Monuments to the Victims of the June 1941 Pogrom

Monumentul Victimelor Pogromului Fascist de la Iaşi din zilele de 28-29 iunie 1941

Several memorial sites in the university city of Iaşi, northern Romania, commemorate the victims of the June 1941 pogrom. Between June 29 and July 1, 1941, Romanian police, constabulary and civilians as well as Romanian and German soldiers murdered several thousand Jews from Iaşi. Most of the victims were buried in mass graves on the Jewish cemetery.

History

The university city of Iaşi lies in the north-east of Romania, in the historical region of Moldavia. Before World War II, Iaşi was home to about 45,000 Jews, about half of the total population. Early on, the city had become a centre of Jewish life, yet at the same time, it was a hotbed of anti-Semitism: In 1923, students founded the fascist »Legion Archangel Michael«; it later spawned the »Iron Guard«, which spearheaded anti-Semitic terror.
In June 1941, German and Romanian troops in Iaşi jointly prepared for the upcoming invasion of the Soviet Union. At the time, Iaşi was on the border to the Soviet Union. On June 19, 1941, Romanian dictator Ion Antonescu ordered the city commander of Iaşi, Colonel Lupu, to register all the city's Jewish residents so that they could later be arrested. The local press fomented fear of Soviet air strikes and accused Jews of collaborating with the Soviet Union. A few days later, Antonescu ordered the police to search Jewish homes and to arrest the owners for supposedly having hidden weapons. On the morning of June 29, German and Romanian soldiers rounded up close to 3,500 Jews and shot into the crowd with machine guns. The city temporarily became a battle field: the perpetrators, among them many Romanian civilians, murdered hundreds of Jews and plundered their possessions. The Romanian authorities decided to continue with the killings: on June 30, Romanian soldiers forced 1,900 Jews onto a freight train. The train took 8 hours to get to Podu Iloaiei, 20 kilometres from Iaşi. About 1,200 of the passengers died in agony during the transport, deprived of water and provisions. A second train carrying about 2,500 Jews took six days to reach the south-Romanian city of Călăraşi. Occasionally, the train stopped to unload the bodies of the dead.

Jassy, 2006, Entrance gate of the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold

Victims

Romanian and German units murdered several thousand Jews during the pogrom which began on June 29, 1941. It is estimated that between 4,000 and 10,000 Jews perished; some even estimate that there were up to 13,000 victims.

The Kingdom of Romania was politically unstable in the interwar period and threatened by territorial claims from its neighbours. The country sought an alliance with National Socialist Germany but the Nazi leaders in Berlin chose to support Hungary, Bulgaria and their temporary ally, the Soviet Union over the border issue. Romania had to agree to surrender large parts of its territory to these states during 1940. This led to increased radicalisation within the country. King Karl (1893–1953) granted unrestricted authority to General Ion Antonescu (1882–1946) but then had to abdicate to allow his son Michael (1921–2017) to come to the throne. The right-wing extremist »Garda de Fier« (Iron Guard), which was allied with Antonescu, immediately began to persecute the Jews. In 1941 Romania took part in the German attack on the Soviet Union. Romania organised the deportation of up to 155,000 Jews and 25,000 Roma from Bukovina and Bessarabia to the occupied Ukrainian territory of »Transnistria«. Tens of thousands died as a result of mass murder, imprisonment, forced labour, starvation and illness. Meanwhile, the Jews in northern Transylvania (part of Hungary since 1940) were subject to the anti-semitic legislation in this region. However, the majority were spared any violent persecution until the Wehrmacht invaded in 1944. The SS now began to deport Jews to Auschwitz in cooperation with the Hungarian authorities. The total number of murdered Romanian Jews is thus spread over various territories: 50,000 Jews from Bessarabia and Bukovina along with 20,000 Jews from central Romania were murdered and around 120,000 Transylvanian Jews died under the Hungarian-German occupation. In August 1944, the Red Army offensive caused Romania to change sides. Michael I stripped Antonescu of his powers and the country came under Soviet control. The dictator was executed in 1946 and the king abdicated the following year. In the initial post-war period memory focused on liberation by the Red Army. A monument to the fallen Soviet soldiers was built in Bucharest. Romania’s alliance with Germany was ignored. Under Nicolae Ceausescu (1918–1989), who ruled the country with his secret service from 1965, the »liberation from the yoke of fascism« was presented as the achievement of Romanian heroes. With the end of the Ceausescu regime in 1989 many Romanians preferred to adopt a contrary approach: the attack on the Soviet Union in 1941 was now more frequently viewed as a campaign against Bolshevism. There was growing admiration for Antonescu. In contrast, for some Romanians the king, now living in exile, became increasingly important as a symbol of democracy as he had toppled the dictator and was later expelled by the communists. There was no place for the Holocaust in post-war memory. Most survivors had already left the country by the 1950s. Memory was left to the Jewish communities, which established a small research centre in 1977 and a small museum in Bucharest the following year as well as a number of memorials. In 2004 a committee was set up to research the Holocaust and Romanian crimes. The committee was led by Elie Wiesel (1928–2016), a Romanian-born Holocaust survivor and Nobel Peace Prize winner. A National Institute has continued the research since 2005. In 2009, a central Holocaust memorial was inaugurated in Bucharest that also honours the Roma who had been deported to Transnistria. However, apart from this sign, there is still little remembrance to the more than 12,500 Romanian Roma murdered during the war.

