Iesirea trenurilor din gara (2020) - full transcript
The names and stories of all 13,000 victims of the 1941 massacre of Iasi's Jewish population by the Nazis are recounted.
The Exit of the Trains
Part I: Statements and Testimonies
On June 29th 1941,
my husband Abramovici Herman
was taken to the police station.
He was put on the Death Train,
where he died on the way to Podu Iloaiei.
On the 29th of June,
as I was going to my parents',
I saw a Jewish newspaper boy.
Mr. Păsărică was just
coming out of the tobacconist's
and called the boy to him.
The boy came running, thinking
the human monster wanted a newspaper.
The beast took out a pistol
and shot the poor child dead.
On the morning of June 29th,
returning home from the hospital
where I had been
mobilised as radiologist,
I met a gang -
two gendarmes, a sergeant
and some Gypsy children with bats,
led by a character I knew all too well,
an errand man at
the Alcohol Inspectorate,
just across from my house.
He came striding
into our yard with a bat
and yelled for the nine of us to come out.
With a fearsome expression and mad eyes,
he herded us out of
the courtyard with the bat,
hitting my niece and my nephew,
whose mouth was bleeding,
and hitting my brother in the nape.
He didn't even let me lock the front door.
The frothing beast herded us forward,
to the delight of our neighbour,
Judge Savel Mărgineanu,
a notorious Fascist,
and his family, gushing with joy
that my mother, "the old filthy Jew",
who hadn't left the house in years,
was being herded with us.
Father Hodoroabă, seeing us
near the Anatomy Institute,
showed he was powerless to help us,
gesturing sadly.
We were taken to Getler's yard,
with dozens of other men and women.
When our tormentors thought
the convoy was complete,
they took us to the police station yard,
already full of other Jews.
After hours of waiting,
we women were allowed to go home.
The men had to stay.
Later, I would struggle in vain
to get some news about them.
None of the three men in my family
ever came home again.
My husband Moise Aizic was taken
from our home on June 29th 1941,
by a patrol of Romanians
joined by a Maria Melinte from Iași.
From the police station in Iași, he was
put on the Death Train.
He died on July 12th 1941,
from the abuse he suffered on that train.
The road to the station
was littered with dozens of bodies.
One man, probably wounded, was moaning.
A Romanian soldier crushed his skull
with the butt of his rifle,
then said with satisfaction:
"Now you'll be quiet, filthy Jew!"
In the street, we were greeted
with booing and threats
by a crowd of hoodlums
gathered around the station.
On the way down to the station,
the crowd lost control:
Armed with whatever they could find -
bats, broomsticks,
barrel staves or tree branches -
they started to hit us.
This is how my husband died:
On June 29th, the father
of underage child Rose-Claire
was put on the Death Train
by the Iași Police
and died in a wagon at Târgu Frumos
on the 1st of July 1941.
When we got to Ialomița, I was ill.
At home, my older brother, my uncle
Solomon Albin and his son were all gone.
When the war started in 1941,
my father's property in Iași
hosted the Italian Consulate.
We spent the night of June 28th-29th 1941
hiding from the bombs in the cellar
of our neighbours, the Pacher-Zigmunds.
All night long we heard
gunshots and cannons.
In the morning, the cleaning lady went out
and told us a cannon was next to our house.
Around 5 a.m.,
we saw Romanian soldiers in the street.
Soon, a lieutenant and three soldiers
came and took us all out.
We were four families in all.
He had us line up along the wall
until other families were brought out,
then marched us to the yard
of the bakery across the street,
to join other Jews from the neighbourhood.
There were over 100 of us.
Then another officer came
and asked who owned
the Italian Consulate building.
The Consul was out of town
and had left my father the keys.
My father came forward
and the officer told him
they needed to search the building
because someone had fired from the attic.
The military had it surrounded.
The officer, my father and
some soldiers went up.
Then, a voice from the attic said
"We got him!"
I thought they had caught the shooter,
but they brought down my father
and beat him bloody,
claiming he had fired the shots.
Then we were all sent
to the police station.
At 9 a.m., they let the women go
and only kept the men.
My mother and I couldn't bear
to live in the empty house
and went to a friend's
by the police station.
Around 3 p.m. they started to kill Jews
on the streets and at the station.
People said machine guns were
set up in the surrounding houses
to shoot the Jews at the police station.
The executions continued
all Sunday long and into the night.
In the morning, the surviving Jewish men
were loaded into the Death Train.
My father was in it too.
As they rode for 11 hours
in closed wagons sprayed with calcium carbide,
he was one of the dead.
I saw Jews against a wall
by St Spiridon Hospital.
Pharmacist Marcusohn's family
was among them.
He was holding
his daughter, 3 or 4 years old,
who was shot with the rest.
We were hit both by the escorting soldiers
and by civilians on the streets.
On the 29th of June 1941,
Dumitru Rusu took my husband
to the police station in Iași,
where he was shot.
My husband, Haim Apoteker,
born in Iași în 1894,
fell victim to
the internal conflicts in town
and the massacre on June 29th 1941.
As we know, Jews were crowded into trains
and sent out in wagons sealed airtight.
My husband was in the one
to Călărași, Ialomița County,
and reached the destination still alive,
but died soon after
in the hospital there.
The hospital announced his death
by Certificate 318/1941.
"There are no Jews here," I answered.
I insisted that was
the building of the Financial Bureau.
Suddenly, my neighbour
Argintaru Filip appeared.
Searching the house,
they found four more Jews
and took them to the station
to be loaded into the Death Train.
The five of them -
my husband Brandman Ștrul Aron,
Argintaru Filip,
Șor Mendel, Rubinstein Haim,
and Simon Dulce -
never returned,
dying in gruesome torture.
Filip Argintaru was in the same wagon.
Very agitated, he kept repeating:
"How could one die faster?"
Mrs. Bercu's husband had
some sugar cubes in his pocket,
from his mother.
Licking them kept him alive.
After eight hours, the train reached
Podu Iloaiei, 20 km from Iași.
At the end of the ride,
they took out the dead.
They were many.
The survivors dug holes,
put them in facing down or up,
and poured lime over them.
The dead bodies were still warm.
After a while, since it was a hot day,
blood came gushing out of the bodies.
They say there was
a downpour that day,
as if to wash away the blood.
To this day, Filip Argintaru's daughters
don't know how their father died
nor what happened to their mother, Frida.
They were sent to Israel
with the other orphans.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Aron Aron and our sons,
Aron Ilie and Aron Gustav,
were taken by policeman Băltaru
to the station, where they were shot.
On the 30th of June 1941,
constable Bocancea entered our home
and had us get dressed
and follow him at gunpoint.
My father and I showed him our white cards
issued by the Police on June 29th 1941,
but constable Bocancea
tore them up, saying they are not valid.
All our pleas were in vain.
My mother, Janeta Aronovici,
kneeled and kissed his hands and feet.
Seeing all their appeals were useless,
my father offered him 50.000 lei.
Mr. Bocancea took the money
and said, for that amount,
he could leave alone
the rest of the family,
but that he had to take my father.
He prevented my father from taking
a bottle of water with him
and took him to the station.
My mother cried in the doorway
seeing Mr. Bocancea hit my father
with his pistol over the head.
Days later, railway employees
told me he had been killed at the station.
The train took
his dead body to Podu Iloaiei.
On the 29th of June 1941,
an armed crowd took him
to the police station in Iași,
where we lived at the time.
He was put on the Death Train and
suffocated to death at Podu Iloaiei,
where he is buried.
We heard shouting in the streets.
It turned out Dr. Averbuch,
also arrested that morning,
but released by the police,
was being beaten by the servant's husband
who was chasing him
on the street, throwing stones.
Dr. Averbuch took refuge in our building,
up at the Lehrers'.
Around 3 o'clock,
Brădățeanu warned me again
not to let outsiders into the building.
I told him I couldn't help it if
the Averbuchs were visiting the Lehrers.
He told me to ask them to leave,
or he couldn't guarantee our safety,
for the danger had not passed.
I asked Schmirer and Zilberman
to tell Dr. Averbuch it was safer
to leave through the basement
and seek shelter elsewhere,
as everyone had seen him come in.
For some reason, though, he refused.
Around 4, we heard the air raid siren
and took shelter in the basement,
taking with us Dr. Averbuch
and the German who had brought
the Silbermans' daughter home.
The German stayed until 5.
Shortly after, Raul Schnurer went up,
saying he couldn't bear staying in.
