The Chronological Order of Events

June 19 - July 6, 1941

June 19, 1941

The issue of going to war against the Soviet Union had already been decided, and the preparations had been laid for its outbreak. Antonescu had been informed of the devilish secret in January; in the months that followed, the country's high-ranking civil and military leaders were also brought into the picture; the ordinary people had started to sense it during the last few days. Nobody doubts the ensuing danger.

Final preparations are taking place everywhere.

Ion Antonescu orders the Ministry of the Interior to observe Jews with increased alertness, and to count their numbers in every province so that "action can be taken against them when I order it, and when the suitable time comes".

The Ministry of the Interior gives the orders by telephone to immediately evacuate the Jewish citizens from villages and towns in Moldova - the men to Targu Jiu, women, children and the elderly to county centres; the orders are confirmed in writing a few days later. Orders are also issued by telephone to arrest large groups of Jews in every town. They will be forced to give their lives for any acts of aggression, sabotage or terrorism that may occur. The orders were executed with fanatical relentlessness and relentless fanaticism.

[140] General Headquarters sets off towards the Prut, followed closely by the 1st Mobile Detachment of the Special Information Service executing its damned, secret missions. Documents and files on Jews prepared earlier by the SSI were hidden among the detachment's equipment.

June 22, 1941

The war starts. Rumanian leaders begin stirring up anti-Semitic hatred on the first day. Posters of all sizes and colours are stuck up everywhere: on fences, kiosks, trams, train carriages and walls (especially the walls of public offices), calling for pogroms against Jews, and blaming them for the war.

Throughout the country, from Moldova to Oltenia, trains depart with sealed freight wagons packed with thousands of Jews. These starving and thirsty men, women, children and old people were grabbed from their homes, robbed of their possessions, and forced towards the terrible concentration camps of Targu Jiu, Craiova, Caracal, Turnu Severin, Lugos, etc.

In Iasi, where the number of Jews is high, anti-Semitic hatred is even greater than in any other part of the country.

June 24, 1941

The first Soviet air attack; bombs are dropped on the Rapa Galbena district of town and on the station. The damage caused by the bombs was minimal, but the panic among [141] people was immense. This atmosphere of panic served to strengthen the alarming rumours spreading from military and Iron Guard circles, and gave weight to accusations laid against Jews in Iasi - and Jews everywhere -, who were accused of being in league with Soviet pilots; that they had showed which targets were to be bombed, and that the pilots of the Soviet planes were also Jews from Iasi. All this created a state of collective lunacy, and almost the entire population of Iasi was transformed into a frightened mob, which unthinkingly considered the Jews its greatest threat.

11.00 hrs, June 26, 1941

The second Soviet blitz. Targets bombed included the Headquarters of the 14th Division, the Central Telephone Exchange and the Saint Spiridon Hospital. Many dead, of whom 38 were Jewish.

June 26, 1941

In Iasi's evening newspaper (Prut), General Gheorghe Stavrescu, the Commander of the 14th Infantry Division, the highest-ranking local military officer, issues a warning, in which, among other things, he asks people to help the authorities catch "our enemies and pervaders of alarming rumours", and threatens that, "those in the service of the enemy will be hacked to pieces". The newspaper was dated June 27, but taking into consideration the usual system of dating newspapers, it probably appeared on June 26.

[142]

June 26, 1941

Jewish citizens Isoub Cojocaru, Leon Schachter and Wolf Herscu (the latter seriously injured during the morning's Soviet bomb attack), who live next to the building where the batteries of the 13th Dorobanti Regiment were accommodated, are accused of giving signals from their flats to the Soviet air force, and escorted to the headquarters of the regiment by Lance-Sergeant Mircea Manoliu. Once there they are interrogated by two captains - well-disposed people - who give an order to let them go free, because they found the arrested men entirely innocent. Since the headquarters are in the district called Copou, in which Jews are forbidden to move, the officers order Lance-Sergeant Manoliu to accompany them, for their safety, until they are outside the danger zone. Mircea Manoliu, however, does not take them back along the short route by which they came, instead, he takes a detour through the narrow, empty streets heading towards the shooting ground in Calcaina valley. When no one is watching, the beast shoots the people he is supposed to be guarding. Cojocaru dies immediately, the seriously injured Wolf Herscu falls unconscious, but Schachter, who was not hit, manages to escape and hide in the corn field.

June 27, 1941

A few kilometres from the above scene, in Sculeni, there is a terrible massacre; it is the prelude to the tragedy planned for Iasi. The conquerors found themselves facing the heroic resistance of the Red Army. Slyly and using an element of [143] surprise, they managed to build a small, abutment 5 kilometres deep, on the eastern side of the Prut. Two battalions of the German 305th Regiment commanded by Colonel Buck were encamped there, as was another battalion (commanded by Major Garaiac) of the 6th Mountain Rifle Regiment (under the command of Colonel Ermil Maties). The officers of this cursed battalion (which speckled the road from Sculeni to Odessa with dead bodies) turned to German Headquarters and requested to be directed to this district so as to be able to take revenge on the Jews who had supposedly humiliated them when they withdrew in 1940.

