Tag #127043 - Interview #78410 (Ticu Goldstein)

The Kaufman family, for whom my brother worked as an apprentice, had a tragic fate during the Legionary rebellion. They were known to be affluent people, so the Legionaries broke into their house. Kaufman’s daughter was raped, and then killed. Bernard Kaufman (my brother’s employer) was terribly beaten, dragged outside and shot to death. No one knows what happened to Mrs. Kaufman, who was psychically ill and was confined to one room all the time. The son, Jacques Kaufman, was a sportsman (a boxer and a bodybuilder), so he resisted. He fought the Legionaries – I think he even killed a couple of them –, but finally they shot him. The only survivors were two children who were not at home. After the war, they emigrated to England.

Behind our street was Cauzasi St., where the Forensic Institute was located. After the pogrom was over, Jews were informed they could go there to identify the bodies. We didn’t go, for we had no relatives in Bucharest. There was no talking about the suffering caused to the Jews by this Legionary rebellion, as Antonescu wanted the emphasis laid on the Legionary wrongdoings against the Romanian society, on the fact that, because of them, this society lived in a state of anomie etc.