Hearing him talk to someone upstairs,
we went up to see who it was.
The doctor alone stayed behind.
Three German soldiers with rifles
and a Romanian sergeant with a pistol
said all Jewish men were to be taken
to the police station for ID checks.
Engineer Schnurer and
his father were taken aside.
I tried to intervene for Zilberman,
saying he had a certificate
from the Germans.
They barked at me to stay out.
Asked what he was, Jacques Lehrer
produced a Romanian officer's certificate.
They believed him, and he ran
upstairs with his wife and daughter,
leaving us with the soldiers.
They asked about other
Jewish men in the building.
One was about to go
down to the basement.
Mrs. Averbuch ran into my apartment,
saying they'd kill us if we lied.
Afraid of the consequences for all of us,
knowing the Doctor was downstairs,
I lost my head and said
they could go and search.
They found Dr. Averbuch
in the basement, arrested him,
and took him and the others away.
Based on the petitioner's documents
and our investigations,
we certify that the petitioner's son,
Bartfeld Ioil, died as follows:
Assassinated by suffocation
in the train evacuating Jews
from Iași to Podu Iloaiei
on the 30th of June 1941.
My husband Baumel Litman was taken
from home to the Iași police station,
and suffocated on the Death Train
at Podu Iloaiei, Iași County,
where he was buried.
My husband Beltzer Ițic was taken
from home on the 29th of June 1941,
taken with others
to the Iași police station,
savagely beaten and shot to death.
The first bullet hit my daughter,
Bela Felix, in her right leg.
She was 18.
Running to help her,
I was shot in the right arm,
which never fully recovered.
My husband was taken from the shelter
with our son Alfred Felix, 15,
taken to the police station
and loaded into the Death Train
to an unknown destination.
I was told the boy died
in his father's arms the next day
and my husband died the day after.
My son Bercovici Hascal was taken
from home on June 29th 1941
to the Iași police station
on June 30th, put on the train
with Jewish evacuees to Târgu Frumos,
dying and being buried
in Târgu Frumos, Iași County.
On the 29th of June 1941,
we were all taken from our homes
to the police station.
On the way we were badly abused
by Romanians following our convoy.
Some fainted in the street.
I wasn't allowed
to stop for a sip of water,
though everyone begged them
to treat me mercifully.
At the station I was badly abused
and Romanians took
my money and jewellery,
worth over 800.000 lei.
I returned to find
my home devastated and robbed
and my husband and son were
taken to the camp in Ialomița.
My husband suffocated en route
and was taken out at Târgu Frumos.
My son was shot in both legs
and in Ialomița, though badly injured,
had to do field labour.
He laid sick in bed four months.
On June 29th 1941, the day of the pogrom,
I was hiding in the cellar
from the Romanian soldiers
who took Jews to their deaths.
Finding the house empty,
they came for us downstairs.
After taking our brother David,
who died on the train to Podu Iloaiei,
the soldiers stole two suitcases
containing all our dowry,
mine and my sister Debora's.
On the 29th of June, our son
was taken from home, beaten,
herded to the Iași police station,
and put on the Death Train to Podu Iloaiei
where he suffocated to death
for lack of water and air.
Though my son David died
on June 30th 1941
on the train to Podu Iloaiei,
I was forced to pay military tax for him.
To afford it, I had to sell
a Singer sewing machine for almost nothing
to pay 14.000 lei in military tax.
In 1941, the war brought
tragedy to my family.
On June 29th I was taken
from home with my husband,
our son Berel Blank, pharmacist,
his wife, and our daughter and her fiancé.
We women were badly beaten
over the head in the station yard,
then sent home all bloody.
The men stayed and were beaten worse.
My son had two wounds to the head
and fainted from blood loss.
They were put in
sealed cattle wagons, 120 in each,
and moved around on
the Târgu Frumos line to Ialomița.
My son died at Mircești,
after losing his mind.
My husband survived,
not knowing our son had died,
and, after three days of torture,
reached Ialomița a sick man.
He returned after 6 months
of suffering and illness
and a year later the Iași police
deported him to Transnistria
for asking to be repatriated,
since he had lost his business in Iași,
on September 9th 1942.
In Tiraspol he was
stripped naked, robbed and executed.
Such a cruel execution!
He was burned alive
with other fellow sufferers.
My daughter's fiancé was shot
as he bent to drink some water.
Thus ends my family's tragedy,
which left me a miserable woman
with a crushed soul.
On the 29th of June 1941,
Blau Moise Haim was taken
from his home to the police station.
He died of suffocation and thirst
on the death train to Târgu Frumos.
We have reason to believe
suspect Vasile Mîndru had a hand
in the shooting of engineer Blau,
his former colleague,
killed with his whole family of eight.
There are no surviving witnesses,
as no one else lived in the house.
We believe the suspect
was also involved
in the Sidoli Cinema murders in Iași,
on June 29th 1941.
On the 29th of June 1941,
at 6 a.m.,
a constable and a soldier
took us to the National Highschool.
My son and I were let go.
My husband never came back,
suffocating to death on June 30th 1941
on the Death Train to Podu Iloaiei,
where he was taken out and buried.
My husband died in
the following circumstances:
He and other Jews were taken from
their homes to the Iași police station,
where he was shot on the day of
the pogrom, June 29th 1941.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Braunstein Solomon
was taken from home
by a Romanian patrol
and shot at the police station.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband was taken
from home to the police station.
That day, when the massacre began
at the order of the Romanian
and German military,
he was shot to death.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Bron Samuil "Brauner"
was taken from home with our three sons.
badly beaten over the head
at the police station,
then taken to the Iași train station,
where he died in a wagon
taking Jews to Ialomița.
As we were waiting
to be loaded into the train,
the Romanian and German
soldiers guarding us
kept mocking us.
To make fun of us,
a Romanian soldier
started to imitate how Jews
talk to Romanian maids:
"Git that coffee, han't you hoid me?"
All this, after over 36 hours of torment.
Brucăr Șmil "Saim" Samuel
died in the following circumstances:
assassinated by asphyxiation on the train
carrying Jews evacuees to Podu Iloaiei
on the 30th of June 1941.
After the servant left,
an armed hooligan came
and ordered us to follow him
to the police station.
The courtyard was chock-full.
There was almost no place
to stand, let alone move.
We were sweating in the hot,
suffocating summer weather,
both for terror and for the heat.
In the crowd I saw attorney Altain,
who, beaten by thugs,
had a deep wound on his head.
To protect it, he was wearing
a hat, despite the heat.
We were kept there for an hour,
then the order came to let
women and children go.
Going out, I saw a boy aged 10 or 11,
carrying a smaller child,
being pushed back with blows,
as he was too old to go.
On my way home, I saw
more convoys of Jews,
which included women and children.
I went home to meet with my husband.
Around 2 p.m., two sergeants came
and took my husband and
the other men to the station again.
Of the 11 men who left, 10 came back.
One, my husband, never did.
Petrică Bogdan,
my husband's associate,
did not come to the aid of my husband,
but sent a Romanian
to ask me for the records.
In my confusion, I also
gave him a suitcase with silverware.
I asked that elderly man
to come to the station
and claim I was his daughter,
to save my husband,
his son, and my brother,
but he answered in horror:
"Impossible, Madam!"
"Gruesome things are happening there.
They clobber people, they shoot them."
"Hide, save yourself!"
So he refused.
That Monday morning,
on the 30th of June 1941,
any men left alive
were taken to the station
and put on the Death Train I spoke of.
Each wagon, carrying over 100 people,
was sealed with lead and sent
to Călărași, Ialomița County.
My brother, who had the fortune to survive,
told me my husband died on Wednesday,
and his son died on Tuesday evening.
June 29th 1941, the day of the pogrom.
I was taken, with my husband and two sons,
only one of which survived
and was kept in the camp
at Podu Iloaiei until November 1941.
Then he was sent to hard labour
for three years in a row.
The cruel treatment led to his death,
just before the liberation,
on August 20th 1944.
My third son, who was
in the Târgu Jiu camp until 1941,
was then sent to Vapniarka, Transnistria,
and only returned on August 25th 1944.
I spent the years
of Fascist terror alone,
surviving by selling household items
and my dead husband and son's clothes.
I will not dwell on those years
of mental and physical hardships.
Anyone could imagine how I lived.
On the 29th of June 1941,
several Christians dragged from our home
my husband and
two sons, aged 18 and 20,
beat them and took them
to the police station,
Then they were put on the trains
going to the camps.
