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Marcu
The Holocaust in Romania Under the Antonescu Government

by Marcu Rozen
Page 24 of 25
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Historical and Statistical Data About Jews in Romania, 1940 --1944
The General Demographic Balance of the Jewish Population
From the Former Greater Romania and Transnistria During the World War Two
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The General Demographic Balance of the Jewish Population
From the Former Greater Romania and Transnistria

A. Total of the Romanian Jews From the Former Greater Romania in 1940

Of Which:

800,000

1. Romanian Jews That Remained Alive in 1945

410,000

2. Romanian Jews Murdered Under the Horthyst Government
in the Northern Transylvania

135,000

3. Romanian Jews, From Bassarabia and Northern Bucovina, Taken Away, Killed, and Disappeared Before the Arrival of the Romanian Troops

100,000

4. Romanian Jews Murdered Under Antonescu Government
(800,000 minus 645,000)

155,000

B. Local Ukrainian Jews From Transnistria Taken Over by the Antonescu Authorities

Of Which:

135,000

1. The Ones Left Alive

20,000

2 Those Murdered under the Antonescu Government

115,000

C. The Total Number of Murdered Jews Under the Antonescu Government

Of Which:

270,000

1. Romanian Jews (point A4, hereinabove)

155,000

2. Local Ukrainian Jews (point B2, hereinabove)

115,000

  

Specifications Regarding the Methodological Content
Used for the Statistical Indicators Presented in the Table Above

 I. Regarding The Romanian Jews From the Former Greater Romania

 A. The number of 800,000 persons, including Romanian Jews (from the former Greater Romania) in the year 1940, was established from the 1930 census (756,930), to which was added the 43,000 persons representing the natural growth and the emigrants from the neighboring countries invaded by the German army during the 1930-1940 period. In the official Census Report of the Central Statistics Institute signed by the well known statistician Anton Golopentia, it is shown that the number of Jews from Romania, during the 1930-1940 period, did not exceed 50,000. (General Census of Romania from 1941, pp. 241-253)

1. The 410,000 figure of surviving Jews from the former Greater Romania includes 51,000 Bassarabian and Bucovinian survivors in Transnistria (as registered by the General Police Department on September 1, 1943) plus 16,000 not deported Jews from that area, 6000 surviving Jews and 2000 not deported from the Dorohoi district, 310,000 Jews from the Old Kingdom and from Southern Transylvania, as well as 25,000 survivors from Northern Transylvania. 

This number is confirmed by the recording made by the World Jewish Congress in 1947, which establishes a number of 428,312 ( Jews that were living in that year in Romania.*) This number is also confirmed by the number of Jews who emigrated from Romania and from Moldavia Republic (about 350,000 in Israel and about 70,000 in the West democratic states) at which there are also added about 20,000 left alive Jews in these two states, at the end of 2,000.


*) World Jewish Congress -- The Romanian section "Jewish establishments in Romania"
-- Statistic Memento -- Bucharest 1947, p.30.

2. The number of 135,000 missing Jews under the Horthyst Government in the Northern Transylvania (deported in the mass extermination camps in Poland and Germany) was established by the scientists who studied this problem (F.C.E.R. archive &endash; The Northern Transylvania portfolio).

3. The 100,000 Romanian Jews from Bassarabia, Northern Bucovina and the Herta region -- taken away, murdered and missing before the arrival of the Romanian troops contains:

• Jews deported by the Soviet authorities in Siberia;

• Jews enrolled in the Soviet army;

• Jews who were voluntarily or under compulsion retired by the Soviet authorities (many of them run down by the German troops, were killed in the bombardments or on the battle field or were shot by the special "cleaning troops");

• Jewish refugees from Bassarabia to Odessa who died during the long siege of this town;

• Jews killed in the bombardments from Kishinev and other towns.

All these categories of Jews had never entered under Antonescu's jurisdiction, so they could not be registered as exterminated under the Romanian authority.

This figure was established on some estimations of well-known scientists.

