Rumania and Hungary Differ on Fate of Transylvanian Jews; Exchange Notes Via Red Cross

The Rumanian Government today made public the text of a reply received from the pro-Nazi government of Hungary to its request, sent through the International Red Cross, asking that a special commission be permitted to investigate the situation of 150,000 Jews reported to have been deported by Hungary from the part of Transylvania annexed from Rumania. The request, sent two months ago, indicated that Rumania would take reprisals against Hungarians living on Rumanian soil should the Hungarian Government fail to give a satisfactory answer.

The answer of the Hungarian Government, transmitted through the Red Cross, and received here today by the Rumanian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, reads. “Transylvanian Jews have not been deported, but have been sent to work in auxiliary services. The Government of Hungary asked the International Red Cross to send a commission composed of Rumanian and Hungarian representatives to investigate the situation. The Hungarian Government considers the request of the Rumanian Government a pretext to justify persecution of Hungarians in the Rumanian-held part of Transylvania. The Hungarian Government thinks it strange that Rumania should display an interest only now in the situation of the Transylvanian Jews.”

In a statement to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Dr. Ernest Marton, chief of the department established by the Rumanian Government to deal with Jewish affairs in North Transylvania, declared that reliable reports in the hands of the Rumanian Government establish the fact that of the 150,000 Jews who lived in northern Transylvania about 120,000 men and women of all ages were deported to Poland and Germany during the months of May and June. The remaining Jews were sent to forced labor and are being treated as war prisoners.

“The reply of the Hungarian Government, thus, does not coincide with the facts gathered by us and substantiated by many eye-witnesses,” Dr. Marton said. “We have testimony from eye-witnesses who, arriving from Poland, stated that Transylvanian Jews under the age of 15 and over the age of 65, including invalids and sick, were murdered in the gas chambers of Oswiecim.”