Survivors told me
they suffocated to death.
I was left with a 16-year old daughter,
barely surviving from
other people's mercy
and selling what I had left
from my husband and sons.
The driver, Gavrilovici,
came at us like a beast.
Now he is a driver at
the Ministry of Communications.
He started to hit us all
with the stock of his rifle,
then herded us, all bloody,
to the police station.
Before that, my late husband,
who had known him a long time,
kneeled before him, begging for our lives.
He answered:
"I must shoot you: Last night
you shot at the Romanian military."
From the police station, at 10 a.m.,
the children and I were allowed to go
and my husband stayed there,
where he was shot to death.
On the way there,
Gavilovici Constantin also hit my brother,
Canner Ștrul, with an iron bar.
But he only died later,
in the police station yard,
after we were separated.
From home, he was taken to the station
and suffocated in the Death Train.
His body was taken out
and buried at Podu Iloaiei.
My husband was taken
from home on June 29th 1941,
taken to the police,
then the train station,
and put on the train
taking Jews to Podu Iloaiei.
He died from the lack of air and water
and was buried in
the Podu Iloaiei Jewish cemetery.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Heiner Caufman was taken
from home by Romanian and German troops
and shot to death at the police station.
My husband Ceaușu Șmil was shot
on the morning of June 30th 1941,
in the Jewish cemetery,
by a Romanian patrol.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my son, Cernea Herman, was taken
to the police station by a German patrol.
On the 30th of June 1941
he was put on the Death Train
and suffocated to death
on the way to Podu Iloaiei.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband was taken, abused
and killed in the courtyard
of the police station.
My beloved children,
Avram Moise and Lazăr Copolovici,
were kept at the police station
on the 29th of June 1941,
tortured, put in wagons,
sent to Podu Iloaiei, Iași County,
and, being later found
dead in their wagon,
were buried with
1.200 other Jews from Iași.
Copolovici Lazăr, letter C, no. 56.
Copolovici Avram Moise, letter C, no. 57.
On the 29th of June 1941,
military and police agents took my husband
to the police station in a convoy.
That same day, he was
put on the Death Train,
and died from abuse and suffocation
on the way to Podu Iloaiei.
On the 29th of June 1941,
Ion Staicu and Dumitru Rusu
came to our home
and took my husband, Nusem Șmil Croitoru,
and our two sons, aged 16 and 14.
They went to the police station,
then were put in wagons to Podu Iloaiei.
My husband and both sons died on the way.
I take full legal responsibility
for my statement above
and sign it myself,
Coitoru Șmil Nehama.
On the day of the pogrom, June 29th 1941,
my husband Iosub Herș Croitoru was
taken by military to the police station
and badly abused there.
He died in the Death Train,
from lack of air and water.
His body was buried
at Podu Iloaiei in a mass grave.
This is how our son died:
on July 1st 1941, on the train
near Târgu Frumos, of suffocation.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Croitoru Aron Moise
and my son Croitoru Bercu
were taken to the police station
and then by train to Podu Iloaiei.
He died of suffocation and was taken out.
My husband died as follows:
suffocated on the Death Train
on the way to Târgu Frumos.
My husband Noeh Dascălu was taken
from our home at Smârdan St.,
on the 29th of June 1941,
beaten and trampled
all the way to the police station.
He spent the whole day
of the 29th there, with no food,
forced to lie face down.
The next day, he was tortured
all the way to the station,
then put in overloaded cattle wagons,
where he suffocated with other victims.
My son Marcu Dascălu was taken
together with his grandparents,
both in their 70s.
They were all savagely beaten.
He was beaten all the way to the station,
put in cattle wagons
with 120 people each,
and suffocated in there,
after days with no fresh air and food.
On the 29th of June 1941,
our son Idel Nathan David was taken
in a convoy to the Iași police station.
The same day, he was put
on the Death Train, where he died,
being disembarked at Târgu Frumos
on the 30th of June 1941.
David Maier: on the 29th of June 1941,
during the Iași pogrom, he was taken
by military and civilians,
with my son David Bernard, 16,
and led to the police station.
The next day, they were put in
wagons with no air, food or water.
They died of suffocation
after two days, in Târgu Frumos,
and were buried in the Jewish cemetery
on the 1st of July 1941,
when they were taken off the train, dead.
My husband died in
the following circumstances:
on the 29th of June 1941,
killed in the courtyard
of the Iași police station.
We hereby declare on faith
to have known Elias Davidsohn,
born in Iași in 1865 to
parents David and Tauba Davidsohn
and killed in the Iași pogrom in 1941.
On the 29th of June 1941,
he was taken from home
to the Iași police station,
where he was shot to death.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Diamant Burăch was
taken by a patrol to the police station,
then put on the Death Train.
On the way to Podu Iloaiei,
he suffocated to death.
People fought for their lives.
40 or 50 struggled for a tiny spot
by a window or crack in the wagon.
The strongest got it.
Dozens of pairs of glassy eyes
stared at him with pure hatred
and, in moments, fell still forever.
At best, death came easily,
in the form of gradual sleepiness,
fogging their mind.
The body remained still
until it eventually expired.
But many, because of
the scorching heat in the wagon,
went mad before dying.
Others, being more aware,
jumped out the wagon window
to be shot and spared a painful death.
Others yet hanged themselves
with their belts.
When a survivor begged for water,
the Romanian soldiers answered: "Poison!"
On the 29th of June 1941
I was taken from home
with my husband Haim Carol Drimer.
He never returned from the police station.
My house was devastated
by thugs who threw us out that same day.
They stole jewellery, cash,
silver, clothing, linens and furs.
The Committee for Romanianisation
took my home
and forced me to pay rent.
My husband Eckstein Șmerl
died suffocated on the train
taking Jews from Iași to
Podu Iloaiei, where he was buried.
Victims in the declarant's family:
Bart, father-in-law,
Herman, brother-in-law,
Ozias Egher, nephew,
Mișu Egher, brother,
Șmil Egher, brother,
Șaie Egher, brother.
Cause of death:
killed at the police station.
On Sunday at 10, the Germans came
with Legionnaires Seserman and Indianu,
constable Munteanu, cobbler Cucu
and wagoner Turilă.
They shot all the Jews on Smârdan Street:
Iosub Schwartz, Leibu Schwartz,
Simon Fasolă, Avram Lupu, Tuly Lupu,
Aizic Șmilovici, Simon Goldstein,
Bercu Cohn, Avram Cohn, Carolică Cohn,
Freu Mațaru, Leon Băcanu,
Ovid Goldfein, Iancu Grunberg,
Leon Grinberg, Pincu Feiner,
Maurer the accountant,
Moise Schneiderman and his son,
Iancu Moisă, Herșcu Moscovici,
the Moscovici brothers, Lupu Tocilaru,
Iancu Tocilaru, and Șaie Egler.
My husband Fatăl Leizer was
taken to the Iași police station
on the 29th of June 1941,
then put on
the Death Train to Târgu Frumos,
in which he died of suffocation.
He was dragged out of his home
on the 29th of June 1941
by constables who took him
to the Iași police station.
He was put on the Death Train
and died of asphyxiation in Târgu Frumos,
where he was buried.
I, the undersigned Felix Sura,
residing at 54, Costache Negri St.,
hereby declare:
On the 29th of June 1941,
I was in Mr. Weisselberg's cellar.
Mr. Miron, who was armed,
came with Romanian and German soldiers
and fired shots inside.
Scared, we took the other exit,
but he knew it and ran there.
He got us all.
The Mirons had always been treated well
and welcome to use the cellar for shelter.
We were badly beaten
at the police station,
my husband was sent with
the "ghost train" and died in Călărași,
and my son was shot
in the station yard.
My two daughters and I
were badly beaten.
My 11-year old girl
took months to recover.
On the way to the police station,
civilians spat and threw stones at us.
I recognised among them
higher clerks I don't know by name,
except for a Miron and his wife,
who worked at the Iași Town Hall.
I saw them guiding the Romanian patrols
to houses where Jews lived.
I think almost the entire Iași population
took part in the pogrom in some way.
It felt almost
like a feast day for the civilians.
At every step, civilians armed
with guns or sticks were escorting Jews.
The third day after the pogrom,
I heard on the tram:
"I killed six!", "I killed ten!"
and other such conversations.
My husband died
in the following circumstances:
On the 29th of June 1941
he was taken from his home in Iași,
escorted to the police
and put on the train
evacuating Jews to Târgu Frumos,
where he died on the 30th of June 1941.
