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71 C h a p t e r 6 War and the Mass Execution at Stânca Rosnovanu Max Gaer, a trade-school graduate and active Zionist, born in Iaşi in 1911, recalled the spring of 1941 as a time of growing tensions in the Jewish community . Engineer Moşe Herşcovici recalled that in the months before the war “we were soon afraid to go out on the streets, especially after the retreat of troops from Bessarabia, and even more after the abdication of Carol II and the ceding of a large part of Transylvania.”1 Provisions grew scarce; eventually , only the black market had the most essential things. Street predators taunted, robbed, and beat Jews. Soldiers and military equipment began moving into the city and its environs to make ready for the invasion of the Soviet Union. “Night after night we heard the clatter of tracks on the cobblestone streets,” recalled Gaer, and then “suddenly German regiments began coming in.”2 Max Volovici was thirteen at the time. What stands out in his memory, besides the appearance of German troops, was a disappointment at his school’s awards-granting ceremony: “I knew I was first in the class and waited for my reward. But instead of the school principal giving out awards another person led the ceremony and awards were given only to Christians. They didn’t give me my prize! After this, someone . . . came and began talking about the war situation and there was great silence in the room and he said, `the holy war has begun!’ It was like electricity. Some Jewish students started to leave. I was with mother and we left together because the atmosphere became threatening.”3 The danger was real. Legal persecutions, which stripped Jews of employment , money, and property, did not end as the war drew near but were eclipsed by a greater threat, anticipated in the government’s campaign vilify- 72 C H A P T E R 6 ing Jews as dangerous aliens, communists, and allies of the Soviet Union. Accusations of treasonous behavior and warnings of vengeful remedies began appearing in official reports, speeches, and orders. Addressing his cabinet of ministers on April 4, 1941, General Antonescu said he had instructed Interior Minister General Popescu to summon all Jewish leaders in order to remind them how he had saved their lives in January and to warn them that if they attempted to sabotage the economy of Romania, there would be violence in the streets and, he said, “I will leave them unprotected . . . and let them be massacred.”4 The January event he spoke of was the Legion uprising in Bucharest of January 21–23, 1941 when he held his troops back, allowing legionnaires two days to pillage and murder Jews before he crushed the rebellion. In a report of June 7, 1941, the propaganda ministry, summarizing the activity of its secret service the previous April and May, identified Jews and communists as the main (practically the only) internal enemies of the state. All areas the mission investigated were described as being “infested with Communist propaganda.” Although Iaşi was not the only target of the investigation , the ministry gave it special attention, sending twenty-two agents there. It was the largest city in the northeast, had the largest Jewish population in the region, was minutes away from the Soviet border, and, according to the ministry, was a hotbed of subversive activity. The report claimed that “the most active Communist agents are Jews who exercise a strong influence over all local authorities,” and “Jewish coffee houses are the focus of Communist activity.”5 The first Jewish community the Antonescu dictatorship victimized in a mass action occurred at Dorohoi. Like Iaşi, Dorohoi had a relatively large Jewish population and was located in northeastern Romania near the Soviet border. Since the pogrom of July 1, 1940, that took the lives of more than fifty members of its community, Dorohoi Jews had kept to themselves and off the streets as much as they could, fearful of more violence. Dr. BrăilescuGotlieb described his feeling of “being hunted” in the months after the massacre. His fears were realized on the night of May 28–29, 1941, when 150 “suspicious Jews” were arrested and interrogated. Next day, with small packets of food and clothes, the prisoners were loaded into cattle or freight cars and sent off to the main camp for political prisoners at Tîrgu Jiu in...

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