Remembrance

Several monuments in Iaşi and vicinity commemorate the victims of the pogrom of the summer of 1941 and the victims of the deportations that followed. Most of the victims of the pogrom were buried in mass graves on the Jewish cemetery in Iaşi. The graves are covered with large concrete slabs. A memorial plaque dedicated to the victims of the pogrom and the death trains from Iaşi has been affixed near the graves.
In 1976, an obelisk was erected in front of the Great Synagogue in honour of the victims. Of the over 110 synagogues which once stood in Iaşi, only the Great Synagogue remains. It was built around 1670 and houses a small exhibition which presents the history of the Jewish community of Iaşi and deals with the pogrom of the summer of 1941. The synagogue and the obelisk have been under landmark protection since 2004. They have been renovated around 2010.
The victims of the death trains were buried in mass graves on several sites such as in Podu Iloaiei and near Târgu Frumo. After the war, monuments were set up on these sites.

Podu Iloaiei, 2006, Memorial for the victims of the death trains on the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold

Near Târgu Frumos, 2006, Mass grave of victims of the death trains, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold

Open

The monument is accessible at all times.
GPS coordinates of the mass graves:
Jewish cemetery on the northern outskirts of Iaşi: 47°10'39.5"N 27°32'20.8"E
Jewish cemetery in Târgu Frumos: 47°12'11.8"N 26°59'41.5"E
Jewish cemetery in Podu Iloaiei: 47°12'56.1"N 27°16'21.1"E

Contact

Strada Sinagogilor / Strada Cucu
700083 Iaşi

Near Târgu Frumos, 1941, Corpses from one of the »death trains« from Iaşi being unloaded next to the tracks, Serviciul Roman de Informatii

Iaşi, June 1941, Murdered Jews lie in the city streets, Yad Vashem

Iaşi, 2006, Mass graves on the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold

Iaşi, 2019, The memorial in front of the Great Synagogue, Stiftung Denkmal

Iaşi, 2019, Inscription on the memorial's pedestal, Stiftung Denkmal

Near Târgu Frumos, 2006, Memorial sign at the mass grave, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold

Iaşi, 2006, On the Jewish cemetery, Stiftung Denkmal, Roland Ibold

Moringen

Moringen Concentration Camp Memorial

Since 1993, the Moringen Concentration Camp Memorial, located in the Göttingen area, has honoured the fates of the prisoners who were incarcerated at the »provincial workhouse« between 1933 and 1945....

Salzgitter

Drütte Concentration Camp Memorial Site and Documentation Centre

The town of Salzgitter was founded in 1942 at the northern foothills of the Harz mountains. In 1994, a memorial was set up on the premises of the Salzgitter AG company, dedicated to the people who had...

Dresden

Münchner Platz Dresden Memorial

Until 1956, political opponents of numerous regimes were put to trial and sentenced at the Dresden Regional Court: under National Socialism, during the Soviet occupation and under the dictatorship of...