2. Deportation of the Jews
from Southern Bucovina
During the deportation of the
Jews from Basarabia, North-Bucovina and Hertza, the
Antonescu authorities took on October 9, 1941, the
decision to start also the deportation of the Jews from
Southern Bucovina (the former districts Suceava,
Câmpulung and Radauti).
It has to be mentioned that the
population from these districts had never been under
Russian or Soviet occupation.
The deportation began in
Suceava. In the dispositions of the mayor of the Suceava,
it is shown that the Jewish population from the communes
Itcani and Burdujeni, as well as from the city Suceava
(from the first group) "has to be present on the 9th
of October 1941 at 16 o'clock, at the military platform
of Burdujeni railway station. Every Jewish inhabitant
could take with him warm clothes and footwear, as well as
food for as many as possible days, but not more than each
one can carry."
In the disposition it is also
shown, that each head of family has to draw up an
inventory with the goods left in the city
Suceava.
The key of the dwelling and the
inventory had to be introduced in an envelope and handed
over to a committee at the railway station
Burdujeni.
As Dr. Meier Teich, president of
the Jewish community from Suceava says, the deportees
were put in unclean and very crowded cattle
wagons.
According to the order of
colonel Zamfirescu, the old and sick people, incapable to
be moved, covered with bed sheets, without any luggage,
were also transported to the station.
Dr. Bona, senior doctor, threw
out from the hospital all sick Jews, even those in grave
condition. For instance, Isac Mayer with an amputated
leg, died one hour after the train departed, and Dr.
Bernard Wagner (Dr. Bona's colleague), 70 years old, very
ill, died when he arrived in Moghilev.
On the 10th of October, a second
convoy left from Suceava and Gura Humorului, and the
deportation continued until the 13th of October, when the
last trains with deportees from the districts Radauti and
Câmpulung were directed to Transnistria.
After several days of traveling,
each train with deportees arrived in the locality Atachi,
on the bank of the river Dnestr, where chaos and
desperation reigned.
Here most of the Jews were
plundered and deprived of their last belongings by those
who were charged to pass them over the Dnestr.
The witness, engineer
Friedrich Antschel, actually living in Bucharest,
describes his and his family's deportation from
Suceava.
"On the 9th of
October 1941, by beating the drums, the Jewish
population from Suceava was informed about the order
of evacuation and deportation.
I was deported on the 11th
of October 1941 together with my family-father, mother
and sister, respectively, with the third transport. We
were put into dirty cattle wagons, crowded at
maximum.
Among the deportees was
also brought Isac Tenenhaus, who was ill, having
typhoid fever and he died immediately after arriving
in Moghilev.
We arrived at Atachi on
the 13th of October, where thousands of persons were
starving and without shelter. On the same day a convoy
passed, coming from Edinet (Basarabia), with people
barefoot, starved and beaten. After a scrupulous
search done by the gendarmes, all the valuables were
robbed, and our group well escorted and well guarded,
crossed the Dnestr by rafts."
In order to relate the situation
as correct as possible, we reproduce here an extract from
Mr. Isidor Pressner's letter, president of the
Jewish community from Radauti, written the 22nd of
October 1941, to Dr. Filderman, president of the
Federation of Jewish Communities from Romania:
"You are probably
aware of the fact that we all have been evacuated and
brought here, to be passed over the Dnestr, and sent
somewhere into the Ukraine, without any aim and
destination.
Most of those who cross
the Dnestr remain without shelter; sleep in the open
air, in rain, mud and cold. A small part is still here
in Atachi. Already, hundreds of persons died here,
many are dying and others committed
suicide.
Only one thing is sure. If
we are not saved immediately, none of these
unfortunates will survive. According to our opinion,
about 25.000 souls are in question, from which one
part is on their way to the Ukraine, one part is still
here in Atachi."
From the existing statistical
data, it results that from the Southern Bucovina about
23.800 Jews were deported. Only 179 Jews, considered as
indispensable for the region's economy remained.
1)
1)
See, Table
No. 5, p. 23