Man ‘back from Dead’ Gives Vivid Account of Jilava Prison Episode

A man "who came back from the dead" mowed down by Iron Guardists on a field near Jilava prison gave this correspondent a graphic eyewitness account of the pogrom nightmare in Bucharest last week.

Lying wounded in bed, he told a tale which might have been an episode from the St. Bartholomew’s Even or other great massacres of history.

The man, who miraculously escaped death at the hands of the Guardist rebels, recounted in detail one of the most terrible incidents which featured the attack on the Jewish quarter of Bucharest by Guardists in which at least 1,400 civilians were slaughtered.

According to this informant, a cousin of a friend of mine, the killings in the Jewish section reached greatest intensity on Wednesday night and in the early hours of Thursday.

The Guardists, ordered by their "general staff" to go into "action" in this sector while other Guardist units fought Rumanian soldiers elsewhere in the city, advanced methodically along the Calea Dudesti, looting and destroying and setting fire to every Jewish shop, business, theater, cinema and synagogue in sight.

The Greenshirts finally arrived at the Bucharest Jewish Community Center, a former schoolhouse set back from the street and surrounded by a fenced-in garden.

More than 200 Jews had taken refuge in the building as they fled before the advancing marauders. The Greenshirts were complete masters of the neighborhood. Only one picked division of the demobilized Rumanian Army was present in Bucharest at the time of the uprising and it had its hands full fighting the rebels in the center of the city. There were several thousand German troops in the Jewish quarter but they confined themselves to protecting their own barracks. There was not a policeman in sight. They had either joined the Guardists or had fled for their lives. The Jews were at the complete mercy of uneducated youngsters who had been whipped to a frenzy of hate by their chiefs.

One of the mobs came to a halt before the Community Center. Its leaders dispatched a group of 200 Guardists to surround and "attack" the undefended building while the main body of 1,500 proceeded up the street, pillaging, murdering and setting fire to homes and buildings.

It was a hellish scene. In the distance could be heard the rattle of machine guns, the boom of tank and anti-tank guns and occasionally the roar of artillery as the Rumanian Army attempted to oust embattled Greenshirts from the American Telephone building, the police Prefecture and the Sanitary Department’s garage. Nearby the streets resounded with constant volleys of pistol and rifle fire, mingled with screams and roars of laughter as the Greenshirts shot up homes and dispatched helpless Jews and any Christians who appeared to be Jews.

The whole district was turned into an inferno by the light of hundreds of burning buildings and the crackle of flames consuming them.

Inside the Community House children whimpered and women prayed while the men silently waited for the Greenshirts to enter and begin their bloody work.

The Greenshirts–who included many girl members of the movement–stormed into the building, waving automatic pistols and rifles in the faces of the inmates. They promptly ordered their victims to line up one by one and surrender the contents of their pockets and give up rings, watches, jewelry and money. Then they marched the Jews to the home of Oscar Kauffmann, former director of the Rumanian Credit Bank, which had been converted into a Guardist fortress. There the Jews were imprisoned in the cellar.

After a long parley, the Greenshirts decided to spare the lives of 15 women among the prisoners. They ordered them to return to their homes but not before they had slapped and beaten up several in order to make them tell where their husbands of their "fortunes" were hidden.

The heroine of the group was Marcela Stein, 13 years old, who refused to be bullied into confessing any "secrets" she did not possess in spite of slapping, nose-tweaking and hair pulling.

Isidor Goldstein, 65, secretary of the Community, was taken aside and tortured until he gave the Guardists a complete list of the names and addresses of all Jewish leaders in Bucharest.

Goldstein then was told he could go home but a 17-year-old Greenshirt followed him outside. Several shots were heard and the young "hero" returned and announced he had shot and killed Goldstein as he walked along the garden path toward the gate.

Mariasis Marian, Professor of Law, suddenly appeared at this moment dazedly explaining he was searching for his wife. He also was taken to the garden and dispatched.

Meanwhile, a squad of Greenshirts was sent to find Sigmund Collin, 60-year-old treasurer of the Community. They tortured him until he had agreed to open the safe. Following this they took him to the Community House where they appropriated several hundred thousand lei contained in the strong box. The Guardists brought Collin back to the fortress and took him to the cellar where they announced that all would be killed. To convince the prisoners that they meant exactly what they said–an entirely unnecessary gesture since all were resigned to death–they shot Collin and several others in cold blood.

Soon three or four five-ton American-built trucks, stolen from the Army, rolled up the driveway and the Jews were taken out of the cellar. Unable to squeeze more than 160 inside the trucks–even by knocking some unconscious–the Guardists shot and killed the 35 who were left over.

The trucks then were driven outside the city to the open fields near Jilava prison, famous for the massacre of 64 followers of former King Carol on Nov. 26.

The Guardists ordered the 160 Jews to form a line beside the road. Firing squads were organized and marched up and down along the line firing point blank at their victims. They went up and down the line several times, shooting repeatedly into the crumpled bodies to make sure that everyone was dead. Then they returned to the city.

Their execution had not been complete, however. Several of the victims were not mortally wounded and "played possum" until the Greenshirts left. My informant, who had received only two flesh wounds, escaped and told me the tale before I left Bucharest and reached this city.