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We were so happy about Antonescu coming [10]. But after that it was a disaster. He came and organized pogroms [1].
Let’s say there were around 100.000 of inhabitants in Iassy before WWII. Romanian and Jews lived together. In our yard there were Jews and Christians as well. On the 29thof June they attacked all the neighborhoods where Jews lived.
They took them from Cuza Voda street, from Lapusneanu street, from all parts of Iassy to Stefan cel Mare street, which was the main street. There was the Pacurari neighborhood, the Niculina neighborhood, Podul Rosu – in each of these neighborhoods lived more Jews than Christians.
I can still hear it even today. In our yard there lived many families. It was a yard with many apartments and stories. Jews and Christian lived there together.
One morning, it was Sunday, they entered in the yard – they weren’t dressed like soldiers – and shouted: “All Jews, come out of your houses!” I don’t remember if anybody explained anything to us, but this is what stuckto my memory: if the Germans are against the Jews and they come by here on their way to Bessarabia, they don’t trust us and they will send us to a labor camp.
Although it was summer – it was the 29thof July, a very warm day – we put on something warm, we took our arctics, because we didn’t know where we were heading to and how long it was going to take. You never know when the war is going to be over. We didn’t take food, we didn’t take anything. We just put something more on: warm jackets and caps.
And we gotout together. When we came out on the Stefan cel Mare street, which was a large street, armed people lined us up and then crowded us towards the police headquarters. There is a memorial plaque on Vasile Alecsandri street, on the wall of the former police headquarters commemorating the victims of this pogrom.
On my way to the police headquarters I already saw dead people laying on the ground. Some of my acquaintances were laying in puddles of blood.
From Stephen the Great streetto the police headquarters isn’t a long distance, but I remember seeing a lot of dead people. Mom never allowed us to go to a funeral. There was a superstition saying that if your parents were alive you aren’t allowed to go neither to a cemetery nor to funerals. So we were somehow spared such unpleasant situations. At the police headquarters they crowded us, together with tens of other Jews from different parts of the city.
All our family were staying together, when I heard someone sayingthat women and children are to go home. Mom took us and we got to the gate. There was a police man. He looked at my brother andsaid: “This is not a child anymore. Get back!” And mom told my brother: “Go and stay with dad and don’t go away from him!” The three of us arrived eventually home. Mom thought that only men were to go to labor camps.
So she took some valuable things from the house – some jewels and the rest of the money we still had– to bring them to my father. She left us, the girls, at home and got back the police station to look for my dad. But people were going in and coming out, some of them were brought there, the women were set free, it was… she couldn’t get at him.
Someone even told her: “Go immediately home, because its dangerous.” This someone was a German. A German officer, who spoke to her in German. Mom knew very well German so she understood him, and came home.
My sister had a friend from the primary school. Her parents hid in their basement a Jewish family. Where they were living, somewhere near the Bahlui river, Jews and Christians lived together. When they saw what was happening on the street, theybroke the fence and called the Jews in their house. They weren’t caught. They were lucky.
Afterwards it was announced in that yard that they were delivering “free”-tickets. The “free”-ticket was a piece of paper, which read “free” and had a stamp on it. The people, who were near this officethatdelivered such tickets crowded to take them. And my father took my brother, got the “free”-ticket and came home.
Some of the people were set free with this ticket. And why were they delivering this “free”-tickets? So thatthe ones who got the ticket toannounce the otherswho didn’t, and lure them in this way to get out of their hiding. They said: “Without this ticket you can’t go out”. My mother went to an older neighbor, who lived above and told him: “Look, you are aged. When you are going to need the ticket, you can borrow mine”.
And he didn’t go to take the ticket, and because of that, heremained alive. That was a happy accident. Many said: “Go and take the ticket.” And the ones, who went remained there and were killed, or were huddled in wagons and sent away. [Ms. Kaiserman is referring to the Death Trains. – Editor’s note] They never came back.
After dad and my brother came home, we locked ourselves in the house, the windows were covered with blue paper – it was called “camouflage paper” – so that the light couldn’t be seen outside during bombardments, and we huddled together without moving. In the afternoon, around half past four they came again in the yard and called out in Romanian. There were a lot of them.
