Re: [Cz-L] Call for Survivors thanks to Popovici!

My late mother, Pearl Spiegel Fichman, wrote about this period in her
book Before Memories Fade, in the chapter titled "German Occupation."
Here are a couple of excerpts related to Popovici and the 'Popovici
papers':
---------------------------------------------------------------
"About a week after our escape from the Ghetto, the military stopped
issuing permits to return and there remained about 3000 Jews in the
confined area. The mayor, Dr. Dori Popovici, a decent man, who had
lived all his life in Czernovitz and was friendly toward the Jewish
population, got the consent from Bucharest to dismantle the Ghetto and
everybody to receive a permit signed by him. It later turned out that
we, who had permits signed by the governor, were in a different
category than those, whose permits were issued by the mayor. At the
time we did not know that the Popovici permits would turn out to be
almost a death warrant.

We had barely settled in when, by the end of November, the governor
issued a decree, summoning all permit holders to have them reviewed by
a military commission, to have everything documented."
---------------------------------------------------------------
"We came into a big hall. About 20 officers were seated along a table.
The officer at the letter S looked through the identification papers of
all three of us. As I was showing him what he was asking for, I tried
to talk lightheartedly, to cover up my fear. Without asking many
questions, he signed the certificate, stamped it and wished me good
luck and added: "You’ll need it."

As we were walking home, on that moonlit, clear, cold, bright early
evening, Father said: "God answered my prayer." We returned home
elated. Mother was standing at the window and saw me wave my muff, as
if in triumph.

Next morning, the commission announced that they would stop reviewing
the Jewish permits. Everybody, who is in town, will reside in
Czernovitz on the strength of a paper signed by the mayor, Dori
Popovici. In July, 1942, the Romanians deported on one night, from
Saturday to Sunday about 2000 Jews with permits signed by Popovici.
During the night, the military took entire families for "resettlement."
Horror spread among the rest of us, since nobody knew what criterion
they were considering. Everybody packed a knapsack and held it ready.
The following week the same thing happened. We realized that they took
only families with Popovici permits. Paul Antschel and his parents were
in that situation. After the first deportation, he hid on the weekend
in a factory building, which was closed of course, on the weekend. The
Romanian owner gave someone the keys for the purpose, while his parents
remained at home. His parents were deported and were killed within a
few months. They did not want to live in hiding, while Paul never gave
up trying to save himself. He was a devoted son, especially to his
mother. I think that he could never forgive himself not having insisted
that his parents join him in hiding on that fateful weekend. That pain
followed him to the day in April 1970, when he ended his life in the
Seine river, at age 49.

Coming back to the events of the summer of 42. Those deported were sent
to the area along the river Bug, further east of Transnistria, an area
administered by the Germans. Out of a few thousand deportees, a handful
returned to tell the story of that utter tragedy. Friends and neighbors
of ours found their bitter end there. Selma Meerbaum-Eisinger and her
parents, two young girls, students of mine, granddaughters of the
Gottliebs and their parents, all met a most horrible death there. Some
were shot as they were too weak to work; others weakened from
starvation, died of typhoid fever, others who almost survived, were
mauled and killed by dogs let out by the Germans, so that nobody should
survive to tell of these horrors. My friend, who had asked me to take
care of his parents, could not foresee, nor could anybody envision the
horror that would take place. His family died there, too."
---------------------------------------------------------------
Eytan

Eytan Fichman, AIA
B.Arch., M.Arch., Ed.M.
 
33B Dong Khe, Ngo Quyen
Hai Phong, Viet Nam

-----Original Message-----
From: Dov Glaubach <berti_at_netvision.net.il>
To: Emil Hitzig <emilhg_at_013.net>
Cc: 'HARDY BREIER' <HARDY3_at_BEZEQINT.NET>; 'veni vici'
<venivici_at_inbox.com>; 'Czernowitz Genealogy and History'
<czernowitz-l_at_list.cornell.edu>
Sent: Sat, Jan 15, 2011 4:53 am
Subject: Re: RE: [Cz-L] Call for Survivors thanks to Popovici!

I think there is a mistake some of our corespondents make about Traian
Popovici.
His major contribution to Cz. Jewry was not the authorizations he gave
out in
his name. It is that in his role of mayor he (with probably the help of
the
Metropolit and the Queen) convinced the authorities in Bukarest that
the Jews
were needed for the war effort and thus should stay and work in the
town. Of
course only a very small minority was really needed for work, but the
19500 that
got one or another sort of authorization were not deported to
Transnistria in
autumn 1941 and it is more then probable that a majority of them would
not have
come back. Like unfortunately a majority of the deported.

We know that Traian was forced to resign after a time from his office
because of
his attitude towards
the Jews and we also know that he personally did not gain anything
material from
his deeds. Others around him did.

Although I think that a picture about him might not be the right way to
reconstruct our history it would
be a mistake to underrate the effect his deeds had for many of us. I
know I
might not be alive to-day if he had not acted as he did.

Berti.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
This moderated discussion group is for information exchange on the subject of
 Czernowitz and Sadagora Jewish History and Genealogy. The opinions expressed
 in these posts are the opinions of the original poster only and not necessarily
 the opinions of the List Owner, the Webmaster or any other members
 or entities connected with this mailing list. The Czernowitz-L list has
 an associated web site at http://czernowitz.ehpes.com that includes a
 searchable archive of all messages posted to this list. Please post in "Plain
 Text" if possible (help available at:
<http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/PlainText.html>).

To remove your address from this e-list follow the directions at
http://www.cit.cornell.edu/computer/elist/lyris/leave.html

To receive assistance for this e-list send an e-mail message to:
owner-Czernowitz-L_at_list.cornell.edu
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on 2011-01-15 21:48:37