There were 140-150 men in each wagon.
Normally, they couldn't have
fit more than 35-40.
Before sealing the door, they threw in
something with a suffocating smell.
They blocked up the windows and
the Death Train started its gruesome ride.
The pain, fear and exhaustion
put me in a sort of lethargy.
I'd have died in my sleep if my head
hadn't happened to be by the door,
which let in a little air.
I don't know how long I lay there
before being awoken by gunshots
and a sharp pain in my leg.
I saw a bloody bullet hole in my leg.
I saw Dr. Max Aizicovici,
shot full of bullets, lifeless.
The cowardly shots
fired at defenceless people
also killed engineer Pulverman,
attorney Gărcineanu and Iosef Lebel.
We joined a larger convoy,
with Călărașer Rebe in front,
hands tied behind his back.
We were joined by more convoys
on our way to the police station,
and Jews from the street
were taken along, though they had permits,
despite their pleas.
Stepping over our brethren's bodies,
grieving and tearful,
seething with powerless hatred,
we reached the police station.
Among the thousands of people,
bloodied, more dead than alive,
mad with pain,
we start recognising friends.
Gherner, his big hat on his head,
Altain in a bloody cap and overcoat,
Solomon Kahane, pale, in his pyjamas,
Șulimsohn, unconscious,
and many others, taken as they were,
beaten, subject to horrid torture,
not knowing what would happen
to them or their families.
My husband Herș Gherner
and my son Semy Gherner
were taken from home
on the 29th of June 1941,
at 6 p.m.,
and led in a convoy
to the Iași police station.
There, my husband was injured
with an iron bar to the head.
He lost consciousness
and died in the hospital.
My son was killed on the spot.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Glicman Moise David
was taken by a Romanian patrol
and led to the Iași police station.
When they started massacring
Jews in the courtyard,
he was shot to death and buried
in the Jewish cemetery in Iași
on the 29th of June 1941.
My husband died
in the following circumstances:
on the train evacuating Jews
to Podu Iloaiei, of suffocation,
in the pogrom of June 29th 1941.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Goldenberg Avram
went to get a free pass.
He was badly beaten.
He died from the blows
and from being shot
in the courtyard of
the Iași police station.
My husband disappeared
in these circumstances:
Arrested and taken
to the Iași police station,
he disappeared in the rebellion
on the 29th of June 1941.
I saw Onofrei, who now works
at the Medical School in Iași,
and Ciornei, who works
at the Titan Nadrach Călan company,
dragging Jews out of their homes.
Through the keyhole, I saw them
hitting Jews passing in convoys
and making fun of them.
A few days ago,
Mrs. Goldenberg at 10, Rece St.,
told me the two came
to her home on June 29th 1941
and her late son Lică gave them
40.000 lei to overlook their family.
But they took the money and sent soldiers
who took Lică and Lupu Goldenberg,
who never returned.
On June 29nd 1941,
the day of the Iași massacre,
I saw Onofrei
enter the courtyard at no. 113.
He took me, my wife,
our maidservant and all our neighbours
and gave us over to Romanian soldiers
who took us all to the police station.
As they gathered people,
they hit them with an iron bar.
Onofrei also forced out
other Jewish families
and sent them to the police station,
such as Mr. Pincu Solomon
of Dimitrov Street,
Mrs. Goldenberg from Rece Street,
and her son, who worked at the enterprise
Engineer Goldenberg & Nacht.
On the 29th of June 1941,
Alecu Constantin from Iași,
an apprentice cobbler,
took my husband from home,
with others armed with bats.
In the men's absence,
he tried to rob us.
My husband died
in the camp in Călărași, Ialomița.
On Sunday, June 29th, at noon,
pharmacist Veldt came and
told us to go to the police station
to get that cursed "free pass".
Indeed, my dear father Blum Moritz and I,
with neighbours Idel Goldner,
Ciuraru Aron, Ciuraru Șmil and others,
joined the convoy of
120 Jews on Pantelimon Street.
We were threatened at gunpoint
by constable Rusu, of average height,
blonde, ruddy and fat,
to lie face down.
Whoever raised their head would be shot.
He ordered us to line up
two by two, hands raised.
Dissenters were beaten
with gunstocks by the Romanian soldiers
and with sticks by wagoners
from Târgu Cucului.
In the police station courtyard,
the Germans emptied our pockets:
handkerchiefs, pocket knives,
batteries, money.
I was hit in the head with a bat.
Dazed with pain, I couldn't tell the time
when the German and Romanian soldiers
started machinegunning us.
The constables fired their pistols.
People started to run,
jumping over the fence to Sidoli Cinema.
Terror reigned:
to stay was to be shot dead.
My poor father, who had
a weak arm, died there.
On Sunday, at 3 a.m.,
we heard machine guns.
Several Jews were brought out with us
in Saint Spiridon Square and shot.
Mr. Goldner, the bookseller,
lived across the square.
A Romanian officer went in,
there was a gunshot
and Goldner was pulled out dead.
My husband died in
the following circumstances:
in the pogrom of June 29th 1941,
killed in Iași with my son,
Ezra Goldner, 14.
My husband Goldstein Albert was taken
by a German-Romanian patrol,
along with other Jews,
on the 29th of June 1941.
After being horribly abused
at the Iași police station,
he was put in an airtight wagon
and sent to Târgu Frumos.
He died on the train
and was buried in Târgu Frumos.
We were so many in the wagons,
I couldn't tell they died
until the bodies started to smell.
It was hell.
People lost their minds.
A four-year old boy
kept crying for 24 hours:
"Mum, give me coffee, I'm hungry!"
Some hooted like Tarzan;
a shop owner yelled orders.
I made a small hole
in the wagon floor with a pocket knife.
We took turns breathing
a little fresh air.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband was put
in a convoy to the police station,
where he was abused and
later executed with other Jews.
On the 29th of June 1941,
we were suddenly taken from home,
not even allowed to lock up,
and led to the police station.
Then they let the women
and children go home.
Our son and I left;
my husband never came back.
We found the house ransacked,
robbed of our best things: money,
goods, jewellery, clothes, linen.
On June 29th he was taken from home
by a Romanian soldier and three thugs,
tortured at the police station,
then put on that fatal train and shot.
My six children supported me until 1941.
Suddenly, the 29th of June came
and, for being Jews, we were
all taken to the police station,
and beaten there until
three of my sons died,
the youngest and liveliest,
who were the wealthiest
and had valuables on them.
I was left almost a beggar,
since my remaining
two daughters and one son
had their own families
between 1941 and 1944
could barely feed
themselves and their children,
so they couldn't support me too.
Please don't overlook
the tears of a miserable mother.
On the morning of June 29th 1941,
a constable on Victor Place Street
took me from home
and a group of constables and soldiers
led us to the police station.
I don't know his name, but I saw him
a few weeks ago, working for the police.
At the police station I saw
an inspector from the Home Defence Bureau
whom I had served
as a barber at Continental Hotel,
two days before the massacre.
He had come from Bucharest with
three commissioners, whom I also shaved.
We were escorted to the train station,
made to lie face down,
and, in groups of 158, put in wagons.
Only 8 of our 158
reached Podu Iloaiei alive.
We had no water and no air
in the wagons sealed with lead,
from 5 a.m. to 5 p.m.,
when we reached Podu Iloaiei.
The 8 survivors from my wagon
were thrown in a mud pit to drown.
The dead were kept with the living
until we arrived.
My husband Iancu Grinberg
was killed in the "ghost wagons"
filled with Jews after the pogrom
on June 29th 1941.
Survivors told me he died
near Roman and was buried there.
As a housewife with two small children,
I couldn't make a living.
The crushing labour during
the Fascist regime ruined my health
and I had to have surgery
which left me an invalid.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband was taken
to the police station,
then put on the "ghost train"
to Podu Iloaiei and never came back.
He had on him a man's gold watch,
a woman's watch and gold rings.
I was left alone,
unable to support myself.
My brothers Marcu, Solomon
and Leon Grinberg from Păcurarilor Road
were taken to the Iași police station,
tortured and robbed
of the money they had on them,
then sent to the camp in the Death Train.
They are buried in Podu Iloaiei.
I am the poor orphan of a father
killed savagely in the Iași pogrom
of June 29th 1941.
After all this time, I suffer to see
my father's killers going free,
or living comfortably in prisons
without being tried.
