Traian
Popovici was born on October 17, 1892 in the village of Rusi
Manastioara (Udesti), near Suceava town in Austria. His father, Ian
Popovici, and grandfather, Andrei Popovici, were priests and deeply
patriotic. His mother, Eufrosina Popovici, was born in Bodnarescu
family with six other siblings. Traian Popovici's great-grandfather,
Mihai Bodnarescu, was also a patriot, serving deputy in Radauti.
Traian studied at the superior gymnasium in Suceava from
1903-1911 and then at the Faculty of Law in Cernauti. From 1913-1914,
he served as the president of 'Junimea', a student Society in
Czernowitz. He graduated the Faculty of Law in 1919, after which he
obtained his doctorate.
Traian grew up in a family that kept a
tight daily schedule and whose parents were strict disciplinarians,
often using the rod as punishment for academics mistakes or
misbehavior.
Popovici’s family were strong nationalists and he grew up hating foreign domination in the Bukovina region. Despite his strong nationalist feelings, Popovici respected the rights of other ethnic groups in Romania.
During the 19th and 20th centuries, Czernowitz was the center of both the Romanian and Ukranian national movements, in the region of Bukovina. Bukovina became part of the Kingdom of Romania after World War I, with the dissolving of Austria-Hungary. In June of 1940, the Soviet Union occupied Bukovina and Popovici decided to move to Bucharest. When Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union, it drove out the Red Army from Bukovina and Basserabia and Romanian troops and Nazi soldiers occupied Czernowitz. Germany’s attack of the Soviet Union in June 1941 returned Bukovina to Romania. The returning Romanian soldiers and occupying Germans massacred the local Jewish population, resulting in thousands of deaths.
Around the same time, in 1941, Popovici was appointed mayor of Czernowitz. A man with high values and strong character, Popovici argued with the governor of Bukovina about his anti-Semitic policies and fought to alleviate the Jews’ degrading situation as much as he could. On October 10, 1941, Romanian dictator and Prime Minister Ion Antonescu ordered a ghetto to be created in Czernowitz for the Jews, an act which Popovici strongly opposed but could not prevent. By November the Czernowitz ghetto was an overcrowded cesspool unfit for any human being and 28,000 Jews had been deported to Transnistria.
In the fall of 1941, Popovici was granted permission to compile a list of 20,000 Jews within four days to receive exemptions from deportation and authorization to return home. He distributed permits well above the quota he was allotted, including to Jews lacking professional skills or practicable trades. The result was that he saved the lives of over 20,000 Jews.
By the spring of 1942, Popovici was removed from his position for granting permits to “unnecessary” Jews and was returned to Bucharest. After his departure, another 5,000 Jews were deported to Transnistria where they perished. Those Jews who stayed in Czernowitz survived.
Popovici died in 1946. In 1991, Czernowitz became a part of Ukraine. In June 2000 a street in the Romanian capital of Bucharest was named “Dr. Traian Popovici.” In 1969, Popovici was added to the Righteous Among the Nations during a ceremony in Israel.
A plaque was unveiled on April 20, 2009 on the building that had been Popovici’s house in Czernowitz, located at 6 Zankovetska, in a ceremony attended by representatives of the Jewish community, Popovici Society (from Romania), the Ministry of Culture of Romania from the Consulate of Romania in Czernowitz, and visitors from Israel and the United States. The plaque contains text in Ukranian, English, and French that reads: “Here lived Traian Popovici.(1892 – 1946). In 1941, as Mayor of Czernowitz, he saved 19,600 Jews from deportation to Transnistria and probable death. Remembered in eternal gratitude by the Jews of Czernowitz.”
A Biography of Traian Popovici by Florintin Lehaci
http://czernowitz.ehpes.com/popovici/popovicibio.html
The Insurgent Mayor
http://www1.yadvashem.org/righteous_new/romania/popovici.html
History of the Jews in Bukowina
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/bukowinabook/buk2_003.html
My Declaration by Dr. Traian Popovici
http://www.jewishgen.org/yizkor/Bukowinabook/buk2_062.html
Czernowitz-L Discussion Group Website