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The Jewish Ghetto
Czernowitz, Ukraine
(then Cernauti, Romania)


   
           

Diary pages from Czernowitz and Transnistrien
By Dr. Nathan Getzler , Montreal (Canada)
Translated by Jerome Silverbush

October 11, 1941

For two days now the rumor has gone from mouth to mouth and faces freeze with terror: the Jews of South Bukovina have been evacuated. The Jewish population of the cities Suceava, Radauti, Kimpolung and Dorna-Watra and also the Jews from other places are on their way to the camps of Transnistrien. A biting east wind blows hurricane like through the streets of the city and brings the first unwanted greetings from the Sarmatischen lowlands where our fate is being prepared.

We are bewildered and quickly begin to gather food for the long trip. The night from October 10 to 11, 1941 passes in worry. In the morning we are woken by thunderous noise. We hear soon that the evacuation of the Jews of Czernowitz has been decided. This decision has been brought in the night from Bucharest and the local civil and military authorities have conferred the whole night on how to carry out this evacuation.

 



Portrait of the Weidenfeld family wearing Jewish badges in the Czernowitz (Cernauti) ghetto shortly before their deportation to Transnistria, Oct. 1941.
Credit: USHMM, courtesy of Jack Morgenstern.

 

No signs are posted or written instructions distributed in order to increase the confusion and uncertainty. Also, it appears that they don't want to commit anything to writing.

We are notified orally that all Jews of Czernowitz must report to the ghetto set up for them by 6 o'clock in the evening and that anyone found in his home after 6 o'clock will be shot. The Jews are only permitted to take as many of their possessions are they can carry in their hands. Any possessions that remain belong to the state. It is also ordered that Christians are forbidden to accept any objects of value from the Jews.

Before 7 in the morning, the entire Jewish population is on the move. With clenched teeth, looking neither left or right, tens of thousands of Jews carry and pull their meager belongings to the area set aside for them as a ghetto. It encompasses a part of Wolangasse, Str. Olteniei, Neueweltgasse, Pitzelligasse, the entire Russische Gasse from number 46 up, the Morariugasse, Nikolausgasse, Landhausgasse to the corner of Tuerkengasse, Schulgasse to the Krankenkasse, Hormuzakigasse, Mehlplatz, Eminescugasse, Steingasse and the upper part of Dreifaltigkeitgasse and also the area inside the border of the city adjacent to the streets named.

The movement of the Jews into the ghetto is completed quietly, without interruption by 6 in the evening without moaning or complaining despite provocations by the onlookers. One quickly throws what ever one can grab into suitcases, baskets and crates and carries it to acquaintances that moved into the ghetto earlier. Small rooms, hardly sufficient for a family now hold up to 20 people. Since the water pipes for the streets mentioned have already been cut off, it is not possible to flush toilets. Going to the bathroom becomes a difficult problem. For the 50,000 unlucky people who inhabit the ghetto, the shutting off of the water brings the threat of disease. In spite of this the will to survive remains strong.

Romanians come into the ghetto behind the mask of friendship offering to safe keep valuable objects. In reality, they intend to keep these objects for themselves. For small outlays, they make millions.

The ruble which at the entrance of the Romanian army was exchanged at the rate of 1:1 now that it supposedly is good in Transnistrien is exchanged at the rate of 1 ruble = 40 lei.

A deceitful swindle was carried out by the National Bank. Gold, silver and other valuables had to be brought there. The officials of the bank arbitrarily estimated the value of the items. Dr. Blaukopf received the ridiculously low price of 15,000 lei for 35 kg. of silver.

In the ghetto, the anguished Jews tried to get the possessions they had brought along ready for the long journey.

A 8 year old child named Schwitz fell under the wheels of a wagon and died before rescue could come.

The mob streamed out of the suburbs and broke into and plundered the deserted homes.

In the ghetto itself, people are constantly stopped by the patrols and harassed.

Overall on the streets and in front of the houses lie mountains of luggage. In the houses, places to sleep are set up on tables, sewing machines and crates and cooking facilities are improvised.

Bitter cold sets in. Many who have fur hats and warm shoes are robbed of their clothing in broad daylight by the Romanian soldiers.

Mass Imprisonment

A three meter high wooden fence and barbed wire surround the ghetto. Only at two places is one permitted to leave and enter the ghetto with special permission from the ghetto commandants, all Christians, who live in the ghetto reservation. Jews like the X-ray engineer Margulies, who are urgently needed in the city are only permitted to leave the ghetto escorted by gendarmes carrying rifles with fixed bayonets.

