Holocaust in Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

The ru mor that the Ger mans had oc cu pied the Cen tral Po lice Station wasspread when the Peo ple’s Tri bu nal launched its in ves ti ga tion; when thedefendants—who had been dec o rated with stripes, braids and med als—in -stead of ac cept ing re spon si bil ity for their grue some sins, admitted that theythem selves had felt under threat and as a result had be haved in a cowardlyfash ion.At a spec i fied time the se lec tion of Jews was stopped, and new groups ofarrestees were brought to the Cen tral Po lice Station; among them weremany of those who had pre vi ously been se lected as prisoners to be freed.These hor ri fy ing acts con tin ued un til 1500 hrs, when the massacre properstarted.The sig nal for this was given through another false air-raid alarm. As the si -rens began to screech, bullets were fired on the un for tu nate peo ple. Thecrowd of sev eral thou sand was shot at from all directions by pistols, gunsand ma chine-guns: at the steps leading to the po lice sta tion, from the gates,from the win dows of the Cen tral Po lice Sta tion, from bal co nies of neigh -bor ing build ings and from rooftops. Those, who wanted to es cape byclimb ing the fence that separated Union Square from the Cen tral PoliceSta tion ( Alecsandri Al ley, the gar den of the Sidoli cinema), were also shot.The army was pre pared for this even tu al ity and closed off a circle aroundthe streets of Vasile Alecsandri , Cuza Voda and Bratitanu as well as UnionSquare. The sol diers forced their way into houses, pulled out Jews and shotthem dead on the spot.Re ports of the time are silent about this most aw ful part of that aw ful day.Only Lieu ten ant-Col o nel Chirilovici , Po lice Su per in ten dent, men tions itin his report. He tried to jus tify the mas sa cre by saying that the sol dierswere an gered when lo cal Jew ish communists started fir ing at them be causethey wanted to free the Jews who had been arrested.Those who sur vived the terrible mas sa cre in the neigh bor ing streets weretaken to the build ing of the Gen darme Legion; there they had to standwith their hands held above their heads while sol diers beat them with sticksin full view of the officers. In the evening all of them were taken back to theyard of the Cen tral Po lice Sta tion, where they also met the fate of the oth -ers.101