Re: [Cz-L] Rescue Operation of Czernowitz Jews - A Joint Venture

It is possible that the role of Schellhorn in saving the Jews of Czernowitz
was discussed in the Jewish community and I never heard of it.
My knowledge of the events of that time is based mostly on the writings
of Radu Ioanid, in his book =B3The Holocaust in Romania=B2 and
the source material he cites in this book.

I would like to quote from =B3The Holocaust in Romania=B2:
---------------------------------------
 ..on October 4, 1941, the Supreme General Staff sent Order No 6651,
signed by Dinulescu, to the Cernauti Military command: =B3All the Jews
from Bukovina will be sent east of the Dniester within ten days,
in accordance with instructions by Marshal Antonescu=B2
...Traian Popovici, mayor of Cernauti, met on the following day with
with general General Calotescu .... General Torpor, who was the chief
prosecutor of the army, and Colonel Petrescu of the General Staff,
witnessed the exchange.
Popovici tried to oppose the deportations, and he managed to win --
with the help of the governor of Bukovina---the approval of Antonescu
....to retain in the city some 15600Jews as =B3specialists=B2. Along with
some 4000 others to whom he himself had issued =B3temporary permits=B2
...Popovici stated that after Antonescu made this grant on November
15, 1941, General Calotescu assigned the mayor and General Ionescu
the task of deciding who would stay. The German consul Schellhorn
declined participation.=B2
---------------------------------------------
All the passages quoted above are based on =B3Carta Neagra=B2 by M. Carp.

I looked up Popovici=B9s =B3Spovedania=B2, in Romanian and the passages
from it which were translated into English by Jerome Silverbush.
These are accessible at:
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Bukowinabook/buk2_062.html
Look these up and decide on your own whether Popovici or Schellhorn
deserve the honor of being the acknowledged saviors of much of
Czernowitz Jewry.=20

I stand by my opinion, that a man who joined the NSDAP
(NationalSozialistische Deutsche Arbeiter Partei) and made no effort
to help any Jews in his own country is most unlikely to have tried to
save some of the Jews of Czernowitz for their own sake. Many of
the Jews of Czernowitz held positions in the city which were critical
to the functioning of the city and indirectly to the Romanian =AD German
war effort. This is much more likely the reason for Schellhorn=B9s
intervention.
Later during the war, German military personnel were shocked at
the condition in the camps in Transnistria, not because these were inhumane=
,
but because they were worried that Typhus and Typhoid fever were likely
to spread from the camps to the general population and the military forces.

Mimi =20

On 12/25/11 5:24 AM, "Berti Glaubach" <berti.glaubach_at_gmail.com> wrote:

> It is not true that the Schellhorn part was not discussed by the local Je=
wish
> community at the time, just as the role of Fildermann and the Queen and I=
on
> Antonescu. All were treated by the IPA (Jewish Plotkes Agentur) or the IW=
A
> (Jieden willen Azoi) - but of course nobody had all the information at ha=
nd
> - and even the active participants might not have known about other facto=
rs
> driving for similar or other reasons in the same direction.
>=20
> Re-reading now The Popovici reminiscences: They are not contradictory to =
the
> Schellhorn role. Indeed his mentioning him at all at the meeting and Calo=
tescu
> including him into the list makers makes sense only if the war effort rol=
e was
> a strong factor in Antonescu's decision. And then writes Popovici we
> eliminated him from the list making, and that makes sense - together with
> Schellhorns excuse not to want to interfere with internal Romanian affair=
s of
> list making (Popovici about Schellhorn to Calotescu) only if he Schellhor=
n
> himself saw his role as finished, he had contributed his due and departed=
.
> Surely the "elimination" of the German Consul at that times was not done =
by
> two Romanian officials=A0 without his own specific wish to be excepted, and=
 that
> for obvious reasons.
>=20
> So we probably will never know why exactly we were permitted to stay. but
> again: Vivat Traian.
>=20
> AS to the numbers of authorizations=A0 on the last page of his statement
> Popovici statistics 19689 total authorizations are mentioned of these 165=
69
> signed by Calotescu and only 3120 by himself with the stamp of the
> municipality.Those last, were later in summer 1942 looked up for deportat=
ion.
>=20
> Berti.

-snip-
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Received on 2011-12-25 14:05:43