Editorial

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MARCU BUTNARU

Marcu was born to Jewish parents in a small, ethnically diverse city in east central Moldavia [in Romania], a region known for its wine. He married at the age of 23, and had a son and a daughter with his wife, Anna.

1940-44: In 1941 Romania went to war with the USSR as Germany's ally [Axis]. A Yiddish-speaking stranger came to my door saying that the Soviets were coming to liberate Jews. This was a ploy to catch traitors, and I refused to fall for it. That day I was arrested by Romanian fascists [Iron Guard], who accused me of being a communist just because I was Jewish. I was badly beaten, tried by a military court and acquitted. But then I was held hostage to prevent acts of sabotage. When I was finally released, my vineyards and home had been confiscated.

ION BUTNARU

Ion was born to Jewish parents in a small, ethnically diverse city in east-central Moldavia [in Romania], a region known for its wine.

1940-44: Anti-Jewish feeling mounted after the Soviets occupied parts of Romania in June 1940. Jews were accused of being communists, and pogroms broke out. I was expelled from the army and reassigned to a labor battalion; I was lucky to survive. Following the outbreak of war with the USSR in 1941, I was sent all over Romania as a forced laborer. The city of Bolgrad was unforgettable in 1942, with its deserted streets, smashed windows, pillaged Jewish homes, mass graves and the stench of death from eight miles away.

MAX GUTMANN

Max was raised in the Romanian town of Radauti, a trading and woodworking center near the Ukrainian border.

1940-44: In June 1940 my father was injured after being thrown from a train by Romanian fascist Iron Guard members. Six months later he died of his wounds. When the Romanians deported Radauti's Jews in October 1941, we were sent east to a ghetto in Transnistria. There we lived in one room with 16 people, mostly relatives. I worked in a slaughterhouse. When we threw away the bones, skin and organs, hundreds of starving people gathered and fought over them. After three years of suffering, we were liberated by the Soviets in March 1944.

STEFAN MOISE

Stefan was born to Gypsy parents in the capital of Moldavia in eastern Romania. The family lived in a mixed neighborhood of Gypsies and Romanians.

1940-44: In 1942 Iasi's Gypsies were rounded up by the Romanian police and sent eastward by cattle car. When we disembarked in Transnistria, we were marched to open fields and left to starve with inadequate rations. Urged by my wife, I managed to run away. Of course, I took my violin. I hitched a ride on a freight train to Odessa and found work playing in a hotel, but all the time I couldn't stop feeling guilty for leaving my wife and sister. In 1944 I was arrested and inducted into the Romanian army.

EDITH FUHRMANN BRANDMANN

Edith's village of Kriesciatik was located on the border between Romania and Poland. Her Jewish parents owned a large ranch where they raised cattle and grew sugar beets.

1940-44: In 1940, a year after the war began, Romania became Germany's ally. I was 9 when Romanian police expelled the Jews from our village and sent us, on foot, to a place in Ukraine where Jews were concentrated. We were brought to a huge barracks where there were thousands of Jews. Nothing seemed organized. We learned that every day, 1,000 Jews were rounded up and sent to Ukrainian ghettos. When Father heard about this, he told us to stall until he could arrange our escape.

Edith's family spent more than three years sheltered by Jewish families in a Ukrainian village, and they survived the war. In 1959 Edith emigrated to America.

JOSEF DEUTSCH

Josef was born to Yiddish-speaking, religious Jewish parents in the town of Viseu de Sus in Transylvania, a region of Romania that belonged to Hungary until 1918.

1940-44: The Hungarians marched into Viseu de Sus in September 1940 and annexed it to Hungary. Hungary became an ally of Nazi Germany. New laws were instituted limiting the rights of Jews. Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944, and a month later the Deutsch family was moved into a ghetto established by Hungarian officials for the Jews of Viseu de Sus and surrounding communities.

Josef and his family were among the 8,000 Jews deported from Viseu de Sus to Auschwitz in May 1944. Upon arrival, Josef was gassed. He was 79.

CHAVA LEA DEUTSCH

Chava Lea was born Emma Geisler to Yiddish-speaking, religious Jewish parents. The Deutsch family lived in the village of Budacu de Sus in Transylvania, a region of Romania that belonged to Hungary until 1918.

1940-44: The Hungarians marched into Viseu de Sus in September 1940 and annexed it to Hungary. Hungary became an ally of Nazi Germany and new laws were enforced in Viseu de Sus limiting the rights of Jews. Germany occupied Hungary in March 1944, and a month later the Deutsch family was moved into a ghetto established by Hungarian officials for the Jews of Viseu de Sus and from surrounding communities.

Chava Lea and her family were among the 8,000 Jews deported from Viseu de Sus to Auschwitz in May 1944. Upon arrival she was gassed. Chava Lea was 76.