Mom looked through that “camouflage paper” and said: “These are Saxons. They are tall and blond”. This was her opinion. They were civilians, not soldiers. Someone shouted in Romanian: “Get out all Jews. Just the men, not the women. If you don’t come out, we will kill you right away”.
My brother got up and ran to the door, but my mom opposed him, holding the door with her hand and said: “They will kill us all. Don’t go out. I don’t allow you to”. That’s how he was saved. If they took him, they would have killed him at the police station, or he would havebeensent in the wagons and… Although almost 12.000 people died in the pogrom, nobody from our family died. This is the story in short.
What happened to the people in the wagons [1] is another story. They were herded in those cattle wagons, all doors and windows nailed with boards, on the floor a bed of cowpat – they were after all cattle wagons – on the top of which they threw lime.
It was in the middle of the summer, the rooftop of the train growing hot … it was terrible. On the route Iassy – Podu Iloaiei, in one of thewagons therewas my future brother-in-law, Iancu Ţucărman [interviewed by Centropa].
He told me that at a certain point they were sitting on corpses. Because in that wagon, which fitted only some cattle, they herded 130 to 150 people. They weren’t even able to sit. They were standing leaned against each other.
And everybody was looking for a broken board at the window in order to get some fresh air. Those who couldn’t keep calmdied. They died in six to seven hours. After six-seven hours, when the doors were opened, just the ones who could still walkgot out.
There were some puddles there, because the train didn’t stop in the railroad station, but some other place. A peasant, who presentthere said, that they stuck their heads in the puddle to drink the water – and some died because of that.
There were some who got out naked. They tore their clothes off in that desperate moments. Then they were brought to different families in Podu Iloaiei and hosted there. My brother-in-law was hosted with other acquaintances too – they knew each other from Iassy.
What happened to a human being in eight hours! He had black hair and he lostall of it in those eight hours. I didn’t know him and when my sister was engaged to him I kept asking: “Does he have red hair?” I didn’t like red-hair people. I don’t mind them anymore, but then I didn’t like them. And she said: “No, I think he had black hair.” He only got some hairs left on his head, here and there.
Let’s say there were around 100.000 of inhabitants in Iassy before WWII. Romanian and Jews lived together. In our yard there were Jews and Christians as well. On the 29thof June they attacked all the neighborhoods where Jews lived.
They took them from Cuza Voda street, from Lapusneanu street, from all parts of Iassy to Stefan cel Mare street, which was the main street. There was the Pacurari neighborhood, the Niculina neighborhood, Podul Rosu – in each of these neighborhoods lived more Jews than Christians.
I can still hear it even today. In our yard there lived many families. It was a yard with many apartments and stories. Jews and Christian lived there together.
One morning, it was Sunday, they entered in the yard – they weren’t dressed like soldiers – and shouted: “All Jews, come out of your houses!” I don’t remember if anybody explained anything to us, but this is what stuckto my memory: if the Germans are against the Jews and they come by here on their way to Bessarabia, they don’t trust us and they will send us to a labor camp.
Although it was summer – it was the 29thof July, a very warm day – we put on something warm, we took our arctics, because we didn’t know where we were heading to and how long it was going to take. You never know when the war is going to be over. We didn’t take food, we didn’t take anything. We just put something more on: warm jackets and caps.
And we gotout together. When we came out on the Stefan cel Mare street, which was a large street, armed people lined us up and then crowded us towards the police headquarters. There is a memorial plaque on Vasile Alecsandri street, on the wall of the former police headquarters commemorating the victims of this pogrom.
On my way to the police headquarters I already saw dead people laying on the ground. Some of my acquaintances were laying in puddles of blood.
From Stephen the Great streetto the police headquarters isn’t a long distance, but I remember seeing a lot of dead people. Mom never allowed us to go to a funeral. There was a superstition saying that if your parents were alive you aren’t allowed to go neither to a cemetery nor to funerals. So we were somehow spared such unpleasant situations. At the police headquarters they crowded us, together with tens of other Jews from different parts of the city.
All our family were staying together, when I heard someone sayingthat women and children are to go home. Mom took us and we got to the gate. There was a police man. He looked at my brother andsaid: “This is not a child anymore. Get back!” And mom told my brother: “Go and stay with dad and don’t go away from him!” The three of us arrived eventually home. Mom thought that only men were to go to labor camps.
