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

The second train to leave Iasi for Podu Iloaiei was even more crowded (about 2,000 Jews were
crammed into twenty cars). The last car contained <strong>the</strong> bodies <strong>of</strong> eighty Jews who had been shot, stabbed,
or beaten. In <strong>the</strong> summer heat, those crammed inside had to wait for two hours until departure. “During
<strong>the</strong> night,” one survivor recounted, “some <strong>of</strong> us went mad and started to yell, bite and jostle violently; you
had to fight <strong>the</strong>m, as <strong>the</strong>y could take your life; in <strong>the</strong> morning, many <strong>of</strong> us were dead and <strong>the</strong> bodies were
left inside; <strong>the</strong>y refused to give water even to our crying children, whom we were holding above our
heads.” When <strong>the</strong> doors <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> train were opened, <strong>the</strong> surviving few heard <strong>the</strong> guards calling on <strong>the</strong>m to
throw out <strong>the</strong> dead (because <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> stench, <strong>the</strong>y dared not come too close. As it happened on a holiday,
peasants from neighboring villages were brought to see “<strong>the</strong> communists who shot at <strong>the</strong> Romanian
army,” and some <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> peasants yelled, “Kill <strong>the</strong>m! What’s <strong>the</strong> point <strong>of</strong> giving <strong>the</strong>m a free ride?”
In <strong>the</strong> death train that left Iasi for Calarasi, sou<strong>the</strong>rn Romania, which carried perhaps as many as
5,000 Jews, only 1,011 reached <strong>the</strong>ir destination alive after seven days. (The Romanian police counted
1,258 bodies, yet hundreds <strong>of</strong> dead were thrown out <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> train on <strong>the</strong> way at Mirceasti, Roman,
Sabaoani, and Inotesti.) The death train to Podu Iloaiei (15 kilometers from Iasi) had up to 2,700 Jews
upon departure, <strong>of</strong> which only 700 disembarked alive. In <strong>the</strong> <strong>of</strong>ficial account, Romanian authorities
reported that 1,900 Jews boarded <strong>the</strong> train and “only” 1,194 died. In total, up to 14,850 Jews were killed
during <strong>the</strong> Iasi pogrom. The Romanian SSI acknowledged that 13,266 Jews died, whereas <strong>the</strong> figure
advanced by <strong>the</strong> Jewish Community after carrying out its own census was 14,850. In August 1942, <strong>the</strong>
army labor recruiting service in Iasi reported that it could not find 13,868 Jews.
The Romanian Authorities and Solving <strong>the</strong> “Jewish Problem”
in Bessarabia and Bukovina
“The special delegates <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Reich’s government and <strong>of</strong> Mr. Himmler,” as Mihai Antonescu
described <strong>the</strong>m, arrived in Bucharest in March 1941 to discuss <strong>the</strong> fate <strong>of</strong> Romanian Jewry. The
delegation was comprised <strong>of</strong> several SS <strong>of</strong>ficers, a member <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Gestapo, Eichmann’s special envoy to
Romania and <strong>the</strong> future attaché in charge <strong>of</strong> Jewish affairs at <strong>the</strong> German Legation. “They formally
demanded,” Mihai Antonescu would later claim, “that <strong>the</strong> control and organization <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Jews in
Romania be left exclusively to <strong>the</strong> Germans, as Germany was preparing an international solution to <strong>the</strong>
Jewish question. I refused.” But this was a lie; not only had Mihai Antonescu accepted, but he bragged in
government meetings that he and <strong>the</strong> Conducator had consented. During <strong>the</strong>ir third meeting on June 12,
1941, in Munich, Hitler revealed <strong>the</strong> “Guidelines for <strong>the</strong> Treatment <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Eastern Jews,” (Richtlinien zur
Behandlung der Ostjuden) to Antonescu. The Romanian leader later mentioned <strong>the</strong> document in an
exchange <strong>of</strong> messages with <strong>the</strong> German Foreign Ministry; and Mihai Antonescu noted that he had reached
an understanding with Himmler’s envoys regarding <strong>the</strong> “Jewish problem” in an August 5 government
session. The agreements with <strong>the</strong> SS concerning <strong>the</strong> Jews in Bessarabia and Bukovina were
acknowledged during talks between Mihai Antonescu and Nazi foreign minister Joachim von Ribbentrop
at Hitler’s Zhytomyr headquarters on September 23, 1942, when Ribbentrop asked Mihai Antonescu for
continued Romanian cooperation to exterminate <strong>the</strong> Jews in <strong>the</strong> Old Kingdom and sou<strong>the</strong>rn Transylvania.
Mihai Antonescu agreed to deport <strong>the</strong> Jews <strong>of</strong> Romania and replied that in Bessarabia, Bukovina, and
Transnistria an understanding had been reached with <strong>the</strong> SS for <strong>the</strong> execution <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>se measures.
The adoption <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> <strong>Final</strong> Solution was apparent in <strong>the</strong> Conducator’s rhetoric. On June 22, 1941, he
boasted that he had “approached with courage” <strong>the</strong> Romanianization process, disowned <strong>the</strong> Jews, and
promoted cooperation with Germany “in keeping with <strong>the</strong> permanent interests <strong>of</strong> our vital space
[emphasis added].” Anticipating Germany’s victory, Romania’s leaders informed <strong>the</strong> government (on
June 17/18, 1941) <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>ir plans for <strong>the</strong> Jewish population in <strong>the</strong> two provinces. The leadership left no
doubt about <strong>the</strong> significance <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> order to “cleanse <strong>the</strong> land.” Mihai Antonescu’s July 3, 1941, speech at