JENINE GUTMAN

Jenine was the younger of two daughters born to Jewish parents. They lived in a small city with a large Jewish population in central Moldavia.

1940-44: The fascist Iron Guard was now in power, but my patriotism no longer made any difference. Because I was Jewish, I was forced out of public school. Although makeshift, our Jewish schools had excellent teachers; I chose to study bookbinding. After Jews were excluded from public hospitals, a Jewish clinic was organized in Bucharest. I worked in its cafeteria. New restrictions were imposed. There were pogroms. The government made my family provide clothing and bedding to the Romanian army.

Jenine was liberated by the Soviet army in August 1944. She continued to live in Romania until 1976, when she emigrated with her family to the United States.

CHAIM DAVID JEGHER

David was one of six children born to religious Jewish parents in Rona de Jos, a town in northwest Romania.

1940-1945: The Germans occupied our town in March 1944. I was 16. All the town's Jews were forced into a ghetto in Solotvina, Czechoslovakia, a town just over the border. Jews from several towns were crowded into the ghetto; food was scarce. I sneaked out over the fence one day and made it back to Rona de Jos. There, eluding the Gestapo and with the help of some Catholic neighbors, I loaded a wagon with corn and potatoes and drove it back to the ghetto. We unloaded the food, and then I let the horses run off.

David was deported from the Solotvina ghetto to Auschwitz, and then to labor camps in Germany. He was liberated in Germany, and emigrated to the United States in April 1948.

JENO GABOR BRAUN

The son of a rabbi, Jeno was raised in the town of Sighet in Transylvania.

1940-44: It's been almost four years since the Hungarians marched into Cristuru-Secuiesc and annexed it to Hungary. My children were thrown out of public school because they were Jewish. I was forced to keep my shop open on Saturdays, the Jewish sabbath, and then to surrender control to a non-Jewish employee. In the spring of 1944 I was forced to close the shop and our family was moved to a ghetto. My two eldest sons were drafted into the Hungarian army as conscript labor. And now, what's left of my family is being deported.

Jeno was deported to Auschwitz, and then to the Kochendorf camp, where he was beaten to death on his 42nd birthday when he failed to wake up [for roll call] in time for a 5 a.m. work detail.

VOYAGE OF THE "STRUMA"

The Romanian port of Constanta, on the Black Sea, was a major embarkation point for Jews attempting to leave Europe for Palestine. Thousands of Jews, desperate to escape the Germans, took the route by boat from Constanta via Turkey to Palestine, despite British immigration restrictions.

In December 1941, in Constanta, 767 Jews boarded a boat named the "Struma." They planned to travel to Istanbul, apply for visas to Palestine, and then sail to Palestine. The "Struma" was unsafe and overcrowded, and lacked adequate sanitary facilities. Despite engine problems, it reached Istanbul on December 16, 1941. There, the passengers were informed they would not get visas to enter Palestine and, furthermore, would not be permitted entry into Turkey.

The boat was kept in quarantine in Istanbul's harbor for more than two months. Turkish authorities denied the passengers permission to land without British agreement to their continued journey to Palestine. On February 23, 1942, the Turkish police towed the boat out to sea and abandoned it. The next day, on February 24, the boat sank. Although the cause of the sinking is not definitively known, it is assumed that it was mistakenly torpedoed by a Soviet submarine. Only one passenger, David Stoliar, survived. The sinking of the "Struma" led to widespread international protest against Britain's policy on immigration into Palestine.

EVA HEYMAN

The only child of a cosmopolitan Hungarian Jewish couple, Eva grew up in a city on the border between Romania and Hungary.

1940-44: When the Germans reached Budapest on March 19, 1944, Eva and her grandfather took a walk in Oradea's Bishop's Park but did not see any German soldiers. Six weeks later, the Germans arrived in Oradea, ordering Eva and her grandparents to pack and move to the ghetto. They waited three days until they were taken by truck to 20 Szacsat Street. Their new home was stripped of furniture and packed with families. Rules were posted on every house; to disobey meant death. On May 29, 1944, they heard they would be "resettled in the East."

In June 1944 Eva was deported to Auschwitz. She died there four months later on October 17, 1944. She was 13 years old.

EZRA BENGERSHOM

Ezra was born to a Jewish family in the Bavarian city of Wurzburg. In the summer of 1929, his father, a third-generation rabbi, accepted a position as a district rabbi, guiding 12 congregations in Upper Silesia.

1940-44: In 1941 I fled to Berlin when the Nazis stepped up deportations of German Jews. To elude Gestapo patrols I constantly moved about the city and I fashioned a Hitler Youth uniform. With the swastikas and my blond appearance, I passed as an Aryan. In April 1943 I escaped to Vienna using false documents stating I worked in the armaments industry. Then I made my way to Budapest, where I went underground until the Germans invaded Hungary. I fled to Romania where, in November 1944, I boarded a Turkish vessel to Palestine [the Yishuv].

