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 IV th 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). 1 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 2 nd 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 2 nd 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 2 The Author’s Testimony as a Survivor of the Transnistria Holocaust Stolen Childhood I was born on the 20 th 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 4 th 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 3 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 7 th , 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.