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

Mimi...

Thank you for your mail. It makes sense to have a closer look to Traian Popovici's "My Declaration":

"On the afternoon of October 15 while I waited with General Jonescu and General Council Schellhorn in the Governor's anteroom the door to his chambers opened and Major Marinescu said to us, “it's good that you are here, the Governor is asking for you.” We entered the chambers and General Calotescu said to us, “Gentlemen, I just had a conversation with the Herr Marshal who has authorized leaving the 20,000 Jews in Czernowitz. I can't make the selection since I don't know the people and the degree of their indispensability. I empower you Herr General, and you Herr General Council and you Herr Mayor to make this selection. You know the people, one of you as city resident and mayor, the other as past prefect who lived for many years in Czernowitz and the Herr Council with a view to the importance of the economy of the province to the Reich. Start immediately compiling the list of those who will remain. Contact the chief of the Romanization Department to prevent the stagnation!
  of industry. I will give you four days during which I will suspend the deportations.” Meanwhile approximately three trains had left on the evening of October 13. “You have the right to make decisions. I reserve for myself only the right to set the percentage and will personally sign the authorization without taking their great number into consideration.”

Council Shellhorn immediately declined the honor pointing out to the governor that he as a representative of a foreign country could not mix in affairs that concerned only Romania.[11] So now there only remained two, General Jonescu and me."

In fact, that was the decisive meeting concerning the fate of the Czernowitz Jews. Radu Ioanid's statement is contradictory to Traian Popovici's declaration, but there is no contradiction wahtsoever between Schellhorn and Popovici. The footnote [11]

"The attitude of the German Consul Schellhorn is typical of the influence of Germany on Romania's laws concerning the Jews. He was invited by Calotescu to take part in the meetings because Calotescu evidently had received directions from Antonescu to allow all measures for killing Jews to proceed under German control. Schellhorn, on the other hand had no interest in working on the selection of those Jews who were to be exempted from deportation, especially since his orders were to expedite the “final solution,” that is the extermination of all Jews without exception,” Therefore, he diplomatically withdrew from the selection process."

seems to explain Schellhorn's participation in the meeting, but, due to lack of information, it's misleading. Schellhorn attended this afternoon session, somply because he had on the same day of 15.10.1941 a morning meeting with Calotescu, intervening in favor of the Czernowitz Jews. The content of this morning session has been minuted, BEFORE the afternoon session took place and its outcome became known.

BTW, Schellhorn could not make any "effort to help any Jews in his own country", as he didn't live in Germany since the 1920s. He started his diplomatic career in the year 1920, thirteen years before Hitler's seizure of power, being delegated to Brussels, Reykjavik, Vienna, Paris and finally to Czernowitz.

Warmest wishes for now.

Edgar Hauster
Lent - The Netherlands

http://hauster.blogspot.com/
___________________________
> Date: Sun, 25 Dec 2011 11:16:40 -0500
> Subject: Re: [Cz-L] Rescue Operation of Czernowitz Jews - A Joint Venture
> From: mirtaylo_at_indiana.edu
> To: berti.glaubach_at_gmail.com
> CC: romers_at_shaw.ca; bconcept_at_hotmail.com; czernowitz-l_at_cornell.edu
>
> 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 “The Holocaust in Romania” and
> the source material he cites in this book.
>
> I would like to quote from “The Holocaust in Romania”:
> ---------------------------------------
> ..on October 4, 1941, the Supreme General Staff sent Order No 6651,
> signed by Dinulescu, to the Cernauti Military command: “All the Jews
> from Bukovina will be sent east of the Dniester within ten days,
> in accordance with instructions by Marshal Antonescu”
> ...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 “specialists”. Along with
> some 4000 others to whom he himself had issued “temporary permits”
> ...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.”
> ---------------------------------------------
> All the passages quoted above are based on “Carta Neagra” by M. Carp.
>
> I looked up Popovici’s “Spovedania”, 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.
>
> 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 – German
> war effort. This is much more likely the reason for Schellhorn’s
> 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

-snip-
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Received on 2011-12-26 05:43:25