A 6 year old girl whose parents were murdered in Rostoki and who was brought to the city by sympathetic farmers was taken in by us.

On all faces, you see the fearful question: What now?

Up to 10 suicides occur daily. Many suicides are delivered to the hospital unconscious.

The gendarmerie headquarters is located in the house at Russische Gasse 46. Major Jacobesen and several officers are in charge. At the street corners, especially at the corner of General-Averescu and Springbrunnen Gasse, where the path leads over the open plaza to the synagogue, a sergeant stands. Athletically built, he stands like a general as the lines of wagons drive by him. In one hand he holds a whip which he uses to brutally beat everyone who passes by. He pulls the luggage from the wagons and spares neither old people nor children.

The commandant of the ghetto, Major Nicolai Jacobescu controls everything from the sidecar of a motorcycle, but does nothing to stop the cruelness. Several villainous Jews like Camillo Harth and Weiser, among others promise the unfortunate victims, authorizations to remain in the city upon payment of gold, silver or other valuables, naturally with no intention of fulfilling their promises. Using the same scam, a former Tax Office controller called Alexexcu reaped valuables worth approximately 50 million lei. Out of fear of the repercussions, the victims made no attempt to report the swindle.

October 14 and 15, 1941

The residents of Franxos, Dreifaltigkeits and Fraanzengasse in the ghetto are driven like cattle to the railroad station. Farmers smelling a rich harvest brought their little wagons and take 3000 lei per trip to the railroad station. On these wagons ride old people, children and the infirm in endless lines, without tears and powerless through the Synagogue, Kaliczanka and Weidengasse to the freight train station. A woman named Tamler, three days after giving birth and with a high fever, carrying the infant, died on the way. An especially terrible scene could be observed at the corner of Dreifaltigkeit and Albertinegasse. The last members of the Bojan rabbinical dynasty came out of their houses to face death in their best clothing carrying the Torah scrolls in their arms. The onlookers, both Jewish and Christian watch this drama. There is sobbing and sighing. Shaken, we are observers of a tragedy that will be ours tomorrow. Rough soldiers drive the onlookers away and already the long rows of wagons have swallowed everything.

October 16, 1941: evening

Approximately 6000 people have already been sent to their deaths. Then the good, friendly mayor Traian Popovici brings the news in the Jewish hospital that he was successful in obtaining a temporary delay in the deportations in order to separate out the Jews necessary for commerce of the city.

This news spreads like wild fire and brings a measure of release to the tense masses of people. A tremendous crowd is gathered before the hospital. Wild rumors circulate uncontrollably.

October 17, 1941

Various lists are made up for presentation to the authorities, classifying the Jews by their professions. Representatives of the various professions like bureaucrats, retirees, reserve officers, industrialists, hand workers, engineers, doctors, lawyers, etc. came to the school on Landhausgasse to request authorization to remain in the city.

Middle men emerged who promised authorizations for the payment of large sums of money. The authorizations issued were not given to the applicant, but held back in order to extort more money. Here also, Camillo Harth played a leading roll. For example, two doctors received their authorizations only after paying 200,000 lei. The authorizations for the patients of the insane asylum were badly misused. They were issued under different names to the highest bidders (in dollars or gold coins).

Many months later a commission came from Bucharest to look into this extortion. General Ionescu and Major Jacobescu were investigated and naturally not found guilty of any transgressions.

Terrible news came back from the first transports. Already at the Dniester River the documents of the unfortunate ones were torn up so they went into exile as nameless people. There many died from hunger and the cold as well as from diseases like typhus. Their luggage which had already been examined at the Czernowitz railroad station where a good part was confiscated, was controlled a second time with further losses at the banks of the Dniester.

In the meanwhile, 15,000 authorizations were given out in Czernowitz. A part of the authorizations given out by General Calotescu were torn up by General Ionescu, since as he explained, “too many Jews would remain in the city.”

The deportations started up again, street by street driven by blows of the club and lashes of the whip. Panic, confusion, misery and fear of death accompanied the next transport.

The first snow fell.

November 1 and 2, 1941: The review

An ordinance appeared according to which, the entire Jewish population of the city had to undergo a review to determine if they could remain in Czernowitz or if they had to leave the city (that is, be deported).