In Palestine Ezra realized his dream to study biochemistry. For 25 years he headed the Clinical Chemistry Division of the Academic Children's Hospital in Rotterdam.

GOLDA (OLGA) BANCIC

Olga was born to a large Jewish family living in the Bessarabia province when it was still part of the Russian Empire. In 1918 the province was annexed by Romania.

1940-44: France fell to the German army in 1940. Olga found a French family to keep her daughter safe, and joined the armed resistance group, Franc-Tireurs et Partisans, to fight the Germans. She assembled bombs and helped transport explosives used to derail German troop and supply trains. On November 6, 1943, she was arrested during a Gestapo roundup. She was tortured but revealed no information. Even after she was condemned to death, they continued to interrogate and torture her.

Olga was transferred to a prison in Stuttgart where she was re-tried and again condemned to death. On May 10, 1944, her 32nd birthday, Olga was beheaded.

SOPHIE WEISZ

1940-44: Hungary annexed our region in 1940; by mid-1941 they'd joined the German forces. We were forced into the Oradea ghetto in May 1944, and then deported to Auschwitz. In August my mother, sister and I were moved hundreds of miles north to Stutthof on the Baltic coast for forced labor. The prisoners were asked to entertain the German soldiers at Christmas; I danced to the music of the ballet Coppelia in a costume fashioned from gauze and paper. I earned extra food for this, and shared it with my sister Agnes.

Sophie and her sister escaped while on a forced march in February 1945. Her mother and father perished in the camps. In February 1949 Sophie emigrated to the United States.

MIKSA DEUTSCH

Miksa was the youngest of four children born to religious Jewish parents. The Deutches lived in the town of Bistrita in Transylvania, a region of Romania that belonged to Hungary until 1918.

1940-44: In 1940 Miksa was conscripted into the Hungarian army's labor service. Two years later, he was forced to surrender control of his business to a brother of the Hungarian prime minister. In October 1944 Miksa began to fear deportation, and he briefly left his labor unit to visit his wife, who gave him a Swedish safe-conduct pass she had received from a friend. When Miksa returned to the factory on October 31, a Hungarian officer tore up his pass and ordered him deported along with the others.

On November 10, 1944, Miksa wrote to his wife that he was being force-marched from Hungary to Austria. He died in the Mauthausen concentration camp in Austria at the age of 47.

BARBARA MARTON

The Martons were one of 35 Jewish families in the small northern Transylvanian town of Beliu. Barbara's father owned a grocery, and her mother helped out in the store.

1940-45: In 1940 the Hungarians entered Oradea and imposed many anti-Jewish restrictions, including barring Jews from attending universities. I found work as a low-paid lab technician. Then in late March 1944 the Germans took control of Oradea. Soon after that, my parents and I were deported to Auschwitz. One day, punished for spilling soup, I was forced to kneel from dawn till noon holding bricks above my head. From afar I could hear a band playing "The Merry Widow." I cried as I knelt, listening to that music.

Barbara was liberated by the Swedish Red Cross in 1945. She returned to Romania, where she attended university and married. She moved to Israel in 1962 and then to America in 1968.

Din cate vedeti aici, din nefericire evreii romani au fost persecutati si multi au murit. Totusi, a spune ca Romania este pe locul doi dupa Germania, mi se pare o exagerare de prost gust, ca sa fiu bland. Nu vreau sa intelegeti ca scuz Romania, insa din cate se pare Transnistria, teribila de buna seama, nu a fost Auschwitz. Si nici Romania n-a fost Ungaria. Cred ca putem afirma ca Romania nu a pus in aplicare "solutia finala". De aceea nu cred ca a fost Holocaust in Romania. Pentru ca daca a fost, atunci Holocaustul nu trebuie sa se rezume numai la cele 5-6 milioane de evrei, ci si le celelate sase milioane de catolici si alte minoritati. Multi spun ca Holocaustul a fost ceva special pentru poporul evreu, tocmai prin prisma "solutiei finale". La US Holocaust Memorial Museum nu prea exista marturiile unor catolici, ortodocsi, homosexuali sau alti persecutati si fosti deportati. Ceea ce ma face sa cred ca lipsa lor semnifica faptul ca Holocaustul se refera numai la poporul evreu, PRIN prisma "solutiei finale". Ca daca lasi "solutia finala" deoparte, sorry, si celelalte 6 milioane se califica. Iar daca sustii ca Holocaustul priveste numai poporul evreu, chiar si fara "solutia finala", ei bine, mi se pare o imoralitate fara margini. Alegeti: Holocaust in Romania, da' bagam si alea 6 milioane de ne-evrei, sau lasam exclusivitatea holocaustului poporului evreu, da' atunci n-a fost Holocaust la noi.