Hardly had the three battalions settled down in Soviet territory, than an attack by Soviet infantrymen, supported by tanks, drove back the two German battalions. Only the Rumanian battalion held its position, and within its ranks the commander squadron of the 6th Rifle Regiment headed by two officers in contact with German Central Command, Captain Ion Stihi and Sub-Lieutenant Eugen Mihailescu. These two circulate false information that the Rumanian failure as well as the German withdrawal occurred because they had been attacked by the Jews of Sculeni. The Commander of the Military Sector, the German Colonel Buck, deploys new German battalions, and re-occupies previously controlled trenches. He then orders the evacuation of the civil population from Targu Sculeni.

Christian citizens were directed to the villages of Carlig and Copou, the poor Jews, however, who had been driven to Stanca Rosnoveanu, found themselves under the control of the two beasts - Captain Stihi and Sub-Lieutenant Mihailescu. Both of them were natives of the area (the theology student Mihailescu was the son of the town-clerk [144] of Sculeni), both were members of the Iron Guard, and both were greedy and brimming with hatred. They forced 40 men to dig four holes long and wide, and before killing every Jew in Sculeni with their own hands, they threw all the gold they found on the Jews into a tent sheet; there was only a Lance-Sergeant and a private (originally a butcher) to help them.

In September 1945 the graves were opened; in three of the four holes the corpses of 311 Jews were found, including 7 babies, 38 children under the age of twelve, 46 children under the age of eighteen and 91 women. The skeletons of several children lay as they were at the time of death - embracing the necks of their mothers.

The mass-murder in Stanca Rosnoveanu was ordered by high-ranking officers; Commander of the 6th Mountain Rifle Regiment, Colonel Ermil Maties, was among those who issued the command. Not only does he freely admit this, but also cynically apologizes for committing "too few" crimes against the Jews of Sculeni.

The curators of the religious community and the leaders of the Jewish citizens are summoned to appear at the Central Police Office by Lieutenant-Colonel Constantin Chirilovici, the delegated Police Superintendent. In the name of the Commander of the Army, who could have been none other than General Gheorghe Stavrescu, he accuses the Jewish population of co-operating with the Soviet air force, and, using very strong language, calls upon Jews to "return to legal ways"; he threatens to kill 100 Jews for every Rumanian or German soldier killed. Finally, he orders Jews to turn in all their telescopes, flashlights, cameras and film.

[145]

June, 27 1941

A meeting is held in the County Office. The participants:

Colonel Dumitru Captaru, county head; Colonel Constantin Lupu, garrison commander; Lieutenant-Colonel Constantin Chirilovici, Police Superintendent; Giosanu and Cosma, State Security Inspectors; the Attorney-General (probably Ion Aburel), and the chief medical officer of the town. They decide to establish a Gendarme district to work alongside each police district; the officers leading these Gendarme districts will help catch snipers, even though not one single suspicious shot has been fired anywhere. Colonel Lupu states that this meeting took place on June 27, but adds that on the day of the bombing (which means it took place on June 26) General Leoveanu, the ex-senior director of the State Security (Siguaranta) Office, who was sent to Iasi by Antonescu on July 2 to investigate the disturbances which took place there, states - based on the press release of Lieutenant-Colonel C. Chirilovici, Police Superintendent - that the decision to implement these measures was made on the morning of June 28.

June 27, 1941

The Police Superintendent informs the Commander of the Garrison by phone that a group of Iron Guards gathered in the Pacurari. district are singing Iron Guard marching songs, and rabble-rousing. When Colonel Lupu arrives on the scene with a platoon, he finds about thirty or forty armed Iron Guards led by two officers in civilian clothing: Majors Gheorghe Balotescu and Emil Tulbure. Two crates of weapons [146] are also found in the pavilion. The Commander of the Garrison does no more than ascertain the facts, and fails to take any further action. He returns to Headquarters, where within an hour the two majors also appear; they show the papers they received from General Headquarters, and say that they had intended to operate under cover, but had not been successful.

Lieutenant-Colonel Traian Borcescu, a secretary at the Special Information Service (SSI), states that the two majors personally participated in the preparations for the massacre in Iasi, and adds that apart from them the following SSI members were also involved in the massacre: Grigore Petrovici, Gheorghe Cristescu (Eugen Cristescu's brother), under the command of Director Florin Becescu-Georgescu.

June, 27, 1941

The atmosphere in Iasi becomes more and more depressing, all activity is paralyzed. A large number of Christian intellectuals and wealthy people leave Iasi. Many Christian houses are marked with a cross. Some kindly-disposed Christians warn their friends to leave town.

