Final Report of the International Commission on the - Minority Rights ...

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guard duties. Einsatzgruppe D had armed some Ukrainians who assisted in murdering tens <strong>of</strong> thousands <strong>of</strong> Jews. The transfer <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Jews toward <strong>the</strong> Bug in convoys <strong>of</strong> thousands continued apace throughout October, November, and December 1941 in total disarray. Thousands <strong>of</strong> Jews were left in towns or villages that had not been slated to house ghettos or temporary camps. Monitoring <strong>the</strong> deportation as if it were a military operation, Antonescu remarked in a government session that he had enough trouble “with those I took to <strong>the</strong> Bug. Only I know how many died on <strong>the</strong> way [emphasis added].” On November 9, Vasiliu, <strong>the</strong> gendarmerie inspector general, reported to <strong>the</strong> Conducator that <strong>the</strong> first stage <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> deportations from Bessarabia and Bukovina was over: 108,002 Jews had been “relocated as in <strong>the</strong> annexed table.” A map accompanying <strong>the</strong> report indicated that <strong>the</strong> Jews had been taken to three areas near <strong>the</strong> Bug: 47,545 in <strong>the</strong> north, in Mitki, Peceora, and Rogozna; 30,981 in <strong>the</strong> center, in Obodovca and Balanovka; and 29,476 in Bobric, Krivoie-Ozero, and Bogdanovka. Richter’s sources proved accurate: Antonescu had indeed concentrated 110,000 Jews—Romanian citizens—near <strong>the</strong> Bug, intending to kill <strong>the</strong>m. Meanwhile, Antonescu ordered <strong>the</strong> SSI to investigate why “all <strong>the</strong> Jews had not been evacuated east <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Jmerinca-Odessa railway,” near <strong>the</strong> Bug. The investigation revealed that in December 1941, 79,507 Jews deported west <strong>of</strong> that line from Romania were still alive. But at <strong>the</strong> beginning <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Romanian occupation, 150,000 to 200,000 Ukrainian Jews were still alive in Transnistria, too. Golta County Massacres The German occupation authorities’ refusal to receive and execute <strong>the</strong> Romanian and Ukrainian Jews deported to <strong>the</strong> Bug forced <strong>the</strong> Transnistrian administration to resolve <strong>the</strong> matter on its own. The murder <strong>of</strong> Ukrainian and Romanian Jewry took place in Golta County, near <strong>the</strong> Bug, from <strong>the</strong> end <strong>of</strong> December 1941 until May 1942. Under prefect and gendarmerie Lieutenant Colonel Modest Isopescu, Golta became known as <strong>the</strong> “Kingdom <strong>of</strong> Death,” site <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> three largest extermination camps—Bogdanovka, Domanovka, and Akmechetka—and dozens <strong>of</strong> smaller ones. Imprisoned in <strong>the</strong>se camps were about 10,000 local Jews, 30,000 from Bessarabia (particularly <strong>the</strong> Chisinau ghetto), and 65,000-70,000 from Odessa and <strong>the</strong> counties in sou<strong>the</strong>rn Transnistria. Even before <strong>the</strong> extermination campaign, so many died every day that Isopescu ordered gendarmes and municipalities “to bury <strong>the</strong> dead kikes two meters underground. Those buried at half a meter will be reburied deeper. All sick, old, and infant kikes will be sent to Bogadanovca.” By mid-November 1941 Bogdanovka had become a human garbage dump. When taking over <strong>the</strong> county, Isopescu wrote, he had found several camps <strong>of</strong> Jews “ga<strong>the</strong>red from <strong>the</strong> neighboring boroughs” (i.e., Ukrainian Jews), but most were “sent from across <strong>the</strong> Dniester” (i.e., deported from Bessarabia and Bukovina). In early October, “about 15,000” Jews had “ga<strong>the</strong>red” (i.e., been imprisoned) in <strong>the</strong> village <strong>of</strong> Vazdovca, in <strong>the</strong> Liubasevca subdistrict, and ano<strong>the</strong>r 3,000 in Krivoie- Ozero and at Bogdanovka. “Those in Vazdovca were hit by typhus and about 8,000 died,” Isopescu reported. The mayor and <strong>the</strong> infantry regiment staying in <strong>the</strong> village requested that <strong>the</strong> camp be moved, “because it posed a constant danger <strong>of</strong> infection.” Weakened by hunger and contaminated with typhus, <strong>the</strong> Jews could not bury <strong>the</strong> corpses, and <strong>the</strong> soldiers and villagers refused to come near <strong>the</strong> camp. Isopescu transferred <strong>the</strong> roughly 10,000 Jews remaining in Vazdovca and Krivoie-Ozero to “swine stables <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> sovkhoz [state agricultural farm]” in Bogdanovka. But even before <strong>the</strong> “transport <strong>of</strong> kikes from Vazdovca” had arrived, “about 9,000 kikes were sent from Odessa, so that today, with what was already <strong>the</strong>re and what has arrived now, <strong>the</strong>re are 11,000 kikes in <strong>the</strong> kolkhoz [collective agricultural farm] stables, which can hold only 7,000 pigs.” Iopescu continued, “Today <strong>the</strong> mayor and <strong>the</strong> head <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> kolkhoz came to me in despair for <strong>the</strong>y have been told that ano<strong>the</strong>r 40,000 [Jews] are coming from Odessa. Since <strong>the</strong> sovkhoz can no longer accommodate <strong>the</strong>m all, and those outside <strong>the</strong> stables are killing
those inside to take <strong>the</strong>ir place, while <strong>the</strong> [Ukrainian] police and <strong>the</strong> gendarmes are overwhelmed by <strong>the</strong> burials, and as <strong>the</strong> water <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bug is being drunk, <strong>the</strong> epidemic will soon spread throughout <strong>the</strong> region.” More than 67,000 Jews were concentrated at Bogdanovka and partially at Domanovka, toge<strong>the</strong>r with 29,479 deported from Bessarabia, as stated in a Romanian gendarmerie report. To understand <strong>the</strong> details mentioned by Isopescu, it must be recalled that <strong>the</strong> first frost <strong>of</strong> 1941 came on November 4, and temperatures continued to drop, plummeting to –35° C in December. Those who were unable to sneak into one <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> filthy stables, which were teeming with lice and feces, would freeze to death during <strong>the</strong> night; hence <strong>the</strong> fierce competition for a place in <strong>the</strong> stables. The overcrowding in <strong>the</strong> camp peaked, and most Jews were sick with typhus. Five hundred Jews died daily at Bogdanovka, while ano<strong>the</strong>r 200 perished each day at Domanovka. Both Isopescu and Alexianu hoped <strong>the</strong> Germans would take <strong>the</strong> Jews and exterminate <strong>the</strong>m on <strong>the</strong>ir own side <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> territory. As <strong>the</strong> governor reported to Antonescu on December 11, 1941: “In view <strong>of</strong> solving <strong>the</strong> Jewish problem in Transnistria, we are currently holding talks with <strong>the</strong> German authorities about dumping [<strong>the</strong> Jews] over <strong>the</strong> Bug. At certain points, such as Golta, some Jews have already started crossing <strong>the</strong> Bug. We shall not have peace in Transnistria until we have enforced <strong>the</strong> provision <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Hauffe-Tataranu agreement concerning <strong>the</strong> dumping <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> kikes over <strong>the</strong> Bug [emphasis added].” The military units quartered in <strong>the</strong> Golta district requested that <strong>the</strong> Prefecture “move” <strong>the</strong> local camps, but <strong>the</strong>re was no place available for this purpose. Antonescu’s Ukraine ended at <strong>the</strong> Bug, and by mid- December, immense masses <strong>of</strong> Jews—alive, dead, and dying—were concentrated in <strong>the</strong> camps at Bogadanovka and Domanovka: Isopescu’s worst nightmare had come true. He estimated 52,000 living Jews in Bogdanovka and about 20,000 in Domanovka. Some crowded into stables (<strong>of</strong> which <strong>the</strong>re were no more than fifty), pigsties, and barracks, while o<strong>the</strong>rs stayed outside, spread over three kilometers along <strong>the</strong> west bank <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bug. The silos were full <strong>of</strong> bodies, and both <strong>the</strong> living and dead were packed into <strong>the</strong> stables and barracks in <strong>the</strong> deadly cold <strong>of</strong> winter. Antonescu ordered <strong>the</strong> murder <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> more than 70,000 surviving Jews at Bogdanovka and <strong>the</strong>n at Domanovka. In <strong>the</strong> cabinet session <strong>of</strong> December 16, Alexianu informed <strong>the</strong> Marshal that 85,000 Jews carried typhus “in <strong>the</strong> villages where <strong>the</strong> Jews came. I must disinfect <strong>the</strong>m, or <strong>the</strong>y’ll infect everybody.” Antonescu’s recommendation was brief: “Let <strong>the</strong>m die.” Ano<strong>the</strong>r factor in <strong>the</strong> decision to execute tens <strong>of</strong> thousands <strong>of</strong> Jews and burn <strong>the</strong>ir bodies was <strong>the</strong> nature <strong>of</strong> relations with <strong>the</strong> German occupation authorities in Ukraine and <strong>the</strong> Einsatzgruppe’s dissatisfaction with Romanian disorganization and, particularly, <strong>the</strong>ir failure to bury corpses. Berezovka’s Landau subdistrict was home to tens <strong>of</strong> thousands <strong>of</strong> local Germans—Volksdeutsche—and tens <strong>of</strong> thousands more lived on <strong>the</strong> eastern bank <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bug, in <strong>the</strong> Nazi-occupied part <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> former Soviet county <strong>of</strong> Nicolaev. On February 5, 1942, Gebietskommissar Schlutter <strong>of</strong> Nicolaev, Isopescu’s German counterpart, warned Alexianu about <strong>the</strong> immense epidemiological catastrophe created by <strong>the</strong> Romanian authorities on <strong>the</strong> banks <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bug. The Germans did not request <strong>the</strong> killing <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Jews, but “possibly <strong>the</strong> transportation <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Jews so far inside Transnistria that <strong>the</strong>ir crossing <strong>the</strong> Bug would become impossible.” Although <strong>the</strong> Nazi authorities across <strong>the</strong> Bug clearly wanted <strong>the</strong> Romanians to solve <strong>the</strong>ir own “Jewish problem,” Alexianu countered that <strong>the</strong> Tighina Agreement obligated <strong>the</strong> Germans to liquidate <strong>the</strong> Jews concentrated near <strong>the</strong> Bug: “We shall answer that in keeping with <strong>the</strong> Tighina Agreement <strong>of</strong> August 30, 1941, art. 7, until <strong>the</strong> Jews <strong>of</strong> Transnistria are evacuated east <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Bug, when operations allow, we are keeping <strong>the</strong>m here and cannot return <strong>the</strong>m inland, in view <strong>of</strong> dumping <strong>the</strong>m over <strong>the</strong> Bug. Please advise whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> convention can be applied.” As <strong>the</strong> Romanian reply was delayed, Schlutter sent ano<strong>the</strong>r telegram reiterating his evacuation request: “Every day a number <strong>of</strong> Jews die and are buried superficially. This absolutely impossible situation poses an imminent danger to <strong>the</strong> German villages <strong>of</strong> Transnistria and <strong>the</strong> neighboring territory <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> German commissariat <strong>of</strong> Ukraine. To save <strong>the</strong> troops, <strong>the</strong>
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Final Repo
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Germany’s war against the
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which includes reputed experts led
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BACKGROUND AND PRECURSORS TO THE HO
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against which antisemites in <stron
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declaring in the p
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them. Thus, he con
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We must organize ourselves for a wa
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ureaucracy of wart
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this direction by Nicolae C. Paules
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promising leader of</strong
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organized a tariff and tax strike.
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Legion of
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less so in Romanian society as a wh
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This ambiguous, self-contradictory
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The Gigurtu government began to con
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The Case of Român
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Cuza’s argument that it is possib
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Românesc,” Sociologie Româneasc
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ole in the early 1
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European states, notably Romania an
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Germany's immediate interests at <s
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eligious communities, the</
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counterpart, “when [he] first met
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de Istorie şi Arheologie, “A. D.