Thus, Raul Hilberg in his known work "The Jews' extermination in Europe", volume 1, page 676, shows that, the number of deported or evacuated Jews from Northern Bucovina and Bassarabia in the last weeks of the Soviet occupation, is over 100,000.

Radu Ioanid, in his work "Jews Under the Antonescu Regime," p. 398 shows: "according to different evaluations, almost 100,000 Jews from Bassarabia and Bucovina were taken away by the Russian authorities or were deported by them."

A report of OSS considers that "100,000 to 130,000 Jews ran from the danger represented by the troops that entered in Bassarabia and Bucovina" (American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, JAFFIS OSS).

Dr. Sabin Manuila and Dr. Filderman, in a study from 1957, also indicates a number of about 100,000 Jews from Bassarabia and Northern Bucovina retired under compulsion or voluntarily with the Russian authorities. Many other documents give a close figure regarding the large number of Jews from Bassarabia and Northern Bucovina deported or withdrawn with the Soviet authorities before the arrival of the Romanian troops.

Only in Kishinev, that had before the war about 50,000 Jews, about 40,000 of them disappeared before the arrival of Romanian troops. From Cernowitz, about 10,000 Jews were deported in Siberia (Jean Ancel, "Contributions at the history of Romania," volume I, part II, page 230) and such examples are numerous. This make us draw the conclusion that the figure of about 100.000 retired, killed or missing Jews before the arrival of Romanian troops, can be taken into consideration.

4. The 155,000 Romanian Jews exterminated under Antonescu Government comes as the difference between the total number of Jews in the former GreaterRomania from 1940 and those left alive (410,000), plus the ones exterminated under the Horthyst authority (135,000) and the 100,000 taken away by the Soviet authorities (800,000 minus 645,000).

It must be underlined the fact that the number of 155,000 Romanian Jews exterminated under the Antonescu Government determined through demographic balance corresponds with the number resulted from the direct method, which confirms the accuracy of this figure.

 

II. Regarding The Ukrainian Jews From Transnistria

1. The TOTAL Number (from a+b+c, below) of Ukrainian Jews Under the Control of the Romanian Authorities

Of Which:

135,000   

a) killed in the reprisals in Odessa

20,000   

b)deported in the camps and ghettoes from Golta and Berezovka districts

100,000 

*

c) left in the Northern and Westhern Transnistria

15, 000   

2.Alive at the end of the war

20,000   

3. Exterminated (135,000 minus 20,000)

115,000   

* Including about 30.000 Jews from Odessa deported in January &endash; February 1942,
as well as those shot or who died on the way.

The number of Jews killed in the reprisals in Odessa was of about 25.000, from which about 20.000 local Ukrainian Jews and about 5,000 refugees Bassarabian Jews.

In the ghettoes and camps of Golta and Berezovka districts, there were deported, by the Romanian authorities, from other districts, about 150,000 Jews from which 100,000 were local Ukrainian Jews and approximately 50,000 Bassarabian and Bucovinian Jews.

The local Ukrainian Jews left under the Romanian authority, in the north and west of Transnistria (15,000 Jews) are mentioned by M. Carp in "The Black Book" &endash; volume 3, page 207 &endash; Diogene Publishing House 1996.

The rest of about 165,000 Ukrainian Jews, up to the limit of 300.000 Jews in Transnistria before the war, withdrawn with the Russian authorities (including the ones enrolled in the Red Army), disappeared in the long siege over Odessa or were killed by the special "field cleaning" German troops (Einsatzgruppe D) and in bombardments, before the coming of the Romanian authority.

Thus, it results that, the total number of Jews exterminated under Antonescu Government, established through the direct method and the demographic statistic balance, is approximately 270,000 victims from which 155,000 Romanian Jews and about 115,000 local Ukrainian Jews.

We have to admit that nobody counted the victims and nobody can exactly specify their number.

But we can affirm with certitude that in the territories under Antonescu Government over a quarter of million of people were exterminated for the only guilt of being born Jews.

 

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