So she took some valuable things from the house – some jewels and the rest of the money we still had– to bring them to my father. She left us, the girls, at home and got back the police station to look for my dad. But people were going in and coming out, some of them were brought there, the women were set free, it was… she couldn’t get at him.
Someone even told her: “Go immediately home, because its dangerous.” This someone was a German. A German officer, who spoke to her in German. Mom knew very well German so she understood him, and came home.
My sister had a friend from the primary school. Her parents hid in their basement a Jewish family. Where they were living, somewhere near the Bahlui river, Jews and Christians lived together. When they saw what was happening on the street, theybroke the fence and called the Jews in their house. They weren’t caught. They were lucky.
Afterwards it was announced in that yard that they were delivering “free”-tickets. The “free”-ticket was a piece of paper, which read “free” and had a stamp on it. The people, who were near this officethatdelivered such tickets crowded to take them. And my father took my brother, got the “free”-ticket and came home.
Some of the people were set free with this ticket. And why were they delivering this “free”-tickets? So thatthe ones who got the ticket toannounce the otherswho didn’t, and lure them in this way to get out of their hiding. They said: “Without this ticket you can’t go out”. My mother went to an older neighbor, who lived above and told him: “Look, you are aged. When you are going to need the ticket, you can borrow mine”.
And he didn’t go to take the ticket, and because of that, heremained alive. That was a happy accident. Many said: “Go and take the ticket.” And the ones, who went remained there and were killed, or were huddled in wagons and sent away. [Ms. Kaiserman is referring to the Death Trains. – Editor’s note] They never came back.
After dad and my brother came home, we locked ourselves in the house, the windows were covered with blue paper – it was called “camouflage paper” – so that the light couldn’t be seen outside during bombardments, and we huddled together without moving. In the afternoon, around half past four they came again in the yard and called out in Romanian. There were a lot of them.
Mom looked through that “camouflage paper” and said: “These are Saxons. They are tall and blond”. This was her opinion. They were civilians, not soldiers. Someone shouted in Romanian: “Get out all Jews. Just the men, not the women. If you don’t come out, we will kill you right away”.
My brother got up and ran to the door, but my mom opposed him, holding the door with her hand and said: “They will kill us all. Don’t go out. I don’t allow you to”. That’s how he was saved. If they took him, they would have killed him at the police station, or he would havebeensent in the wagons and… Although almost 12.000 people died in the pogrom, nobody from our family died. This is the story in short.
What happened to the people in the wagons [1] is another story. They were herded in those cattle wagons, all doors and windows nailed with boards, on the floor a bed of cowpat – they were after all cattle wagons – on the top of which they threw lime.
It was in the middle of the summer, the rooftop of the train growing hot … it was terrible. On the route Iassy – Podu Iloaiei, in one of thewagons therewas my future brother-in-law, Iancu Ţucărman [interviewed by Centropa].
He told me that at a certain point they were sitting on corpses. Because in that wagon, which fitted only some cattle, they herded 130 to 150 people. They weren’t even able to sit. They were standing leaned against each other.
And everybody was looking for a broken board at the window in order to get some fresh air. Those who couldn’t keep calmdied. They died in six to seven hours. After six-seven hours, when the doors were opened, just the ones who could still walkgot out.
There were some puddles there, because the train didn’t stop in the railroad station, but some other place. A peasant, who presentthere said, that they stuck their heads in the puddle to drink the water – and some died because of that.
There were some who got out naked. They tore their clothes off in that desperate moments. Then they were brought to different families in Podu Iloaiei and hosted there. My brother-in-law was hosted with other acquaintances too – they knew each other from Iassy.
What happened to a human being in eight hours! He had black hair and he lostall of it in those eight hours. I didn’t know him and when my sister was engaged to him I kept asking: “Does he have red hair?” I didn’t like red-hair people. I don’t mind them anymore, but then I didn’t like them. And she said: “No, I think he had black hair.” He only got some hairs left on his head, here and there.
Period
Year
1941
Location
Iasi
Romania
Interview
Rosa Kaiserman
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