Holocaust in Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

forced on them by the beasts. Most terrible of all; they have to keep theirhands in the air at all times; they are forbidden to whisper, anddeath-threats dis cour age them from disobedience. They push and shoveone an other be cause everyone would like to be in the middle of the col -umn, in the hope that there they would find brief refuge from the sticks ofthe mob stand ing by the road side, wild with hatred and energized by thecru elty of the spectacle. They hope that the stones and mu cus will notreach them, be cause they are insulted, spat at and beaten con tin u ally. Thisis how the Jewish col umns made their way from the dis tricts of Tatarasi ,Paacurari, Sararie , Nicolina , from everywhere, among the dead bod ies ly -ing on the streets, in front of the ru ined and plun dered shops; the sup -pressed cries of the tor tured are lost in the cacophony, in which the roaringof the mob and the constant rat tle of fire arms mingles with the tunes ofwaltzes com ing from the loud-speak ers of the Ger man au to mo biles criss -cross ing through the town.Almost all the march ing col umns are driven to wards the Cen tral PoliceSta tion. A few, how ever, are led into the Na tional Grammar School, the13th Guards men Regiment, the Wachtel School and the County Office ofthe Se cu rity Service. These are later brought to the Cen tral Po lice Office,the enor mous yard of which will soon be too nar row for the thousands ofpeo ple crowded there. Of fi cial re ports mention 1,800-2,000 peo ple at 9o’clock in the morn ing, by noon 3,000-4,000, and according to some re -ports, as many as 5,000. Eye-witnesses, how ever, es ti mate the num ber tobe in the region of 6,000. These peo ple are wait ing in fear for someonefrom the ranks of the powerful or the au thor i ties swarm ing around the gateand the of fices to decide their fate.The pre vi ous night, Gen eral Stavrescu , Commander of lo cal mil i taryforces (14th In fan try Di vi sion), the high est rank ing lo cal officer, had beenin formed of the forth com ing event by Cap tain Dane, Commander of thepolice squadron from the di vi sion, and the ci vil ian po lice or ga ni za tions. Inspite of all this, he does not take any mea sures, does not report any thing tohigher au thor i ties, and more over, gives an order to search Jew ish homesand arrest Jews. In his re port, writ ten two days after the events of thatnight, con tain ing the in sult ing ex pres sion “Jew ish-com mu nist sus pects”,he reports that “those found guilty were ex e cuted there and then by Ro ma -nian-Ger man forces.99