Bucharest, as the capital of Rumania, was the largest center of Rumanian Jewry, with over 100,000 Jews at the start of 1941. With the establishment of the Antonescu government in September, 1940, the Jews became victim to the rabidly antisemitic Iron Guard. A policy of dispossession, expropriation, nationalization, and dismissals, together with confiscatory taxes, soon impoverished the Jewish population. From the fall of 1941, Jews were employed in cleaning the streets and clearing them of snow, and by 1942, over 28,000 Jewish men were engaged in forced labor. All Jewish youths between the ages of 15 and 18 were taken into forced labor in May, 1943. The Jews of Bucharest were saved from extermination on August 23, 1944, after Antonescu was arrested by the King. Although Eichmann planned to go to Bucharest to begin preparations for deporting the Jews, the entry of Soviet troops on August 30, 1944, prevented this scheme.
Below is a thumbnail of a document from the Jewish administration in Bucharest dated March 5, 1942, that a Jew, Rudolf Psalt, worked for 10 days in snow clearing. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "Document" in the left frame to return.
Below are thumbnails of a postcard from Bucharest to Zurich, Switzerland, postmarked September 22, 1941. Please click on the thumbnail to see the full image, and then click your back key or "postcard" in the left frame to return.
Encyclopedia Judaica, CD-Rom Edition, Keter Publishing
Spector, The Encyclopedia of Jewish Life Before and During the Holocaust (2001), P. 208-12
Copyright © 2003-08 Edward Victor