Impressed by the victories of the Russian armies which are moving in the direction of Rumanian territory, the Rumanian Government has suddenly decided to discontinue the deportation of Jews to Transnistria, the section of the Nazi-occupied Ukraine administered by Rumanian officials, it was reliably reported here today.
The report of the suspension of the deportations to Transnistria is accompanied by news that the Rumanian Government intends to send a commission to Transnistria to examine each of the cases of the deportees in order to establish which of them can be permitted to return to Rumania. It is obvious that the authorities in Rumania fear that the Russian armies will re-occupy Transnistria should the Nazis fail to check the present Russian offensive, the report states. Permission to return to Rumania will be given only to Jews who may be considered valuable to Rumanian interests, the report adds.
“In spite of the tendency of the Rumanian Government to halt the deportations, the Jews in Rumania still live in constant fear of being exiled,” the report continues, “as a result of the fact that the German ambassador in Bucharest is pressing the Rumanian authorities to send Jews to Nazi-occupied Poland where the Nazis are building fortifications.” Speaking at a public meeting in the city of Arab recently, the German ambassador von Killinger declared that mass-expulsions of Jews from Rumania to Poland may be expected to start this spring.
The Porunca Vremii, organ of the anti-Semitic Iron Guards, which reached here today from Bucharest, carries an article warning the Jews of Rumania not to be too optimistic. Declaring that “a wave of optimism has swept over Rumanian Jewry,” the anti-Jewish newspaper says that “nothing has happened as yet which justifies the Jewish rejoicing.”
NEW DECREE OUSTS 34,000 RUMANIAN JEWS FROM JOBS
Meanwhile, it was reported today from Bucharest that a new decree has been issued there which will result in the ousting of 34,000 Jews from their jobs. The Jews who will lose their positions under the new regulations will be sent to forced labor camps.
The Nazi Transocean news agency today reported that nearly fifty percent of the Jewish commercial undertakings in Rumania were “Aryanized” between November 1940 and this month. During the same period 21,719 Jewish workers were dismissed, the report stated.
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