Holocaust in Romania - Corvinus Library - Hungarian History

ter. As a mat ter of fact, they were found there the fol low ing day by ColonelConstantin Lupu , the garrison commander who—al though he had ar rivedthere as a result of a very se ri ous complaint to the po lice—suc cumbed toor ders com ing from above, and would not in any way hin der them in thecourse of events to come.They were also in a position to in form Lieu ten ant-Col o nel Micandru thatIron Guard mem ber Mircea Manoliu , who had been called up as a reservelance-ser geant in the zone of the 13th Dorobanti Reg i ment, was given thetask of car ry ing out blatant acts of terrorism in or der to ex per i ment on there ac tions of the au thor i ties who had not been in formed of the prep a ra tionsin ad vance. On the same night, Manoliu fired at three Jews kill ing onlyone; the fol low ing night he killed an other six, and on Sat ur day morn ing hein cited the Abattoir quar ter to robbery, and the mob on the outskirts toatroc i ties.The or ga niz ers of the po grom had no fur ther rea sons for in de ci sion. Bythis stage, they could be sure of success, and only the fi nal or ders re mainedto be given.The Iron Guard mercenaries were deployed to occupy var i ous po si tions inevery quar ter of the town. They were well-equipped with low caliber weap -ons, de fense guns 1 , and blank bul lets, which were only meant to makenoise. Many of them, how ever, pos sessed lethal weapons, and fired themwithout pity at the un for tu nates who were try ing in vain to hide.The Teutonic bri gades were also alerted, and they too set off, with some ofthem provoking, and oth ers kill ing. Their pa trols were ready to break intopre vi ously marked Jewish houses while giving the im pres sion of be ing at -tacked. The crosses painted on houses and fences did not really interestthem, be cause they knew that in this poi soned town they had the loot -ing-hun gry mob at their dis posal, and that the mob would point out thehouses to be at tacked.1 .22 caliber ri fle used in pre-mil i tary train ing.89