Jews, Cross the Dniester!

1 THE ARJVH PRESENTS: SONIA PALTY Jews, cross the Dniester! In English by Alexandra Beris I was a student at the Focsaneanu High School on St. Vineri Street 1. Mrs. Kanner, the headmistress, had spoken to us about Rosh Hashanah 2. Doctor Beck, the religion teacher, had read to us fragments from the Mahzor 3. It was just two years ago that I discovered I was Jewish. I had been raised in an almost entirely assimilated 4 home. Just my mother went to the synagogue on New Year’s Day; she alone fasted for Yom Kippur 5and observed the Pass Over 6. That’s how she had been brought up in her parents’ home, in Cernauti 7. Up to the age of eleven, I studied at St. Joseph’s school, on Berthelot Street 8. In the summer of 1940, when I was due to enroll in the second grade in high school, the headmistress of the school – Mater 9 Gratia – informed my mother that the new racial laws precluded me from attending a Christian school, notwithstanding the fact that my maternal language was German. 1 Street in Bucharest, Romania 2 Jewish New Year 3Judaic prayer book 4 Reference to the assimilation of the Romanian Jews into the Romanian culture 5 Jewish holiday, observed by fasting and praying for forgiveness of the sins 6 Jewish holiday, marking the reentry of the Jewish people into Israel after their exile in Egypt 7 City in Northern Bucovina, formerly part of Romania, today part of the Ukraine 8 Street in Bucharest, Romania 9 Latin for “Mother” 2 Walking down from the Cismigiu Park 1 towards our home in the Kogalniceanu Plaza 2, I asked my mother: - What does Jewish mean? As a Jewess, am I different from my other colleagues? Monica Farado, who is Catholic, or Mariuca Radulescu, who is Orthodox 3, do they have a different God? My mother was searching for words. For years she had told me nothing about this. My discovery unnerved her. - You are eleven years old. You should have realized long ago that you’re Jewish; that you are, in a way, different from the rest of the world. Maybe I should have opened your eyes. It is perhaps my fault… You saw that your grandparents, in Cernauti , observed the kosher ways. Grandmother, as you could notice, did not mix meat with dairy. You saw grandfather going to the synagogue each day. Do you recall he told you he was proud of being a “Levi 4”? He was a God- abiding man. Do you remember? - Yes, but he was no different than other people. That’s why I don’t understand… Why am I not allowed to study further? … Why? … Many times thereafter, I asked myself that question: Why? My parents enrolled me in the Anglo-Speranta school, on Negustori road 5. During that year, I learned the Jewish ways. At home, I saw my family frightened – my parents, my grandmother, my aunts… My father was now unemployed. He had been the manager of the film society “Warner Bros”. Since this was an American company, the offices had been closed. My aunts, who owned the movie theater “ Boulevard Palace ” on Elisabeta Avenue 6, had to “romanize ”7 it, becoming the employees of the lawyer Niculescu and of the usher Radulescu. The latter came to work wearing the green shirt with diagonal strap – hallmark of the Legionnaire 8 attire – and a pistol in his belt. We were starting to feel some financial shortage. The rent was becoming increasingly hard to pay. The same was true of my tuition fee. My mother started selling off her jewelry, her furs. My aunt started doing tailor work at home. When I went out in town, I was forbidden to stop on the streets. I was forbidden to talk to my colleagues. In fact, I was forbidden to talk to anyone. If somebody spoke to me on the tram 9, I wasn’t allowed to reply. That was in order to avoid provocations. Every day when I left for school, my grandmother repeated the same words of advice: 1 Park in downtown Bucharest 2 Plaza in downtown Bucharest, named after the Romanian statesman M. Kogalniceanu 3 Refers to the orthodox branch of Christianity, a widespread religion in Eastern European countries 4 Name of one of the 12 Jewish tribes 5 Road in Bucharest, Romania 6 Avenue in Bucharest, Romania 7 Reference to the discriminatory laws passed by the Romanian Government of the time, stipulating that property belonging to ethnic minorities, including Jews, should be confiscated and turned over to Romanian owners. 