My husband died
in the following circumstances:
Taken to the police station
on the 29th of June 1941,
he suffocated to death
on the train to Ialomița
and was buried in Târgu Frumos.
I was taken from my store
by a police officer,
a certain Adam, who has since died.
First they robbed me
of my documents and money.
Adam also took my brothers,
Grosman Itzik and Avram,
and robbed them as well.
Adam killed them as I watched.
In the evening we were put on the train
by Romanian and German soldiers.
There were 150 people in my wagon.
From Iași to Roman, it was never opened
to take out the dead or give us water.
My brother-in-law
was killed on the 29th of June.
The windows were broken,
the children ran away.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Grinberg Iosif Daniel
was taken by Romanian soldiers
to the police station,
and put on the Death Train
to Călărași, Ialomița.
He suffocated in the wagon
and was buried in Mircești, Roman County.
During the Legionnaire regime,
my only son, later killed
in the pogrom on June 29th 1941,
was arrested and tortured by the police.
I paid Legionnaire police agents
around 50.000 lei in bribes.
On the 29th of June,
my only son and my husband were killed
and I was left with no home and no means,
having to sell all my belongings.
Shot on the first day
of the Iași pogrom, June 26 1941:
Evelina, 14 years old,
Marcel, 12, Sedy, 10.
On the 30th of June 1941,
at 6 a.m.,
my husband was
dragged from bed by four soldiers
and on the Death Train
to Podu Iloaiei suffocated to death.
My husband was killed
by a band of Legionnaires.
He was badly beaten,
our home was robbed.
So were my father, a brother,
a brother-in-law etc.
Our store was robbed too.
I fell ill from deprivation and suffering.
We four sisters
were widowed and orphaned.
We still carry that pain with us.
We will never forget.
On the 29th of June, my husband
was taken to the police station,
beaten, then put on
the death train to Târgu Frumos.
He died of suffocation and
was buried in Târgu Frumos.
In the year 1941,
month of June, day of 29th,
a group entered our courtyard
at 38, Barbu Lăutaru Street,
including an armed German soldier
and a boy from Tăetoarei Street.
They asked if my husband was home.
Seeing the soldier's gun
and the boy's bat, I answered no.
The boy came in to check.
My husband was hiding,
but the boy got him out.
The children and I started crying,
asking where they were taking him.
A neighbour, Ion Munteanu,
slapped me, pushed me back and said:
"Your days are over!"
I stayed there with the younger children.
The older boys were working in town,
two at Commission 5
and one at Commission 4.
Two returned from the camp.
I know nothing of the third.
My husband never came back either.
This is my statement,
signed by thumbprint.
What else is there to say,
when my husband died
on the train to Podu Iloaiei
on 29.06.1941,
and I, once a wealthy homemaker,
was left in mental and financial ruin?
My suffering has sickened
and aged me beyond recognition.
On the 29th of June, at 2 p.m.,
my husband and my son Herman Filip
went to the police station
to get a free pass.
I learned they were
put on the Death Train.
My husband died near Podu Iloaiei,
my son near Roman.
On June 29th 1941,
my husband Herșcovici Leon
was taken to the police station
and was shot there.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my son Herșcovici Moise was taken
in a convoy to the Iași police station.
That same day,
he was put on the Death Train.
He suffocated to death on the way
to Podu Iloaiei, on June 30th 1941.
My son Hirschensohn Carol
was taken from home on June 29th 1941
by a Romanian and German military patrol
and was shot at the police station.
This is how my son died:
He was taken to the police station
by Romanian and German soldiers,
and put on the Death Train,
dying on the way to Podu Iloaiei.
On the 29th of June 1941, at 6:30,
two men in ragged clothes came,
with two soldiers
led by constable Păsărică,
who, knowing most of the tenants,
dragged them out, asked for their IDs
and threatened us wives with a bat.
The armed soldiers said our husbands
were Communists and had to be shot.
My husband Huberman Herșcu, his victim,
started crying and told Păsărică
he has documents to show
he was on the front line in 1918
and was decorated for bravery,
and certainly not a Communist.
But the man herded them out
beating them with the stock of his pistol.
The next day, he asked me for money,
claiming he was protecting them,
and would give them the money
before they were sent to the camp.
But he beat my husband so bad
he didn't even make it on the train.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Iancu Mendel went
to the police to get a free pass.
On June 30th he was put on the Death Train
and suffocated to death
on the way to Târgu Frumos.
On the 24th of June 1941,
he was taken from his
forced labour at the cemetery
and executed with other Jews
in the police station courtyard
on the 30th of June 1941.
On the 29th of June,
my husband and two sons
were taken in a convoy
to the police station
and never came back,
leaving my daughters and I
with no moral and financial support.
My son died in these circumstances:
He was taken on June 29th 1941 at 3 p.m.
and killed in the pogrom
in the police station courtyard.
On the 29th of June 1941, at 1 p.m.,
my husband Ițicovici Iosub Leib
was taken by a Romanian and German patrol
and later shot at the police station.
He was buried in a mass grave
in the Jewish cemetery in Iași.
My husband Ițicovici Moise
died on the 30th of June 1941,
suffocating on
the evacuee train to Podu Iloaiei.
I personally knew late Lupu Iuster,
who lived in Brăila,
and know he was killed
at the Iași police station
on the 29th of June 1941,
during the pogrom.
I and other Jews were taken from home
to the courtyard of
the Iași police station,
separated from our families
and made to face the wall,
being prohibited to speak.
Near me I saw late Lupu Iuster,
who was only passing through Iași.
When many Jews had gathered,
there was an air raid siren,
and the machine guns in the courtyard
started massacring the Jews there.
In the horror-struck mayhem,
some of us tried to take shelter.
My neighbour Tili Eizikovici
helped us over a fence,
thus saving our lives.
Of us 11 neighbours brought there,
only three survived.
After the massacre,
sneaking through the courtyard,
I saw Iuster's body
in a ditch, peppered with bullets.
My husband died
in the following circumstances:
Like most Jews, he was taken to
the Iași police station on June 29th 1941,
then put on the train to Podu Iloaiei,
and suffocated to death.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Kaiserman Noe
and sons Carol and Iosef Kaiserman
were taken to the police station
by Romanian troops
and were shot there.
My husband Katz Kasriel
suffocated to death on the train
taking Jews to the camp
at Podu Iloaiei on June 30th 1941,
with many other Jews.
My son died in these circumstances:
On the 29th of June 1941,
he was taken to
the police station, then to Ialomița
and suffocated to death
on the 30th of June at Podu Iloaiei.
It is my holy duty to recount the death
of good man Lazăr Klughaupt,
former treasurer of
the Keren Kayemet in Iași.
On the 29th of June at 6 p.m.,
Romanian and German patrols
took my husband to the police station.
He was shot to death
in the courtyard there.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Bercu Leib
was taken to the police station,
where he was shot.
My husband Ioină Leiba,
nicknamed Lupu Șerman,
was forcibly taken to
the Iași police station
on the 29th of June 1941,
by civilians and soldiers still unknown,
then put on the death train to Ialomița,
where he died from lack of air and water.
He was taken out
and buried at Târgu Frumos.
Passing near water, in our thirst,
most of us couldn't resist jumping
out of the wagon window to drink.
Most of them were shot by soldiers.
I remember how a staff sergeant,
aide to magistrate Triandaf,
commander of the train,
executed an 11-year old boy like this:
As the child jumped out for water,
he shot him in the leg.
The boy fell, but kept begging:
"Water, water!"
The sergeant grabbed his legs, said
"You want water? Drink your fill!"
and kept his head under
the water until he drowned,
then let go of his body in the river.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband was taken
by a band of thugs around 2 p.m.,
and died from the beating
at the Iași police station.
My son died in these circumstances:
Taken from home
on the 29th of June 1941,
he was killed at the police station.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband and son were taken
from home by police agents
and evacuated by train.
They died on the way, at Podu Iloaiei.
On the 29th of June 1941,
he was taken out of hiding
and badly beaten at the police station,
dying there on the same day.
On the 29th of June 1941,
near dawn, a Romanian patrol
and one German soldier
broke down the door of our pub
and shot my husband three times.
Three of my sons died
in the wagons, of hunger and thirst.
To this day, I know nothing of my son.
A cousin of mine also died,
Benu Marcovici, shop owner
at 140, Brătianu Street,
in the wagons sent to Podu Iloaiei.
My husband Șaie Marcus
and son Natan Marcus
died of suffocation and thirst
on the Death Train to Călărași.
