Photographs, postcards, and documents of Rabbi Dov Yechiel from the years of horror in the Iași labor camp in ...

Photographs, postcards, and documents of Rabbi Dov Yechiel from the years of horror in the Iași labor camp in Romania. 1939 -1942

Remnants and unknown items from the Romanian exile during the Holocaust years – photographs, postcards sent from a labor camp, and rabbinical appointment letters of Rabbi Dov Yechiel as leader of the communities in Rotshiva and Bercu – rare documentation from the years of horror in the Iași labor camp in Romania. 1942.

• Four passport photographs (one duplicated) of Rabbi Dov Yechiel. In two of them, he appears clean-shaven and without a kippah, after being taken for forced labor in the Iași labor camp in Romania, 1942.

• Three postcards written by Rabbi Dov Yechiel in June 1942, during his stay in the Iași labor camp in Romania. The postcards were sent to his niece, who was then in Bersad, in Transnistria (today in Ukraine), the Romanian deportation zone where Jews from Bessarabia, Bukovina, and other regions were concentrated. In the postcards, he apologizes for delays, explains that it is not always possible to write, repeatedly emphasizes “Don’t worry”, and asks to maintain contact. He inquires about the fate of additional family members, sends regards, and tries to convey a sense of stability – even as he clearly understands the gravity of the situation. In one of the postcards, he writes that he did not receive her previous letter and asks her to write again, noting that a family member named David is in the same camp. The three postcards passed through Romanian military censorship.

• Two original rabbinical ordination documents: the original handwritten appointment letter from when he became rabbi of Rotshiva before the war, in 1939. In Hebrew. Also, the original handwritten appointment letter from when he became a Moreh Tzedek in the Jewish community of Bercu, a settlement in Județul Soroca, in the region of Bessarabia, which was part of Romania between the two world wars. In Romanian. It is known that Rabbi Dov Yechiel was also ordained by the “Damasek Eliezer” of Vizhnitz, as well as by his brother, Rabbi Menachem Mendel of Vyshnivets, at that time (1939).

• Ten early photographs of members of the Jewish community in Arad before the outbreak of World War II, in which Rabbi Dov Yechiel himself appears at various public events, along with the youth of the community, and others.

Rabbi Dov Yechiel’s capture by Nazi collaborators and his years in the Iași labor camp were never previously documented. His ordination as rabbi of the community in Romania took place, as noted, shortly before the outbreak of World War II, and shortly thereafter, the Jews of the community were deported and taken to labor camps. The photographs in which Rabbi Dov Yechiel appears among members of his community are exceedingly rare, as they constitute the only known documentation of community life prior to the arrival of the Nazis and the destruction. Rabbi Dov survived the years of horror, immigrated to the Land of Israel, and served as a rabbi and educator in the city of Safed in the post-war years. 

The Iași labor camp was part of a system of labor, concentration, and deportation camps operated by the Romanian regime between 1941–1944 against the Jews of Moldova and Bessarabia, following Romania’s entry into the war alongside Nazi Germany. After the Iași pogrom in June 1941, thousands of Jews were gathered for forced labor under especially harsh conditions: digging, road construction, clearing rubble, and unpaid military service, under military supervision, violence, starvation, and disease. The Iași camp also served as a transit station for deportations eastward, primarily to Transnistria, and mortality rates there and in the surrounding area were high.

Minor tears to the ordination documents. Overall good condition.