Re: [Cz-L] Popovici Permit - another miraculous story

Hello Nathan,

Your story reminds me of a small miracle which happened to my aunt Clara
Reifer during the deportations. She and two other of my aunts as well as my
grandmother were on the train scheduled to depart for Transnistria.
She and one of my other aunts persuaded the guard to let them go to the
toilet. While they were there the train started moving. Klara had had polio
in her childhood and was limping. Both sisters ran after the train, eager to
get on, because their mother was on it. Sabina caught up with the train,
but Clara did not and lived for the rest of the war with us.
She is the sister who is also mentioned on my father's Popovici permit.

I believe the following are facts about the deportations of Jewish people
from Czernowitz and the Popovici and Calotescu permits:

The deportations from Czernowitz started on Oct. 13th and continued till
Nov. 15th, when Popovici received the permission of Antonescu to allow
about 15600 Jewish specialists to remain in the city.
During that period of about one month, 28341 Jewish Czernowitzers were
deported to Transnistria. (This number is mentioned in a report by governor
Calotescu, issued on Sept. 7th 1942).
The additional Popovici permits, which he was not authorized to give, were
issued between Nov 15th and the end of the month of November.
As I have stated before, they were handed out in alphabetical order and on
Nov. 27th, people who's names began with the letter R or S were being given
permits.

The ghetto was disbanded approximately nine (9) weeks after it was started,
around December 13th.

The deportations resumed on the night of June 6th - 7th 1942 and continued
during that month; 1781 people were deported from Czernowitz on June 7th,
1151 on June 15th and 1162 on June 29th. These numbers are given
by Radu Ioanid in his book "The Holocaust in Romania".
The Antonescu report of Sept 7th 1942 also give the number of deported in
1942, as 4094.

Popovici was dismissed from office in December 1941 and the 1942
deportations were intended to deport those who had received the Popovici
permits, not authorized by Antonescu.
Luckily, some people, among them my family and I, were able to hide and
avoided deportation.

Thanks to Neomi Eshet, we have a list of the people who were deported from
Czernowitz to Transnistria in 1942. This list is accessible on Ehpes in the
Databases section under the title "1942 Deportations from Czernowitz to
Transnistria."

Mimi

On 3/26/12 2:53 PM, "gartner1n_at_comcast.net" <gartner1n_at_comcast.net> wrote:

> [Please post in Plain Text mode; that will get rid of all the weird characters
> in your message --thanks]
>
>
> Dear List Members,=20
>
> My aunt Celine Osterer (now living in Paris) just recounted to me her mirac=
> ulous story of the Popovici Permit.=20
>
> During the 1942 deportations my father ( Berl G=C3=A4rtner=20
>
> ) =C2=A0 went to obtain the coveted permits for his family:=20
>
> - himself, my mother (nee Singer) =C2=A0and myself (2 years old at the time=
> ),=20
>
> - as well as for his in-laws the Osterers: my grandma, grandpa and my aunt =
> Celine (a teenager at the time).=20
>
> He was able to obtain (after suitable payment) the permit for us, but not f=
> or the in-laws.=C2=A0 They were scheduled for deportation and boarded (toge=
> ther with=C2=A0other members of the family)=C2=A0the train to Transnistria =
> and to virtually assured death.=20
>
> The train started to depart, but inexplicably stopped after a couple hundre=
> d meters. My aunt saw a water faucet nearby and, with her usual charm, pers=
> uaded the guard to let her off the train and fill a bottle since they had n=
> o other food or drinks with them.While on the ground she saw at a dista nt =
> hill=C2=A0 my father, together with a Romanian uniformed man , running towa=
> rd the train with newly minted certficates for the Osterers.=C2=A0 They wer=
> e saved and returned to the Ghetto to be with us in Czernowitz =C2=A0for th=
> e remainder of the war.=20
>
> What a story . . . .=20
>
> Nathan Gartner ( G=C3=A4rtner)=20
> Newton, Massachusetts=20
>

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Received on 2012-03-26 16:07:22