Buried in Călărași.
Today, June 7th 1943,
we conclude from the documents
that her husband, David Mattes,
was allowed to settle here as resident
by Royal Decree 263/February 13th 1918.
As he fought in the Romanian military
as administrative staff sergeant,
the Iași Administrative Court,
by Decision 15/1941,
put him, his wife and their
two underage children in Category II.
The wife shows that
her husband and two sons died in Iași
as part of the repression on June 29 1941.
She annexes her marriage certificate
and the three death certificates.
Examining her request and the documents,
this Commission determines
that Mrs Bunie Leia Mattes
does not qualify for the Jewish categories
in Art. 3/b of Law 143/1943
and cannot be given Romanian statute.
At 10 a.m. on the 29th of June 1941,
he was taken to the police
by unknown individuals,
then put on the train
taking Jews to Podu Iloaiei,
where he died of suffocation and thirst
on the 30th of June 1941.
The body was buried in
the cemetery in Podu Iloaiei, Iași County.
On the 29th of June 1941,
policemen from Iași put
my husband on the Death Train.
He suffocated to death
in the wagon, at Târgu Frumos.
On the 29th of June 1941, around 6 p.m.,
after we had been allowed
to leave the police station,
Constantin Gongu, courthouse registrar,
and two public guardians
took my husband back to the police station
where he was shot by killers unknown.
I saw Gongu Constantin, at the time
courthouse registrar at Section 4,
when he and a constable took
Moise Segal, husband of Mrs. Șura Segal,
who never came back.
I heard Gongu say,
as he was drinking wine,
that he was the new owner
of the man's house.
He also took a boy
from the house of Jew Zborover
and the boy never came back.
My husband was
taken from home by soldiers,
taken to the Iași police station
and put on a wagon to Podu Iloaiei.
He died from the lack of water and air
and is buried at Podu Iloaiei.
My husband died
in the following circumstances:
In the Iași pogrom on June 29th 1941,
he was taken to the police station,
where he was abused.
The next day, June 30th 1941,
he was put on the Death Train
and died in the Iași train station.
Others, having finished their own urine,
asked others to urinate
in their cupped hand so they could drink.
Ițic Lupu's late son
asked me for this favor,
but I could not stoop to this horrid task.
Only when he begged,
saying it would save his life,
did I half-heartedly
obey this revolting request.
My husband was a qualified tailor.
My 23-year old son
was a certified accountant.
Both were taken from home,
beaten, tortured,
sent to the camp in Ialomița,
and died on the way, in the pogrom.
I was left alone,
with no means to make a living.
This is how my husband died:
On the 29th of June 1941,
he was taken to
the Iași police station and shot.
My husband was taken from home
on the 29th of June 1941
and led, with other Jews,
to the Iași police station,
then put on the train to Podu Iloaiei,
where he died from the heat
and lack of air and water.
He was taken out and buried
at Podu Iloaiei on June 30th 1941.
I declare that Popescu Constantin,
residing at 9, Brândușa Street,
during the rebellion of June 29th 1941,
took me to the police station
with my father
Bercu Mihailovici and a brother,
who died there.
On the way he hit us
with his gunstock
and kept shouting
"Keep your hands up!"
Place of death:
the train taking
Jewish evacuees to Podu Iloaiei.
My husband Idel Mihailovici
was taken to the Iași police station
on the 29th of June 1941,
by Popovici from Vântu Street.
He was shot when he tried to run,
then put on
the Death Train to Podu Iloaiei,
where he died from lack of water and air.
My husband died as follows:
On Sunday, 29th of June 1941, 8 o'clock,
he was taken to
the police station and shot.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband was taken
by citizens Valodi and Bădulescu, now arrested.
He was put on the train to Târgu Frumos,
where he was taken out dead.
The train I was in travelled
for eight days and nine nights
to its destination in Călărași.
At Roman, where we were
taken out to bathe,
we saw chalk writings on the wagons
instigating to violence against Jews.
I remember the following words:
"These are the murderers who
fired at the Romanian military!"
My husband and 19-year old son
were killed in the Iași pogrom
of the 29th of June 1941,
by Legionnaire Nazi gangs.
My son Moscovici Kalman and I
were taken from home
on June 29th 1941,
by Romanian policemen,
and led to the police station.
I was let go for being old,
and he was shot to death
with my other son
in the police station courtyard.
He died from
the poor conditions in the train.
On the 29th of June 1941,
he was taken from home by strangers
with my son Isac Nadler
and taken with other Jews
to the Iași police station,
where they were badly beaten, then
put on the Death Train to Podu Iloaiei
where they both died of suffocation.
My husband Nuță David was
taken to the Iași police station
on the 29th of June 1941,
by Constantin Jerminschi
of Păcurari Road, Iași,
who worked at Distribuția,
then put on the Death Train
to Podu Iloaiei,
where he died from lack of water and air.
My husband died in these circumstances:
taken to the police station,
then put on the train
to Podu Iloaiei, where he died.
After four years of constant grief
for me and my one orphaned son,
I am once again pained by an event
that surprised many peaceful townsmen:
The police agents returned.
Many of them have blood on their hands
from that gruesome Sunday,
and the town still bears the marks
of that odious mass murder
and the blood of the 12.000.
I ask not for revenge
for my husband, dragged away
and put on the deadly wagons
to Podu Iloaiei and Ialomița.
I repeat, we do not ask for revenge.
But human and divine justice
should punish them
for killing their fellow men.
"Thou shalt not kill" - how noble!
Did those who killed
on that Sunday of June 29th
consider this divine commandment?
The hatred with which they killed
makes us doubt it.
Pardon this digression
and take it as an introduction
to the case of my husband,
Harry Pulver, watchmaker.
Sunday, the 29th, constable Bocancea
broke down our door,
entered our room with a gun
to kill my husband.
I gave him 500 lei
so he wouldn't take me away,
but he refused, so my husband
gave him 1.500 lei to let me be.
He showed him
the free pass from the police,
but Bocancea tore it,
saying it was no good.
My husband left with Bocancea
and I never saw him again.
Seeing Bocancea go free
was like seeing my husband's dead body.
Now I see him free again
and I wonder why.
Is it not time to punish
the murders on June 29th 1941?
With the utmost respect,
Perla Pulver, pogrom widow.
Moise Rapaport, my son,
and Iosub Rapaport, my nephew,
were taken by Romanian soldiers,
killed by beating and suffocation
in the wagons to the camp,
and taken out at Roman,
where their bodies still are.
All four men in the picture, Solomon Klein,
Ștrul Lupu, Max Perlof and Avram Rizel,
as well as my neighbour Pincu,
died on the Death Train.
The family later learned that Avram Rizel
tried to hide at the St. Teodor Church,
whose priest was his friend.
But the priest’s brother chased him away,
threatening to hand him over to the police.
My husband Rosenbaum Aurel
was taken to the Iași police station
on the 29th of June 1941,
by civilians and soldiers still unknown.
He was put on the death wagons to Ialomița
and died on the way
for lack of air and water.
He was taken off
and buried at Târgu Frumos.
My son was taken from
his grandmother's home on June 29th 1941
by a Romanian patrol
that led him to the police station.
He was put on the Death Train.
He died for lack of air and water
on the way to Podu Iloaiei,
on June 30th 1941.
I, my husband and
our two sons, aged 27 and 31,
lived in Iași,
at 41 Lăpușneanu Street,
at the date of the pogrom,
June 29th 1941.
Dumitru Dădârlat and his family
lived just above us.
We knew him to be very crooked,
capable of any evil against his peers.
On the afternoon
of June 29th 1941, around 5,
Romanian soldiers
came in with two civilians,
one of them doorman at Trianon Cinema,
by breaking down the door.
Dădârlat sent his servant
to tell the patrol we were hidden inside.
We were all escorted
to the police station,
where we were beaten.
I, the only survivor, returned to find
the house devastated and robbed
by the doorman of Trianon Cinema
and the employees at Mr. Dădârlat 's pub.
What is more, after these bloody events,
he put pressure on me,
taking advantage of my dejection
at the loss of my husband and two sons,
forced me to sell him
our bedroom furniture for 7.000 lei.
I saw the husband and sons of
Mrs. Rosenfeld, who lived below Dădârlat,
taken out of hiding by a group
of civilians and a German soldier.
I was there with Dădârlat,
in his warrant officer uniform,
when Mrs. Rosenfeld asked Dumitru Dădârlat
to intervene for her sons and husband.
