Holocaust in Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

We can conclude that two months after the commencement of militaryactions, at the end of the first phase of the “holy war”, following theoccupation of the territories which had been handed over in 1940, approx.150,000 Jews were missing. These were either killed or perished as a resultof bestial persecution, starvation, thirst, their untreated diseases andwounds, and fatigue.September 16, 1941The deportation to Transnistria of the Jews collected in the camps ofNorthern Bucovina began. A month later, following the establishment ofthe new camps, the counting of those interned was carried out withextreme care In certain camps ( Secureni and Edineti), two counts weretaken: one by military organizations, the other by village authorities.When the marching columns were started, nobody bothered to count thenumber of survivors.A great number of Jews died in the camps of Secureni , Edineti , Vertujeniand Marculesti , especially in the latter two. They perished for manyreasons, but all were a consequence of the horrifying conditions to whichthe victims had been subjected. By the end of the terrible walk, which forsome lasted as long as two months, people’s physical and psychologicalresistance had evaporated. There were some cases of suicide and prematurebirth at the very beginning. However, with the passing of time, thenumber of these grew daily. Soon the diseases caused by misery appeared:Enteric fever, petechial typhus, scabies, dysentery, etc. Although therewere many physicians among those interned, the epidemics continued tospread, and the death rate rose rapidly, since medication and the necessarymedical accessories (soap, petroleum, water) were absent. Many of thosewho had not fallen victim to disease, died as a result of starvation andthirst. In certain places, food was totally absent, while in others there wasplenty, but it was too expensive for the impoverished people. They reachedthe point when they gave a watch for a loaf of bread, a blanket for twoloaves, and ten shirts for a bucket of water. At times camp commanders cutoff the food supply lines by prohibiting peasants from entering the camp,or the Jews from leaving it.176