Holocaust in Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

June 27-28, 1941 (at night)The sol diers of the 13th Guardsmen Di vi sion ar rest six more Jews oncharges of es pi o nage. They are sent to Headquarters es corted by the sameLance-Ser geant, Mircea Manoliu , who on the pre vi ous day shot dead twoof the three Jews in his charge. This time Manoliu did not wait un til theyhad reached Head quar ters. He took his vic tims on a long de tour lead ing tothe ab at toir. Manoliu and his escort, Cor po ral Nicolau , killed all six Jewswith bullets from their car bines and pistols. There may only have been fiveof them, since this is the num ber to which Manoliu con fesses. Back withhis corps, this criminal jus ti fied his ac tion with the clas sic lie that the Jewshad wanted to es cape and that was why he had killed them. It is possiblethat this beast had committed this crime, as well as that of the pre vi ous day,of his own ac cord as a con se quence of the at mo sphere of hostility presentin the town. If we con sider that the killer was a well-known Iron Guardfrom Bivolar , we can suppose that the Iron Guard or ga niz ers of the po -grom had encouraged him to gauge the standpoint and potential re ac tionsof the au thor i ties. There fore, Manoliu’s crimes rep re sent the first episodeof the Iasi po grom, not only from a chro no log i cal, but also from an or ga ni -za tional viewpoint.10.00 hrs, June 28, 1941Un der the lead er ship of the same Lance-Ser geant Mircea Manoliu , the sol -diers of the 13th Guards men Regiment, the 24th Artillery Regiment andthe 14th Ammunition Trans por ta tion Regiment, joined by a German mil -i tary unit and the lo cal res i dents of Aurel Vlaicu Street, ha rass and rob Jewsin the Ab at toir district un der the pretext of search ing for ra dio trans mit -ters. The Po lice Su per in ten dent, the Com mis sioner of the Garrison (thelatter with a bri gade of po lice men), the At tor ney-Gen eral of the Court ofJus tice and the military judge of the 14th Di vi sion arrive at the scene of thecrimes, state the facts, but do not take any ac tions to pun ish the van dal ismor pre vent a repeat of sim i lar actions. More over, Mircea Manoliu , the in -sti ga tor of the mur ders, is im me di ately arrested, but re leased soon af ter byMa jor Nicolae Scriban , the mil i tary judge of the 14th Di vi sion. This wascon sid ered, even by the Antonescu-au thor i ties, as an action, which couldhave se ri ous consequences. Con se quently, Gen eral Ion Topor , the thenHigh est Military Judge, sentenced Ma jor Scriban to ten days in prison.96