Hand in hand with death - a rare publication about the horrors of the Holocaust of the Romanian Jews. Bucharest ...

Hand in hand with death - a rare publication about the horrors of the Holocaust of the Romanian Jews. Bucharest, 1945 - first edition

La braț cu moartea : vedenii din Transnistria - Hand in Hand with Death: Sights from Transnistria, by M. Rudich, Biblioteca Hehaluț Publishing, Bucharest 1945 - First Edition. Romanian.

A rare and early publication about the Holocaust of the Jews of Romania, Serbia and Bukovina and the years of the Holocaust in the ghettos and camps of Transnistria. The story of these cities was absent for many years from the educational study of the Holocaust, mainly due to the lack of written testimonies and documents from the region. Before us an early testimony about the terrible holocaust that took place in the areas known as "Great Romania" and in the areas of Bessarabia, Bukovina and Transnistria from a Jew who witnessed the terrible events.

At the beginning of the Second World War, territories from Bucovina, Transylvania and Dabruja were torn from Romania and annexed to the neighboring countries. Tearing these tracts of land from Romania brought General Ion Antonescu to power. The Romanians poured their anger over the loss of territories on the Jews, and anti-Semitism spread throughout the entire country. The author describes in his book how Jews were expelled from the villages to the nearby cities, Jewish property was confiscated, Jewish students were no longer allowed to visit state schools, factories were confiscated, Jews were expelled from the professional unions (doctors, lawyers, engineers, etc.). Every day Jews were thrown from trains, beaten and robbed; Many were killed, and pogroms broke out in Durohi, Biasi, Bucharest and more. The author describes in detail the deportations that began in October 1941. Among other things, there is a rare photograph of the order on the deportation of the Jews of Chernivtsi from October 11, 1941: "After the deportation of the Jews, all the property of the Jews will become the property of the state", as well as shocking photographs of Jews who were thrown naked and without All to death in the freezing cold. Among other things, he describes the murder of 65,000 Jews of Chernivtsi, among them Rabbi Mark - the first rabbi of the community of Chernivtsi, the fleeing of the Jews from their homes: "Hundreds of thousands of those sent from Adinci and Skorny arrived on the roads naked, barefoot, starving, they fell In the middle of the road, or in ditches, in puddles, in the mud, those who could not walk were shot or thrown into the Dniester... the road was full of corpses...".

As a result of these and the fear of what might still happen, thousands of Jews then moved to Bessarabia and the north - Bukovina, which had just been annexed to the Soviet Union. All these were just a prelude to the holocaust, which the Romanians later inflicted: at the beginning of the "Barbarossa" operation, June 1941, Germany and Romania occupied Bessarabia and northern Bukovina. The leaders of Romania at the time, Marshal Ion Antonescu, its Prime Minister Mihai Antonescu and other members of the government gave orders to the Romanian army and gendarmerie to "get rid of Jews and Communists". Prime Minister Mihai Antonescu said at the time: "I am in favor of the forced immigration of the entire Jewish element from Bessarabia and Bukovina; they must be deported across the border... I am not afraid that history will judge us as barbarians... if necessary, use machine guns...". The writer describes how the orders were fully executed. In the first days, the local population was given a free hand to rob, pillage and kill Jews, with the army and gendarmerie taking part in this. Jews were robbed and beaten, girls and women were raped, many were murdered on the spot, and those who survived were deported and migrated towards the Dniester River. They walked hundreds of kilometers in the summer heat, hungry, sick, exhausted; The Romanian soldiers shot those who failed while walking, others died of hunger, disease and exhaustion. Some of them arrived in Dintz and other temporary camps. After a stay of about six weeks in the temporary camps, the deportation continued towards Transnistria. About 150 thousand Jews in Serbia and Bukovina perished in the three months, July - September 1941, on the soil of Serbia and northern Bukovina. About 195,000 Jews were deported starting in October 1941 to Transnistria, of which about 145,000 perished there, along with about 180,000 local Jews, until the area was liberated in March 1944 by the Red Army.

As far as we know, this is the earliest and most detailed testimony about what happened in the cities of Romania during the Holocaust from a Jew who witnessed the events themselves. Rare. Only four copies appear in the world library catalog world cat.

110 p. Stains on some pages of the book. Good condition.