The reviews took place in a large meeting room in city hall. There were many tables and the Jews had to go to the table for the first letter of their name. The reviews were conducted by non-commissioned officers who often couldn't even read the names so that disastrous mix-ups took place which led to the deportation of innocent people. In many cases, the Jews were sent to the notorious Inspector Cojocariu the adjacent room who simply tore up their exemption and had them deported. His helpers, Nedelcu and Luczin let no one pass without paying tribute.

Often, a person wouldn't finish the review in one day and had to come a second time, suffering the fear of death in the interval. In the room itself, Jews were beaten with clubs. So an elderly Czernowitz doctor, a captain in the reserve collapsed streaming with blood.

As on the final day, I was carrying the last three rugs I owned through the Russische Gasse to my office, Commandant Jacobescu standing by his window called me and my wife into his office, took the rugs and called me a thief. Since I dared to contradict him, he coarsely reviled us. We only got out because of intervention by a colleague. Jacobescu later called us in, threw me 5000 lei for the rugs and hit me in the ribs. We were happy that we were not deported to Transnistrien because of the rugs.

The ghost city

They stand dark and lonesome, the deserted houses of Czernowitz. Entire streets are devoid of humanity. That is especially true for Franzos and Drefaltikeit Gasse whose inhabitants had almost entirely been driven into mass graves. Thieves scavenge through the dwellings, plunderers enter through broken windows and doors even though all the entrances had been sealed and stamped with the notice “Averea Statului” (Property of the State) by city officials during the ghetto period. A robber band from Kaliczankagasse, led by a certain Laschkowski is especially bad. In the empty dwellings, cats and dogs cry for their masters. The dried out leaves of thirsty plants, philodendrons, cactuses and azaleas, hang mournfully.

The deportations still haven't come to an end. The stragglers who had no luck in the review are loaded into the last wagons.

Snow falls in great flakes. Many who have fled from one street to the next finally meet their fate. All these last transports are directed through Marculesti to Transnistrien. A large number of these unfortunate ones are massacred in Marculesti.

The house “superintendants” and their wives sell stolen Jewish goods in the streets adjacent to the Jewish Hospital looked upon by the police with good natured tolerance. The purchasers are the thousands of farmers who had come from near and far to Czernowitz to profit from the city's “bargain week,”

Because of the constant stress the Jews who remain in Czernowitz are subject to, one can see in them a condition of hysteria and nervousness.

The mortality among the Jews is very high. There are also many suicides including Gruenfeld and his wife (both medical doctors), Professor Drimmer and his wife, Miss Singer, Dr. Med. Mrs. Seidman, Prof. Amalie Spire among others.

The incapable and unloved leader of the Jewish community stepped down to make room for another, just as incompetent. Perhaps this leadership could have done something to reduce the misery if it were not for the new edicts that appear each day that steadily placed increasing burdens on the Jews, which really could be seen as extortion. One especially obnoxious example was a sort of half-official undertaking called “Patronaj,” in which the representatives of the community collected bed linen, underwear, and used articles of all sorts from the Jews. Captain Anghelescu was in charge of the Partonaj operation for Czernowitz. The overall operation was directed by a Mrs. Cancel in Bucharest. She would make a “guest appearance” once a month in Czernowitz to receive the collected goods. It was an open secret that most of the collected and extorted goods became her private possessions.

The Jews were forced to work at various jobs, without pay and they were usually subjected to abuse.

At the dividing up of the booty from the furnished houses, the robbers often came to blows. Because of this, the Mayor, Dr. Traian Popovici, who had tried to help the oppressed had to resign. He was replaced by an abject character, the State Justice Minister, Dumitru Galisch, a worthy collaborator with the infamous Major Marinescu and Inspector Cojocariu.

Around this time, a movement started in Czernowitz which recommended conversion to Christianity as the only way out and as a last ditch attempt at rescue. Several hundred Jews, modern Marannos, considered it advisable, until further notice to turn their backs on the Jewish community. Baptism, however brought few advantages to the converts – many didn't wear the gold star. In exchange, there were significant disadvantages. Those who were baptized were subjected to a judicial process in which the judges, Monteanu and Allaci outdid themselves in the prosecution of the converts. Their sadism knew no bounds.

Transnistrien, the grave of hundreds of thousands

The reports arriving are incomprehensible. It appeared that the insanity had exceeded all bounds. The speed at which the starving deportees were forced to march, while the guards drove them forwards with blows of their rifle stocks caused 60% of them to collapse and freeze to death.

