Romania during World War II: Encyclopedia II - Romania during World War II - Romania and the Holocaust

Romania during World War II - Romania and the Holocaust

Even after the fall of the Iron Guard, the Antonescu regime, allied with Nazi Germany, continued the policy of oppression and massacre of Jews, and, to a lesser extent, Roma. According to an international commission report released by the Romanian government in 2004, Romania murdered in various forms, between 280,000 to 400,000 Jews in Romania and in the war zone of Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transnistria. ^[1]

Though much of the killing was done in war zone by Romanian troops, there were also substantial persecutions in back of the front line. During the Iaşi pogrom of July 1941 over 12,000 Jews were massacred or killed slowly in trains travelling back and forth across the countryside.

Half of the 320,000 Jews living in Bessarabia, Bukovina, and Dorohoi district in Romania were murdered within months of the entry of the country into the war during 1941. Even after the initial killing, Jews in Moldavia, Bukovina and Bessarabia were subject to frequent pogroms, and were concentrated into ghettos from which they were sent to concentration camps, including camps built and run by Romanians. The number of deaths in this area is not certain, but even the lowest respectable estimates run to about 250,000 Jews (and 25,000 Roma) in these eastern regions, while 120,000 of Transylvania's 150,000 Jews died at the hands of the Hungarians later in the war.

Romanian soldiers also worked with the Einsatzkommando, German killing squads, to massacre Jews in conquered territories. Romanian troops were in large part responsible for the Odessa massacre, in which over 100,000 Jews were shot during the autumn of 1941.

Nonetheless, in stark contrast to many countries of Eastern and Central Europe, the majority of Romanian Jews survived the war, although they were subject to a wide range of harsh conditions, including forced labor, financial penalties, and discriminatory laws. Antonescu's government made plans for mass deportations from Old Kingdom to Belzec, but never carried them out.

Despite the survival of a majority of the Jews living in Romania proper, the report commissioned and accepted by the Romanian government in 2004 on the Holocaust concluded:

Of all the allies of Nazi Germany, Romania bears responsibility for the deaths of more Jews than any country other than Germany itself. The murders committed in Iasi, Odessa, Bogdanovka, Domanovka, and Peciora, for example, were among the most hideous murders committed against Jews anywhere during the Holocaust. Romania committed genocide against the Jews. The survival of Jews in some parts of the country does not alter this reality. Page 7, Executive Summary of Report (PDF)

See also: Ion Antonescu#Antonescu and the Holocaust

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Romania and the Holocaust", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki