Of the more than 200,000 Rumanian Jews who have been deported to the barren stretches of Transnistria, the Rumanian-occupied section of the Ukraine, only about 75,000 still remain alive, and they are in imminent danger of death, a desperate appeal reaching here today reveals.
Most of the internees are mortally ill, as a result of starvation and complete absence of medical care. Highly contagious skin diseased have swept the entire region and many of the women are suffering from venereal diseases contracted as a result of mistreatment by the Rumanian troops. The deportees sleep either cut in the open or in the ruins of wrecked houses despite the searing cold. No clothing, medicine or other essential supplies are available. Their only food is a daily allowance of a pound of bread for adults and half as much for children. The children about 5,000 of them are in the worst condition of all.
“If effective assistance does not come immediately, all of these miserable people will die,” the appeal states. (A recent alleged offer by the Rumanian authorities to release the Transnistrian internees, if the United Nations would provide a haven for them and pay “transportation expenses” of about $50 per head, has never been confirmed. Exhaustive inquiries in Washington and London have so far produced no concrete evidence that such an offer was ever made.)
The appeal discloses that the Jews are located in the following sections of Transnistria; 40,000 in the Mohilev region; 15,000 in the Balta district; 5,000 in the Jugastru region; 4,000 around Tulcin and 3,000 in the Berzowka district. An additional few thousand are scattered in the same general area.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