June 27-28, 1941 (at night)

The soldiers of the 13th Guardsmen Division arrest six more Jews on charges of espionage. They are sent to Headquarters escorted by the same Lance-Sergeant, Mircea Manoliu, who on the previous day shot dead two of the three Jews in [147] his charge. This time Manoliu did not wait until they had reached Headquarters. He took his victims on a long detour leading to the abattoir. Manoliu and his escort, Corporal Nicolau, killed all six Jews with bullets from their carbines and pistols. There may only have been five of them, since this is the number to which Manoliu confesses. Back with his corps, this criminal justified his action with the classic lie that the Jews had wanted to escape and that was why he had killed them. It is possible that this beast had committed this crime, as well as that of the previous day, of his own accord as a consequence of the atmosphere of hostility present in the town. If we consider that the killer was a well-known Iron Guard from Bivolar, we can suppose that the Iron Guard organisers of the pogrom had encouraged him to gauge the standpoint and potential reactions of the authorities. Therefore, Manoliu's crimes represent the first episode of the Iasi pogrom, not only from a chronological, but also from an organisational viewpoint.

10.⁰⁰ hrs, June 28, 1941

Under the leadership of the same Lance-Sergeant Mircea Manoliu, the soldiers of the 13th Guardsmen Regiment, the 24th Artillery Regiment and the 14th Ammunition Transportation Regiment, joined by a German military unit and the local residents of Aurel Vlaicu Street, harass and rob Jews in the Abattoir district under the pretext of searching for radio transmitters. The Police Superintendent, the Commissioner of the Garrison (the latter with a brigade of policemen), the Attorney-General of the Court of Justice and the military judge of the 14th Division arrive at the scene of the [148] crimes, state the facts, but do not take any actions to punish the vandalism or prevent a repeat of similar actions. Moreover, Mircea Manoliu, the instigator of the murders, is immediately arrested, but released soon after by Major Nicolae Scriban, the military judge of the 14th Division. This was considered, even by the Antonescu-authorities, as an action, which could have serious consequences. Consequently, General Ion Topor, the then Highest Military Judge, sentenced Major Scriban to ten days in prison.

The authorities order a Gendarme to be sent to every police district. Some hours later, on the night which witnessed the beginning of the bloodshed, reconnaissance units as well as groups of robbers and killers emerge from among these.

June 28, 1941

Police Superintendent Gheorghe Leahu orders police officers to surrender their weapons. A few hours later this order is withdrawn, but a further order issued on the same day by Leahu calls on policemen not to intervene in "what the army is about to do, regardless of the rights or wrongs of their actions".

June 28, 1941

Siguaranta (Security Service) and police groups arrest a large number of Jews because they are either considered left-wing sympathisers, or their names are marked as "suspicious elements" for other actions in police files. All of them are locked up in the basement of the Central Police Station.

[149]

21.⁰⁰ hrs, June 28, 1941

A false air-raid alarm. Only a few German planes appear, a blue flare is fired from one of them. This was the signal for the pogrom. The shooting started immediately in every district of the town, with pistols and machine guns, firstly, in the districts of Pacurari, Toma Cosma and Sararie, and also in Carol Street. Shots were fired in the streets from houses, from the attic of the University, from Saint Spiridon Hospital, from the building of the State Archives Office, etc. Shots were fired into the air, but also at people, at the troops marching towards the front. Many shots were fired at a column of Rumanian soldiers, who were marching towards Lascar Catargiu Street, and at another column marching along Carol Street and Laspusneanu Street. The latter went into a state of complete disarray, took up battle positions, and opened fire with every type of weapon, even 53 millimetre cannons.

Even though the shooting bore all the features of genuine battle, not one soldier was killed or injured, no weapons were found anywhere, and not one single marksman was arrested from one single house.

The Germans, however, tried to pretend that there were dead and injured among their ranks. The public both believed and exaggerated the German version of events. High-ranking Rumanian personalities, especially Colonel Captaru, the county head, allowed themselves to be deceived, or rather wanted to be deceived. Consequently, the authorities looked on the events as if the disturbance had [150] been provoked by the Jews, and instead of acting against the criminals, they continued to encourage, actively and passively, those who had arranged the massacre.

Simultaneously with the shootings - which continued all night long - German guardsmen, who had checked the entire area of the town, forced their way into Jewish houses, exclusively Jewish houses, where, under the pretext of carrying out house-to-house searches, they arrested, assaulted, looted and murdered. Stationary and mobile Rumanian patrols (which had been set up at the garrison), and individual soldiers as well as a large number of civilians also joined them. Policemen were members of other groups which searched houses. These marched out after being commanded to do so by the Central Police Station. The house searches were ordered by General Stavrescu, Commander of the 14th Division. If the inhabitants were not to be found in their flats (there was an air-raid alarm), the patrols forced their way into air-raid shelters.

