The Philanthropic Organizations' Assistance to Jews of Romania and "Transnistria" during the World War II

• Main Author: Radchenko, I. G.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oles Honchar Dnipropetrovsk National University 2017-03-01
• Series: Vìsnik Dnìpropetrovsʹkogo Unìversitetu. Serìâ: Ìstorìâ ta Arheologìâ
• Subjects: Holocaust; JDC; ICRC; Philantropic organization; Romanian Jews
• Online Access: http://www.via.dp.ua/index.php/VIA/article/view/261714

The article is devoted to assistance, rescue to the Jewish people in Romanian territory, including "Transnistria" in 1939–1945. Using the archival document from different institutions (USHMM, Franklyn D. Roosevelt Library) and newest literature, the author shows the scale of the assistance, its mechanism and kinds. It was determined some of existed charitable organizations and analyzed its mechanism of cooperation between each other. Before the war, the Romanian Jewish Community was the one of largest in Europe (after USSR and Poland) and felt all tragedy of Holocaust. Romania was the one of the Axis states; the anti-Semitic policy has become a feature of Marshal Antonescu policy. It consisted of deportations from some regions of Romania to newly-created region "Transnistria", mass exterminations, death due to some infectious disease, hunger, etc. At the same moment, Romania became an example of cooperation of the international organizations, foreign governments on providing aid. The scale of this assistance was significant: thanks to it, many of Romanian Jews (primarily, children) could survive the Holocaust: some of them were come back to Romanian regions, others decide to emigrate to Palestine. The emphasis is placed on the personalities, who played important (if not decisive) role: W. Filderman, S. Mayer, Ch. Colb, J. Schwarzenberg, R. Mac Clelland and many others. It was found that the main part of assistance to Romanian Jews was began to give from the end of 1943, when the West States, World Jewish community obtained numerous proofs of Nazi crimes against the Jews (and, particularly, Romanian Jews). It is worth noting that the assistance was provided, mostly, for Romanian Jews, deported from Regat; some local (Ukrainian) Jews also had the possibility to receive a lot of needful things. But before the winter 1942, most of Ukrainian Jews was exterminated in ghettos and concentration camps. The main kinds of the assistance were financial (donations, which was given by JDC through the ICRC and Romanian Jewish Community), food parcels, clothes, medicaments, and emigrations from "Transnistria" to Romania, Palestine (after 1943). Considering the status of Romania (as Nazi Germany's ally in World War II), the international financial transactions dealt with some difficulties, which delayed the relief, but it was changed after the Romania's joining to Allies. The further research on the topic raises new problem for scholars. Particularly, it deals with using of memoirs. There is one other important point is inclusion of national (Ukrainian) historiography on the topic, concerning the rescue of Romanian Jews, to European and world history context.