In the ghetto, the dead lay for 6-8 days after death near the living. Typhus and other epidemics – caused by hunger, crowding, and primitive sanitary conditions decimates the survivors. Of the 150,000 Bukovina Jews, 80,000 have already died. Only 50,000 Bessarabian Jews still survive. Around Mogilev, where Chmilnitzki's band murdered Jews 400 years ago, history is repeating itself. One stands shuddering in the piercing feeling of one's own helplessness.

Beginning of January, 1942

The Jewish institutions, the nursing home, the orphanage and the insane asylum are reorganized. In the nursing home, the old people lay around in heaps and as soon as enough bed linen and underwear for them has been gathered, the order comes to deliver it to the “Patronaj.”

The orphans, driven out of the orphanage are put in the former maternity home whose facilities are inadequate. In one narrow room, 8 times as many children are placed as the room can hold. The orphans are poorly clothed, since besides our children, there are the children brought from Poland by sympathetic people.

Most horrible is the insane asylum where the sick, wrapped in rags wander freely. They can simply walk into the city, since there are few attendants. The sight of the insane begging in the city is terrible.

A committee of woman cares for the orphanage. Through the initiative of Mrs. Selma Singer, they are successful in having numerous orphans adopted by Jewish families. Jews can't travel on the trolley anymore because their fellow travelers attack them when they see the Jewish star. The Christian population's hatred of the Jews influences even their children. One day, a 12 year old boy pounced on a baby carriage that a Jewish mother was pushing and started to strangle the baby. The horrified mother, paralyzed with fear, screamed for help. A few bold men forcefully tore the boy away from his victim.

End of January, 1942

Officially, help for the Transnistrien victims were strictly forbidden. Violating this regulation was punishable by long imprisonment or death. That, however didn't prevent the Czernowitz Jews from helping their family and friends by using bribed officers or couriers to send money, clothing and underwear to Transnistrien. These deliveries, however seldom reached the intended destination. Even honest couriers were caught by the border units. Since they usually named their Jewish client, trials and severe sentences followed. Many helpful Jews had to go to Transnistrien.

February, 1942

The police are again hunting Jews, especially those who have dared to go on the street without the gold star. Also, they continue to arbitrarily arrest many Jews.

Middle of May, 1942

Approximately 25 “suspicious” Jews are arrested and deported. No one knows where they have been sent. Among these suspects are the physicians: Dr. Kessler, Dr. Weiner and Dr. Moritz. Among the new “heroes” of the day the following are particularly “outstanding:” the leader of the Housing and Requisition Office, Badalutza, a nephew of the infamous General Governor Calotescu – know to the people as Calautescu (hangman) as well as Petre Penteleiciuc.

End of May, 1942

Daily, new rumors concerning the deportation of Jews from Czernowitz to Transnistrien appear. The fear is understandable, since we now know that deportation to Transnistrien means death. This time, the fear of the Jews is all the greater since we believe that the new transports are supposed to go over the Bug to the German extermination camps.

Hundreds of homeless, angry dogs roam in the ghost streets of the city.

June, 1942

The fate of the Jews deported from Czernowitz during, June, 1942 who were mostly delivered to the German murderers on the far side of the Bug belongs to the saddest chapter of the history of the Jews of Bukovina.

In the night from the 7th to the 8th of June, 1942, all the authorities of the city were mobilized. Earlier, various offices like the City Administration, the Tax Office, the Police, the Gendarmerie, and the Governor's Office had prepared lists of the Jewish families designated to be deported. Now came the order to carry through these measures.

The Jews already sensed that a transport was imminent but they didn't know which categories would be deported and on which criteria the process would take place. Already on the 4th and 5th of June, the curfew for Jews was especially strictly enforced. On the evening of the 7th of June, the arc lamps were turned up to full brightness so that the unholy work could be more easily carried out at night. Since the Jews were trapped in their houses, there could be no hiding or escaping.

One had waited for this night of terror with fear and trembling. From behind the window curtains, people looked into the streets where soldiers patrolled. The directors of this terrible action were Major Marinescu of the General Government and his helpers, the infamous mayor D. Galisch, the president of the chamber of commerce Dr. Octavian Voronca, the Chief District Attorney Christian Allacci and the editor of the Romanian newspaper “Bucovina” under direction of Munteanu.

This horrible spectacle was repeated two more times in the month of June, 1942, on the 14th and finally on June 28. Also, on these two occasions, the deportations were carried out at night on the German and Russian pattern. The victims were indiscriminately taken from the houses and loaded in waiting trucks.

