Re: [Cz-L] Request for testimonies

To the best of my knowledge, from what I heard my parents tell,
the Ghetto existed for 9 weeks; from October 11 till mid December,
when it was dissoved. My parents always said that we stayed in the Ghetto
the full nine weeks. At the end of this period, we could not return
to the house in which we had lived just prior to this, because a Romanian
family by the name of Grecu had moved into our house. For some time
we lived with the Romanian man who had been given the factory
of my grandparents and later that month we moved in with close family
friends on the Str. Ilie Luta. I still have the papers giving my father
permission to live there.

The deportations, letting people out of the Ghetto, all was very disorganized.
One of my aunts was saved from deportation in these incredible chance
happenings: She and her two sisters, as well as my grandmother, were
already
on the train to Transnistria, this aunt and another needed to go to the
toilet and were allowed to get off the train for this purpose. Just
then the train started moving, one aunt ran after it and managed to get
on, the other aunt had a lame leg, she had had polio as a child, so she
could not run. She was left standing at the station and eventually
found my family and lived with us
for the rest of the war.

Mimi


Quoting Berti <berti_at_netvision.net.il>:

> Hello Florence, friends,
>
> I had no personal direct evidence about the piecemeal work of the status of
> different streets changing from Ghetto to non Ghetto, but hearing it from
> other people it makes sense and also I remember talk about it at the time.
> The authorities, in those last days of the Ghetto would let the population
> that had already received authorizations, leave for the rest of the town,
> while deporting the others to Transnistria. Some specific streets might have
> been closed for that purpose and then opened again.
>
> What certainly happened was that about half time of its short existence-
> sometime in October 1941- the Ghetto was divided in its surface - all the
> region of the Western side of the Hauptstrasse (Regele Ferdinand) now
> Golovna was declared non Ghetto and we had to move to the eastern part. From
> there then the deportation started, and from there those who received
> authorization to stay in town, returned to their homes. Later most of us had
> to move again into the now Jewish Quarter (again on both sides of the
> Hauptstrasse) because their apartments were requisitioned by Rumanian
> functionaries who came with their families from the regat and who wanted the
> living space. There were no evacuations from the Jewish Quarter for that
> purpose. I moved with my family in all these cases first into, then in the
> Ghetto proper, and then from the now dissolved Ghetto back to our flat (near
> the university) and in September 1942 (when the new chief of the fireman
> brigade Mr Popescu took our flat) back into the original Ghetto now called
> Jewish Quarter.
>
> The Ghetto period proper lasted about one month. The "Jewish Quarter" period
> up to spring 1944 when the Red Army freed us. There were a few Rumanian
> families who lived there, and probably more Ruthenians (Ucrainians). The
> Rumanian town population had left in 1940 to the regat and those who
> returned in 1941/2 preferred the up-town regions. In the house on Mehlplatz
> corner Stefaniegasse were I stayed with my parents at my aunt's, out of 42
> apartments only one was occupied by a Rumanian family (who had not lived
> there before) and another by the Ucrainian genitor who had not left at all
> during all the changes.
>
> Hardy is right about the gate at the Mehlplatz, it was under our nose at the
> entrance to the Stefaniegasse - and lasted until the Jews were obliged to
> move into the eastern part. There might have been other checkpoints too. The
> one on the Mehlplatz (Piata Daciei) was easily circumvented by anyone
> knowledgeable about the town. We just passed through the court of house
> Stefaniegasse 1 through the Stangerische Schiel (prayer house) into Padini
> and then Franzensgasse. Christian friends, or dealers came to visit the same
> way. It was clear that the Rumanians considered the Ghetto as a very
> temporary measure mainly for the deportations and immediately after those
> had the partitions torn down.
>
> The yellow Magen David Star to be worn on the left above the heart was a l
> development after the Ghetto and while at the beginning being implemented
> with strictness was during the years less and less imposed - although the
> order to wear it was never officially retracted the authorities ceased to
> check for it sometimes in 1943.
>
> Berti
>
-snip-
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Received on 2009-06-12 23:25:28