June 29, 1941

Those who avoided the lethal bullets, are driven to the town centre. The never-ending marching columns arrive from every district of the town - mostly men, but there are also women and children: parents and children, grandparents and grandchildren, wives and husbands; some dressed, but in ragged clothes, others in pyjamas; many barefoot; almost all bearing the marks of the previous night's injuries; with bruises, open wounds, tracks of blood, tears and sweat on their dirty faces. Despite being physically exhausted, they [151] are forced to march in rhythmic steps. This is forced on them by the beasts. Most terrible of all; they have to keep their hands in the air at all times; they are forbidden to whisper, and death-threats discourage them from disobedience. They push and shove one another because everyone would like to be in the middle of the column, in the hope that there they would find brief refuge from the sticks of the mob standing by the roadside, wild with hatred and energised by the cruelty of the spectacle. They hope that the stones and mucus will not reach them, because they are insulted, spat at and beaten continually. This is how the Jewish columns made their way from the districts of Tatarasi, Paacurari, Sararie, Nicolina, from everywhere, among the dead bodies lying on the streets, in front of the ruined and plundered shops; the suppressed cries of the tortured are lost in the cacophony, in which the roaring of the mob and the constant rattle of firearms mingles with the tunes of waltzes coming from the loud-speakers of the German automobiles criss-crossing through the town.

Almost all the marching columns are driven towards the Central Police Station. A few, however, are led into the National Grammar School, the 13th Guardsmen Regiment, the Wachtel School and the County Office of the Security Service. These are later brought to the Central Police Office, the enormous yard of which will soon be too narrow for the thousands of people crowded there. Official reports mention 1,800-2,000 people at 9 o'clock in the morning, by noon 3,000-4,000, and according to some reports, as many as 5,000. Eye-witnesses, however, estimate the number to be in the region of 6,000. These people are waiting in fear for someone from the ranks of the powerful or the authorities swarming around the gate and the offices to decide their fate.

[152] The previous night, General Stavrescu, Commander of local military forces (14th Infantry Division), the highest ranking local officer, had been informed of the forthcoming event by Captain Dane, Commander of the police squadron from the division, and the civilian police organisations. In spite of all this, he does not take any measures, does not report anything to higher authorities, and moreover, gives an order to search Jewish homes and arrest Jews. In his report, written two days after the events of that night, containing the insulting expression "Jewish-communist suspects", he reports that "those found guilty were executed there and then by Rumanian-German forces

"On that Sunday", General Stavrescu visited the Central Police Office several times. He even delivered a speech at 1100 hrs, which, although reassuring, did not omit the usual insulting expressions and threats. After the General had left, a committee was formed (at his request, it seems). Members included police officers Dimitru Iancu and Rahoveanu Titus, and Captain Dane, Commander of the division's police squadron. These pretended to make a selection of the arrested people, and 200 randomly chosen prisoners were set free without investigation; each of them was given a note saying that they were "Free". The notes were stamped by the Central Police Office. It cannot be stated categorically whether or not these notes were used as a ploy to trap the other Jews. What is sure is that the news spread quickly, and more Jews - much more than those who had been set free - came out of their hiding places, and went voluntarily to get these notes. However, once at the Central Police Office, they were not allowed to leave. They had volunteered in vain, and were forced to go to that cursed yard, between the rows of German beasts armed with sticks [153] and iron bars, who beat them with such cruelty that a few of them dropped dead after the first blow.

General Stavrescu claims that on the occasion of his first visit to the Central Police Station, the Germans were already in control. However, - even though there were two platoons of Gendarmes and a divisional police squadron under his command -, it did not occur to him for a moment that he should safeguard the rights and sphere of activity of the Rumanian authorities. Actually, there is no report, account or announcement to justify the claim that German forces actually and violently had taken over the Central Police Station. Police Superintendent Leahu did not elaborate further but said that the Germans had a unit of the Todt-corps stand guard at the gate; Lieutenant-Colonel Police Superintendent Chirilovici, in one of his announcements of July 2,1941, mentioned that there were a lot of German officers in the Central Police Station, who were witnesses to the events occurring there, but did not interfere in any way. General E. Leoveanu, the then director of the Siguranta (the State Secret Service), who was sent to Iasi to officially investigate the massacre, arrived before the pogrom had ended, and accused the commander of the garrison of not having taken the necessary measures to limit the bloodshed. Consequently, the Germans, if they had been there, could have been asked to leave.

The rumour that the Germans had occupied the Central Police Station was spread when the People's Tribunal launched its investigation; when the defendants - who had been decorated with stripes, braids and medals -, instead of accepting responsibility for their gruesome sins, admitted that they themselves had felt under threat and as a result had behaved in a cowardly fashion.

[154] At a specified time the selection of Jews was stopped, and new groups of arrested were brought to the Central Police Station; among them were many of those who had previously been selected as prisoners to be freed. These horrifying acts continued until 1500 hrs, when the massacre proper started.

