Holocaust in Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

On the same night, on the initiative of local military authorities, and withthe approval of senior governmental bodies, the approximately 4,500survivors were taken in marching columns, amid barbaric acts of torture,to the railway station and put on two trains for the purposes of evacuationand internment in Podul Iloaiei and Targu Frumos , in the same county.They were crammed in overcrowded carriages (at times as many as onehundred and fifty people in one box car), the doors were shut and, in manycases, even sealed, the vents were stuffed, there was no food, little air andno water, and they were fired upon any sudden movement. Consequently,almost two thirds of the evacuees died during the journey.The exact number of the victims of the pogrom in Iasi will never beknown. Even if this figure did not reach 12,000, as is believed by many, itis definitely over half of this number. During the trial, the number was putat 8,000.Naturally, the fascist judiciary of the time did not take one single step topunish the beasts guilty of so many crimes. From among Antonescu’scountless military and civilian judges and prosecutors—who had nothesitated to sentence to death workers who, for one day, failed to show upfor slave labor in “the public interest”, or children who dared believe in abetter future—not one could be found who, formally at least, would havebeen prepared to initiate legal proceedings for the purposes of punishingthose responsible for the Iasi bloodbath.One of the first initiatives of the democratic fac tion of the Ro ma nian gov -ern ment af ter Au gust 23 (Au gust 23, 1944, the day Romania switchedsides) was con cerned with the pun ish ment of war crim i nals; the firstamong them were those who had pre pared, or ga nized and ex e cuted the po -grom in Iasi . However, the tireless ef forts of Ro ma nian de moc racy cameup against ob sta cles to jus tice and ju ris dic tion laid in the their path by thelast rem nants of fascist reactionary forces. Se ri ous crimes con cern ing thehigh est cir cles prevented the Peo ple’s Jury from fully carrying out its tasks.Wrapped in their crimson cloaks, these peo ple were able to scheme andpro cras ti nate freely in the labyrinth of le gal vol umes for almost three years.It was only in June 1948 (...) that the sentencing of those responsible couldcommence with sincere intentions.83