8 Reference to the attire worn by members of the Legion Party, a political party that temporarily seized power in Romania during the years of World War II. The Legion Party promoted a fascist and nationalist agenda 9 Street cart using tracks and overhead electrical power lines 3 - Keep your eyes wide open! Protect yourself! We live in a world that hates us! Learn to defend yourself! … January 1941. The days of the Legionary Rebellion 1. We lived life with fear in our hearts. The curtains were hanging heavy in the windows. We didn’t open the door for anyone. Rumors of all kinds were circulating, filling us with dread. “On Vacaresti road 2, the Jews are being beaten… Shop windows are being smashed on Dudesti 3… The Jewish homes are being put on fire… At the slaughterhouse, the Legionnaires have hung Jews from the hooks… Out in the Jilava woods 4, Jews have been shot…” Who knows when they would knock on our door? The days of the rebellion went by. Next came forced labor for the Jews. The great majority of the Jews in Bucharest, the young ones in particular, were sent out to labor detachments: Chitila, Ploiesti, Piatra-Neamt, Poligon 5etc. The ones remaining in the capital city were assigned to hard labor detachments, road constructions, highways, bridges… A small contingent of Bucharest’s Jewish population obtained – some of them by buying it - a “work waiver card”. My father didn’t have enough money for this purpose. Our financial situation was rather difficult. Still, he had “worked out” something. He was assigned to a detachment of “roads and highways” in the Tudor Vladimirescu district 6. In 1941 the “ Anglo-Speranta ” school was shut down. A year before that, Miss Boyd – the headmistress – had left Romania for Jerusalem, where she passed away years later. A military hospital was established on the premises of the former school. The war had begun. Wounded soldiers brought from the front lines were now filling the classrooms. My parents enrolled me in the “ Focsaneanu ” high school, on St. Vineri Street . Mrs. Kanner, the headmistress of the high school, had a fond feeling for me from the very start. I was a tall girl with auburn pigtails and large blue eyes. I wasn’t part of the “elite squadron” of the class, but I was among those students who wanted to know “why”? In the winter of 1941-1942 my father was obligated, as all other Jews in Bucharest, to put in his share of “snow” days. The days he was present for snow shoveling, he was absolved from forced labor in the Tudor Vladimirescu detachment. In the month of March, the detachment where my father worked received an order from the Territorial Circle II of Bucharest 7: All Jews who had put in “snow” days should have their military papers stamped… On March 20, 1942, one hundred and four Jews from the “roads and highways” detachment went over to the Territorial Circle to have their papers stamped. 1 Uprise of the Legion Party against Marshall Antonescu, the leader of the Romanian State at that time. This event was also marked by hateful acts of repression carried out by the Legion Party, targeting specific ethnic groups and individuals of different social and political orientation 2 Road in Bucharest 3 Road in Bucharest 4 Woods at the outer limits of Bucharest 5 Names of various cities/towns in Romania 6 Rural area in the vicinity of Bucharest 7 Administrative forum of the time, in charge of a particular territory in Bucharest 4 The same day, at 7.30 AM, a black military vehicle pulled up in front of the City Hall in the Tudor Vladimirescu district. From this vehicle descended General Cepleanu – general inspector for the forced labor detachments in the country – and his adjutant 1. - Where are your Kikes 2, mayor? I haven’t seen them working on the highway! - They’re all in Bucharest, at Territorial Circle II. They were ordered to stamp their military cards. - Do you have a list with their names? Bring it here! The general took the list and handed it over to his adjutant. This one folded it and put it in his briefcase. Some of the Jews in Bucharest – the ones who could afford it – had rented farmland lots, where they were supposedly growing vegetables. Twice a year they had to surrender to the “Ownership Council” – an organization presided by Mrs. Maria Marshall Antonescu 3– certain amounts of onions, potatoes, peas etc. It was no secret to anybody that the Jewish small merchants, far from being gardeners, were purchasing the imposed product quotas biannually and delivering them to the government authorities. They were however dropping by their gardens every once in a while, to water the land, verify the condition of the fences and remove the trash and the weeds. Since the vegetables – purchased at the market – were delivered in a timely manner and according to the governing law, nobody raised any objections.

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