The signal for this was given through another false air-raid alarm. As the sirens began to screech, bullets were fired on the unfortunate people. The crowd of several thousand was shot at from all directions by pistols, guns and machine-guns: at the steps leading to the police station, from the gates, from the windows of the Central Police Station, from balconies of neighbouring buildings and from rooftops. Those, who wanted to escape by climbing the fence that separated Union Square from the Central Police Station (Alecsandri Alley, the garden of the Sidoli cinema), were also shot. The army was prepared for this eventuality and closed off a circle around the streets of Vasile Alecsandri, Cuza Voda and Bratitanu as well as Union Square. The soldiers forced their way into houses, pulled out Jews and shot them dead on the spot.

Reports of the time are silent about this most awful part of that awful day. Only Lieutenant-Colonel Chirilovici, Police Superintendent, mentions it in his report. He tried to justify the massacre by saying that the soldiers were angered when local Jewish communists started firing at them because they wanted to free the Jews who had been arrested.

Those who survived the terrible massacre in the neighbouring streets were taken to the building of the Gendarme Legion; there they had to stand with their hands held above their heads while soldiers beat them with sticks in full view of the officers. In the evening all of them were taken back to the yard of the Central Police Station, where they also met the fate of the others.

[155] On that day, June 29, 1941, which is remembered as "that Sunday", scenes of mindless abuse, torture, looting and murder were played out before the indifferent eyes of those who represented Rumanian civil and military authorities. Let us list them: General Gheorghe Stavrescu, Commander of the 14th Infantry Division; Colonel Constantin Lupu, Commander of the Garrison; Colonel Dumitru Captaru, county head; Constantin Chirilovici, who was in charge at the time; Gheorghe Leahu Police Superintendent; E. Giosanu and Matei Cosma, Police Inspectors; Gheorghe Stanciulescu, Secretary of the Central Police Station; Ion Aburel, Attorney-General; Colonel Gheorghe Barozzi, Military Judge of the 3rd Army; Major Nicolae Scriban, Military Judge of the 14th Division; Colonel Gheorghe Badescu, Superintendent of the Gendarmerie in Iasi; Captain Constantin Darie, Commander of the Police Squadron; Sub-Lieutenant Aurel Trindaf and Lance-Sergeant Forin Ghiveraru. Police officers and one or two Gendarmes units were also present. No one took any measures. General Stavrescu tried to stop the Rumanian soldiers only when the massacring beasts became exhausted. Only then did he go to General von Salmuth, Commander of the 30th German Corps, whom he took with him to the Central Police Station, and who then ordered the few remaining Germans to leave. The Jewish survivors, however, were still in prison; among the guards there were both Rumanians and Germans.

In the meantime, a lorry from the Town Hall started to collect the dead bodies lying in the streets.

[156]

18.00 hrs, June 29, 1941

There is almost complete silence in the town. The shooting has stopped, as has the howling, cheering and chanting of the mob. German loudspeakers have ceased bellowing out waltzes, instead, the speech of Major Nicolae Scriban, Military Judge of the 14th Infantry Division, is broadcast. He calls on soldiers to return to barracks, and for civilians to go home, but also orders that doors and windows should be kept open.

In the yard of the Central Police Station there are about 2,500 Jews left, the survivors. They are guarded by the Rumanian authorities and a small number of German officers and soldiers. General Stavrescu orders their evacuation from the town and sends Police Superintendent Chirilovici to Colonel Captaru (county head) with a message to ask permission from the Ministry of the Interior for his action. General Ion Popescu (Jack), Deputy State Secretary of the Ministry of the Interior, gives his consent to the order for evacuation. A document of the time, however, proves that the order was issued by Mihai Antonescu, Deputy President of the Council of Ministers, with a note that one group was to be evacuated to Targu Frumos, and the other to Podul Iloaei. Colonel Captaru also refers to a telephone conversation with Mihai Antonescu concerning the same issue.

Lieutenant-Colonel Chirilovici, however, in his report of September 15, 1941 to the Offices of the Gendarmerie in Iasi expresses doubt as to whether the Ministry of the Interior should play any role in the evacuation from Iasi of the Jews who were arrested on June 29. He claims that the order was issued by the 14th Division, which perhaps turned to [157] the 3rd Army for the necessary freight cars. It seems the first version is the true one.

The evacuation was prepared with great haste. The first transportation of the first group was organized in the evening at 2000 hrs approx.; originally Rumanian guards had been ordered to the scene but matters soon found their way into the hands of the German beasts, who encircled the marching column with two armoured vehicles, and motorcyclists as well as a small number of officers and soldiers. There were also Rumanian soldiers among the those providing the escort, but most were policemen, who added to the sufferings of the evacuees. Those who organized the evacuation did not do anything to mitigate the sufferings of the evacuees. Beatings, torture and robberies continued along the entire length of the journey to the station, but the most terrible incidents occurred in the square in front of the station and on the platform, while the evacuees were being loaded into the freight cars, and while Major Nicolae Scriban, Military Judge of the 14th Division, looked on.

