The German News Agency, following its report that 600 Jews had been massacred by Rumanian troops in Galati, today quoted the Bucharest newspaper Curentul as threatening further “vengeance” against the Jews for alleged attempts to cause “internal unrest.”
Curentul’s appeal to Rumanians was quoted as follows:
“From the other side of the demarcation line, from the occupied regions, reports reached us calculated to mobilize the greatest rage for vengeance. In Bessarabia and Bukovina Jews have dropped their mask. More dangerous is the intentionally provocative attitude of the Jews in the capital, which led to spontaneous measures of defense on the part of the Rumanian population.
“Behind this impudence there stands the maneuver of causing internal unrest. Every unrest at home means a weakening of the country. Therefore Rumanians must keep cool and ignore provocations. Let us not forget that England is under a hypnosis of fear of German attack and invasion. Rumania is for Germany a source of supply of oil. The purpose of the disturbances is the destruction of the petroleum region. Rumanians must suppress their rage and wait–our time will come.”
Curentul’s statement was published this morning, the German agency said, after the authorities yesterday issued instructions that “Hungarians, Bulgarians and Jews must no longer be attacked.” Before that, Sunday’s Bucharest papers had been instructed to publish Curentul’s report about “Jewish excesses” in Bessarabia and Bukovina, the Nazi agency declared.
The Berlin radio reported approximately 600 Jews were massacred and many more wounded by Rumanian troops in Galati. The Nazi reports claim there had been “armed Jewish uprisings.” According to the Nazi account, about 2,000 persons,”mostly Jews,” from Galati and Bucharest who had gone to Soviet-occupied Bessarabia to seek Soviet citizenship were returned by the retreating Rumanian army.
This crowd fought Rumanian soldiers in Reni, Bessarabia–according to the German report–but was subdued and loaded onto the train. Arriving in Galati, the Nazi radio related, one man shot a Rumanian soldier and the whole group fled. Rumanian soldiers then encircled part of the town, shooting the “fugitives” with machine-guns and kept up the search for stragglers during the night.
Meanwhile, anti-Semitic agitation was growing in Bucharest. Propaganda manifestoes, apparently Nazi-inspired, were distributed in the Rumanian capital, accusing Britain and the Jews of seeking Rumania’s downfall and ending with: “Down with the Jews!” Some Bucharest newspapers published the Italian account of the Soviet occupation of Bessarabia which claimed that Jews stoned Rumanian soldiers and concluded: “There is a general feeling of contempt for the Jews in the whole country.”
However, the Government apparently was seeking to throw suspicion of disloyalty on the Jews by reporting that they were flocking to the Soviet area. The Government announced that 7,800 Jews had passed through Ungheni and 2,000 through Reni en route to the Russian-held territory. Many others have expressed a desire to go, and it was officially stated that they may obtain permits from local authorities.
The Rumanian Interior Minister today issued a decree declaring “it is forbidden to accommodate strangers, especially Jewish refugees, without registering them immediately with the police.”
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.
