Bessarabia, the province of Rumania which had a Jewish population of 200.000 in 1940, is now completely “judenrein,” according to Redu Lecca, Rumanian Minister of Jewish Affairs. His statement, published in the Nazi press which reached here today, also adds that in the province of Bukovina “fifty percent of all the Jews have already been removed.”
“Rumanian economy is now so strongly in the hands of Rumanians that Jews can easily be dispensed with,” the Rumanian Minister is quoted as saying. “Bessarabia has already been cleared of Jews. They have been pushed over the Soviet frontier. In Bukovina the process of getting rid of the Jews is somewhat more complicated since the Jews there – due to the emancipation which they enjoyed under the Hapsburgs, when this province was a part of Austria – still have in their hands about eighty percent of the trade and industry. Their expulsion would thus result in the possible danger of upsetting our entire economy. However, fifty percent of all the Jews there have already been removed. The remainder will be permitted to stay in their places until their enterprises are taken over by Rumanians.”
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