Starvation among Jews in Nazi-dominated Rumania is so great that in the province of Bukovina Jews have offered fur-coats and diamond rings for a loaf of bread and stripped themselves of their last shirt for anything edible, trustworthy Americans recently repatriated from Rumania told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency here today.
Describing the massacres of Jews in Bessarabia and Bukovina, they stated that in Bukovina not only were Jews killed by the thousands by Rumanian troops commanded by German officers, but those who were unharmed faced hunger and epidemics. The toll taken by the Nazis in Bukovina was described as even higher than the 60,000 Jews massacred in the Kishinev area in Bessarabia.
“The first thing the Axis forces did when entering a town or village in Bukovina and Bessarabia was to round up all the male Jewish population,” one of the American informants reported. “German and Rumanian soldiers then pulled the Jews’ beards out by the roots. In many cases, they forced the wife and children of their victim to watch him being castrated. In Bessarabia, thousands of Jewish girls were seized and sent to brothels established for the German troops.”
“In one village,” the American continued, “German storm-troopers ordered Rumanian soldiers to execute a score of Jewish children. The firing squad’s first volley, however, left the children unscathed and the superstitious Rumanians refused to fire a second time. The cursing Nazis ordered them to shoot or be shot themselves, and they finished the foul job.”
CONDITIONS REPORTED TO BE SOMEWHAT BETTER IN BUCHAREST
Conditions in “old Rumania” were better, the American informants reported, particularly in Bucharest and the larger cities. Many industries and essential stores still function under Jewish management, they said, although under government supervision and control, because the Rumanians have not succeeded in finding competent substitutes and elimination of the Jews at this stage would cause serious interference with production and distribution.
Rumanian officials still graft on Jews and deal with them, one observer said. Those Jews who still have money are able to retain Gentile employees. The government inspectors call regularly, collect their few hundred lei and depart. In certain cases where the pickings are especially good, their superior officers come around and collect as well.
SPANISH AMBASSADOR SAVES SEPHARDIC JEWS IN RUMANIA
The Spanish Ambassador in Bucharest, Conte de Casa Roje, was instrumental in saving the lives of many of the Sephardic (Spanish-speaking) Jews of Rumania, according to American informants, by recognizing them as Spanish subjects and giving them Spanish passports.
The Jews in Rumania, according to one informant familiar with their situation, have no illusions about their predicament. Dr. Wilhelm Filderman, leader of the Jewish community, is a hostage of the Nazis and it is feared that he may be executed on the slightest pretext. There is a general awareness among the Jews that at any time the Germans, together with the Iron Guard extremists, may launch a campaign of thorough extermination of all the Jews in Rumania.
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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.