Colonel Mavrichi, the representative of General Headquarters at the railway station in Iasi, placed 50 carriages at the disposal of Colonel Captaru - originally it had been presumed that approx. 2,500 Jews were to be transported. However, 12 carriages were withheld because they were cattle wagons equipped with air holes, and not ordinary freight cars, whose air holes could be sealed completely This fact is worthy of mention - since it is an indication of the calculated cruelty - and because in the end, it was of little significance, given the fact that fewer than 38 of the available carriages were used. The 2,430 people were forced to lie down on their stomachs in the square in front of the station, and threatened with instantaneous death should they lift [158] their heads or dare to whisper; first they were robbed, then were counted under the light of the armoured vehicles and motorcycles, and finally made to line up on the platform in single file, while soldiers pushed them into the carriages with bayonets and the butts of their rifles. The final carriages were not so crowded. Consequently, from among the lucky ones who got into these - even though they suffered greatly - there was only one death before the train reached Targu Frumos, an old man with a white beard. The number of people in each of the other carriages was approx. 150, almost four times higher than the intended capacity of the wagons. They suffered terribly, and the number of fatalities was incredibly high.

02.⁰⁰ hrs, June 30, 1941

After the doors of the carriages had been locked and the ventilation holes sealed, the train carrying 2,430 Jews set off for Targu Frumos; policemen from Iasi, under the command of Lance-Sergeant Ion Leucea provided the escort. At approx. 07.00 hrs the train passed through Targu Frumos; the railway officers and the local authorities did not order it to stop. They had been informed of the train's arrival by Colonel Captaru, county head, at approx. 11.00 hrs, on the previous night. Unsure as to whether or not the train would arrive, the local authorities, especially the Jewish Religious Community had somehow prepared themselves. Meanwhile, the evacuees were taken on a different route; first to Pascani, from there to Lespezi, then back to Pascani, and later in the direction of Roman, then back to Pascani again, [159] until, finally, in the evening the train arrived in Targu Frumos. By that time the leading local authorities were under the impression that the train had been deliberately ordered to travel around in circles so as to lengthen the sufferings of its passengers, thus killing more people.

In Targu Frumos, Captain Marinescu Danubiu, Deputy Commander of the Garrison, with anger and hostility, received the train carrying the dead, the dying and those who could still be saved; he objected to unloading the freight cars, but when he realised that he was in no position to rebel against higher commands, turned to a German officer, and with his help the captain succeeded in depriving those who might still have been saved of their last chance. That night only 3 carriages were unloaded, and about 200 people transferred from them. They were continually beaten and tortured by German and Rumanian soldiers and policemen (especially by Ion Botez, a police officer, who surpassed others in this activity). The prisoners were taken to the synagogue, where they begged for water in vain. Those who tried to give them water - the Leader of the Jewish Religious Community included - were beaten terribly in the presence of the Deputy Mayor, Dumitni Atudorei, who was busy looting at the time. That morning they were taken back to the station, and packed into carriages yet again. Those few who attempted to find water to drink were shot dead.

Meanwhile, the county head, Colonel Captaru, and the Ministry of the Interior - in the form of General Ion Popescu, its State Secretary - bowed to the demands of Captain Marinescu Danubiu, and halted the unloading of the carriages, and directed the train towards Calarasi-Ialomita.

The Office of the Gendarmerie in Iasi sent out 30 [160] Gendarmes to Targu Frumos under the command of Sub-Lieutenant Aurel Triandaf and non-commissioned officer Anastase Bratu to act as guards for the new marching section. On Tuesday, July 1 at approx. 07.00 hrs they relieved Sub-Lieutenant Dan Chitescu, who, with 100 soldiers from the railway battalion, had guarded the Jews, preventing the able-bodied from escaping, and the dying from getting a drop of water. On a few occasions, however, their alertness was overcome: the evacuees managed to get a few buckets of water from the engine carriage; they had to pay 10,000 lei for each bucket.

Only in the morning were the dead bodies removed from the carriages by Gypsies tempted by the chance of looting them. This activity continued almost all day on Tuesday, July 1. Occasionally, however, they stopped for a while whenever an order came through on the telephone from Colonel Mavrichi, the representative of General Headquarters. He had just ordered the immediate departure of the train, when a miracle, which saved the lives of several people, occurred. A train was derailed at the Cuza Voda station, rendering the track unusable for several hours. Meanwhile, almost all of the dead bodies could be taken out of the carriages. If not for this accident, the train would have departed with a large number of dead bodies, and this would undoubtedly have resulted in a higher number of deaths, and the increased suffering of the survivors.

The train stopped for approx. 24 hours in Targu Frumos, so that the bodies of dead Jews could be removed. During this time, this was the only act which eased the suffering of the others. With stubborn cruelty, however, it was forbidden to leave the doors open. This was done to prevent air from being let in. The evacuees were made to suffer acutely, [161] and were denied water. At 1600 hours on July 1 the train left the station. The commander of the guards was Tribunal Judge, Aurel Triandaf.

