Mihai Rosca, Mihail Chichifor and Mihai Nichifor, anti-Semitics charged with organization of a pogrom against Jews in the village of Balaceana in the province of Bukovina, in July, 1930, were freed by a district court here. The trial had been postponed many times. All three denied knowledge of the pogrom.
The Balaceana outbreak was one of the worst of a series of anti-Jewish attacks in the province of Bukovina. After the notorious anti-Semitic agitators Danila and Totu had toured the country-side inciting peasants, all Jewish houses in the district were painted with swastikas to enable attackers to single them out.
Jews who were on the streets were killed, a large number wounded and the local synagogue and all Jewish shops were looted and demolished. Soldiers were sent to the town from a near-by garrison and were compelled to fire on the mob before it would disperse. Fifty peasants were arrested, but were later released.
Anti-Jewish attacks also occurred in other near-by towns. In Borsha the entire Jewish district was burned to the ground.
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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.
