Holocaust in Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

sporadically up until 5.00 am, when Horia Sima , issued the surrenderdocument from his hideout.This was how the Iron Guard revolt ended in the northern quarter of thecap i tal, in the environs of re spected pub lic build ings and the palaces of Ro -ma nian no bil ity.There were casualties on both sides, broken windows, some damagedwalls, one looted and burnt out public building, ruined public offices,some thousands of men, women and children with raised hands andbowed heads stumbling among soldiers in loathsome elongated marchingcolumns. They signaled the end of the Iron Guard era, the beginning ofwhich had been pathetically declared by Horia Sima not more than threeweeks previously in his New Year’s message.The revolt took on an entirely different shape in the other half of thecapital, where, as a consequence of chronic dilapidation, Jewish homeswere crowded in on top of one another. Here, the bands did not have tobattle against tanks, or soldiers’ bullets, not even against the truncheons ofpolicemen. All they had to fight here were the beaming eyes of pale faces,the pleas of parched lips, the tears of women and children, and occasionallya threshold or two which, for one brief moment, senselessly resisted thebarbaric hatchets and pick-axes.This was the part of the city most under threat, a fact well-known by thosewho did everything to instigate the revolt; in spite of this, no one tookmeasures in time to save—if not the belongings—then at least the lives ofthe inhabitants. The result of this indifference or intent: almost 100,000people were thrown into the paths of liberated beasts.On the first indication of the revolt or even before, the Jewish quarterswere flooded by bands of murderers and robbers. Starting from aboutmidday on Tuesday, and continuing until the dawn of that Friday, longafter the rebels had surrendered, Jewish property and lives were at themercy of Iron Guard pistols, pick-axes and boots. For almost 70 hours aswarm of several thousand men, women and children were unable tooccupy themselves with anything other than assault, destruction, arson,robbery and murder.76