The corpses removed in Targu Frumos were brought to the local Jewish cemetery, some on lorries, others pulled along the ground. The bodies, which were thrown onto lorries and into holes, had already started to decompose, hands, feet and pieces of flesh came apart from the trunks. Only after their clothes had been pulled off, were the 634 bodies buried in two holes 30 metres wide. The living were also among those thrown into the holes. Only one of the people pulled out managed to regain complete consciousness afterwards. Straw was thrown into one hole, and then either petrol or paraffin was poured on before it was set ablaze. The bodies burnt all night long.

06.⁰⁰ hrs, June 30, 1941

With the same barbaric cruelty, another 1,902 Jews were taken to the station in Iasi. Several of them had been arrested the day before the pogrom. More had been locked up in the cellar of the Central Police Station. Others, survivors of the massacre in Alecsandri Alley that afternoon, were locked into the building of the Gendarme Legion. The rest were dragged out of their beds or hiding places on Sunday night or Monday morning, and taken to the Central Police Station, or directly to the railway station in specially ordered lorries. They were escorted by members of the Gendarmerie and police officers under the command of Police Officer C. Georgescu. German soldiers also joined them. The executioners treated them in exactly the same way they had [162] treated the other group a few hours previously; they were robbed, counted and then forced to run - in single file - along the line of attackers as far as the freight cars. The stationmaster's office provided 30 carriages, but only 18 were used, into which the 1,902 Jews were packed. With 106 people in each carriage the intended capacity was exceeded three times. However, due to the disorderly manner in which the prisoners were loaded, there were fewer people in certain carriages, while others held as many as 150 crowded together. As a result, when death set in, the corpses remained upright among the dying and the living. The suffering of the people packed into the second train lasted for a shorter period, but was more appalling than that experienced by those transported before them. There were carriages in which a person died every two or three minutes, and those still alive longed for death as their redemption. By the time the journey had ended, in certain carriages there were only two or three survivors wasting away among more than 100 dead bodies. Before the train departed 80 corpses were put into the last carriage, these had been collected earlier at the station; some of them had been shot dead, others bayoneted, but most had been bludgeoned to death with the hammers the staff at the station used to test the wheels of trains. A period of eight hours had elapsed between the loading of the prisoners in Iasi and the time when the train stopped in Podul Iloaiei (20 km away). This was sufficient time for 1,194 of the 1,902 people to die - the latter figure was actually 2,000. If they had walked, the journey would have been shorter, and nobody would have died.

When the survivors were ordered out of the freight cars at Podul Iloaiei station, they were met by Sergeant Ursache. By this time they had degenerated into imbecilic wrecks [163] incapable of walking, eating, drinking, crying, cursing or hating. First they were taken to the synagogue, and later to the homes of local Jews; they lived there in misery for almost three months.

June 30, 1941

By Monday morning events were coming to an end in the yard of the Central Police Station in Iasi. The wailing of the last of the dying was the only sound to be heard from among the bodies piled on top of one another. An enormous pool of blood spread from the middle of the yard, on and on, as far as the gate; it saturated the shoes of all those who had to cross it. Beside the fence bodies were stacked in piles like logs.

Every employee from the firm of undertakers was mobilized to clean the area. Four tips, each capable of transporting 20-30 bodies, and 24 rubbish-carts, able to handle 10 bodies each, were used all day long to take the corpses to the Jewish cemetery and other places, the exact locations of which still remain unknown. One particular tip made eight return journeys. At the Jewish cemetery the bodies were thrown into a huge hole, which - coincidentally - had been dug ten days previously under the orders of the commanders of the civil defence. The bodies were thrown from the carts into the hole, and onto one another: the dead, the dying and the slightly injured.

[164]

June 30, 1941

General Stavrescu washed his hands of the affair just as Pontius Pilate had done, and went out to the front-line during the night. He issued a decree in which he blamed the events of the nights of 28-29 on terrorists working for the enemy. He ordered a curfew and restricted the carrying of arms. Finally, he threatened to blow up houses and execute hostages. On the previous evening, Major Nicolae Scriban, Military Judge of the 14th Division, had had the decree announced over loud-speakers on automobiles.

July 1, 1941

Ion Antonescu makes an announcement, which is broadcast on radio and reported in the press at home and abroad. According to his report, 500 Jewish communists were shot dead in Iasi, after opening fire on German and Rumanian soldiers from their houses.

July 1, 1941

Colonel Constantin Lupu, Commander of the Garrison, appointed Military Commander of the town on the night following the massacre, issues a decree. He proclaims that, from now on, the inhabitants of houses, from which shots are fired at German or Rumanian soldiers, will be executed following a 'brief investigation'. This decree seemed wise, because the authorities knew that the snipers had been [165] Germans or Iron Guard members, who had wanted to provoke the massacre. However, by the time the decree was posted, the citizens had already been completely brainwashed, and even the children of Iasi believed that the shots had been fired from Jewish houses. Therefore, the decree was considered a reinforcement of the rumours, and the atmosphere became even more threatening. Naturally, the decree did not contain any threats against those who continued to kill Jews. These murders were now only isolated incidents, mostly affecting the suburbs. The number of victims was not as high any more because the frightened Jews were in hiding, and did not dare walk in the streets.