"What, so I'll get taken too?"
Indeed, Dădârlat had
a very malicious servant
who denounced Jews
hidden in the beer hall building.
My husband died
in the following circumstances:
He was taken from home
in the afternoon of June 29th 1941,
by persons unknown,
led to the Iași police station,
sent to the camp on
the Death Train to Călărași, Ialomița,
and died on July 13th 1941.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband was doing
forced labour at the plant.
He was put on
the Death Train to Podu Iloaiei.
He died in the wagon
for lack of air and water
and was buried at
Podu Iloaiei on June 30th 1941.
My sons Avram and Bernard Rudich
were taken from home
on the 29th of June 1941,
and led to the Iași police station.
They and other Jews,
in the conditions we all know,
were sent to Podu Iloaiei
in wagons sealed airtight.
My sons died on the way
and were buried at Podu Iloaiei.
My husband Lupu Scheffler was
taken from home by unknown soldiers
and escorted to the Iași police station
on the 29th of June 1941.
He was killed in
the police station courtyard.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Schwarz Nuham was
taken in a convoy with other Jews
to the Iași police station, where he was
shot to death in the courtyard.
My husband Schwarzneider Meir
was taken from home
by a police agent and a German soldier
on June 29th 1941, at 9 a.m.,
sent in a convoy to
the Iași police station and killed there.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband was taken to
the Iași police station but survived.
That was in the morning.
In the afternoon he was taken again
by Romanian military,
beaten and taken back there.
Before him, they took
our three sons, Aron, Haim, and Oscar.
They were beaten by a Romanian patrol and
sent in a convoy to the police station.
My husband and
two of the sons were killed,
and the third, Haim, survived,
but was sent to the camp
in the Death Train.
At Târgu Frumos he was taken out dead.
37 days after the rebellion,
I returned home,
after staying with a sister of mine.
Some of our goods had been requisitioned
as the police certified.
The other goods and five machines had been
stolen by Romanian military firefighters.
I found Romanian soldiers in our store
who chased me away.
How my father was killed:
On June 29th, at 6 a.m.,
he willingly went to work at Commission 4.
He and 50 others there
were taken to the train station,
being beaten all the way by
police agents, soldiers and civilians.
They worked all day under the whip,
and in the evening they were
taken to the police station like cattle
and beaten by
German and Romanian soldiers.
At 11 they were loaded into wagons.
Neighbours returned from the camp
told me of his horrible death,
between Mircești and Hălăucești.
The pain of his death
will be with me forever.
At the start of the war,
on the 29th of June,
my father and I were taken from home,
beaten and led to the police station.
German and Romanian soldiers
and Legionnaire civilians
were waiting to beat us by the entrance.
We spent the day there,
in the sound of gunshots.
I lost my father in the crowd.
He was taken
in a convoy to the train station,
put in a wagon with 150 people,
bound for Călărași, Ialomița,
with no air.
He died as they were reaching Călărași.
I was kept in the basement
of the Iași police station for two days.
Then I ran home
and found the house robbed.
When the war started,
on the 29th of June 1941,
my husband was killed
in the wagons to Ialomița.
I was left with five children
and no means to support them.
I could only sell all my husband
had earned in 45 years of hard work.
After gradually selling
all we had in the house,
I was left with no belongings
and no way to earn a living.
My children were young.
The oldest, 15, couldn't work yet.
Caught between the terror
and our dire financial situation,
those four years exhausted us.
My husband Segall Herșcu was
taken from home with our two sons,
Segall Itzhak and Rudy,
and led to the Iași police station
on the 29th of June 1941
by civilians and soldiers.
He died on the Death Train
to Podu Iloaiei for lack of water and air.
My son died in the pogrom
in Iași on June 29th 1941.
Circumstances of my husband's death:
He was taken from
forced labour at the electrical plant
on the 29th of June 1941,
beaten at the Iași police station
and put on the Death Train to Podu Iloaiei
where he died of suffocation.
My son was dragged from our hiding place,
taken to the police station, beaten again,
and sent on the train to Podu Iloaiei,
dying for lack of air and water.
We lost our only son.
Circumstances of my husband's death:
Deported on the Death Train
on the 29th of June 1941,
he died in the wagon
at Podu Iloaiei, for lack of water and air.
A patrol knocked at
Dr. Solomonovici and Dr. Manole's door.
They ordered all men to come out
and shot the doctors
on the stairs outside.
My husband died in these circumstances:
Taken from home on Sunday,
the 29th of June 1941,
by three wagoners,
he was taken to
the police station, then put in a wagon
and died on the Death Train,
being buried at Podu Iloaiei.
On June 29th, our son Marcel Spiegler
was taken from home with other Jews
and led in the convoy
to the Iași police station,
where he was killed the same day
with blows to the head.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Iancu Steinberg
and my sons Marcel, 26, and Carol, 17,
were taken by Romanian soldiers
to the police station,
where they were beaten
and killed horribly.
For four years I suffered
morally and financially.
My husband was
a political prisoner in the camp.
One son, Leon Sternin,
was killed on June 29th 1941
at the Iași police station.
The second son was put in
those horrid wagons on the 30th of June.
I was chased out of my house
and savagely robbed.
Our son Strauch Isac was taken
to the Iași police station
on the 29th of June 1941
by unknown soldiers,
then put on
the Death Train to Podu Iloaiei,
where he died for lack of air and water
and was taken out dead
at Podu Iloaiei, where he is buried.
My son Ștrul Iancu was taken
from home by a police sergeant
on the 29th of June 1941,
and killed at the Iași police station.
In June 1941 I had a colonial goods store
called Smirnov, in Iași.
The defendant Dominte Mihai
was my errand boy.
On the day of the massacre,
during the air raid alarm,
about 150 people
took shelter in my basement.
One of them was a neighbour,
a Jew who was my friend.
15 people in the basement,
knowing he was a Jew,
and the defendant Dominte Mihai
tried to shove him out of the basement.
Seeing this, I told Dominte Mihai
to let my Jewish customer be.
But he only shoved him harder,
swore at me and called me a "Jew lover".
So I gave up, and Dominte
with 14-15 other people
dragged the Jew out
to the Râpa Galbenă neighbourhood,
where the Germans shot him.
I did not witness the execution, but
that evening I went to the neighbourhood
I saw my client's body,
shot in the back, if I remember well.
I don't know who shot him.
My husband was shot by soldiers
on the 29th of June 1941.
The gunshot wound caused his death
on the 19th of July 1942.
That same day, my son Iancu
was put on the train
and died on the 30th of June 1941
in Târgu Frumos.
We decided to slit our wrists to die.
I pried off the metal edge
of my wallet, split it in three,
slit my left wrist and fell unconscious.
Later, I woke up when
a madman bit my right hand.
I must not have cut deep enough,
or my blood was thick for lack of water.
When I came to, it was light outside.
A maddened young man had hanged
himself from the window grate, which fell.
I saw the poor boy dead.
I was standing by the window shutter,
which probably saved me.
I found my father
under a pile of bodies.
I barely got him to wake up,
with a little water I bought for 2.000 lei
from a soldier guarding us.
My father died on Thursday.
His body was taken out at Mircești.
On Wednesday, I bought from a soldier
some water for a watch.
The first sip burned my insides.
It wasn't water, it was petrol.
Costel Zimischi and other Legionnaires
dragged my family out of our home.
On the way to the police station,
they kept beating my son, Turkișer Zalman,
who died on the way.
I was put on
the second train to Podu Iloaiei
Of the 150 people in my wagon,
only six survived.
On the 29th of June 1941,
the defendants Laur Ioan,
Andronic, and Velescu,
with several gendarmes and a constable,
threatened to shoot Moriț David Bernstein
if he didn't open the door.
The witness, knowing Andronic,
asked what they wanted.
Andronic said he should
call him "The Executioner".
Ioan Laur punched him twice,
so hard that he lost two teeth.
The 29th of June 1941
was a day of sadistic debauchery.
From morning to night, they arrested Jews
on the streets Brătianu, Vântu and Bascea,
torturing and robbing them.
Andronic, Popovici and Velescu
handed over to the patrols
Moise Șmil, Rechil Ițicovici,
Gherner Meer Leib, Pascu Getler,
Smadic Marcu and his son,
who died on the train to Călărași,
Leib Moise, Ulner Moise
with his wife and children,
Ițic Zilberman, etc.