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Romania. Muler to Luthe</st
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demands on territorial revisions an
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Page 59 and 60: The Jews and the R
Page 61 and 62: Romanian army. Thus, in Ciudei in <
Page 63 and 64: antisemitism in Romanian society an
Page 65 and 66: Ibid., fond Micro-films, roll I.II,
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Page 69 and 70: power, as this power colonized West
Page 71 and 72: attraction, many Jews resettled in
Page 73 and 74: to defend itself; hence its support
Page 75 and 76: about the Holocaus
Page 77 and 78: Nichifor Crainic, “Dupa douazeci
Page 79 and 80: Isaia Tolan, “Revizuirea incetate
Page 81 and 82: X. Y. Z., “Rezolvarea problemei e
Page 83 and 84: andom searches and arrests, robberi
Page 85 and 86: Bucharest Prefectura. Almost two th
Page 87 and 88: epression was not ordered by Antone
Page 89 and 90: from villages and small towns. On J
Page 91 and 92: accident; it was contrived by <stro
Page 93 and 94: The second train to leave Iasi for
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Page 97 and 98: "premilitary," were also placed at
Page 99 and 100: according to the o
Page 101 and 102: Tighina Agreement On August 30, Tra
Page 103 and 104: elieved Transnistria would be occup
Page 105: the 331,000 Ukrain
Page 109 and 110: [longer] move.” After several wee
Page 111 and 112: eappear a few seconds later and sig
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Page 115 and 116: Bukovina and Bessarabia. Einsatzkom
Page 117 and 118: other things, <str
Page 119 and 120: Berezovka district and burn <strong
Page 121 and 122: them in exchange f
Page 123 and 124: transport of 2,000
Page 125 and 126: Bulgarian, Turkish, Italian, or Swi
Page 127 and 128: were at least 122,000 Jews. Bukovin
Page 129 and 130: Wilhelm Hoettl, The Secret Front: T
Page 131 and 132: Ancel, Documents, vol. 2: no. 136,
Page 133 and 134: Carp, Cartea neagra, vol. 3: pp. 30
Page 135 and 136: Gosudartsveni Archiv Odeskoi Oblast
Page 137 and 138: Cable from the Mil
Page 139 and 140: 1-1087, p. 114; list of</st
Page 141 and 142: Ibid. “Rezolvarea problemei evrei
Page 143 and 144: child’s birth, would be considere
Page 145 and 146: Indeed, the system
Page 147 and 148: Romanianization instead of<
Page 149 and 150: The Cultural Ghettoization
Page 151 and 152: The Status of Jewi
Page 153 and 154: give up any radios able to send and
Page 155 and 156: Conclusions The anti-Jewish legisla
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L.A., no. 99, p. 344. Trei ani de g
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moral, social, and intellectual nee
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gradually, in reality the</
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except being defined as a Jew. I be
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egulate and authorize, under <stron
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y Lecca: Jews were privileged, and
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through the activi
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oth as a cry of re
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After coming to power, the<
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and then to send <
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their non-evacuate
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villages of <stron
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Return of Roma Sur
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(in many cases, the</strong
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in Romania. History and Contemporar
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THE ROLE OF ION ANTONESCU IN THE PL
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December 16, 1941, meeting
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me from carrying out the</s
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did not do it because…the
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more ironically, this leader’s wa
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THE HOLOCAUST IN NORTHERN TRANSYLVA
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Others 22 968 Magy
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ultimatum but also consented to <st
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military, political, and psychologi
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command over the g
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Huedin. The Jews of</strong
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authorities set up two ghettos in <
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Secuilor counties was carried out i
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the procedure foll
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deportation trains per day. While E
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Deportation Trains from Nor
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Câtcău Kackó Ciuc Csík Ciucea C
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Rona de Sus Felsöróna Rozavica Ro
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Bözödújfalu Bezidu Nou Budfalva
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Nagysajó Şieu (Bistrita-Nasaud Co
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(Indictment of Naz
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Randolph L. Braham, comp. and ed. (
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perceived by a significant part <st
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Romanian government not to adopt <s
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still alive in the
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the Jews who worke
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We have been informed that various
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church bells announce the</
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Mitropolit pleaded with Mihai Anton
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Pozdnyakova, Yefrosiniya Starostina
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Ibid., pp. 224-225. Ibid., pp. 46-4
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the examined cases
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escape with negligible punishment;
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immense scale, enslaved millions <s
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means. The “ethnic Christian stat
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it is evident that the</str
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face să pară evident că victimel
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viaţă, 100 milioane lei amendă
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Articolul 15 al Convenţiei de armi
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members accepted as authoritative s
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camp in January 1945, for several m
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Beginning in the 1
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such access was strictly supervised
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enefit from translation into Englis
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furthermore, he ha
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lucrative Jewish business ever,”
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deaths of thousand
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Treptow who was residing in Romania
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Finally, it must b
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A.) Integral Negationism Although <
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other genocides re
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mankind, such as wars; the<
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age of 44, only on
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After deploring the</strong
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Michael Shafir, “Ex Occidente Obs
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See, for example, Giurescu who make
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Randolph L. Braham, Romanian Nation
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Mediafax, March 18, 2002, Monitorul
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See Ibidem, pp. 3, 54-55. Ibidem, p
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Radu Theodoru, Mareşalul, Editura
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egained from the U
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was a record of an
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secondary school use. Those institu
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including erecting statues, mountin
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