The Chronological Order of Events October 8, 1941 - November 15, 1941

October 8, 1941

It was irrevocably decided that Jews from Bessarabia and Bucovina were to be deported; this had already been proposed in the first days of the war, as a means of "ethnic and political cleansing". Certain military organs had requested this as an action to be taken for the sake of the safety of the area directly behind the front line.

It was also definitely decided that Jewish deportees should be deprived of all their valuables.

This issue is not of great significance in Bessarabia any more, because more than half of the Jewish community was exterminated in the first two months of the war, and almost every survivor deported in September. There, only the remaining, approx. 10,000 Jews, who had been locked into the ghetto of Kishinev, were affected by these new measures. By this time all Jews in Northern-Bucovina had been either massacred or deported, except for the approx. 2,000 in Storojinet, and the 40-45,000 who had survived the massacres in Chernovitz.

[280] In Southern-Bucovina a great number of Jews were murdered in the summer of 1940 and in July, 1941. Some of the Jews were evacuated from here in the first few days of the war, but were later brought back. However, no one was taken across the frontier. (...) According to the figures of the last official national census, the local Jewish community amounted to 23,844 people.

October 9, 1941

In Southern-Bucovina the deportation of Jews starts simultaneously in every village.

At dawn it is made known to the public by spoken order, by town-criers and by the posting of notices that all Jews must leave the place in the shortest time possible (in Suceava within 8 hours, and in Itcani within 4), and everyone is allowed to bring with them as much as they can carry.

October 10, 1941

Measures are ordered to be taken for the organisation of the ghetto in Chernovitz, and for the deportation of all Jews from the area of Northern-Bucovina.

Firstly, on October 11, the entire Jewish community of Chernovitz is ghettoised.

From the ghetto they are gradually transported to the first indicated stations (two trains of fifty boxcars depart daily).

[281] From this day forth, all Jewish property becomes of the property of the state.

The task of collecting all the Jews, guarding the ghetto, loading them onto the train and guarding it, is the responsibility of the Military Headquarters of Bucovina, and the Gendarme Inspectorate of Chernovitz. Their number has been increased by a battalion directed there to help in the execution of these tasks.

October 11, 1941

The Jews of Chernovitz are ghettoised with special care.

It is impossible to imagine a picture more heartbreaking than that of Chernovitz on that day. During an eight hour period, approx. 50,000 people of varying ages, of different social and intellectual strata, who had lived scattered in the town, are now moving silently in one direction, leaving their homes, carrying on their backs and in their hands or pulling in barrows all that remains of the property of an entire generation (or in many cases several generations) had gathered.

The ghetto was so small that people could live there only among the worst conditions. The luckiest settled down in houses, 30-40 per room. Those who arrived later found shelter for themselves in attics, cellars or stables. The last to arrive could not get more than the gutters in the yards and streets.

[282] Movement was not restricted within the ghetto, but once a Jew entered it, he needed special permission from the Governor of Bucovina to walk out. It was very difficult to get such permission, for example, to take out corpses and bury them in the Jewish cemetery which was not in the vicinity of the ghetto.

October 11, 1941

The President of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities turned to Marshal Antonescu with his second request, asking him not to allow this mortal tragedy to happen, whose participants are made to start a long journey naked, without food and without the chance of acquiring it, in rain, cold and snow.

October 12, 1941

One train carrying Jews from Southern-Bucovina is stopped on free track 50 kilometres from Radauti. The Gendarmes order those in charge of the freight-cars chosen from among Jews to tell everybody that they must hand over all the gold and other valuables, as well as the keys to their abandoned homes. It is announced that they will be thoroughly searched in Marculesti, and those who hiding anything, will be shot dead. An entire suitcase of gold and jewellery is collected.

[283]

October 19, 1941

Marshal Antonescu, the Leader of the State, replies in a letter to Dr. W. Filderman, President of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities for the two petitions he submitted on the issue of deportation campaigns from Bessarabia and Bucovina.

The letter is obviously of political character. The deportation is presented as a deserved action for all that the citizens had committed there in 1940, during the withdrawal of the Rumanian army, and under Soviet rule. He attempts to justify the measures with the atrocities committed by Soviet-Jewish commissars at the front.

The letter, dated October 19, and received on October 20, also appeared in the newspapers on October 27, 1941, serving as an excuse for an organised ghastly and base press campaign. War-time anti-Semitic hatred reached its psychological peak at this time. The publication of the letter and the press campaign took place after the terrible explosion in Odessa, when a great number of Rumanian high-ranking officers were killed due to carelessness.

Not a single line was written about the explosion. Still, it became known through the public and rumours started to be whispered. The Marshal's letter and the anti-Semitic campaign were used to deceive the public.

[284]

October 27, 1941

The marching column of Jews collected from the surroundings of Chernovitz arrives in the forest of Cosauti, where they discover hundreds of Jewish corpses lying on the ground everywhere. The Gendarmes are robbing their victims with increasingly more barbaric means. On the road from Marculesti towards the Dniester, several Jews are taken out of the marching columns, and sold to peasants. The price is between 1,500-2,000 lei depending on the quality of the victim's clothing. After the Gendarme received the money, he shot the Jew, and gave the corpse to the peasant so that he could pull the clothes off it. After marching for two days the columns crossed the Dniester near Iampol on a narrow bridge while being beaten with clubs and rifle butts. Those who lost their balance, fell into the water; they were left to drown.

November 10, 1941

The first marching columns organised from deportees from Dorohoi arrive in Atachi; approx. 3,000 people. Before being driven across the Dniester, they are held back for 24 hours in the cold and rain, and guarded by frontier guards. Other soldiers search them, depriving these poor people of their last valuables.

[285]

November 15, 1941

The deportation of Jews from Chernovitz ended. By this time approx. 30,000 Jews had been deported from the town, and the 15,600 who remained had received permission to do so from the selection committee, as had the 4,000 who were given temporary exemption permits by the Town Mayor.

December 6, 1941

Ion Antonescu is not satisfied with the activity of the President of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities, since due to this, he had to cancel the deportation of 20,000 Jews from Chernovitz. He decides to remove him from as head of the Jewish Religious Community, and disbands all Jewish community organisations. In their place, he sets up the Jewish Central Office, based on the German model created in the countries they occupied.

December, 1941

The last marching columns of Jews from Bucovina and Dorohoi county cross the Dniester near Atachi. The first period of the deportation of Rumanian Jews has ended.

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