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

Berezovka district and burn <strong>the</strong>ir corpses. Antonescu responded: “it is not <strong>the</strong> Army’s job to worry about
this matter.”
During <strong>the</strong> summer <strong>of</strong> 1943, <strong>the</strong> Rastadt death squad executed more than 1,000 Jews assembled in <strong>the</strong>
village. Apparently for <strong>the</strong> first time, a witness survived to describe <strong>the</strong> killings. We <strong>the</strong>refore have <strong>the</strong>
only known testimony—apart from gendarmerie reports—concerning <strong>the</strong> extermination method used by
<strong>the</strong> Selbstschutz under VoMi command. Jews handed over to <strong>the</strong> SkR were herded by <strong>the</strong> Romanian
gendarmes into <strong>the</strong> courtyard <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> gendarmerie legion in Berezovka. Told <strong>the</strong>y would be transferred to
Mostovoye, <strong>the</strong> deportees were instead brought to Rastadt. The village, according to <strong>the</strong> aforementioned
witness, stood on a hill near Mostovoye:
When we arrived <strong>the</strong>re…we found a large convoy. We were ordered to remove our clo<strong>the</strong>s and, at <strong>the</strong>
same time, to hand over anything we had <strong>of</strong> value….Afterwards <strong>the</strong>y told us to line up facing pits, where
we saw something black. It was tar. We were on <strong>the</strong> slope, while <strong>the</strong> Germans crowded toge<strong>the</strong>r on <strong>the</strong>
hilltop in <strong>the</strong>ir black clo<strong>the</strong>s with <strong>the</strong> shiny armbands….We stood <strong>the</strong>re, thousands [actually hundreds] <strong>of</strong>
Jews in <strong>the</strong> open field…
Meanwhile <strong>the</strong> beasts became drunk and began abusing all <strong>the</strong> pretty girls and women. They created a
small wave <strong>of</strong> panic by shooting several small children, whom <strong>the</strong>y had wrenched from <strong>the</strong>ir mo<strong>the</strong>rs’
bosom. And <strong>the</strong>n, drunk, <strong>the</strong>ir consciences no longer functioning, <strong>the</strong>y began mowing down row after
row <strong>of</strong> people, under orders from a commander. The shots were accompanied by sounds <strong>of</strong> screeching
and wailing that echoed throughout <strong>the</strong> German settlement. For [<strong>the</strong> Germans], it was entertainment, a
celebration.
People fell, one after ano<strong>the</strong>r or several at a time, into <strong>the</strong> prepared pits. These filled up [quickly],
since <strong>the</strong>y were quite shallow; <strong>the</strong>y were dug to be long ra<strong>the</strong>r than deep.
At about 6 in <strong>the</strong> evening, <strong>the</strong> killing ended. Two [Jews] remained standing. One was tied to a car and
dragged across <strong>the</strong> ground at high speed, and <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r was run over by a speeding motorcycle driven by a
drunken Nazi <strong>of</strong>ficer. All this took place before our eyes. […] The Germans had set <strong>the</strong> corpses on fire,
and <strong>the</strong>y burned like straw, since [<strong>the</strong> Germans] had poured kerosene on <strong>the</strong>m, and <strong>the</strong>re was tar at <strong>the</strong>
bottom <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> pit. There was great rejoicing in <strong>the</strong> Nazi camp.
Immediately after <strong>the</strong> war, Soviet sources estimated that 20,000 Jews were murdered this way in
Rastadt and Suhaia (Suha) Balca, a sovkhoz north <strong>of</strong> Mostovoye. The threat <strong>of</strong> epidemics prompted <strong>the</strong>
burnings, and <strong>the</strong> tar was apparently intended to avoid contaminating water sources. The Romanian
practice <strong>of</strong> throwing corpses into <strong>the</strong> Bug had sparked intense criticism from local German <strong>of</strong>ficials, since
<strong>the</strong> river provided drinking water. Evidently, <strong>the</strong> Germans started torching <strong>the</strong> bodies in <strong>the</strong> mass graves
in <strong>the</strong> summer <strong>of</strong> 1942 or even later. Until <strong>the</strong>n, corpses may have been cremated in specially constructed
facilities.
Rumors <strong>of</strong> body burnings by local Germans reached Alexianu’s interrogators in April 1946, prior to
his trial in Bucharest. The killing <strong>of</strong> Jews was not <strong>the</strong>ir focus, but <strong>the</strong>y did ask <strong>the</strong> former governor where
<strong>the</strong>se atrocities had occurred. He replied: “[Jews] were burned at Rostov. The Germans buried <strong>the</strong> corpses
in antitank trenches. Afterwards <strong>the</strong>y brought gasoline, and <strong>the</strong> bodies were burned.” Alexianu, a
pr<strong>of</strong>essor <strong>of</strong> law who corrected every typographical error in his affidavits, “confused” Rostov with
Rastadt. Rastadt was a German village in Transnistria to which Jews were brought by <strong>the</strong> Romanian
gendarmes who reported directly to him; Rostov was a Russian city some 750 kilometers (466 miles) to
<strong>the</strong> east. No one noticed this “mistake,” though in February 1942 Alexianu and H<strong>of</strong>fmeyer had discussed
<strong>the</strong> problem <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Jews shot to death and left unburied in Rastadt.