July 2, 1941

Another announcement from Ion Antonescu declared that 50 Jewish communists from among the those 'alien to the nation' would be shot dead for each German or Rumanian soldier killed.

July 2, 1941

The train under the command of Sub-Lieutenant Aurel Triandaf, which had departed from Targu Frumos the previous day, arrived in Mircesti at dawn. Here, 327 dead bodies were removed from the freight cars; they were buried on the edge of a village called Iugani. The doors of the carriages were left open only long enough to remove the bodies. No water was given to the people, who had gone [166] crazy from thirst. They drank urine and sucked the blood and pus out of one another's wounds. Those who jumped out of the carriages either to escape or drink from the puddles of rainwater were shot dead.

July 3, 1941

The train arrived at the next station, in Sabaoani, and then continued to Roman, where it was not allowed into the station because of the stench emanating from it. Under the order from General Headquarters, which was located in the town, the train was redirected to Sabaoani, where about 300 corpses were removed. A medical committee also arrived on the scene, and ordered that water be given to the people. Only then, on the fifth day of their suffering, were the evacuees allowed to drink some water. Some of them, completely dehydrated, collapsed as if struck by lightning as the water was lifted to their lips.

July 6, 1941

The train continued its journey. In Roman, a further 55 bodies were removed, and some of the evacuees were washed. Their rags, however, were burnt, so they had to continue almost completely naked. The train was freed of 10 bodies in Marasesti, 40 in Inotesti, and finally it arrived in Calarasi. Here, Sub-Lieutenant Aurel Triandaf was not able to hand over more than 1,011 living, 69 dying and 25 dead persons from the 2,430 who had been loaded onto the train [166] in Iasi, a figure which had decreased to 1,776 by the time he took over in Targu Frumos.

The survivors were accommodated in a warehouse in the yard of the barracks of the 23rd Infantry Regiment. Throughout the two months they spent in Calarasi, they lived in miserable conditions, despite being aided by the Union of Jewish Religious Communities, and the fact that the local authorities were relatively well-disposed towards them. Unsurprisingly, it was almost impossible to relieve their sufferings. They were in such a terrible state that of the 1,100 people there, 25 were buried on the first day, and from then on 6-7 died daily, and 95 had to be hospitalised; two thirds of them were completely naked and the rest were wearing nothing but their shirts.

August 1941

Iasi is calm again. Conditions in the town could almost be described as normal. Due to the urges or threats of the authorities, the Jewish women of Iasi had to take the place of the men, whose bodies were rotting in huge common graves, or who were suffering in internment camps in Podul Iloaei and Calarasi.

The town is flooded with organisations conducting investigations: the Ministry of the Interior, General Headquarters, the Special Information Service, etc. Each has sent a representative to investigate the causes and circumstances of the pogrom, and the terrible crimes committed. Not one, however, dared find anyone guilty.

General Emanoil Leoveanu, Senior Director of the [168] Siguaranta, sent by General Ion Antonescu himself, was only able to carry out superficial enquiries, because, about three hours after his arrival, the German military authorities asked him to leave town. However, his time spent there was enough for him to establish that no Jew had fired at the army, and that not one single German or Rumanian soldier had been wounded, the entire chaotic event had been nothing other than an orchestrated Iron Guard or fascist charade, organized for the purpose of exterminating Jews.

Despite the fact that, through these investigations, every leading personality became acquainted with the truth, nobody thought that the lethal poison, with which the soul of the masses had been impregnated, should be neutralised.

The contrary was to be the case. Hardly had the frenzied atmosphere begun to normalise than the new military commander of the town, General Dumitru Carlaont, issued an edict that all Jews were to wear signs to distinguish themselves from other citizens. This served to create fresh conditions for anxiety and suffering. As a result of the same edict, a number of Jews from Iasi were chased out of their homes, and forbidden to take anything with them, apart from their clothes.

The avalanche of measures against Jews began: the organisation of labour service, loan subscriptions, the expulsion of tenants and owners from their flats, deportation to Transnistria, etc.

These measures, however, were still not enough to satisfy some officials. New attempts were made at organized provocation; as in the case when 'provocative objects' were found in the synagogue in German Street, among the objects in question was a portrait of Stalin, which may have been planted there by the police.

[169] As frame-ups and acts of provocation showed no signs of success, officials turned to the central authorities with their ghastly proposals. Police Superintendent Lieutenant-Colonel Constantin Chirilovici - mistakenly considered conscientious and well-disposed by many Jews - expressed his satisfaction to the government with what the army had done on June 29, but expressed his regret that little had been achieved during the pogrom.