My husband Ulner Moise was
taken from home on June 29th 1941,
beaten savagely at the police station,
and killed at the Iași train station.
He is buried in the Iași Jewish cemetery.
I have only requested a pension
for my husband Ulner Moise,
and not for my son Ulner Isac,
also killed in the pogrom,
who left behind his wife Ulner Leia
and his underage child Ulner Iosif.
My husband Isac Ulner was
first taken to the Iași police station
on the 29th of June 1941,
beaten there, then taken
to the train station with other Jews.
Put in an airtight wagon,
he suffocated to death on June 30th 1941,
being buried at Podu Iloaiei, Iași County.
On the 29th of June 1941,
I was at my brother Avram Ușer
at 14, Păcurari Street.
We were dragged out, beaten and
sent in a convoy to the police station.
Passing by my house,
I saw Petre Lercă and a Romanian soldier
taking out my brother Iosub Ușer
with his wife and children
and my mother Ruhla Ușer.
They were added to my convoy and
herded under blows to the police station.
I survived among the 140 deportees
in my wagon to Podu Iloaiei.
My two brothers died.
Of the 140 people
in my wagon going to the camp,
only eight survived.
For the deaths of my husband
Iosub Ușer and my brother-in-law,
I ask for retribution
with tears in my eyes.
On the 29th of June 1941,
as the convoy was passing,
they came with bats and
dragged us out of our old home,
taking us to the police station.
My husband was killed;
I was left with two small children.
My brother-in-law Avram Ușer
was taken with my husband Iosub.
My husband owned a colonial goods store,
but when they took us
to the police station
anti-Semite robbers took everything,
and I was left with nothing.
God only knows how I fed
my innocent children these five years.
I still suffer of heart disease
caused by the beatings.
Now I live with my mother-in-law,
a widow of the 1916-1918 war.
Two of her sons were suffocated
on the trains during the pogrom.
My husband Valdman Ștrul died
of suffocation on the train to Călărași,
and was buried at Târgu Frumos
on the 2nd of July 1941.
On the 29th of June 1941, around noon,
soldiers and civilians entered my home
and put us in a convoy,
my husband and I
and our three children.
My husband Herșcu and my son Moise
were beaten by unknown people
who broke into our house like barbarians.
In a convoy, I was herded
with my husband and children
to Târgu Cucului.
A Romanian officer ordered
women and children to be sent home.
I took two of the children home.
My husband and my son Moise
went on to the police station.
On my way home I saw
Niță Constantin and several young men,
leading a convoy of Jews
to the police station.
Among them I saw
Riven Marcu, his head covered in blood.
He told me Niță Constantin had
hit him with a shovel over the head.
The sight of him made me sick
and I went on home.
My husband was put in the wagons
carrying Jews to the camp at Podu Iloaiei.
He suffocated to death
and was buried there.
My son Moise Vătavu
died in the same conditions.
My husband Sin Ionil
David Weinstein, nicknamed „Iancu”,
was taken to the Iași police station
by unknown civilians and soldiers
on the 29th of June 1941,
and put in the death wagons
to Podu Iloaiei,
dying for lack of water and air.
He is buried at Podu Iloaiei.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my son Weinstock Iosif was taken
from our home at 97, Vasile Lupu Street
and led to the police station,
then put on the train with other Jews
to Podu Iloaiei.
He died for lack of air and water
and is buried at Podu Iloaiei.
On the 29th of June 1941,
the day of the pogrom,
I was doing labour as a pharmacist
at Caritatea Hospital in Iași.
My wife and only son were with
a relative at 19, Căpitan Păun Street,
where there was
a concrete air raid shelter.
At 10 a.m., on the Sunday
of June 29th 1941,
a soldier and two civilians broke in and
dragged out all seven men in the house,
including my son.
Hands up, they were
taken to the police station.
In the afternoon, they were shot at
with machineguns and many died.
All night they were forced at gunpoint
to stay on the ground among the bodies.
The next day, on Monday, at 4 a.m.,
they were taken barefoot to
the train station and forced to lie down.
Many who raised their heads
were shot on the spot.
As they were put on the death train,
they were hit by Germans and Romanians
with iron bars, wooden bats and gunstocks.
Then they were piled up
on top of one another.
The crammed wagons with
doors sealed airtight
were sent on side tracks for hours.
The carbide on the floor decomposed
from their breath and urine
and suffocated them.
At 5 p.m., my son's wagon
was opened at Podu Iloaiei.
Only a few had survived.
My son was among the dead.
He is buried in a mass grave
at Podu Iloaiei with 2.400 others.
My son died in
the following circumstances:
He was taken on the 29th of June 1941
and led by a Romanian-German patrol
to the Iași police station,
where he was beaten.
He was put on the barbaric death train
with many other Jews, for racial reasons,
and died there.
Circumstances of death:
pogrom in the main square, Iași, 1941.
A Romanian patrol took my husband
to the police station courtyard.
He died on the Death Train
from his wounds and lack of air and water,
on the way to Târgu Frumos,
on the 1st of July 1941.
We hereby declare on faith
to have known Wittner A. Idel,
a travelling salesman for Ichil David
at 32, Costache Negri Street,
born in Iași on February 26th 1880,
son of Moise and Haia Leia.
I also knew Lazăr Wittner, an accountant
for the Wechtel Brothers company,
born in Iași on January 9th 1916,
son of Idel and Reizla,
and I know that during
the pogrom on June 29th 1941
they were both taken
from home to the police station,
then put on the Death Train,
and died from the wounds
and lack of air and water at Târgu Frumos,
both Idel A. Wittner and Lazăr Wittner,
on the 1st of July 1942.
My husband was taken from home
by a German patrol and civilians,
and led to the Iași police station,
in whose courtyard he died
from wounds, beatings and gunshots.
I stayed in the police station courtyard
from 7 a.m. until afternoon,
when I was let go
and my son, Samoil Zborover, was detained.
I never saw him again.
I learned he was deported in cattle wagons
and died near Podu Iloaiei.
Returning, I found my house devastated.
I learned some of my belongings were
in the house of my neighbour Gongu
and other neighbours.
On the 29th of June 1941,
all my three sons were
taken to the Iași police station,
put on the Death Train to Podu Iloaiei,
and died for lack of air and water.
My husband Zeilic Beer Maier
was taken on the 29th of June 1941,
led to the police station
and put on the infamous train.
He died on the way to Roman
and was buried in Mircești.
That same day, my son Iosef was killed
in the police station courtyard.
I was left alone
with three children and no support.
My misfortune was all
due to my Christian neighbours.
They turned my husband in
and he was killed at the police station.
Circumstances of our son's death:
Suffocated to death on
the train with Jewish evacuees
on the 29th of June 1941.
My husband Zeilig Riven Lazăr
was taken with my son Berman Zeilig
and other neighbours,
led to the police station, beaten,
then sent on the Death Train
to Podu Iloaiei, Iași County.
He died of suffocation and
the beatings at the police station.
My husband Aron and
my son Leon were taken from home
by Mihai Petrescu, now hiding from
the lawsuit I filed against him for theft,
and a Romanian patrol.
From the police station,
they were sent to the Death Train.
They died on the way to Podu Iloaiei
for lack of air and water.
On the 29th of June 1941,
my husband Iancu Zingher was
taken from home by civilians,
led in a convoy to the police station
and shot to death in the courtyard.
Early on, when people died like flies
in the train stopped in Târgu Frumos,
I jumped out of the wagon to die sooner,
hoping the soldiers would shoot me.
But, realising what I wanted,
they started to punch and trample me
then left me for dead, after taking
my money, jewellery and papers.
I fainted with the pain.
I woke up when two people
dragged me,
undressed me in a swamp
and put me in a truck with dead bodies.
I would have to write a lot
to describe my suffering on the truck
and in the cemetery, where someone
tried to kill me with a wrench.
By the cemetery gate there was
a pile of bodies covered in burnt straw.
Along the cemetery wall
there was a long ditch full of bodies,
some of them still moving or shaking,
but unable to struggle.
They were piled up as they fell,
thrown from the truck like firewood.
Then I was whipped by a commissioner
for sitting down next to a machine gun.
I was taken back to the train,
forced to step over the unloaded bodies,
piled higher than the wagon's threshold.
The worst was that they refused
to take out all the bodies,
and us few survivors
spent one day and one night
with half a wagonload
of bodies fermenting in the heat,
with no water and no air,
so that more people died,
until the wagon was empty.
Part II: Images