Interned American Jews Badly Treated by Rumanian Authorities

A number of American Jews who did not succeed in leaving Rumania together with the last group of American citizens, which included the U.S. Consular staff, are now being badly treated as “enemy aliens” by Rumanian authorities, it was reported today by a Jewish industrialist from Bucharest who arrived here after many trials and tribulations which took him from Rumania through Germany to Switzerland.

This Rumanian Jew disclosed that the Nazi authorities in Bucharest continue to press the Rumanian Government for more drastic anti-Jewish action. They are especially dissatisfied that the present severe anti-Jewish legislation “is not driving the Jews of Rumania to suicide to the same extent as in the Reich.”

“Those Jewish leaders in Bucharest who have not yet been deported to Transnistria live under constant fear of deportation,” the Jewish industrialist reported. “The case of Dr. Filderman has made a profound impression on all the Jews in the country. Dr. Filderman himself, apparently expecting arrest, had not been staying at home for many weeks and slept every night in the house of a different friend.”

“Many Rumanians,” he continued, “display sympathy with Jewish friends in the hope that when the present regime falls they will be able to prove that they were in disagreement with it. Other Rumanians are doing business by sheltering Jews for high remuneration. On the whole, however, there are thousands of Rumanians in Bucharest who try to be of aid to Jews despite the Government’s anti-Jewish policy. It was due to such aid that I succeeded in leaving Rumania.”