The process was carried out in a gruesome way. Neither old people nor the sick or children were spared. An elderly lady dressed in only a nightgown and slippers was thrown into the truck in that clothing. She died on the way to the train station. An other sick woman who suffered from dementia was loaded along with her husband and her nurse and brought to the train station – she was already dead when she was loaded into the cattle car.

Since in the last deportation on June 28, 1942, there were too few Jews collected to fill the cars waiting for them, the order was given to comb through Piteygasse and to simply grab all the Jews that were found and bring them to the train station. Since in earlier deportations several Jews on Piteygasse who had possessed authorizations to remain in Czernowitz, had been left in their homes, these poor people, in spite of that, were seized and sent to a certain death in Transnistrien. With this last deportation of June 28, 1942 the sad story of Jewish deportations had reached its tragic end.

Author's notes

What Hitler sowed in Romania grew bountifully. So, Judge Traian Ioonescu-Barbuteanu stated in a tax appeal negotiation: The Jews in Czernowitz had acquired, in spite of the fact that there are no mines here, tremendous riches in gold silver and crystal and built blockhouses. They have robbed the city of millions by cheating on their taxes and when we discovered their machinations they sent their tax specialist, Dr. Pinkas Laufer to Bucharest to end the carriers of the controllers who prescribed high taxes for them. These times are over; the time for revenge has come.

The Romanians were blinded by Hitler's successes and stood under his influence, since his camouflaged helpers were represented in all the key positions of Romania and directed the sad fate of the Jews. The Romanians quickly forgot that it was the Jews whose trade and industry caused their economy to prosper. The lumber trade blossomed thanks to Jewish initiative. The progressive industrialization was a Jewish accomplishment. Here are some examples chosen at random: the textile factory “Hercules” (Harry Schaerf), the Deligdisch brothers, “Trinaco” (Trichter, Naftalison, Weinblum), “Postavaria” (Liebermann), Trinotania” (Sigal), “Pluschul” (Hafner), the rubber factory “Caurom” (Jortner and Roschkes), the soap factory “Noa Lehr” etc. Jewish manufacturers, had by producing high quality wares, had made the Romanian market independent of Germany and Czechoslovakia.

But now we return to:

The terrible night from June 6 to June 7, 1942

About one o'clock in the evening we heard hobnailed boots in front of our house. The Loewensteins, an old married couple living in our house, who were previously not deported because of their age, were taken away by the soldiers. Boxes and beds were searched and the cellar and attic were ransacked. A so called “inventory” was taken, during which almost all the valuable objects disappeared.

Since 6 o'clock in the morning, families were taken from their houses under military escort to the market place where they – after a thorough search for gold and valuables – were sent helpless and defenseless to their deaths. The unfortunate ones were next collected in Springbrunnenplatz, Heiligenkreuzplatz and Petersplatz and then brought to Makkabiplatz where further processing was carried out.

In this deportation, as well as the following two in the night from the 13th to the 14th of June and in the night from the 27th to the 28th of June, 1942 a total of 5000 Jews were taken away. On these three days by the orders of the already named infamous mayor Dumitru Galisch, the city was decorated with flags.

The loading of the unhappy Jews in cattle cars was carried out by dehumanized soldiers and police in the most brutal way. Fifty people were loaded in a car and then the car was locked and sealed.

Eyewitnesses reported that in Atachi the train had to be emptied in less than 5 minutes. The old and the sick were driven out with blows from clubs and whip lashes. A rich booty of luggage was left behind for the hyenas.

The unhappy ones were then driven to the Dniester where they spent the night under the open sky. Here, most of what they had left to them was stolen.

On the next day, they were brought over the Dniester with ferries and boats. During the passage, many of the Jews drowned when they were thrown in the water by the soldiers. The soldiers also cut open the backpacks of the unhappy ones and stole any valuable objects that they found.

On the far side of the river, there was another search with the anticipated results. Also the second night had to be spent under the open sky.

Only on the third day did they reach “Cariera de Piatra” (Stone Quarry). There they lay for hours in the vicinity of windowless and door less barracks which they were not allowed to enter. Only after much pleading and crying and giving of Baksheesh, were they given access to the barracks. The hundreds of people, soaked by the rain, whipped by wind and hail rushed into the lousy, barn like rooms where the whining starving children and the powerlessness of the parents made terrifying pictures. No food, no warmth, no medicine.

