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

gendarmerie commander in Berezovka: “The Rastadt police shot 130 Jews from <strong>the</strong> village <strong>of</strong> Novaya
Uman, burned <strong>the</strong> bodies, and divided <strong>the</strong> spoils among <strong>the</strong> inhabitants <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> German villages.” Two
weeks later, Popescu reported:
The gendarmerie legion in Mostovoye informs us that <strong>the</strong> Jews in <strong>the</strong> work camp at Gradovka, 800 in
number, were shot to death by <strong>the</strong> German police from <strong>the</strong> village <strong>of</strong> Rastadt. In addition, [<strong>the</strong> legion]
reports that <strong>the</strong>re is no room for <strong>the</strong> Jews being exploited [for work] in <strong>the</strong> villages <strong>of</strong> Dvoreanka,
Kriniski, Cudznea, Maitova, Cotonea, and Ripeaki. [The legion] proposes that approval be granted for <strong>the</strong>
transfer <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> 650 Jews located in <strong>the</strong> villages to <strong>the</strong> space now available in <strong>the</strong> village <strong>of</strong> Gradovka,
where <strong>the</strong>y can be housed under good conditions.
Over <strong>the</strong> next few months, gendarmerie bulletins referred to thousands <strong>of</strong> Jews slaughtered by <strong>the</strong>
SkR and <strong>the</strong> Selbstschutz. The Romanians transported <strong>the</strong> Jews and prevented <strong>the</strong>ir escape; whereas, <strong>the</strong>
Selbstschutz, under SkR orders, carried out <strong>the</strong> extermination. The gendarmerie assembled Jews wherever
<strong>the</strong> German death squads could operate as quickly and efficiently as possible. The victims’ belongings
fell to <strong>the</strong> executioners. Unlike <strong>the</strong> Romanians, <strong>the</strong> Germans burned <strong>the</strong> bodies immediately to avert
epidemics. The SkR appealed to <strong>the</strong> Romanian authorities to block <strong>the</strong> convoys’ passage through or
alongside German villages.
On March 9, German death squads from Mostovoye and Zavadovka murdered 772 Jews from <strong>the</strong>
Jewish camp in <strong>the</strong> village <strong>of</strong> Cihrin. On March 13, outside <strong>the</strong> German village <strong>of</strong> Cartaica, seventeen
Germans “from SS units” gunned down 650 Jews from <strong>the</strong> Julievka camp. “Before <strong>the</strong> execution, <strong>the</strong>
Jews were stripped down to <strong>the</strong>ir shirts, and <strong>the</strong>ir valuables, money, and clothing were taken by <strong>the</strong>
German police to <strong>the</strong> village <strong>of</strong> Cartaica. The corpses <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> victims were burned.” On March 16, it was
reported that 120 Jews from <strong>the</strong> Catousea camp had been liquidated by an “SS police unit” consisting <strong>of</strong>
sixteen Germans from <strong>the</strong> German village <strong>of</strong> Nova Candeli, east <strong>of</strong> Berezovka; <strong>the</strong>se Jews, too, were
robbed just before <strong>the</strong>ir death. This report reveals <strong>the</strong> degree <strong>of</strong> Romanian-German cooperation in
exterminating Jews: Following <strong>the</strong> executions, 300 panic-stricken Jews fled <strong>the</strong> Lisinovka camp, but
“[t]he gendarmerie legion was ordered to capture <strong>the</strong>m and return <strong>the</strong>m to <strong>the</strong> camp.” In short, <strong>the</strong>
gendarmerie held <strong>the</strong> Jews in place, while <strong>the</strong> SkR killed <strong>the</strong>m.
On March 18, it was disclosed that 483 Jews “brought to [Bernadovka] from Odessa” had been
murdered by a German police unit from that village. This time <strong>the</strong> SkR did not have to travel, since <strong>the</strong>
gendarmes led <strong>the</strong> Jews straight to <strong>the</strong> scene. And in late May, <strong>the</strong> new gendarmerie commander, Colonel
M. Iliescu, reported that SS police from Lichtenfeld had murdered 1,200 Jews brought to <strong>the</strong> Suha-Verba
collective farm.
Since we now have all <strong>the</strong> gendarmerie reports on <strong>the</strong> liquidation <strong>of</strong> Odessa Jewry, we know that <strong>the</strong>
SkR relayed <strong>the</strong> following to <strong>the</strong> RSHA in Berlin, almost as an afterthought: “As <strong>of</strong> early May, <strong>the</strong>
28,000 Jews transported to <strong>the</strong> German villages in Transnistria have been exterminated,” hence <strong>the</strong>
disappearance <strong>of</strong> most Odessa Jews deported by train. Not one survivor has been found. The German
natives <strong>of</strong> this region, who escaped to Germany, <strong>the</strong> United States, and Canada, have never admitted to
genocide. The West German State Attorney’s Office asserted in 1961 that no Jew in <strong>the</strong> German
settlement areas is known to have survived <strong>the</strong> VoMi era.
In September 1942, 598 Jewish men, women, and children—mostly Bessarabians—were deported
from Bucharest to Mostovoye. And in early October, 150 Jews—allegedly communists—were also
transported to Transnistria. Handed over by <strong>the</strong> gendarmerie <strong>the</strong>re to <strong>the</strong> German death squad in Rastadt,
<strong>the</strong> first group was immediately shot dead. Only sixteen survived. In May 1942, <strong>the</strong> Army Headquarters
asked <strong>the</strong> Conducator whe<strong>the</strong>r <strong>the</strong> German policemen (SkR) are allowed to shoot thousands <strong>of</strong> Jews in