[Cz-L] My personal memories of the early WW2 years and the Popovici permits.

Miriam (Mimi) Taylor <mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu>

Dear Florentin, and members of Cz.-List.

When I try to reconstruct what happened to me and my family
during the war in Czernowitz, I consider what I remember,
what my parents told me later, I look at the documents from
that period I still own and I try to fit everything in, with
what I read in historical accounts.

My parents never specifically discussed Traian Popovici with me,
but what I gathered from all their conversations, was
that they thought him a highly decent and principled person.

In June 1941, at the time of the German invasion of the USSR,
I was just 4 years old. It is therefore understandable
that at time, my parents did not talk to me about the events
then taking place in the world or in Czernowitz, nor did I
have a comprehensive grasp of the situation, but as a Jewish
child, I could not go to Kindergarten and because of the
circumstances under which we lived, I was always in
the company of the adults and listened to their discussions,
so that I had quite an extensive knowledge of what was happening.

My maternal grandparents had owned a factory and two stores.
When the Russians came in the summer of 1940, we left our apartment,
which was part of the building complex of the factory and moved
to a small house on the Blumengasse, in the southern part of Czernowitz.
Relatively speaking we were close to the airport.
During the German invasion my father and uncle had climbed on to the roof
to better observe the bombing of the airport. Later that summer when
Czernowitz was being bombed, I remember going to the air-raid shelter.
I remember that my parents discussed converting to Christianity in order
to escape persecution as Jews and that this idea was eventually discarded,
either because my mother refused to convert, or because the priest when he
found out that this was not a true conversion, refused to convert us.
I remember my mother sewing the yellow star onto our clothes
and the sense of shame, wearing this badge induced in me. I also remember
two Romanian soldiers coming to search our house, claiming that
we had hidden weapons. They "searched" the ashes of the fireplace
and "found" two bullets, but after being given a "bakshish",
they left the house peacefully. To me this whole incident was very strange.
I was forbidden to play with the ashes, yet here were these strangers,
doing what I was not allowed to.

Later we went to the ghetto. We stayed with a family we knew,
in the relatively nicer part of the ghetto, a modern apartment house
in the southern part of the ghetto. I believe it was on the Schulgasse .
At some point during this time, my father and uncle, were approached by a
Romanian man, Traian, who had moved to Czernowitz from the Regat and had
been given my grandparent's factory.
He needed my father and uncle to run the factory for him, because,
he himself did not know how to run it. During this time my family also
got a Popovici permit. I do not know the sequence of events,
being needed in the factory, occurring first, than getting the permit,
or the other way around.

I believe that it is due to having the Popovici permit, that we were not
among those deported to Transnistria in October 1941.
We were still in the ghetto in November. My parents told me that we stayed
in the ghetto the full 9 weeks of it's existence.
Sometime during that November, there was a rumor, that sick people and their
families would be exempt from deportations. My father advised my mother to
get a physician's declaration that she was too ill to be deported.
My mother went to the doctor, taking me along. I have the declaration the
doctor gave her. It is called "bilet de bolnav" - ticket or statement of
illness. The doctor was a Medic major by the name of Fleur. While he did
give my mother this declaration that she was too ill to travel, he also
notified the authorities of our address - strada G. Prezan 15, in the
ghetto and presumably told them that she was not sick.

The following day, two soldiers came to the ghetto looking for us, the
doctor had informed the militia of our exact address. That same day, people
who's surnames started with R and /or S, were eligible to have their
Popovici authorization changed to a Calutescu authorization. When the
soldiers cam for us, my father and uncle were at the office changing the
authorizations,
My mother and I were in the Ghetto alone, without any documents. My mother
could pretend that her name was not Reifer and we remained in Czernowitz.

