In
December of 2004, while in Bucharest, Romania, I was
privileged to be invited by Marcu Rozen, at his home, to
visit him. That initial visit followed, in quick
succession, by another two visits to him, as we quickly
became friends. He was extremely ill and frail, with a
severe stomach pain suffering from an advanced form of
Colitis that he contracted long time ago from the
food that he had to eat while imprisoned in Transnistria
when he was a little boy.
After the fall of Communism
in Romania on Christmas Day 1989, Marcu Rozen had been
embarked into a one-man crusade of letting his countrymen
know of the terrible things that the Jews had to endure
and suffer during the Holocaust years under the Antonescu
Government. He was sicken to the core to see in today's
free and democratic Romania, the efforts that were being
made to rehabilitate Marshal Antonescu --as a "national
hero" of Romania. As such, at any available occasion,
when health permitting, he countered and challenged those
"nationalistic" claims.
In 2003, the Government of
Romania stunned the world with its claim that in Romania,
within its territories, the Holocaust never even existed.
That preposterous claim advanced by Romania did not go
without being noticed and rebuked by the international
community. See, for instance, from the many rebukes, the
strong condemnation coming from Yad Vashem in:
Reversing course, due to the
growing international outrage, Romania subsequently
appointed a Presidential Commission chaired by Elie
Wiesel to make an official Report on the
Commission’s findings with respect to the Holocaust
in Romania and that Report can be accessed from a number
of websites including ours,
as well. Marcu Rozen's printed book that went through
three editions and titled "The Holocaust Under the
Antonescu Government" is being published in here from its
3rd English edition under the title "The Holocaust in
Romania Under the Antonescu Government."
(In this
Internet edition, additional photo-documents that were
given to me by Marcu Rozaen for publication were placed
at the bottom of page
1B, marked in
gray.) Thankfully,
Marcu Rozen's book was available to the stated
Presidential Commission that used the data provided there
for its Final Report. Now, with this online posting, that
data is being made available worldwide to a far greater
audience and, we are proud and honored to have this
publishing opportunity.
This little book posted now
online in here is extraordinary because the writer was
first and foremost an eyewitness to the events described
in there, and because, he was a Statistician and, as
such, he was extremely meticulous and careful with the
numbers used in the data presented. This rare combination
of the author's background and qualifications, makes this
book an important, first-hand, contribution to the study
and the documentation of the Holocaust in
Romania.
Marcu Rozen passed away on
January 26, 2005, only a few weeks after my last visiting
him. May his blessed memory and tireless pursuit in
letting the world know what has happened to the Romanian
Jews in Bessarabia (Basarabia), Bukovina (Bucovina),
Transnistria and elsewhere during the Antonescu regime
stay with us, in our conscience, and be transmitted --in
perpetuity-- to all future generation.
We cannot protect the future
if we are ignorant about the past.
Goodbye dear
friend.
I bow my head to you Marcu
Rozen, with all my humility and respect.
K. K. Brattman
Managing
Editor
Dated: February 16,
2006
.