Holocaust in Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

Col o nel Captaru (county head) with a mes sage to ask per mis sion from theMin is try of the In te rior for his ac tion. Gen eral Ion Popescu (Jack), Dep utyState Sec re tary of the Min is try of the In te rior, gives his con sent to the or -der for evac u a tion. A document of the time, how ever, proves that the or derwas is sued by Mihai Antonescu , Dep uty President of the Council of Min -is ters, with a note that one group was to be evac u ated to Targu Frumos ,and the other to Podul Iloaei . Col o nel Captaru also re fers to a telephonecon ver sa tion with Mihai Antonescu con cern ing the same issue.Lieu ten ant-Col o nel Chirilovici , how ever, in his report of Sep tem ber 15,1941 to the Offices of the Gen dar merie in Iasi ex presses doubt as towhether the Min is try of the In te rior should play any role in the evacuationfrom Iasi of the Jews who were ar rested on June 29. He claims that the or -der was is sued by the 14th Di vi sion, which perhaps turned to the 3rdArmy for the nec es sary freight cars. It seems the first ver sion is the true one.The evac u a tion was pre pared with great haste. The first trans por ta tion ofthe first group was organized in the evening at 2000 hrs approx.; orig i nallyRomanian guards had been ordered to the scene but mat ters soon foundtheir way into the hands of the German beasts, who en cir cled the march ingcol umn with two ar mored ve hi cles, and mo tor cy clists as well as a smallnum ber of of fi cers and sol diers. There were also Ro ma nian sol diers amongthe those pro vid ing the es cort, but most were po lice men, who added to thesufferings of the evacuees. Those who or ga nized the evac u a tion did not doany thing to mit i gate the suf fer ings of the evac u ees. Beat ings, torture androb ber ies con tin ued along the entire length of the jour ney to the sta tion,but the most ter ri ble incidents oc curred in the square in front of the sta tionand on the platform, while the evac u ees were being loaded into the freightcars, and while Ma jor Nicolae Scriban , Mil i tary Judge of the 14th Di vi -sion, looked on.Col o nel Mavrichi , the rep re sen ta tive of Gen eral Headquarters at the rail -way sta tion in Iasi , placed 50 car riages at the disposal of Col o nel Captaruorigi nally it had been pre sumed that approx. 2,500 Jews were to be trans -ported. How ever, 12 car riages were withheld be cause they were cat tle wag -ons equipped with air holes, and not ordinary freight cars, whose air holescould be sealed com pletely This fact is wor thy of men tion—since it is anin di ca tion of the cal cu lated cru elty—and be cause in the end, it was of littlesig nif i cance, given the fact that fewer than 38 of the avail able car riages103