Alexandru – Speech in the Coral Temple – The Jewish Reality nr. 1 (801),

April 1-15, 1995.

Troncota Cristian – Glory and Tragedies – Nemira Press, 2003.

Udler Rubin – In the hell of Transnistria – The Jewish Reality nr. 5 (805), May 1995.

Zahacinschi Nicolae – The Mihaileni of the past – Litera Press, 1982.

∗∗∗ Antonescu between law abidance and war-crime – investigation published in the

Magazine “22” nr. 209 and 210 from February 1994.

∗∗∗ The martyrdom of the Romanian Jews 1940 – 1944 – Documents and

Testimonies – Study Center for the History of the Romanian Jews – Volume

prepared by Lya Benjamin, Scientific coordinator Sergiu Stancu – Hasefer Press,

Bucharest, 1993.

∗∗∗ The Jews of Romania between the years 1940-1944 vol. II, The Jewish problem

in the stenograms of the Ministers’ Council – FCER – Study Center for the

History of the Romanian Jews – Volume prepared by Lya Benjamin – Hasefer

Press– Bucharest, 1996.

∗∗∗ The Jews of Romania between 1940-1944 vol. III, Part I and II, 1940-1942,

Times of Great Misfortune – Scientific coordinator Prof. Dr. Ion Serbanescu –

Hasefer Press, Bucharest, 1997.

∗∗∗ The Jews of Romania between 1940-1944 vol. IV, 1943-1944 – The Balance of

Tragedy – Revival of Hope – FCER – Study Center for the History of the

Romanian Jews, Scientific coordinator Prof. Dr. Ion Serbanescu – Hasefer Press,

Bucharest, 1998.

∗∗∗ The Jews of Romania during the War for Unification of the Country in 1916-

1919 – Volume prepared by Dumitru Hincu. Material selected by Lya Benjamin

– Hasefer Press – Bucharest, 1996.

∗∗∗ Generations of Judaism and Zionism – Dorohoi, Saveni, Mihaileni, Darabani,

Hertza, Radauti Prut – Prepared and redacted by Shlomo David – vol. 1, 2, 3, 4. 5

– Israel 1993-2000.

∗∗∗ The painful break of a long coexistence – FCER – Study Center for the History

of the Romanian Jews – Volume prepared by Lya Benjamin, Dumitru Hincu,

Harry Kuller, Ion Serbanescu – CSIER Press – Bucharest 2001.

∗∗∗ The extermination of the Romanian and Ukrainian Jews during the Antonescu

period – editor of the first part: Randolph L. Braham – Hasefer Press, 2002.

∗∗∗ Jewish World Congress – Section Romania – The Jewish population in numbers

73

– Statistical Memento – 1945.

∗∗∗ Jewish World Congress – Section Romania – The settlements of the Romanian

Jews – Statistical Memento – 1947.

∗∗∗ Central Institute for Statistics – The General Census of the Romanian Population

from December 29, 1930 – published by Dr. Sabin Manuila, director of the

General Population Census – vol. I, II, III and V – Bucharest, 1938.

∗∗∗ Central Institute for Statistics – The Population Census from April 6, 1941.

∗∗∗ The inventory of Basarabia and Northern Bucovina in August-September 1941.

∗∗∗ C.E.R. – The census of inhabitants of Jewish origin from May 1942.

∗∗∗ The General Inspectorate of the Gendarmerie – Numerical situation of the Jews

living in Transnistria’s localities and districts today, from the ones evacuated

from Basarabia and Bucovina – the situation as of September 1, 1943.

74

- CONTENTS -

Preface……………………………………………………………………….. 1

The author’s testimony as a survivor of the Transnistria Holocaust………… 3

HISTORICAL AND STATISTICAL DATA REGARDING THE

PREDICAMENT OF THE JEWS UNDER ANTONESCU GOVERNMENT

1940 – 1944…………………………………………………………………… 8

To the reader’s attention………………………………………………………. 8

I. THE JEWS OF ROMANIA IN THE PERIOD PRECEDING THE

ANTONESCU GOVERNMENT…………………………………………….. 9

1. The anti-Jewish pogrom of Dorohoi (July 1, 1940)……………………… 10

II. THE JEWS OF ROMANIA IN THE PERIOD AFTER THE

INSTAURATION OF THE ANTONESU GOOVERNMENT AND PRIOR

TO THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR WITH THE SOVIET UNION

(September 1940 – June 22, 1941)……………………………………………. 12

1. The Legionary Rebellion…………………………………………………. 13

III. THE JEWS OF ROMANIA IN THE PERIOD AFTER THE

OUTBREAK OF THE WAR WITH THE SOVIET UNION AND PRIOR

TO THE DEPORTATIONS TO TRANSNISTRIA (June 22, 1941 –

September 1941)……………………………………………………………... 14

1. The pogrom and death trains of Iasi……………………………………… 15

2. The mass assassinations of Jews in Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and

the land of Hertza during the first months after the outbreak of the war…. 17

IV. THE DEPORTATION OF THE ROMANIAN JEWS TO

TRANSNISTRIA……………………………………………………………... 20

1. The deportation of the Jews from Basarabia, Bucovina and the land of

Hertza……………………………………………………………………... 20

2. The deportation of the Jews from Southern Bucovina…………………… 23

3. The deportation of the Jews from the District of Dorohoi………………... 24

4. The deportation in 1942 of certain categories of Jews from The Old

Kingdom and Southern Transylvania…………………………………… 26

5. The total number of Romanian Jews deported to Transnistria………….. 27

V. TRANSNISTRIA – A PLACE OF SUFFERANCE AND DEATH…….. 29

VI. THE FATE OF THE NATIVE UKRAINIAN JEWS…………………… 37

VII. TRAGIC BALANCE FOR THE JEWS UNDER ANTONESCU

GOVERNMENT……………………………………………………………… 43

VIII. CONCLUSIONS……………………………………………………….. 44

MEMORABLE CALENDARISTIC DATA DURING THE RACIAL

PERSECUTION AND GENOCIDE IN THE TERRITORIES UNDER

ROMANIAN AUTHORITY………………………………………………… 48

STATISTICAL DATA AND CALCULATIONS REGARDING THE JEWS

OF ROMANIA DURING THE SECOND WORLD WAR………………….. 52

GENERAL DEMOGRAPHIC BALANCE OF THE JEWS FROM THE

FORMER UNIFIED ROMANIA AND TRANSNISTRIA DURING THE

SECOND WORLD WAR…………………………………………………….. 63

THE LIST OF GHETTOS AND CONCENTRATION CAMPS IN

TRANSNISTRIA……………………………………………………………... 68

75

THE JUST OF THE PEOPLES………………………………………………. 70

BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………….. 71

MAP OF THE TERRITORIES UNDER ROMANIAN ADMINISTRATION

AFTER THE OUTBREAK OF THE WAR WITH THE SOVIET UNION

1941-1944……………………………………………………………………... 74

MAP OF THE TERRRITORIES UNDER ROMANIAN AUTHORITY IN

THE NORTHEASTERN PARTS OF ROMANIA AFFECTED BY THE

HOLOCAUST………………………………………………………………… 74