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

Bulgarian, Turkish, Italian, or Swiss. Fur<strong>the</strong>rmore, Romanian Jews in Berlin had to hand over furs, wool
items, typewriters, bicycles, and cameras. The Romanian consulates in Berlin and Vienna, assured by
German <strong>of</strong>ficials <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> existence <strong>of</strong> an “agreement” between <strong>the</strong> Romanian and German governments,
requested clarification from <strong>the</strong> Romanian Ministry <strong>of</strong> Foreign Affairs, which in turn requested <strong>the</strong> same
from <strong>the</strong> German Legation in Bucharest. While this bureaucratic exchange continued, in occupied
Bohemia and Moravia <strong>the</strong> first Jewish families with Romanian passports were interned at Theresienstadt.
In a July 1942 meeting in Berlin with Counselor Valeanu, Kligenfuss, a German Foreign Office
<strong>of</strong>ficial, asserted that Ion Antonescu “had agreed with Ambassador von Killinger that Romanian citizens
<strong>of</strong> Jewish ancestry in Germany and <strong>the</strong> occupied territories should be treated in <strong>the</strong> same fashion as
German Jews. German Legation Counselor Steltzer did <strong>the</strong> same in Bucharest on August 8, in his meeting
with Gheorghe Davidescu from <strong>the</strong> Romanian Foreign Office. As early as November 1941 von Killinger
told Auswärtiges Amt, that Antonescu had approved <strong>the</strong> intention <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Reich to deport Romanian Jews
under German jurisdiction to eastern ghettos toge<strong>the</strong>r with German Jews; <strong>the</strong> Romanian government “had
stated no interest in bringing Romanian Jews back to Romania.”
In <strong>the</strong> course <strong>of</strong> a discussion held on August 10, 1942, between Mihai Antonescu, Radu Lecca, and
Richter, Richter alluded to <strong>the</strong> approval Ion Antonescu had originally given to Killinger. Mihai
Antonescu concluded:
We have to realize that Romania has no interest in seeing Romanian Jews who have settled abroad
returning. Henceforth <strong>the</strong> following instructions should be followed:
1. As regards German Jews living among us, <strong>the</strong> expired German passports should be cancelled and
replaced with provisional certificates. It should be made obligatory for real property to be declared and
[<strong>the</strong> documents] kept strictly up to date.
2. With regard to Romanian Jews in Germany, <strong>the</strong> Protectorate, and in <strong>the</strong> General Gouvernement, as
well as those in <strong>the</strong> occupied territories, word will be sent to <strong>the</strong> Berlin Legation and <strong>the</strong> concerned
consular <strong>of</strong>fices that <strong>the</strong> measures to be undertaken have been agreed upon with <strong>the</strong> Romanian
Government. The issue that interests us is <strong>the</strong> real estate <strong>of</strong> Romanian nationals abroad, <strong>the</strong> administration
<strong>of</strong> this property, and <strong>the</strong> various means <strong>of</strong> liquidating it. The Berlin Legation and its subordinate
Consulate is asked to draw up a register….
The direct impact <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> agreement, and <strong>of</strong> Mihai Antonescu’s exchanges with Richter on August 10
was <strong>the</strong> deportation <strong>of</strong> nearly 1,600 Romanian citizens <strong>of</strong> Jewish ancestry living in Germany and Austria
(our last statistics, for 1939, indicated 1,760, <strong>of</strong> whom 618 were in <strong>the</strong> former Austria ); <strong>of</strong> an unknown
number from occupied Bohemia and Moravia, Poland, and Holland; and <strong>of</strong> 3,000 more from France.
Most perished in concentration camps. According to <strong>the</strong> September 1942 estimates <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Romanian
chargé d’affaires in Berlin, M. Stanescu, most Romanian-Jewish residents <strong>of</strong> Germany had already been
deported. On October 15, 1942, all Romanian Jews in Prague were arrested. The massive deportation <strong>of</strong>
Romanian Jews from France began in late September 1942. (Deportations <strong>of</strong> Romanian Jews had taken
place before that time, as well.)
More than 3,000 Romanian citizens <strong>of</strong> Jewish ancestry were deported between March 27, 1942, when
<strong>the</strong> first convoy with a Romanian Jew left France, and September 25, 1942, when <strong>the</strong> 37th convoy left,
this time filled mostly with Romanian Jews. A number <strong>of</strong> Romanian Jews found <strong>the</strong>mselves among 2,000
<strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir co-religionists deported from Malines, Belgium. On March 25, 1943, a sweep <strong>of</strong> Romanian Jews
in Vienna began; a round-up <strong>of</strong> Croatian, Slovakian, and Romanian Jews began in Berlin on April 6;
Hungarian, Bulgarian, and Swedish Jews went untouched. With Mihai Antonescu’s approval, <strong>the</strong>
Romanian legation in Berlin began granting entry visas and requesting <strong>the</strong> German authorities to provide