“The Jews in Rumania are living in constant fear without knowing what the next day will bring,” it is emphasized in a report released here today dealing with the situation of the Jews in the Nazi-dominated country of Premier Antonescu. The report, which comes from reliable sources, reached the United States through neutral channels.
Confirming that several thousand Jews were executed in the city of Jassy and that the province of Bessarabia is now completely “judenrein,” the report says wild stories of gruesome acts allegedly perpetrated by the Jews upon Rumanians are being circulated in order to justify the anti-Jewish atrocities.
“Racial discrimination against the Jews goes on uninterruptedly,” the report informs. “It began with a total expropriation of rural property, and this was applied even to those who were born Christians but one elsewhere whose parents was a baptized Jew.
“With the outbreak of the war and the retreat of the Russians many stories were circulated at the expense of the Jews. All destruction, the burning of bridges, devastation of Rumanian property; every military act of destruction, was not charged to the Red Army nor to the Russian population which was carrying out Stalin’s orders to destroy every thing in sight, but charged only to the ‘Jewish commissars.’ ‘Odessa could not have held out so long if it had not been for the stubbornness of the Jews,’ was a typical report circulated by the Rumanians. An investigation of what the Jews actually had done to cause such charges to be brought against them did not disclose one solitary action for which they could have been held responsible,” the report establishes.
REVEALS HOW CHIEF RABBI ZIRELSOHN AND 40 JEWISH LEADERS EXECUTED
The report tells how Chief Rabbi Zirelsohn of Bessarabia and other Jewish leaders there were executed. “On the very first day of the installation of the Rumanian and German commands at Kishinev, a group of 40 Jewish representatives headed by Rabbi Zirelsohn called to offer their homage to the new regime, and they were taken into a closed court yard and shot. While the idea was German, the shooting was done by Rumanians,” the report reveals.
“The union of Jewish communities and every other Jewish organization have been dissolved by a decree issued in 1941,” the report continues. “In their stead a Jewish central bureau was created with branches in every district capital, and this bureau took over all the Jewish institutions. But there was not much to take over, because all the Jewish hospitals, asylums, etc., had been taken over by the government and converted into military hospitals, as have many Jewish schools.
“With the dissolution of the Jewish communities, a census of inhabitants having Jewish blood in their veins was ordered. All those, no matter of what religion, having one Jewish grand-parent, even if their parents had been baptized, had to register with the central office as Jews. In their despair and seeking a means of saving themselves and their families, many Jews embraced Christianity, and there is now a strong tendency in that direction.
“While there is a law which was enacted by the Iron Guard regime forbidding the church to baptize Jews, the Catholic Church ignores it and keeps on baptizing them. Moreover, it has even facilitated the conditions required for conversion. Thus, while a Catholic priest used to demand several months preparation of the would be proselyte in the study of the Catholic catechism, they baptize them now without previous preparation. In this manner Jews are being baptized and admitted into the Catholic church. Whether or not to become baptized is a chief subject of conversation among Jews,” the report concludes.
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.