I remember three other incidents of which I do not know how they fit into
the general course of events:
1. At some point during the winter of 1941-1942, we were being hidden by
the Romanian man who had taken over our factory.
He lived in an apartment house not far from the Ringplatz and we stayed in
his apartment with him. We were there for a number of days. Then he came
home one evening and said we could not stay with him that night. An order
had been issued that any Romanian caught hiding Jews would be shot.
My mother descended with me to the apartment on the lower floor of the
building where a Jewish family who had a permit to stay, lived. My mother
asked them, whether we could stay with them that night. The husband said no,
the wife said yes and we did stay with them that night.

2. On the night of 6 - 7 June 1942, my parents brought me while sleeping
to the apartment of people who were neighbors of one of their friends.
They had heard that there would be another round of transportations to
Transnistria. On the morning of my 5th birthday, I woke up in the house
of strangers. Later that same summer, during the next "ratia" (round-up of
deportees), we hid in the attic of the same apartment building, yet I have
a photocopy of a card dated 20/VII 1942 which as I understand it gives my
father and his family the permission to remain in Cernauti.

On one side of the card is written:

Recensamantul pentru locuitorii avand sange evreesc
Conf. Decret=Lege Nr. 3416 publicat in
Monitorul Oficial Nr.299/1941

ADEVERINTA-Nr. 32491

S'a primit de noi completa foaie de recensamant
A declarantului Reifer Salomon
Domiciliat in Cernauti str. Luta Nr. 42
            susnumitul
Semnata de parintele
            tutorele

La sediul U.E.R la data de 20 III 1942

Identificat cu bulet. De populatiie
Nr. 25680/162 liberat de Chert (last word possibly inaccurate)
Po. Cernauti
Delegatul Politiei

On the other side of the card is written:
    Nr.5706-R/1244 1942

Oficiul Judetean al Evreilor Cernauti

Carte de identitate
Evreu Capul de familie Reifer
        membru de familie Salomon

Str. Luta Nr. 42c

1) Poseda authorizatia si decla. De sedere la Cernauti Nr.E244/1941
2) Poseda adevarinta dela recensamentul Evreilor Nr.32491/1942
3) Poseda ....... De inscriere la biroul de populatienr. 25680/16035
Pierderea carnetului de fata atrage anularea autoriatiei
                       de sedere in Cernauti

Stamped by the Delegatul Politiei, Delegatul C. E&R
and Delegatul Guvern. Bucovina


All I can say is:
A fost o' data c'a nici o data
si daca nu s'a fi fost nus'a fi povesti.


Mimi
         

   



> Dear Asher,
>
> My name is Florentin Lehaci, I'm living in Romania and I am very
> interested in Traian Popovici's involve in jews saving . I'm sorry
> for what it happened your parents. However many of those who received
> "Popovici certificate" were deported in June 1942. That happened
> after he was removed from his office. Unfortunately, this act was a
> vengeance way against Popovici on the part of authorities.
> Popovici died forgotten and he is unknown today yet. Why?
> Would you help me to find out besides some information about him?
> 1. How did your parents get the Popovici certificate? Had they
> represented the indispensable persons from Czernowitz? As you know,
> such jews were excepted from deported, in accordance with Antonescu's
> permission.
> 2. What did you tell you your parents about mayor?
> 3. Was the certificate obtained with money?
> 4. Was Popovici married? With a jewess?
>
> Thank you for your answer?
>
> Best wishes,
> Florentin Lehaci, history teacher
>
>
>
>
>> Date: Thu, 8 May 2008 04:32:46 +0300
>> From: ashtur_at_netvision.net.il
>> Subject: RE: [Cz-L] Corrected version of Popovici inscription.
>> To: mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu
>>
>> Hi Mimi.
>>
>> My family was in Mogilev although my father had a "Popovici certificate"
>> because he gave it to some one else that needed it more, to his opinion.
>> That does not mean that I am not grateful to what Popovici did. I think that
>> the thanks to Popovici have to come from all the former Cernowitzer and
>> their descendants and not only from the survivors. Asher Turtel.
>>
>
> -snip-
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Received on 2008-05-12 00:21:05