Finally, after five days, each person received 100 grams of bread, mixed with sand and bran which was supposed to be nourishment for three days.

After eight days the unhappy ones were sent to Czetwertinowka where they had to sleep in stalls from which they first had to clean out the pig and cow manure. In one stall lay 3 to 400 people. The people were desperate. Some succeeded in fleeing to Odobowka, Berschad and other camps.

The remainder stayed two months in Czetwertinowka. One day, the SS Hauptsturmfuehrer Mass came and gave orders that all the Jews had to be sent to work on the other side of the Bug. Forced onto trucks by club blows, the inhabitants of the camp were driven in the direction of Ladejin. As toward evening they arrived on the bank of the Bug, a large part of their luggage had disappeared.

At night, the Jews were taken over the Bug. On the next morning their possessions were searched again. The whole day passed in the search for gold, watches and valuables. They spent half the night in the open. After midnight, and SS-man, named Feuerstein arrived and said that all the people would go to a central camp where they would be divided up according to their professions. In addition, they would get three meals daily and get a good bed. Everyone took hope. Later, as individual trucks came, they were stormed by the people hoping to get a good place. During this process, family members were separated from one another, since the father would get in one truck, the mother in a second, the child in a third and the luggage eventually in the fourth. They all believed with certainty that they would go to the “central camp.” On the next morning they found that they had been torn apart. After this night, they never saw each other again.

One day later, the order came to give up all valuables. Immediately afterwards, the SS searched their belongings. The SS people said that a pistol had been found, which most likely belonged to a Jew, and for that reason, they had to thoroughly search all the Jews' luggage.

During this search, almost clothing, linen and other objects in half way decent condition were confiscated. Afterwards began the forced labor at road building, in stone quarries and in construction of defense walls and as the winter arrived – in snow shoveling.

They were fed only one meal per day: moldy millet, insufficiently cooked. The daily march to work and back totaled 20 km.

Approximately two months passed this way until Yom Kippur, 1942. Then the SS began the “clean-up” action in the Krasnapolska camp. On the morning of this day, all men and women over 50 years old and children under 14 years old as well as the sick and the weak were taken to one side while the others were ordered to march to the work location. When they came back in the evening, there were mass graves dug behind the camp in which they found their relatives. Screaming and moaning began, but the SS threatened to shoot everyone in the camp if quiet wasn't restored. So, the unhappy ones spent the most terrible of all nights in unbearable pain.

Similar actions followed at the same time in the camps: Iwangerod, Mihailowka, Teplik, Gaisin and Uman. In Uman where previously 60,000 Jews had lived, hardly 7 Jews who had disguised themselves in farmers' clothing and hidden, remained alive. When asked what had happened to the Jews, the camp commander replied that the rest were Christmas presents.

Actually, these “clean-up” actions were carried out every two months. In these actions, those incapable of working were selected and after the others had marched off to work, were killed. The scenes were heart wrenching when family members were separated and had to say good-by. As those going to work marched away, they got one last glimpse of their relatives. The marchers didn't dare to turn their heads because of the threat of death. The slave work continued daily in the same way.

In Teplik, the bloodhound, SS man Fischer knocked on the doors of the barracks, which were unheated in winter, daily at 5 am. In two minutes, everyone had to be prepared to march with tools, picks and shovels.

The forced work was carried out under military guard, whereby the guards were not stingy with club blows on the back and other parts of the body. The work extended until late in the night. Therefore, it is not surprising that up to December 10, 1943, in all camps together, barely 40 to 50 Jews who succeeded in escaping were still alive. Many who tried to escape over the Bug paid for this gamble with their lives. So were, among others, the families Preschel, Weiner, Dr. Schulmann, Schuller and Mrs. Professor Beral shot during the attempt.

Eleven escapees were sent by the ghetto commander of Berschad to Voitowka and from there further back over the Bug where they were immediately shot.

The camp inhabitants who remained behind were shot, one after the other in short intervals. The mass graves were covered with a thin layer of earth, which, because of the escaping gas, lifted in a few days, so that pestilent odors spread.

It should be mentioned that the militia that stood under the German commander were much worse than the German SS soldiers.

The deportations to Transnistrien, planed and carried out by the Germans are the most tragic chapter in the history of the Bukovina Jews and a stigma on the Germans which can never be washed away.
 

 

From "The History of the Jews of Bukovina," p. 53.

 


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