[Cz-L] Theodor Criveanu

Yad Vashem named Theodor Criveanu a Righteous Among the Nations in
August 2007. Their press release about him is at

http://www1.yadvashem.org/about_yad/press_room/press_releases/07.08.07.html

In part, it says:

<<... By mid-November, about 28,000 Jews were deported. The
deportations were halted after the Mayor of Czernowitz, Dr. Traian
Popovici managed to persuade the Romanian military governor and
General Antonescu to leave the remaining 20,000 Jews, claiming that
they were vital to the economic stability of the town. They were
allowed to return to their houses, but in the summer of 1942, Mayor
Popovici, who was recognized as Righteous Among the Nations by Yad
Vashem in 1969, was charged with granting permits to "unnecessary"
Jews, and was removed from office.>>

<<... Theodor Criveanu was a lawyer from Brashov, recruited as a
reserves officer to bring Antonescu's secret plan to concentrate the
Jews of Czernowitz in a ghetto. As part of this job, he was told to
present the authorities with a list of names of Jews who were required
for work in the city. Against orders, and notwithstanding the grave
risk to his own life, Theodor secretly handed out permits beyond the
allowed limit, also giving them to Jews who were not essential to the
workforce. Amongst these Jews were Berta and Osias Hefter and their
daughters Hilda and Malvina.

<<In her testimony to Yad Vashem, Hilda explained that Criveanu gave
permits to many Jews who were not entitled to them, thus saving them
 from deportation to Transnistria. During this period, an attachment
was formed between Theodor and Malvina Hefter, and through her,
Theodor provided permits to Jews who applied directly to either of
them.

<<Theodor and Malvina married, and in 1945 their son Ze'ev (Willie,
currently of South Africa) was born. In 1950, Malvina and Zee's moved
to Israel. Theodor stayed in Romania, and passed away in 1988.>>

The statement does not say exactly when Criveanu issued work permits.
Could this have been after Popovici was removed from office?

There are many articles online about Criveanu. Most are rewordings of
the Yad Vashem press release, but an article in an Australian Jewish
newspaper

https://www.ajn.com.au/news/news.asp?pgID=3970

adds that Criveanu's son Willie, who lives in Israel, <<stumbled
across his father's diary several years ago on a trip to Romania. He
sent it to Yad Vashem to have it analysed.>>

Renee


On Thu, Jan 29, 2009 at 9:27 AM, HARDY BREIER <HARDY3_at_bezeqint.net> wrote:
> Who was Theodor Criveanu and what did he do ?
> Hardy
> ----- Original Message ----- From: "Renee Steinig" <genmaven_at_gmail.com>
>
>> ...The Wikipedia article speaks of the role of Theodor Criveanu but has no mention of Dr. Popovici....
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Received on 2009-01-29 15:07:05