VIII.
Conclusions
In the period of the Second
World War, for the Jews living in territories under
Antonescu's Government, two different zones could be
distinguished:
Zone 1: The Old Kingdom and
Southern Transylvania, territory known under the
name, "survival zone", where the Jews underwent
particularly harsh and inhuman persecutions, but here the
Antonescu Government didn't apply a generalized
deportation and extermination plan.
It still has to be remembered
that in this area took place the anti-Jewish pogrom from
Bucharest, started by the legionaries in January 1941
(130 dead), the pogrom and the death trains in Iasi,
summer 1941 (about 8,000 dead), the deportation of about
4,000 Jews to Transnistria, the enrolling of tens of
thousands of Jews in forced labor detachments, and the
enforcement of a big number of anti-Semitic laws and
measures that brought the Jewish population to despair
and uncertainty concerning their odds of
survival.
The main danger of death, which
threatened the Jews from this zone, was the possibility
to be deported to the German extermination camps in
Poland.
In their plans of liquidation of
the Jews from Europe, the German authorities made great
pressures on the Romanian government, even establishing
the time-table, itinerary and destination station in
Poland of the trains, as well as the number of Jews from
Romania, who were to be transported on every second day,
with these trains.
In order to avoid the danger of
mass deportation, to attenuate the racial persecution,
and to organize the action of aid for the deportees to
Transnistria, a secret council was constituted in
Bucharest, under the leadership of Dr. Alexandru Safran
--Chief Rabbi of Romania; W. Filderman, M. Benvenisti, F.
Froimescu, A. Schwefelberg and other Jewish
leaders.
This council, met periodically,
establishing the measures, which had to be taken to
counteract, directly but especially through Romanian
personalities, the actions which the government intended
to take.1)
The interventions at the
Government or even personally at Marshal Antonescu, of
some personalities, like the Queen-mother Elena, the
Metropolitan of Sibiu, Nicolae Balan, Iuliu Maniu, Ion
Mihalache, Dr Nicolae Lupu and Ghita Pop, leaders of the
National Peasant Party, Constantin I. C. Bratianu, leader
of the National Liberal Party, the Patriarch Nicodim,
Andrea Cassulo, the Nuncio of the Pope in Bucharest,
Traian Popovici, the Mayor of Cernowitz and others,
contributed in great measure to stop the deportations and
reduce the racial persecutions.
In saving the lives of the
Romanian Jews, an important role had Dr. Filderman, who
as former President of the Federation of the Union of the
Jewish Communities in Romania, and as well known
political character, fought with bravery and intelligence
against the leaders of the Antonescu regime, obtaining
some positive results.
In the summer of 1942, Filderman
gave to Iuliu Maniu a detailed memorial including the
main ideas against the deportation, from the Romanian
national point of view, and not as a favor that should be
done to the Jews.2)
Maniu and Antonescu met on 11th
September 1942. On this occasion, Maniu presented to
Antonescu the "arguments" for canceling the deportation
plan, which, of course, influenced to a certain extent
the marshal.
The failure of the "Blitz
Krieg" contemplated by Hitler, and subsequently the
defeat at Stalingrad, had certainly the decisive role
which determined Marshal Antonescu, to refuse
categorically Germany's request to deport, into the Nazi
extermination camps, from Poland, the Jews from the Old
Kingdom and Southern Transylvania.
After the defeat at Stalingrad,
as a matter of fact, in the attitude of the Antonescu
government against the Jews marked a change, in the sense
that the intensity of the persecutions was reduced,
contemplating even the bringing home of some categories
of Jews deported to Transnistria.
Consequently in this zone over
300,000 Jews survived, extremely important facts, if we
take into account, that with the exception of Bulgaria,
in all neighboring states, the "final solution"
contemplated by the Nazi government, was totally applied.
This zone was also the place,
where some Jews fled from Northern Transylvania, saving
their life. From here an important number of Jews could
immigrate to Israel.
The extermination rate in this
zone was only 3,5%.
Zone 2. Romania's North-East
territories, respectively Dorohoi district, Bucovina
(South and North), Basarabia and
Transnistria.
In this zone, named by some
authors, the "death zone", the Antonescu Government
applied a deliberate and generalized plan of mass
deportation and extermination of the Jews.
The Antonescu Government
motivated that they want to punish the Jews from
Basarabia, Northern Bucovina and Hertza, for the
"inadequate behavior" of some Jews during the retreat of
the Romanian troupes, as well as during the Soviet
occupation.
In fact, the truth is that
Antonescu applied a deliberate policy of extermination
and collective punishment.
The deportation of the Jews
to Transnistria was extended also to the Jews from
Southern Bucovina and Dorohoi district, which had never
been under Soviet occupation.
The real cause of the
deportations and exterminations was the ethnic
purification, namely the elimination of the Jewish
element from these territories, and any other
justification is a pure aberration.
Consequently, in this zone,
the extermination rate of the Jews attained 63,2% for the
Romanian Jews from Basarabia, Bucovina and Dorohoi
district, and 85,2% for the native Ukrainian Jews from
Transnistria.
Expressed in absolute
figures, there is over a quarter of million of
exterminated Jews.
In this area took place, with
priority, the Holocaust of the Antonescu's
Government.
Some commentators present nearly
exclusively, the situation of the Jews from the "survival
zone" and try deliberately to avoid and to forget, what
happened in the "death zone". The Antonescu government
and the Romanian authorities from those times are
presented as saviors, and even the rehabilitation of some
war criminals, for crimes and genocide, is
requested.
There isn't any country, where
the legislation makes provision for the prescription of
crimes against humanity.
Therefore the fact that some
researchers from Romania try to justify the crimes
committed, especially in Basarabia, Bucovina and
Transnistria, is very grave.
1)
See, Alexandru Safran (in Romanian): "Un taciune
smuls flacarilor",
pp. 96-107, Hasefer Publishing House, 1996.
2)
See, Jean Ancel: "Contributions to the History of
Romania"
Vol. 2, Part II, pp. 242-248, Hasefer Publishing House,
2003.